One year ago...

After two years of testing, way too many doctors, IUIs, surgeries, IVF, pregnancy and loss, exhausting us and our insurance, we thawed and transferred our only two remaining embryos...

And they stuck... 

And after almost four months of easy pregnancy, another four of living in fear of losing them, and then four of pure joy...

It is amazing what a difference a year makes.  I couldn't be more thankful for these two little cherubs. :)

Four month well baby

We took the kids in for their four month check-up last Friday. Everything was great and our pediatrician is very happy with their growth. The rough guideline is to double birth weight by four months, which the twins exceeded, he by several pounds. They are more in line with where they would have been had they gestated those extra three weeks.

Alistair is up to 14 pounds and measured 25 inches in length. His head is 42.2 cm in circumference.
Two months: 10 lbs. 2 ozs., 22 1/2", head: 39.5 cm
Three weeks: 6 lbs. 9 ozs.
Two weeks: 5 lbs. 15 ozs. (he surpasses her for the 1st time)
One week: 5 lbs. 6 ozs.
Four days/hospital release: 5 lbs. 2 ozs.
Birth @ 36w4d (breech): 5 lbs. 7 ozs., 18.25"

Marielle is up to 12 pounds and 7 ounces and measures 24 1/2 inches. Her head is 41.2 cm around.
Two months: 9 lbs. 9 ozs., 21 3/4", head: 38.7 cm
Three weeks: 6 lbs. 7 ozs. (finally surpasses BW)
Two weeks: 5 lbs. 12 ozs.
One week: 5 lbs. 7 ozs.
Four days/hospital release: 5 lbs. 3 ozs. (unexplained 14% weight loss, day one)
Birth @ 36w4d: 6 lbs. 1 ozs., 19"

All are in the 50th percentile range, save her weight and head, which are closer to 25th and 75th, respectively.

They are not yet rolling, but move a lot by scooting, and the pedi is not concerned. We also got the green light to start introducing solids, which should be entertaining, and we plan to do this in the coming week.

We spent the weekend in WI for my niece's baptism and the twins were a huge hit. It was great to have the extended family finally get to meet them, as only my mom, dad, and step-mom have been down since they were born, as I was trying to minimize their exposure during the winter. It was also their first road trip, which went pretty well especially considering they had just gotten their shots. He really doesn't like being in his car seat for extended periods of time, but we managed to limit our stops and keep them relatively content. It took us six hours each way, when we could make it alone in 4 1/2 before, which is about what I figured it would take. Besides worrying about how they would do, I was also concerned about the logistics of our trip. Knowing that their sleep and feeding "schedule" would be upset, I was apprehensive about taking our admittedly complicated feeding regime (pumping, bottle feeding, and formula supplementing) on the road. It worked out fine, though I ended spending more time managing this than actually visiting with family.

My dad lent us his Thule car top carrier, which will be nice for future trips. We'll need the extra room to bring any of our large double strollers, as the back of the SUV fills up quickly with two pack and plays and all the other stuff we now require. Good thing we don't have a dog... ;)

Baby Power!  (how/why he sleeps like this, I have no idea, but it's too cute...)

And speaking of cute...

17 weeks old, a change of plans and finally meeting some goals

It's hard to believe that the twins will be four months old this week.  They've now finally been around longer than I was on bed rest in order to bring them to term.  We'll take them into the city on Friday for their next well baby visit.  They are so big now (~13-14 lbs.), it almost seems silly that I was so obsessed over their birth weights and whether they would catch up after being so tiny. 

They are both really good babies, I know we are very lucky.  Alistair often doesn't nap as much as Marielle does and sometimes not much at all, but we manage.  I guess the trade off is they sleep great at night.  We haven't had to do anything drastic to get them to start sleeping through the night over time.  I've also just started sleeping though the night pumping, which means I'm now getting more continuous sleep than I have in many months, which is lovely, and ironically is also probably helping my milk supply.

Thankfully, the pumping routine I have set up is still working for us.  Four months down, eight more to go.  It's definitely tough, but I think/hope it's worth it.  I am consistently getting about 40 ozs/day, so we need very little formula, but it is so nice that they are not choosy about what they eat.  We are looking forward to starting to introduce them to food in the near future, when I'm sure they'll make me eat my words about them not being picky.

Things have been very busy around here.  Unfortunately, due to the bride's ailing elderly grandparents, my BIL's wedding has just been moved up from December to June.  Yes, like the month after next June.  So sadly the twins and I will not be traveling to India to attend, as they are just too young yet, but DH and MIL will.  He debated, but I insisted that he go.  She will leave in late May, two months early, to help prepare and DH will go for a week in June, when the twins and I will use the time to travel up to WI to spend time with my extended family.  Thankfully, my mother will be able to make the 300 mile trip with us, as she'll be on her way home from the dedication of my G-ma's memorial at her beloved Berea College.

This has also finally lit a fire under me to start screening sitter candidates, and as much as I was/am dreading the process, I am pleased that I've found several highly qualified nursing, education, and SLP undergrad and grad students, a few of which will hopefully work out.  The goal is get at least one of them started while MIL is still here and get a somewhat regular weekly schedule set up and also have someone who is available for when DH and I want/need to go out.

We will be starting Babygarten classes in June (the Kindermusik class is the same day/time and will therefore have to wait until Fall), and I'd like to have a sitter to come along, if possible, since now MIL will be gone by then.  I'm not sure if we'll get into the swimming class, as they will miss the six month age cut off by several days.  If not, we'll just be taking them to the pool ourselves this summer and enrolling them later.  Now that they are getting bigger, I'm also thinking of rejoining the gym and trying out the childcare there, since I haven't been making time for any exercise (other than carrying babies around) at home.

We are finally finalizing our new life insurance policies, which since we first got them several years ago I had forgotten how long it takes.  The goal of these is not full income replacement, but to make sure that if something were to happen to one or both of us over the 20 year term (while we'll be saving for), the kid's educational opportunities would be secured.  On that note, we are very happy to be ahead of our goal of saving $1K/ea/mo. for their 529 accounts.  Our #2 financial goal (after fully funding our retirement and before buying a beach house) is to fully fund their college and graduate educations, or whatever they decide to pursue.  The estimated cost of a private four year college, like I attended (w/my family's help, and lots of my work and loans), will be over $500K/each by the time they will attend.  We're also putting together a plan for them to live with my younger sister in Brooklyn, and have visitation with BIL and family in India, if something were to happen to both of us before they are grown.

I keep trying to take decent pictures of the nursery, especially since we are already talking about separating them (he can be very loud and wakes her up) which we likely will in the next few months , but I'm running up against the limits of my camera.  I had been thinking of upgrading for awhile, from the two digitals that DH has bought me since we've been together, but obviously now with the kids, we have a good reason.  I am clueless about DSLRs, but there are classes offered nearby, which should help me figure out what I'm doing.  So hopefully the photography around here will be better starting before too long...

To celebrate Mother's Day, we're taking the kids and MIL up to Lake Geneva (and the Grand Geneva specifically) for the weekend.  We really love it there and are so excited to introduce it to them after going by ourselves the last two years.

She grabbed his hand and apparently thinks they are going to make a run for it...  Until she realized they are still immobile...  Oh well, back to scheming...

Happy Easter!

Almost 15 weeks old

The time has been flying by.  The days can be very long, which anyone home with a newborn (or more) can tell you all about, but the weeks are gone in a flash.
Last week, we celebrated the Hindu New Year.  It seems like there is another holiday every week, I swear.  Here's my MIL with the kids who are looking oh so enthused just minutes before a meltdown...

She is honestly the sweetest person.  Yes, it would be nice if she could speak more English, or drive, or chart, or not nap every afternoon, or any number of other things.  But she loves those babies like something fierce and is awesome with them and we are so glad that she is here to share this time with us.  Ganesh I am not, so she is my extra set of hands..

I could go on and on about how huge the kids are still getting and how cute they are (non-objective mom, right here!) and how busy and interactive they are, but I'll just share some quick pics instead...

 Oh goodie!  Time to eat!

 I'll say it again, this kid is hilarious.  He is just a happy guy, like his daddy.

My sweet baby girl

 Chilling on my Boppy (in my six month clothes)

 Mom, you're not supposed to be listening, this is a kid's tete a tete.

Tummy time is such hard work...

It looks like DH's only brother is getting engaged and will likely be getting married (in India) this December.  Which means that we will all be traveling there, just in time for the kids' first birthday and Christmas (wedding high season in India).  Maybe in an effort to sweeten the deal, though I'm almost too tired to imagine what taking two emerging toddlers around the world and back will entail and be like, DH is talking about finally taking our much delayed trip to the Maldives while we are in the neighborhood.  This would work out well, especially if I decide to go back to work in 2013.  I've been getting a ridiculous amount of work offers, but with BFing and no childcare set up yet and DH doing so well, I'm just passing on everything for now. 

We are getting excited for getting out of town in a few weeks to travel up to WI for cousin Abbie's baptism and the twins meeting all the extended family, and then (hopefully) to MI in May for the Tulip Festival (one of DH and my very first trips together seven years ago), if it's not cancelled for the very early spring we are having (hello, warmest March ever in recorded history).  And then to OH over Memorial Day for Grandma G's 90th birthday celebration. 

My mother and eldest sister will be driving out to Boston (and the Cape) for the annual Williams Syndrome convention over the Fourth of July (since Sara has decided she no longer likes to fly) and of course I've toyed with the idea of exploiting this fact to make our first family trip out East.  I'm just not sure that we'll be ready at six months for a big trip (we'd definitely fly).  It might be a good mini dry run for India, since I don't know if we'll be traveling in the fall.  Or maybe we'll just wait until fall and go to Boston then, since I'd love it for it to be one of the very first places that we take them.  BC is celebrating their sesquicentennial, so there are all kinds of fun events planned for that.

My six year old washing machine decided to stop spinning this week, so my fancy new one comes tomorrow.  It is embarrassing how excited I am about this.  I love doing laundry (I'm a freak) and am so glad as I watch it all pile up this week that we are not cloth diapering right now. 

Happy weekend! :)

12 weeks and (form) Letters from the President

I got the kids dressed up to go to the temple on Saturday, but we got there and the temple was closed (N.B. the temple is never closed), but at least we got some cute pics.  I know I sound like a broken record, but they are really getting big.  I just ordered size two diapers, she's over 10 lbs. and he's over 12, so they have now been in four sizes in the last 12 weeks.  My mom is coming to hang out with us for a few days this week while my BIL is still home on paternity leave.  After he goes back to work, we may not be seeing her again for awhile.  She hasn't been here since January when MIL arrived from India.  Having them both here = date night!  Our first since we went to the Hamptons in August.  Needless to say, we are very excited. :)  Having a little freedom may actually get my butt in gear for the ultimate sitter search.

The kids are doing great and are only getting up once at night now (~2-3am), when DH and I usually both get up so I can pump and we can feed them both.

We received our WH greetings recently (thanks for the tip M!), though they strangely addressed the envelopes to DH and me, but fun for the baby books none the less.  These mean even more to me since I have met and chatted with our president (at a fundraiser for his Senate run in 2004) and he was elected when I was in my first 2ww on this crazy journey...

The big news is I'm starting to get some feeling back in my hands!  I can't tell you how good this feels.  I'm not sure whether it's just a function of time (it has been nearly three months now...) or if the acu is actually helping.  She started out just working generally on my hands, but the last few weeks she's been pulling out the big guns.  She's been doing moxa for awhile now, where she applies heat to the needles in my hands.  And then she went for needles in the tips of my fingers, which is as bad as it sounds, but showed us I did have some feeling deep down in there afterall.  Ouch.  Then last week, she "bled" my fingers, which is almost as bad as it sounds, where she pricks the tips, getting a drop or so to get things going.  Sounds very weird, I know.  But you get desperate after so long and I trust her completely after over two years.  I will probably only continue to go to see her until the rest of my prepaid sessions are up in a few more weeks.

My MIL is helpful during the day and does a lot of cooking.  It is pretty standard in Indian families for the parents/inlaws to come and stay for at least six months.  Sadly for us, my MIL is here alone as my FIL passed away suddenly when we were getting ready to do IVF in late 2010 and yet again my BIL is not able to get a visa (he missed our wedding here as well). 

Besides being really sad for all of us, on a practical note given her very limited English, the fact that she doesn't drive, and her difficulty with our advanced project management system we have in place (deciding how much formula to offer when the BM is gone, charting, etc.), she is an effective mother's helper and soother, but I don't leave her home alone with them.  My FIL used to be our translator and DH does when he is home.  So I go out to run errands, if I must, when DH gets home from work and on the weekends.  But we spend our days in near silence, save the baby chatter that is now filling our home.  Yes I probably should have been learning Hindi or Marahti, in my free time.  I'm a confirmed bad DIL, though she is lovely...

I finally got to reading (the elder) Dr. Weissbluth's, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins, which is kind of embarrassing given how quick a read it is.  One of the things that jumped out at me was actually his blurb talking about the connection between hormonal infertility (which seems to be our/my problem getting and even more sadly staying pg) and supply issues.  Makes a lot of sense.  Not that at this point I have serious supply issues (I get ~ 35 oz/day), but it's too little for two and I wouldn't feel comfortable trying to switch back to the breast unless I was getting more than they now eat from pumping/supplementing.  I had guilt for about two seconds about supplementing, since they are getting the vast majority of their feeds from breast milk, and pumping/bottle feeding works well for us given all the people who are here to feed them.  It also means we'll have no issues going to formula and bottles later.  And they've been disadvantaged enough by my body's inability to do what it is supposed to, I had/have no intention of starving them too, even though and especially since they are now growing so well.  I'm not that much of a purist and they are thriving. 

I also think I've pretty much bagged the idea of cloth diapering.  It just has about zero appeal to me now, though I guess that could change.  I chalk it up to being a casualty of multiples, since I thought I would want to.  Seventh Gen diapers are really nice and they haven't had any bottom issues, yet.

My sister got home from the hospital in time for her birthday last month, and it turns out that it was actually a really bad staph infection.  Thanks for all your prayers!
Next up, getting the kids pics done for three months (next week!) and filling up their Easter baskets, which I got from Pottery Barn Kids (Peacocks and Plaid!).  I see more Jellycats in our future... :)  The Easter bunny comes to our clubhouse on April 1st.

Two month well baby/nine weeks old (on Mardi Gras!)

After going to the pediatrician at one, two, and three weeks old (when Mari finally surpassed her birth weight), it's been quite awhile now since we've been to see Dr. Dan (son of Marc Weissbluth (of the Healthy Sleep, Happy Baby books), they share a practice with six other MDs) in the city.  It was a great visit, and the kids both checked out "perfect" (his words, not mine).

Alistair is up to 10 lbs. and 2 ozs. and is 22 1/2 inches long.  His head measures 39.5 cm.
Marielle is up to 9 lbs. and 9 ozs. and is 21 3/4 inches long.  Her head measures 38.7 cm.

Nearly all measures are 25-50 percentiles, though they are not adjusted for their birth at 36 1/2 weeks gestation (so they are really closer to one month babies than two) which makes a big difference in their size now, but as time goes by will obviously become increasingly less so.  And as he reminded us today, none of these are indicative of their likely adult size.  That is more likely to be driven by ours.  They have nearly doubled their weights since their release from the hospital on Dec. 24th, when he was 5-2 and she was 5-3, so we are very happy with their growth. :)

They also received all their immunization rounds for two months: Hep B (#2), DTaP, Hib, Polio, Pneumococcal, and Rotavirus.  This practice of one of the first (and now one of many) which does not allow children who do not follow the recommended immunization schedule of the AAP (which is based here) and the CDC in their practice, which continues to stir some controversy apparently.  I didn't realize this when we chose them, though I'm a huge proponent of vaccines, as we just picked them off a list of recommended practices from our OB, as we were not able to interview pediatricians as we planned due to my bed rest. 

They did very well with their immunizations, and fortunately their appointment fell at a feeding time, so we were able to feed them out of the initial pain, get them down and enjoy a nice lunch at the sushi place in the building.  We are set now until their four month in April, hopefully.

They've done a great job meeting their "milestones", smiling, cooing, head control, tracking movements, etc.  They are now sleeping up to 5-6 hours in stretches at night, though I am still not sleeping more than a few hours at a time.  Dr. Dan wants us to get them on a "bedtime" (between 6 and 8pm) to set things up for when they start sleeping through the night and organizing their daytime sleep into naps in the coming weeks and months.

I have to applaud the amount of postpartum depression screening they do now (at the hospital, OB, Pedi, my insurance pg mgmt program, seemingly everywhere), but it is almost comical for me (not that there is anything funny about PPD) as beside some very early nights when I would sit in the nursery holding them and cry at the thought of our good fortune of being entrusted with these amazing little people, I have honestly never been more content than in the last two months.

Since the twins are getting mostly breastmilk, now that they are two months old, we are to start giving them vitamin D supplements, which we will start this week.  Alistair's hip ultrasound that we had done at six weeks came back normal, thank goodness.  They are now officially out of their newborn clothes an on to their three months as of this week. 

Now that we have ordered and received the twins' birth certificates and social security numbers, we have set off on getting them established as real people in the world.  They now have 529s in their names, rather than just in mine, bank accounts for all those gifts, and we will get them passports soon.  I think we may end up going to India for their first birthdays.

Thoughts and prayers for my sister Emily, as she is now been hospitalized with severe mastitis after giving birth less than two weeks ago.  Baby Abby and her husband Joe are with her there and my mother is watching her three older kids.  Hopefully she will be able to go home soon, as they are pumping her full of antibiotics given her WBC count is crazy high.  She needs to avoid going septic, which is nothing to mess around with.  Her 39th birthday is this Friday.