Tuesday, March 31, 2009

6wks

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls looking obnoxiously adorable in their new outfits at the Simchat Banot (though I think in the second one Eliana is begging Bracha to get her the hell out of there!)


Monday, March 30, 2009

Sunday, March 29, 2009

5wks, 5days

Friday was awesome, pictures of that to come. Meanwhile here is our first photo taken with the new digital camera Shawn got as a holiday gift from work. Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

5wks

My parents have taken Bracha for the afternoon, leaving only Eliana for me to deal with. It's a nice arrangement, taking care of only one girl lets me rest, get stuff done, and spend some one-on-one time with my daughter.

Shawn is home and is napping with Eliana. I'm waiting for the water to heat so I can grab a shower (a rare luxury these days, it feels). I managed to do some cooking and have a large pan of baked mac and cheese in the oven which I'll divide up into freezable/microwavable containers.

Friday is our Simchat Banot. It would have been at the baby naming but we did that the weekend after the girls were born so we couldn't really have people out to the hospital on Shabbat, plus we were going to do it after my in-laws arrived since we did the naming before they got here. Unfortunately, Bracha didn't come home till after they left and seeing as we weren't going to have a party while she was still in the hospital, my in-laws are missing it.

Edit: Eliana is no longer in bed, she's now in my arms (well, arm) where I am feeding her with my chin (I've gotten really good at it!)

Since the girls already have names, I figure we'll share with people the reasons behind the names we chose and give a Dvar Torah, followed by a festive meal. We should have our new digital camera by then (courtesy of Hadassah Hospital - they have awesome holiday gifts for their employees!) so expect to see photo and video updates of the event.

Monday, March 23, 2009

4wks, 6days

It's 3:30am. I'm typing single handedly, of course. I have a sleepy Bracha in my arms. Shawn is in bed with another beautiful woman sleeping in his arms. The apartment smells like the fresh baked bread that just came out of the bread maker and fresh clean laundry, of which we currently average about two loads a day. Shawn and I are both exhausted but for the first time our shift system has seen some success and I just recently had a nearly uninterrupted four and a half stretch of sleep (huge!!)

All is right in the world.

Monday, March 16, 2009

3wks, 6days





Here are some updated pictures of both girls, home and together. Overall they're great, though they both love being held all the time and Ima ('mom' in Hebrew...aka, me!) only has one set of hands. But luckily Savta (grandma) and Saba (grandpa) spend plenty of time here and are a HUGE help. We had a rough night last night with no sleep for anyone, so Shawn and I are really trying to get some awareness of night and day into the girls. We're trying to start a bedtime routine and we'll see if that helps any.

Bracha had her first pediatrician appointment today. She's gaining weight at the desirable rate and her doctor said she looks fine, just small. Eliana will next get weighed on Wednesday, as well as receive her second hep B shot. My poor baby!

Tomorrow will be their one month birthday! My girls are so big...

Thursday, March 12, 2009

3wks, 2days

Thank heavens for my mommy!!

After almost 3 1/2 hours of sleep total last night, she came over this morning to help me take care of the girls. Once Eliana fell asleep I managed to throw in a load of laundry (yes, Shawn, you read that correctly), have some breakfast, pump some milk and then sleep for almost two more hours. That brings me up to about five hours of sleep total, a number I've gotten used to and can deal with.

Mom has taken Eliana out running errands so now I'm alone with Bracha, who I'll put down soon then hang the laundry, eat another bite, pump some more, then, if I'm lucky, hit the hay again.

I have NO idea how I'd have managed this first day without her help. Maybe we were nuts, having kids before Shawn finishes school. Though we had no way of knowing it'd have been twins and one kid would have been easy to take care of; the last three weeks were a cinch compared to today! But nothing is as awesome as having both of my babies home with me.

This shabbat we're staying home, just the four of us. It'll be our first chance to really bond as a family, and an opportunity for Shawn to help more with the kid care (he's actually really great, it's just since he has school, the night duties fall on me so he can sleep enough to function and that leaves sleep deprived lil me at home all day with both babies).

But no matter what my complaints, I'm just so thrilled to have them both at home. My family is finally reunited.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

3wks, 1day

Bracha is home!!!



3wks, 1day

Our little girl is eating!

Shawn and I spent the day with Bracha at the hospital yesterday. We were with her through four feedings and every single one she ate entirely by mouth and within twenty minutes maximum. She had even eating the meal before we arrived. That made five meals in a row by the time we finally left at the hospital at around 10pm. In fact, after her bath at 5:30, they didn't even put the feeding tube back in!

I just called the hospital this morning and spoke to her nurse who said that she continued to eat through the night. They all told us it would happen suddenly and man were they right!

So now we wait. She has a doctor's visit soon and they should then be calling us to tell us when we get to come take her home. It may be tomorrow but it just might be yet today...just maybe...fingers crossed!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

2wks, 5days

What a milestone! Bracha reached two kilos today! /now she needs to at least maintain the weight gain, though I'm sure she'll continue to grow, and get in the habit of eating all her meals orally. We're still working on that one but at least my baby girl has reached her current goal weight. How wonderful!

Eliana made her first visit to shul this Shaabat for Zachor while her Ima benched gomel. She was quite the little star.

The in-laws have left and Shawn is back at school so I'm alone with Eliana for the first half of the day. It's going to be more challenging working out hospital visits but hopefully we won't have to worry about that for much longer.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

2wks, 1day

Yesterday I spent over five hours in the hospital with Bracha. Now that she's out of the incubator someone has to be there every evening to give her a bath, which she really enjoys. After her first bath on Monday she was too pooped to eat but after yesterday's bath she was wide awake and guzzled down her bottle rather quickly. She's up a lot in weight, only 70gr short of the 2 kilo goal. Once she reaches that, and eats all her meals orally, she can come home! It's looking like it might not happen this week, though she could very easily hit the target weight...but eating is still difficult. But I hope to have her home before next week is out.

Eliana's stump fell off yesterday so today she also got her first real bath (rather than just the sponge baths she's been getting). She is very much not like her sister; Eliana hated the bath! But after getting dried, dressed, and fed, she was very cozy and nodded off in her crib (rather than insisting on being held till she's fast asleep before we an put her down, which is how she usually is).

Eliana's well-baby visit on Monday went well, she's gained weight well. Yesterday she had her first doctor's appointment. I found a pediatrician very close by and we went to check her out and I liked her a lot. I'm really glad we found someone nice and competent and only three blocks away. I'll take Bracha to her after she gets released so they can meet and get to know each other.

I got the girls registered for health insurance and had all of us put together in the system to be recognized as a family. In order to get the maximum coverage for the girls I had to increase my own coverage so now the four of us have the highest level of health insurance we can get. The girls will get free dental till they're twelve! (the general health insurance is free as is, the government pays till age 18, then if/when they do army/national service, the government continues to pay. After that it is covered national insurance payments deducted from your pay check. The only thing we need to actually pay is the cost of the added insurance coverage which includes extra benefits, and that comes out to relatively very little per month...Israeli health care rocks!)

As for pictures, feast your eyes on these beauties:


Eliana

Bracha

Sunday, March 1, 2009

1wk, 5days

Bracha is making wonderful progress. She's gained 170gr above her birth weight and last night she hit a huge milestone: they moved her out of the incubator! She's now in a bassinet and in the next day or two we'll be able to give her her first bath. She's eating very nicely though is sometimes just too tired to do so, so she still has her feeding tube in. We try to be there to give her at least two meals a day, and most of the nurses are very good about feeding her, at least part of her meals. I'm having some difficulty building up my milk supply but I pump as often as I can and have managed to provide at least a meal a day of breast milk for her.

Meanwhile Eliana is growing very well. We were supposed to have our first well-baby visit today but it's just too nasty to go outside, so we're postponing it for tomorrow...which works nicely since Shawn had to work this morning so he can come with us tomorrow. The clinic is only a couple of blocks away but it'll be my biggest outing yet (not counting drives back and forth to my parents and the hospital, of course). It'll be nice to get some fresh air.

But today we're having a quiet girls day at home. She's been alternating between eating and sleeping, though lately she's been having longer periods of being awake and aware, where she just stares at everything around her. But we were at my parents this weekend and she had a lot of visitors so I think she's a little pooped out today. I've been wearing her and she is very content sleeping against my chest. When she lets me I put her down to sleep and catch a nap myself, but she's really into being held today so I don't know how much more napping we'll get.

I'm still in awe that I get paid to be a full-time mommy. I can see it getting boring and driving me insane over time, but for now it's really, really nice. I love spending time with my girls and I love having my schedule revolve around them (seriously! They're so good about it, too...Eliana slept almost five hours strait last night!!)