See Abby (and Cornelia and Ethel) Grow

Moving Day

2008-09-27T16:53:00.003-06:00

We've moved to a prettier home. Be sure to update your bookmarks with the new blog address because I won't be posting here anymore. I'll see you in our new home!

2008-09-26T11:49:00.002-06:00

Cora slept from 9:15-8 this morning! That's her longest stretch yet. She's our good sleeper, typically sleeping about 6-7 hours at a stretch at night. If only Emma would too! She's getting better, though. Last night, she slept from 8:30pm-2:30am. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. She finally went back to sleep at 4:15am. Then, she started grunting at 5am. She's such a noisy sleeper; she's my snooze alarm. Every 10-15 minutes, she'd toss and turn while grunting and letting out the occasional cry. She did this until 7:15! I didn't get to enjoy Cora's 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep because I was constantly woken up.

2008-09-14T19:54:00.003-06:00

I found a picture of Abby when she was about the same age as the girls. We've been saying all along that Emma looks like Abby did, but it's crazy to see they look exactly alike! They look more like twins than Cora and Emma do! Emma's on the left and Abby on the right.

2008-09-09T22:14:00.002-06:00

I was recently searching for free templates while up in the middle of the night. I'd love to update the look of this blog, but it definitely needs a new name first. I'm horrible at that sort of thing, so I need your help! I'd love any suggestions you may have. I know they'll be better than anything I could come up with.

2008-09-08T14:55:00.002-06:00

The girls had their one month checkup today. They are growing like crazy! Cora was 7lbs. 10.5oz. (5.5lbs. at birth) and 21 inches long (19 in. at birth). Emma was 7lbs. 6.5oz. (5lbs. 1oz. at birth) and 20 in. long (18.5in. at birth). Cora's around the 10th percentile for weight and 25th for length. Emma's around the 10th for both. We couldn't believe they've each put on more than 2lbs. in a month! No wonder their preemie clothes no longer fit.

We also talked about their colic. Their pediatrician gave us formula samples to try when we supplement. Hopefully that'll bring some relief! Everything else she suggested, we've already tried (walking, swaddling, gas drops...). I was thrilled she didn't scold us for letting Cora sleep 6-7 hours a night. I was so worried she was going to tell me Cora needed to wake up more often to eat. If only Emma would sleep so well too!

2008-09-06T14:35:00.002-06:00

A month later I'm STILL finding adhesive in various nooks and crannies when I get out of the shower!

One Month Old

2008-09-05T18:34:00.002-06:00

My babies are a month old today! It feels as if I was pregnant ages ago yet I can't believe they're already a month old. The girls are both growing like crazy. They're well-baby check is Monday and we're so curious to see how much weight they've put on. They're both starting to lose that emaciated look and are filling out, particularly in their faces.

Unfortunately, BOTH girls are colicky! They get such painful gas our evenings our filled with their screams. I was really hoping we wouldn't go through this again. This weekend was particularly bad since my other sister, Jennifer, and Damon's parents were here. They were overstimulated on top of it, so they screamed for a few hours every evening. Since things have settled here, they don't cry as long (or as hard!), but it's still difficult to listen to them in pain.

On the bright side, once they finally settle down and fall asleep, they're pretty decent sleepers. On 3 different nights, Cora has slept a solid 6-ish hours! From about midnight to 6-ish. Emma was sleeping a good 4 as well, but she might be going through a growth spurt. She's been waking every 2 hours the last few nights. When they wake up in the middle of the night now, they go back to sleep fairly easily. We did have one night this week where one or both were up from 3-6:30am. Then Abby woke me up at 7:30 to take her to school.

Abby does really well with the girls. She gets a little frustrated sometimes when we're all busy and can't play with her, but she tends to take it in stride. She loves to help by holding their bottles for them, but after a minute she complains that her hand is sweaty and needs to stop! For the most part, she's pretty gentle with them. She hasn't gotten jealous of them yet.

2008-09-02T00:23:00.003-06:00

Abby loves school. She was really nervous that first day, but she went in with no problems after giving me a big don't-want-to-let-go hug. Interestingly, the only kids who cried were all boys. When it was time to pick her up, she went on about how much fun it was!

She is really into counting us all right now. She loves to count how many of us there are. I think it started at mealtimes. She enjoys getting the silverware for all of us and she'd ask how much she needed to get. I'd always ask her how many of us there are and tell her that's how much we need. Anyway, when she counts us she always makes sure she's number 3. No one else is allowed to be number 3 since she's 3 years old!

ONE Day!

2008-08-26T13:53:00.004-06:00

That's how long it took for Abby to catch a cold at preschool! In all fairness, it is possible she caught it at the "Kids Cabin" at the gym since she didn't start feeling sick until the weekend, but I still blame preschool. She already had to miss a day of school because of it. I really hope the babies don't get it too!

________________

Damon went back to work yesterday, so we're trying to find our groove without him. So far, it hasn't been too bad. Jessica's been a huge help at night. I swear she's the Baby Whisperer! She somehow manages to get them right back to sleep after a middle-of-the-night changing/feeding. Damon and I really struggle with that because they seem to wake up the second we lay them back down. Cora has also recently gone from our mellow child to the screamer in the middle of the night. The last couple nights that Jessica's been sleeping with me instead of Damon, though, she's hardly fussed!

Today, we got brave and decided to go to lunch then Target. Lunch was a little harried because they both got fussy. I ended up having to eat while holding Emma. Target, on the other hand, went very smoothly. The babies LOVE Target! Ok, they love riding in the cart, but still... As long as I kept the cart moving, they were happy.

2008-08-20T13:25:00.002-06:00

My Original Baby starts preschool tomorrow! It's hard to believe she's already old enough for school. I think I'm going to be more of a wreck tomorrow than she will be! She's been so excited to go for some time now. There was an open house last week, so she got to meet her teachers, explore the classroom, and play with some of her classmates. She was pretty slow to warm up to everyone, which is so unlike her, so we'll see how it goes once she'll be there by herself.

2008-08-18T22:01:00.002-06:00

The girls had their 2-week checkup this morning. Cora is up to 5lbs. 14oz. and Emma's up to 5lbs. 5oz. Both are up well past their birthweights, and they each gained 8.5oz. in a week! Their doctor was very impressed. She said they expect babies to gain .5-1oz. a day at this point, and both surpassed that.

After their appointment and lab, we decided take them out to lunch in a real restaurant for the first time. It went so much better than the first time we took Abby out! This was their first venture out of the house that didn't involve a doctor's appointment, so we were a little worried. They both slept the entire time!

On Breastfeeding

2008-08-17T12:56:00.002-06:00

Brittany asked why pumping was better at this point, so I though it would be easier to answer in a post of its own instead of in the comments.

It all started with Abby. I thought breastfeeding was going well those first days until we met with a lactation consultant who told us she wasn't latching well at all so she was eating like she should. She wasn't gaining weight and looked awfully yellow. She ended up jaundiced to the point that she needed to spend the night at the hospital under the "tanning bed" lights to get her bilirubin down. It scared me so badly that I ended up pumping for almost 9 months instead of working with her and a lactation consultant to try to breastfeed. When I pumped, it made me feel better to be able to see exactly how much she was eating. I tried breastfeeding her a few times after that, but I was too intimidated to really put any effort into it.

Fast forward to the twins. A lactation consultant came by almost every day to work with us. Cora has the same latch issues that Abby had, so she's been mostly bottlefed. I have tried a few times to breastfeed her, but I'm more of a chew toy than a feeding source to her although she has been able to get some milk. We'll definitely keep trying this time. Emma has a great latch, but she was so small they told us not to push her too hard to breastfeed. Then she kept losing weight in the hospital, so our pediatrician told us to hold off altogether for at least a few days until she put some weight back on. So I was relieved when they kept telling us that at 37 weeks, their sucking reflex might need some work so not to worry too much about breastfeeding until their closer to their actual due date. I know pumping. It's so hard, particularly in the middle of the night when everyone's asleep, but I've done it once so I can do it again.

A few days ago, however, Emma decided she prefered nursing to the bottle! I'd been seriously considering contacting the local breastfeeding store to hire a lactation consultant to come to the house a few times to help me out. We still have to supplement feedings because she tends to fall asleep while nursing, but it's been a big accomplishment for me to be able to actually breastfeed one of my kids! Cora eats like crazy, so we still have to supplement them with formula on top of my pumped breastmilk because I'm just not making enough for both of them.

I did try to tandem feed a couple days ago which was hilarious! Emma spent most of her time looking over at Cora (who was actually doing pretty well!) like "what is she doing here while I eat?" She looked so confused by what was going on!

2008-08-11T16:26:00.003-06:00

Thank you so much everyone! Your kind words mean so much to us. We're settling in nicely at home. We were only a few minutes late to the girls' first well baby visit this morning! That included getting Abby ready too. Cora is up to 5lbs. 5.5 oz. and Emma's at 4lbs. 12.5oz. so they're growing nicely. Cora gained 3.5oz. since being released Saturday! Everyone keeps telling me not to try too hard with the breastfeeding until they get to 40 weeks gestational age (3 weeks old), so I've been pumping like crazy again. We've also been supplementing with formula because I'm not making enough to fill their voracious appetites yet.

They did have to get their bilirubin levels checked again since their doctor thought they still looked a little yellow. Their bilirubin has been high enough to keep retesting, but not enough to really worry about so far. Worst case we'll have to use those special blankets at home for a bit, but they definitely won't need to be hospitalized and go under the lights like Abby did.

I added a ton of pictures to flickr.

**UPDATE** We just heard back from their pediatrician. Their bilirubin levels have gone down since Saturday, so there's no need to do anything for jaundice this time around!

We're going home!

2008-08-09T10:42:00.002-06:00

My bp is still up, but my doctor had a hospitalist come in to assess me so I can go. The hospitalist is a doctor who works for a certain practice but only works in the hospital doing rounds. In addition to my blood pressure meds, which have been upped to 3x/day, I now have to take a calcium channel blocker and see my primary doctor once a week for the next month or so. Oh yeah, and I'm very anemic too. I've been on an iron supplement 3x/day as well since the girls were born, so I have to continue that and have that rechecked periodically. He said I'll probably be on iron for a good 6 months. Anemia is one thing I've never had a problem with, so it came as a big surprise. I love red meat! He also talked about putting me on a diuretic to get my Shrek feet back to normal size, but the swelling has been going down quite a bit on its own. Plus, they want me to take prescription Motrin every 8 hours for the next couple weeks, and I got a prescription for Percocet for the pain. I'm going to be a walking pharmacy!

They weighed me this morning and I'm down about 20lbs. from when I came in! I only gained 23lbs., but I had quite a bit to lose before I got pregnant so it won't hurt my feelings one bit if I end up losing more than just the 3 pregnancy pounds left.

I am so happy to be going home! Time to pack up everything that's not nailed down in the hospital room...

2008-08-08T14:35:00.003-06:00

I figured out a way around the firewalls to post pictures! I still can't upload to flickr, so I'll post a whole lot more once we finally get home. It turns out we're not going home today after all. My blood pressure is still way up, so we have to stay until at least tomorrow. The girls are perfectly healthy and ready to go home!

Emma Jane
Cora Rae
They have more hair than Abby did. It's definitely darker than it looks in the picture.

Finally!

2008-08-07T21:32:00.003-06:00

The laptop cord came today, so I can finally post again!

Cora Rae and Emma Jane were born Tuesday morning. Cora at 8:16am and Emma at 8:17am. Cora weighed 5lbs. 8oz. and was 19in. long. Emma weighed 5lbs. 1oz. and was 18.5in. long. Cora needed a little oxygen, but was breathing room air within a couple hours. Emma had to go to the NICU and was on a c-pap machine to breathe and iv to bring her blood sugar up. Damon checked on her around 5pm. Tuesday, and she was already breathing room air! They did keep her overnight in the NICU, but it was for observation than anything else.

We're all doing really well. Recovering from a c-section isn't nearly as horrible as I'd feared it would be. The girls get to come home with me when I get discharged tomorrow! That was always our biggest goal. I'll post pictures tomorrow. The hospital's firewalls aren't letting me tonight.

In hospital

2008-08-05T01:59:00.001-06:00

In hospital
Originally uploaded by Brandi_

Made it to 37 weeks! Bp is now way up again so c-section scheduled for 730am 8-5. Computers been down at home for 3 weeks. Cord finally coming this week.

2008-07-15T13:04:00.001-06:00

Since the babies' birthday is completely up in the air now, I thought it would be fun to start a pool. Go here to enter your guesses!

34 Weeks

2008-07-15T12:42:00.002-06:00

I'm going to be pregnant forever! I talked to my doctor this morning about scheduling an induction since he told me 36-37 weeks would be my limit way back when we first found out about the twins. He's now decided that since I'm doing so well, he won't schedule anything until 39 weeks! These babies have absolutely no interest in leaving my belly, so I'll be delivering humongous babies right before my due date. I haven't even had any Braxton-Hicks contractions yet! My cervix is still being too cooperative at 3.03cm. My bp was a little up, but still well within the normal range: 134/80. I'm also up only 3lbs. from two weeks ago--somehow I've only managed to gain 25lbs. total despite eating like a horse!--and I'm measuring 38 weeks. Oh, Whisper (Baby B on my left) is now breech again. Her heartbeat was way up near my lungs.

I will now start going to Maternal Fetal Medicine for bi-weekly non-stress tests starting Thursday. During a non-stress test, they strap a thing that monitors contractions, and another for each of the babies' heartbeats. They check for movement from the babies as well as monitoring heartrates and any contractions I may be having. I was told to eat a light snack on my way there instead of a big meal because they want the babies active.

All along, I've had my sights set on making it to 37 weeks. That seemed doable once I hit the 30-week mark, and it's what's kept me going especially during the night when I'm completely miserable. Those extra 2 weeks are going to be hell.

The Belly at 33 Weeks

2008-07-11T17:49:00.002-06:00

I forgot to mention that my belly measured 37 weeks AGAIN. That's the third appointment I've measured the same. My doctor said it's likely because the babies are head down now, so their bodies are laying against my sides. That makes sense since that's exactly how they feel to be laying in there.

33 Weeks

2008-07-09T16:22:00.003-06:00

I can't believe I've made it this far! Back when we found out we were having twins, we were told the goal would be 36-37 weeks, but to hope to get to 32 weeks. We're a weeks past that first goal and I'm still going strong. Amazingly, still no bedrest! Except for the slight cervical issues (which could've been so much worse!) and a couple trips to the hospital for dehydration, I've had a really smooth twin pregnancy. Sure, I'm huge and uncomfortable at this point and I'm so ready to be done after the 8th trip to the bathroom at night, but that's all normal stuff. I haven't had any real complications.

Yesterday, we had a little scare but it turned out to be no big deal. After my cervical check (2.96 this week!), I passed out in the waiting room of my doctor's office! I'm fine, and once they hooked me up to the non-stress test machine (where they monitor the babies' heartbeats and me for contractions), my doctor wasn't worried about it. The babies are fine, and I'm still not having any contractions. I thought surely my doctor was going to send me to the hospital, but he thought I'd be fine. Whew!

Next week will be my last cervical ultrasound. Apparently, after that--since I'll be 35 weeks in 2 weeks--the length of my cervix won't be an issue since the babies will be ok if I were to go into labor. There's a possibility they'll have to stay in the NICU for a few days if I deliver before 36 weeks, but that's nothing compared to the months they would've spent there a few weeks ago. I'll now be seeing my doctor every week and he wants me to start going to Maternal Fetal Medicine at the hospital twice a week for non-stress tests to monitor any contractions.

Speaking of MFM, I had an ultrasound last Thursday there. Baby A (my right) is now 4lbs. 3oz. and Baby B is 4lbs. 1oz. I now have more baby weight than I ever did with Abby! I can't believe I'm carrying around 8lbs. of baby. The ultrasound tech predicted this would be my last ultrasound. He guessed I'll deliver at 35-ish weeks. My next (and definitely my last!) ultrasound is scheduled for 35w6d, so I hope to prove him wrong!

31 Weeks

2008-06-24T10:25:00.002-06:00

I had an uneventful cervical check last week; holding steady at 3cm. Today's appointment was great! My cervix is now up to 3.21, so I avoid bedrest again! And, my regular ob is on vacation, so I met with the nurse practitioner instead. She'd requested the ultrasound tech check the babies' heartbeats so I was able to get a quick peek at them too. There's not a whole lot to see at this point since they're out of room, but it's still good peace of mind. Plus, we were able to see that they're both head down now! Let's just hope they stay that way!

My prenatal appointment was pretty quick since I'm doing so well and we'd already checked heartbeats. My blood pressure is up to 136/70, but that's good. That's pretty much where I should be at this point. I'm also up 2lbs., putting my total weight gain up to 23lbs. This is the best diet ever! I eat like crazy and don't gain much weight. Finally, the belly still measured 37 weeks, the same as 2 weeks ago. The NP wasn't worried, though, since the babies are doing so well.

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T15:08:00.000-06:00

2008-06-11T23:57:00.003-06:00

I forgot to mention yesterday that my belly measured at 37 weeks at my ob appointment. I officially look like I'm full-term!

29 Weeks

2008-06-10T17:45:00.002-06:00

Great news! My cervix grew this week, so I get to avoid bedrest one more week. Last week, it was just under 3 cm and today it was right at 3. My doctor was impressed at how well I'm doing, so unless my cervix starts causing problems again I won't be going on bedrest until about 32 weeks. I still have to take it easy and rest as much as possible, though, so my cervix doesn't shorten again. My bp was 120/72, so hopefully that will continue to not be an issue too.

I also gained 2lbs. in 2 weeks, putting my total weight gain at only 21 lbs. I never expected to gain so little weight while carrying twins! Nor did I expect I'd actually have to work at gaining weight! I've never been one who can eat anything and not gain weight, until now.

I have this huge mole on my cheek, about 2 finger-widths from my ear. Over the weekend, I noticed it suddenly got hard, raised, and crusty. I mentioned it to my ob, and he referred me to the dermatologist in the same building. I also have this skin tag on my inner thigh that's a souvenir from my pregnancy with Abby. This time, it's gotten huge and keeps getting caught in my jeans! They were able to get me in this afternoon at the dermatologist's office, so we ended up having a much busier day than I'd planned.

My cheek is fine and the mole doesn't need to be removed unless I want it to. I'm thrilled! I'm a really moley person, so I have a few moles I'm pretty sentimental about and this is definitely one of them. It was rough on me to think I'd have to get it removed. She did find three moles that were questionable, one of which she was really concerned about, so they're all coming off July 1st. At least this time, Abby's old enough to get herself into her booster seat. Thankfully, she did remove the skin tag today. Good riddance!