CO-SLEEPER TO CRIB: DAY 1

After 5 months, the girls have finally outgrown their co-sleeper - literally.  When they lie in the co-sleeper, their heads touch one end and their toes touch the other end. Any movement on their part results in the co-sleeper shaking.  And one morning, we found that Abigail had wiggled herself down and her legs were hanging out of the edge of the co-sleeper.  So, we decided to make use of the two cribs in the nursery and put them in their cribs Friday night. 

How'd it go?  One word:  FAIL.

We started the evening with the normal bedtime routine:  wash face and hands, put on pajamas and then time to eat.  Normally, the girls feed themselves to sleep, but for the past week they've still been somewhat awake when they've finished eating and they normally fall asleep after a few minutes of fussing.  So, it wasn't a surprise to me that they were still awake Friday night after their last feeding.  We wrapped them up and put them in their cribs and said good-night.

And then the fun began.

Abigail found a new decibel in her already wide-range of shrieks and started wailing uncontrollably.  It was as if she was terrified.  Nothing Sean did would console her - and for the first time the 5 S's failed us (swaddle, shush, side, sway, suck).  In the end, the only thing that comforted her was me.  And in a night of new experiences, that was a another new one.  For the first time Abigail would only be consoled by mom and not dad.  During the shreiking, Fiona seemed to be fine being in her crib.  But, you could tell she was getting annoyed with her sister's crying because after a while she started fussing, too.  The shreiking wore on each of us and the inconsollable crying got to us, too. 

In the end, we caved and put them in their co-sleeper for one more night.

Hands and Fists

 Hands. Abigail has recently (within the last 2 weeks) discovered her hands. She’s fascinated by them. She’ll stare at her hand and just watch it do tricks for her: she’ll close it into a fist, open it up and will repeat that over and over. She’ll also face her palm to her face then turn her hand around and she’ll repeat that over and over. Last week she used her newly discovered hands to discover her right ear. Although, it seems like she only notices she has a right ear when I’m feeding her. 

Fists. Fiona has taken to shoving her entire fist in her mouth and chowing down on it. She’s also become a non-stop fountain of drool.  Combine the two and this results in her hands occasionally smelling like feet.  Not that that stops her. I have a feeling that the fist chowing and the constant drool are telltale signs of teething – at least that’s what the internets tell me.  I’ve tried to give her toys to chew on but she hasn’t mastered her hand-eye coordination, yet, so she toy winds up in her eye, rather than her mouth.  And her mouth is still tiny so the toys don’t quite fit in her mouth, which leads her to drop the toy and shove fist in mouth.

Best Things About Maternity Leave

Naps.  Waking up in the middle of the night to tend to a fussy baby is much more palatable knowing I can snooze during the day to catch up on missed sleep.

Wearing pajamas until 7:00pm.  Why even bother changing out of pajamas at 7:00pm?  Because that’s when we take the girls out for a walk and I’ve seen enough episodes of What Not To Wear to know better than to leave my house in pjs.

Catching up on 2 seasons of Supernatural.  Dude – that’s a great show.  I’m so sorry I missed out on watching it from the beginning.
 

Quality time with my folks.  I spent a full week with my dad and 3 weeks with my mom.  This is time that I’ll cherish forever (if I can remember it through the blur). Plus an additional week with each of them at the end of my leave.

These guys.  

Maternity Leave and Going Back to Work

I was going to write about the end of maternity leave and having to go back to work, but I am just way too tired to do that.  And that perfectly sums up how I feel about going back to work:  I operate in a state of utter exhaustion all day long.  Why?  Thanks in large part to my 1.5 hour commute each morning and evening I’m up at 5am, home by 5:30pm, take care of kids from 5:30pm-9:00pm, and in bed by 9:30pm.  (Back story – my department moved to our LA office 50 miles away from our current office while I was pregnant.  Since I was pregnant, I worked out of the old office, now that I’m not pregnant I have to make the commute).   Luckily, this schedule won’t last too long – I start a new job next Monday and the commute is less than 15 minutes.  I just have to power through 5 more days of living like a zombie.

Our Little Feces Monsters

16 weeks ago this past Monday, two of us went to the doctor's office for a routine ultrasound and non-stress test. Five days later, four of us walked out.  As my maternity leave comes to an end, I've found myself reflecting on how much the girls have grown and changed since those first stress-filled, sleepless, crazy weeks; and I've also thought about how much our lives have changed since we brought them home.

1. Once upon a time 4am meant I was stumbling into bed.  Now it means I'm stumbling out of it
2. Disco naps have been replaced with "nap while the kids nap" naps
3. Poop and toots have become the primary conversation topic at casa de Flinn
4. Living with babies is like living in Italy under Il Duche - the trains (or rather, the food) will always arrive on schedule
5. Last-minute drives to LA to catch a concert have been replaced with last-minute drives to Target for everything.  
6. Before kids - I would never leave the house in pajama pants. Now, I consider wearing pajama pants being dressed up. 
7. A continuous night's sleep has become a myth - oft-talked about yet never seen.

As crazy as they made me those first few months (I seriously think I should have been put on meds at one point), they're pretty awesome dudes.  I remember what our life was like before they arrived, but now I can't imagine my life without them.

Sleepless Nights

It's 6:00am in the morning and I'm awake.  Awake, people.  Something is seriously wrong with this picture.  I can't remember the last time I slept through the night.  It has to have been at least 4 months.  I used to be a champion sleeper - I could sleep for at least 10 hours at a stretch.  The interrupted sleep started a few months ago - I'd get up every 2-3 hours a night because the babies were squishing my bladder.  But over the past few weeks things have gotten worse - I've been waking up every hour.  Every hour, people.  Naps last longer than an hour.  These sleepless nights have less to do with bathroom breaks and more to do with the babies making life miserable for me.  If Baby B isn't wedging her head under my rib cage, then Baby A is practicing her soccer kicks against my stomach.  Well-meaning people tell me it's my body getting ready for night time feedings.  Which is little comfort as I'm propping my eyelids open with toothpicks at 2pm. 

Luckily, I'm on maternity leave now - which frees up my mornings and afternoons for naps.  Hopefully, I'll be able to catch up on all of the sleep I'm currently missing. 

Nursery Sneak Peek: Valence

Domestic and handy.  I'm slowly, but surely, becoming a lethal combination of being both domestic, like Martha, and handy, like Bob.  Mom was in town visiting for the weekend to attend the California family baby shower. I took advantage of her being in town and roped her into helping me make a valence for the nursery.  I then roped her into showing me how to hang it up.  

Turns out making the valence was a lot more difficult than hanging it.  Making it from our own pattern took almost all day.  Although, part of that can be attributed to the fact that we spent so much time in Jo-Ann's looking at fabric and coming up with too many fabric combinations to choose from.  Compound that with the fact that my sewing machine - which I hadn't used since mom shipped it to me in November (and before that I hadn't used in at least 5 years) didn't work.  Luckily, that's what neighbors are for!  A friend lives around the corner and lent me hers for the evening.  

Like I said, hanging the valence was a lot easier than making it - in fact we were able to finish it in just 3 steps:

Step 1:  get the right tool.

Step 2:  use tool to make hole in wall.

 

Step 3: Hang valence and viola!  Admire your handywork.

Belly Photo: Week 31

Babies are the size of lettuce (18", 3.2 lbs)

Belly Photo: Week 30

Babies are the size of butternut squash (17", 3.1 lbs)

Belly Photo: Week 29

Babies are the size of small cabbage (17 in", 2.9lbs)

Belly Photo: Week 28

Babies are the size of cauliflower (2.5 lbs, 16")

Things I Miss

1. Sashimi
2. Being able to stay up past 9pm
3. Going to concerts on weekdays (see point 3)
4. Getting off the couch on my own
5. My old workout routine 
6. Running.  (Sean - there I said it.  I miss being able to go outside and run)
7. Stringing a complete, and coherent, sentence together.  Baby brain has made this impossible. 

Belly Photo: Week 26

I'm catching up on belly photos.  This one's only 2 weeks late. 

Babies are the still the size of eggplants (9.2", 2 lbs)

Nursery Sneak Peek

The inspiration print for the nursery. 

Based on the print, we picked out several shades of light purple and yellow for the wall color.  Not sure what color we'll pick, yet.

Walking Cliche

Up until this point, the pregnancy has been great.  I've felt awesome during the majority of the pregnancy (with the exception being the migraines I was getting during the first trimester).  Not only did I feel good, but I felt comfortable.  I enjoyed being pregnant.  Don't get me wrong, I still like being pregnant, but man, this week I've felt like a walking cliche of a pregnant lady.

Preggo Brain: my brain officially stopped working Monday morning. I can barely string together a coherent sentence.  And tasks at work take at least 4 times as long to complete as they should.  I've completely given up even trying to hold a conversation with people because I lose my train of thought so easily now.

Bottomless Pit:  My stomach is never full.  My satiety hormone has stopped working - that's the only explanation I can think of.  I can't say no to food.

No Room:  At 27 weeks, I still have at least 10 weeks to go before the kiddos are done cooking.  But good lord, I have NO IDEA how they can get any bigger because it already feels like they're running out of room in here.  Things are fine in the morning and throughout the day.  But around 7:00-ish, that's when things start to get really uncomfortable.  My stomach feels like an overfull water balloon, if I'm laying down and move positions it feels like bowling balls are knocking around in my uterus, and I can't get off the couch by myself anymore - Sean has to pull me up because my ab muscles are so stretched out that I can't contract them anymore to pull myself up when I'm lying down.  (Poor ab muscles - I'm so sorry for what I'm doing to you.  You're going to be wrecked after this pregnancy. I promise to fix you.)

So there you have it - I've now become a walking pregnancy cliche.  The only thing that hasn't happened are over-emotional outbursts. Like morning sickness (which I also managed to skip) I have a feeling you won't catch me crying in the middle of a grocery store.      

Belly Photo: Week 25

Babies are the size of eggplants (1.7 lbs, 9")

Yes, that is coffee.  It's my one vice in the pregnancy.  I tried giving it up for a week and my head almost exploded.  I cannot live without coffee.  The good news is that I'm allowed 8-12 oz of coffee a day and it doesn't harm the babies.

Belly Photo: week 24

 

Babies are the size of an ear of corn (8.5", 1.5 lbs)

Belly Photo: week 23

Woah - this is SUPER late.  Between the extreme exhaustion and preggo brain - I'm just now finding the energy and focus to put these photos together. 

Babies are the size of papaya (8" long, 1.2 lbs)

Music 101

As a self-professed audiophile / music snob, Sean has been obsessing over how to introduce music to the girls.  According to the gazillion pregnancy e-newsletters I’m receiving – they all said that the girls would start hearing sounds (or at least become aware of sounds) that week.  So, Sean decided to play DJ for the girls. 

The first step was to determine how to play the music for them.  We hooked Sean’s iPhone up to our portable iPod speaker and placed the speaker on my belly.  The next step proved to be the most difficult.  Not surprising to anyone who knows him and how he feels about music – he obsessed over which song to play first.  He decided that because we’re having two girls – and our goal is to raise strong-willed broads – that he would start with some music by a strong-willed broad. 

He started with “Respect” (Aretha’s version, not Otis’).  Followed that up with “Femme Fatale” by the Velvet Underground & Nico.  After that, we played songs from Neko Case, Wilco, Sonic Youth and Solomon Burke.  He played more songs than I’ve listed – and I’m sure he’ll fill in the missing artists in the comments.

I was surprised that the babies actually responded to the noise.  At a few points, I caught sight of the speaker and it was vibrating violently on my belly.  It was pretty rad.  They didn’t react to all the songs that way – but to a few. 

I’m not sure if they actually heard the noise through all the noise they currently hear in their amniotic sacs – but it was a fun night for us and we’re looking forward to introducing more music to the girls.  Next on my list – Jimmy Buffet, of course. 

Belly Photo: week 22

Babies are the size of spaghetti squash (8" long, 1 lb)

Belly Photo: Week 21

This photo's almost 2 weeks late - but better late than never. 

Babies are the size of bananas (7" long, 11 oz)

A Week of Firsts

Well, the new year has started off with a bang, or more precisely, a kick.  The lava bubbles have officially turned into kicks and punches.  I felt the first kicks/punches on New Year's Day and man, they caught me by surprise.  I knew instantly what they were.  And it was one of the most awesome feelings I'd ever felt.  Once the kicks/punches started, I didn't want them to stop - but they eventually died down.


And today I actually saw one of the girls (both of the girls?) kick/punch me.  I was lying on the couch and felt some kicks/punches so I looked down at my stomach.  And the next time I felt a kick, I saw the movement on my belly.  It happened a few times and I have to say it was strange.  And awesome.  I have these little active kickers in me and it's definitely making the pregnancy seem even realer.  I think I saw the kicks because my bladder was super full, crowding the babies and pushing them tighter against my ab muscles.  But I'm totally making that up because I'm not a doctor and have no idea why I was able to see the kick.  (Who knows, maybe it was just really big gas bubbles popping.) 

Now that I know that I can feel the girls kick, I keep hoping they'll kick again so I can feel them again.