The Unbroken World

New Parent Syndrome.

2012-01-22T19:27:00.000-08:00

My two-month-olds are sleeping through the night (like, up to 8 hours) and will go to bed early enough that I can stay up for a bit and get some things done and still get decent sleep. They'll also fall asleep without needing to be held, rocked, nursed, etc... we just swaddle them and lay them down, and sometimes they need their binkies, but sometimes they don't. I can lay them in their

Two-Minute Drive-By Photo Post

2012-01-15T21:15:00.000-08:00

The girls are two months old now! Have some pictures, in lieu of what would certainly have been an eloquent and poignant description of how awesome they are: My awesome life with my amazing girls. They are the best ever, really <3 I have about five more seconds before we go upstairs to wake and feed them, so I'm going to go get more cookies and milk. Lol, I am 12, I know. More later!

Resolve

2012-01-06T07:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to get my hair done for the first time since the fall. I relished this blessed rare day out of the house alone with Husband at home watching the girls surrounded by a protective circle of any baby items he could possibly need (I have an inability to leave any caregiver, no matter how comfortable and experienced, without absolutely everything they could need within arm's reach.

The New Normal

2012-01-05T21:33:00.000-08:00

I've seen it many times before, and I've found it true for myself as well-- there is hardly any time or energy for blogging when one is the mother of a newborn. What is my life now? I could list all the minutiae and illustrative anecdotes to describe first social smiles, late-night co-feeding conversations with Husband, watching my dad fall into the grandfather role, any of the plethora of

Where is that Lunesta butterfly???

2011-12-18T18:02:00.000-08:00

Every night I vow to myself, "Today was busy and crazy, but tomorrow, TOMORROW I will post on my blog." And every night turns into the next day (though in such a way as to make the days all daisy-chain together into one long endless series of "sun up"s and "sun down"s) and it doesn't happen. The best I can manage when I'm three day's time from my most recent shower is to do a fly-by post from my

Guess What We Did Today?

2011-12-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

Photoshoot! (But if you're on my Facebook, hush! We're surprising my mom and aunts with these photos in nice frames for Christmas, and I'm already bad enough at keeping awesome secrets.) The girls were so, so good today... they tolerated being stripped naked in a Babies R Us, put into 3-6 month sized Christmas dresses that had scratchy skirts, positioned oddly on a weird rug-thing with a padded

Sweet Girls.

2011-12-04T07:20:00.000-08:00

My precious babies, do you know how much I love you? We're still a little shellshocked over here. Husband asks me two questions every day, without fail-- "Can you believe we have two babies?" and "Are you happy?" The answer to both questions is "yes, of course," probably forced through a yawn. It feels like they've always been here. Was there really ever a time that I just got in the car by

17 Days

2011-11-29T11:49:00.000-08:00

(Technically it's 18 days now, but I started writing this yesterday and I like that it was at least partly composed on my "due date," so I'm leaving it.) Okay, so a little miss Sue is fussing and I have about three seconds to post-- I just wanted to check in because YIKES, I haven't posted since the girls were born. We're all still here! This whole "blogging with newborn twins" thing is nearly

2011-11-12T23:15:00.000-08:00

I still don't have my computer with me at the hospital, but I figured out how to post photos using my Photobucket app. I'm relying on your trust that I am preoccupied and tired, as well as your desire to see cute twin baby pictures, as an escape from judgment on meiterally dumping a bunch of HTML here and not organizing the photos or adding captions right now ;) Lulu, aka Little Chicken,

11-11-11

2011-11-12T00:52:00.000-08:00

They're here :) Pics will have to come from my computer, since I can't figure out (at 3:48am, lol) how to upload them from my iPhone. Talulah Jane was born at 9:18am weighing 4lb12oz, and her sister Susannah Caroline arrived a minute later weighing 5lb5oz. They are both beautiful and sweet and perfect. Lulu has a cry like a tiny kitten. Both are relatively easy to calm and love kangaroo care.

The Last Night. (37w3d)

2011-11-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, I did a guided meditation-- as hokey as it sounded to find my "inner temple," I was looking for some spiritual guidance, and I liked the idea of creating my own mental safe space that looked and felt beautiful and comforting. What I came up with, sitting on the floor leaning against my bed with my eyes closed, was a small lake surrounded on three sides by a grove of trees. At

Full Term!

2011-11-07T06:59:00.000-08:00

FULL TERM WITH TWINS. I am surprise, internet. Despite spending the last 3 weeks since the doctor thumbs-up for delivery desperately wanting to evict the girls (as the blogger I linked to in my last post said, "Twin pregnancy is not for the faint of heart"), I'm really glad we made it this far. I know a lot of it is a product of me being able to stay home and not be bustling around at work every

Cheater Post (36w4d)

2011-11-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

Cheating today, because it's been said better by someone else already: this is how I've been feeling and where I'm trying to get to. AHHHH SOMEONE ELSE GETS IT. Not that it's a surprise, but it's SUCH a relief to read, and it makes me feel like I can definitely stick this out longer, now, for the best interest of the girls if that's what they need. And maybe I should turn my "but I thought I'd

Shake 'Em Loose! (36w2d)

2011-11-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

Last night was not a great night for sleeping. To put it in positive terms-- I had a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions going on, in retrospect (at 2am it registered more as "Ugh, I tried to roll over and my belly feels all tight and uncomfortable now") which kept waking me, and while getting up to pee is nothing new, I actually found myself getting out of bed to pee just because I needed a

BLARNEY. (36w1d)

2011-11-01T07:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I woke up to an exactly-at-nine-am phone call from Dr. So-and-So's office. It took a minute to register, especially with all the sleep-cobwebs still stuck to my brain, because it wasn't my regular OB's office-- it was the endocrinologist who I haven't seen since early September. "Hi, Julie? Dr. So-and-So is concerned because you haven't been sending her your blood sugar

36 weeks.

2011-10-31T18:56:00.000-07:00

I am nine months pregnant today. HOLY CRAP. In two hours, it will be November. I can't believe we're actually going to go into November without already having babies. We made it this far. My mom is now convinced it will happen tomorrow because it's my brother's birthday. I no longer have any feelings or inclinations in any direction... if it happens before our scheduled c-section on the 15th,

Snowtober (35w5d)

2011-10-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

Instead of thinking about how I will be nine months pregnant in a day and a half, and how it seems very likely at this point that I will actually be pregnant in November... I am going to do a photo post. Keepin' it light in here today ;) We hung pictures in the kitchen, finally! I've had these sitting around since-- get this-- our bridal shower three and a half years ago. Love love love these

Still Here (35w4d)

2011-10-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

Still pregnant. Ever since I passed the 34-week mark, I've found myself selfishly impatient. Now, at 35 weeks and with my high-risk OB telling me "You're totally off bed rest and I'm fine with you going into labor at any time now; you could go for a run and go into labor if you wanted to," I'm pushing the "but it's only 35 weeks!" voice to the back of my head and diving full-force into the world

Exhausted but Happy (34w5d)

2011-10-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

We had a very, very productive day today. That statement alone with its two "very"s should convey one very important fact-- my mom came over. Otherwise I would say "I had a productive day." ;) We got the entire back porch cleaned out and-- get this-- I have a dedicated crafting room now! It's dark now and I'm achy and tired and don't feel like painstakingly peeling myself off the couch to

At Least My House is Kinda Clean... (34w4d)

2011-10-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

Lesson learned: though I may now be technically allowed to go shopping and walk around stores, it's probably not always a good idea. I woke up early today because I maxed out on my allotted "comfortable enough to stay lying down" time around 7am this morning, although it took until about 7:30 for me to convince myself to just get up and end my misery. Then, sometime around when I decided that I

Rule of Threes (34w3d)

2011-10-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

Friday I had a NST to check on the girls. Normally I schedule all my doctor's visits for Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10:20, mostly because I like routine and so I don't forget appointments (I put them into my iPhone calendar and then never check to see when they are), but this week my doctor wasn't around and I had to schedule with someone else, so I got a "whatever is available" appointment for

Mushy (33w5d)

2011-10-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

One of the things I love about my husband, among many other things, is that we have conversations like this: Me, watching Barefoot Contessa: Ohhhh, man, that Asian noodle salad looks so good. Husband: Do you want me to make it for dinner? Me: Wait, really? Husband: Sure, hun, I'll make that. Me: That would be awesome! Less than an hour later he was at the grocery store, and now he's in the

I Had No Idea... (33w4d)

2011-10-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

... that nesting would make me THIS CRAZY. I grew up in a pristine house, which is saying something about my mother because I have four younger brothers. Somehow, with five of us (and by constantly cleaning), the house was always both clean and in relative order. Bathrooms never got too gross, laundry was always done, the kitchen sink never piled up with dishes for very long. My mom is

Hug Your Loved Ones Closer. (32w5d)

2011-10-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

Lesson learned: always answer your phone. My friend E called me earlier today, and I ignored the call thinking I could call her back later-- Husband and I were heading out the door to meet up with my mom, brother, aunts and cousins for lunch, and I figured she was just calling to chat as per usual. I came home, took my blood sugar, did my kick counts, and settled in to watch some TV and veg for

Cleaning House. (32w3d)

2011-10-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

I now have, lodged safely between my two babies, a food baby. Mmmm... chicken quesadilla with jalapeño cheese and roasted onions... We went to Walmart today. It was only my second time in a Walmart. I'm normally fiercely anti-Walmart, but then, I spend a lot of time at the Target down the street, and I really can't justify distinguishing between the two-- they're both big box stores full of