6 Week Checkup

According to my OB, I'm in perfect health. My incision is gorgeous and my cervix is perfect. :-) But, she doesn't want me getting pregnant for the next year, for obvious reasons--emergency C-Section, twin pregnancy, etc. The only issue is birth control. My husband thinks I've gone totally insane. He's basically thinking "we couldn't get pregnant on our own for two years...what makes you think it'll just happen this year?" I agree with him in theory, but my doctor (and I) think it's prudent not to tempt fate. We do need to get clearance from our rabbi, however, before doing anything. Basically, my doctor wants to put in a copper IUD, because it shouldn't affect my hormones at all. Any thoughts?

Bath Day

It was crazy hot in Boston today, so we decided to give the twins a bath. I think they really enjoyed it, too! No naked baby bath pictures, though...sorry! We also decided to go out for dinner with the twins. Chana & Dovid slept the whole time and didn't make a peep. It was great! Here are some quality photos from today:

Here are Ben & Chana relaxing before bathtime


Here are Dovid & Chana during their post-bath photo shoot (Shira got some AWESOME pics of them)


And here is Dovid all ready to go out for dinner

More Photos

My sister-in-law just emailed me some awesome pictures of the twins, so I wanted to share them with you. She also sent some baby pictures of my hubby...but I'd better check with him before posting them for all to see. :-) Oh and great idea to make a monthly picture log. My mom bought a picture frame that looks like a clock and has places for photos going from birth to 12 months at each "hour". For now, I'll just replace what used to be my belly pic with monthly baby pics.

This is me with the twins!


In all of these Dovid seems to be trying to snuggle with Chana, but Chana doesn't really seem to be into it. :-) hehe She's all like "get away from me...you have cooties...ewwwww"






In other news, I just tried out my Wii Fit and it's TONS of fun. I did a full half hour of exercises. The big thing is that I didn't hate every second--and I'm REALLY good at the ski jump balance exercise. Who knew? Unfortunately my Wii Age is 38...so apparently my hubby and I are almost the same age! Yikes! I'd better get cracking and get my age down to where it should be...

Baby Pictures

Here are some great photos taken by my sister & brother in law. For more, visit Ben's blog.

This is my little boy, Dovid (yawning...soooo cute)


And this is my little girl, Chana


This is Shira & Dovid


Shira & Dovid again


This is Ben, Chana & Dovid


And this is Ben & Chana (Chana is checking her email...hehe just kidding)

My Decision

Thank you for all of the wonderful comments and suggestions in my last post! I decided to go ahead and "do it." Hopefully my OB won't find out... hehe :-)

Sorry for the lack of posts, but life around here is nuts. I barely have time to check my email or do anything else, so blog posts get put way down on the priority list. :-(

The twins are doing very well, but I'm terrified for the day when there's no one here for me to call to when both are screaming at once or I need extra help. Yikes! They're both gaining weight well, and the fenugreek that I'm taking seems to be helping my milk supply. My biggest issue is generally with the evening feedings when I've been feeding them almost non-stop all day long. By that point, there's no milk left and my nipples start to itch from being nibbled on so much. On the days when they feed less often during the day, then I don't generally have that problem. I also can't wean them off of the nipple shields. My son has such a strong suck that I can only nurse him for a minute or two before the pain is too much for me. He has trouble with the latch--he gets on fine and then tries to slide down the nipple so he doesn't have as much in his mouth. OUUUUCH! My daughter flat out refuses to suck at all if I'm not wearing the nipple shield. She'll pull off and then start crying. *sigh*

I splurged and bought a Wii Fit the other day. I'm really looking forward to working out with it, becuase this belly bulge has got to go! I'm about 60 lbs over my ideal weight, even though I don't look it. I'm going to put a weight loss ticker on my blog so you guys will keep me honest. :-) And, in case you were wondering, I am 4' 10.5" tall, so 100 lbs IS my ideal weight...

To Wait or Not To Wait

DISCLAIMER: If you are related to me and/or do not wish to read about "personal" stuff, please do not read this post. Thank you! :-)

Ok ladies (and gents?), I have not been with my husband since October. First it was placenta previa, then I had the cerclage put in, and finally I gave birth. It's been about 6 months and I'm finished waiting. My 6 week postpartum checkup isn't for another week and a half, but I'm not bleeding anymore. According to Jewish law, I will be allowed to be with him this Sunday night. What do I do? Wait the week and a half or say to heck with it and tackle him on Sunday? All comments are welcome!

Stream of Consciousness

The twins had another weigh-in today...Chana is up to 6lbs 15oz and Dovid is 6lbs 10oz. Wow! Chana gained 10oz in 5 days and Dovid gained 8oz in 5 days. They had both just eaten, but really that "just eaten" label applies to them nearly 24 hours a day. lol

I'm sitting here with Dovid nestled in my lap. Thank goodness I wear skirts...I have his head on one thigh and his legs on the other, and the skirt keeps him from falling. :-) I'm soooo creative. Otherwise I would have to type this with one hand and it would take all day. He seems to be comfortable...he actually looks to be asleep. heh

My mom and I are going grocery shopping imminently...with the twins. It should be interesting! One of us will push the cart and the other will push the stroller. We don't have slings yet, and who *really* wants to be wearing a baby while walking all over the supermarket? Not me!

One of my husband's coworkers made us this gorgeous cross-stitch with twin bears and the twins names & birth date on it. I'll have to take a photo and post it here...it's absolutely gorgeous.

The last two days of Pesach are tomorrow and Thursday, so I won't be posting until at least Friday...if not Sunday. I am soooo glad it's almost over!

Baby Burps

Anyone who ever told you that babies are unable to burp on their own (which is why you need to burp after every feeding) is totally mistaken. My twins have been known to burp while on the breast! It's a bit strange to be watching them suckling and then all of a sudden--BRAAAAP. hehe Half the time you sit them up right after a feeding and they'll let one fly before you've even touched their back. I dunno...maybe they're just baby geniuses. lol

We also discovered that my daughter is holding her head up. Don't ask me how, seeing as she's only 3 1/2 weeks old, but maybe it's because her head doesn't weigh too much yet. :-)

I started taking fenugreek to increase my milk supply. Because I don't do night feedings (my mother, mother-in-law and sister-in-law are SAINTS), I can go 10 hours without feeding them...and I think it was affecting my supply. For the last few days they would take over an hour to feed, still be hungry when we tried to put them down and then would be hungry an hour later. Today they eat for 20 mins, fall right to sleep and aren't hungry for 2 hours. Maybe they were just having a growth spurt, but I'm hoping it was a milk supply issue that is now resolved. :-)

Car and Pesach

The hubby and I decided to buy a Kia Sedona, and we found a great deal at Quirk Kia in Braintree, MA. They had some leftover 2008's in red that they were practically giving away. The only difference between the 08's and the 09's is that the 09's have Sirius satellite radio, which I really don't need. The safety ratings and the car itself is exactly the same. Why would I want to spend over $5K more for a 2009? I wouldn't. :-) So, now we have a red minivan. I am officially a soccer mom. lol


I'm going to be away from my computer for a few days. Pesach starts tonight, and the first two days (this year Thurs & Fri) are like Shabbos, so no computer. And then Saturday is Shabbos, so no computer then either. :-) Anyways, for all of my Jewish readers, have a chag kasher v'sameach (a happy & kosher holiday).

Book List

I grabbed this from Breeder Beware.

Here are the instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'X' (and bold) after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star/Asterisk (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Put a # (and italics) by those you've started but not finished.
5) Tally your total at the bottom.


I of course did not follow the directions. You know I am not that handy with the computer. You'll just have to read my comments, or not.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien X+ (I adore this series)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X+ (I adore this series even more than Lord of the Rings)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X (I read this in high school...not a bad book)
6 The Bible # (I don't know if I'll ever finish reading through the whole thing)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X (I think I enjoyed this book)
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X+ (Excellent book)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X+ (I LOOOOVE this book)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X (I think I enjoyed this book)
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X+ (This is an awesome series)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll *
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X+ (Another series that I love)
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X+ (This is a duplicate...)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne *
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X+ (I read this entire book in one night because it's so awesome)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X (This was an ok book)
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett *
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White *
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X+ (I've read ALL of them)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X+ (I love Roald Dahl)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


Total read = 14
Total started but not finished = 1
Total I still want to read = 4

Minivan

We discovered that my teeny Ford Focus just does not fit two infant carseats...unless you want to sit so close to the dashboard that you could lick it without bending over. So, we need to trade it in and get a minivan. I researched online and have discovered that the three safest minivans are the Kia Sedona, Hyundai Entourage and the Honda Odyssey. After checking prices and features, I've narrowed it down to the Sedona and the Entourage. We've already test-driven the Entourage and I'll be test-driving the Sedona on Sunday. Is anyone out there in blogland familiar with either of these two minivans? Want to give an opinion?

The twins are doing well. They feed every 2-4 hours, but since my family is so awesome, I don't have to take a night shift. :-) I am nursing, so if I skip all the night shifts it means I have to pump after the twins' morning feeding...it's a VERY small price to pay for getting decent sleep. As of their last weight check, they're both just about 5 1/2 pounds, so at least we know they're gaining weight appropriately! They still sleep most of the time, thank G-d, but I think they're starting to be more alert during the daytime, so I'm going to start leaving them out of their cribs. It should be interesting!

Baby Boy's Bris

Well, he survived. I nearly didn't though...that was scary as anything. I was very impressed with my hubby, who didn't faint! Although when the rabbi was changing the bloody dressing (ew) I told Shmuel not to look, but he did anyway and got that "oy vey I'm going to pass out" look. So I told him again not to look and to sit down. Even I felt faint when I looked, and I don't get squeamish from blood. Anyways, he's doing great.

Ok, ok...you want to know his name. We named him Dovid Yitzchok after my father and my husband's father. My father's name was Daniel, but I don't particularly like that name so we changed it to Dovid (which is the Yiddish version of David and is pronounced 'DUH-vid'). Shmuel's father's Hebrew name was Yitzchok, so we kept that. (Yitzchok is the Hebrew version of Isaac and is pronounced 'YITZ-chuk'...the 'ch' is like in Bach--as if you're getting phlegm out of your throat--and the 'o' is pronounced the same as in Dovid.) :-)

And now an explanation of my daughter's name. We named her Chana Brocha after my maternal grandmother and my husband's maternal grandmother. Chana was Shmuel's grandmother's name. (Chana is the Hebrew version of the name Hannah and is pronounced the way it is spelled with the 'ch' pronounced the same as in Yitzchok.) My grandmother's Yiddish name was Shayna Bashe, but she always went by "Bess." We decided to change Bashe to Brocha because it sounds better with Chana, and Brocha means blessing...and both of our babies are blessings. (Brocha doesn't have an English version and is pronounced the way it is spelled with the 'ch' pronounced the same as in Yitzchok and the 'o' pronounced the same as in Dovid.)