Now, to bring y'all somewhat up to date:
Hurricane Sandy - A total s*$# show. Hit us when the twins were just 3 weeks old, and I was still very much in recovery mode from the C-section. Lost power and water for almost 5 days. Tried to tough it out for a couple of days and then when we realized how long it was going to take to get power back we fled first to a hotel (which we barely managed to book) and then to a friend's place in Brooklyn. Total nightmare trying to move 2 infants and all associated gear down a completely dark stairwell 7 flights down (as our elevator was also not working). Not to mention the fact that I couldn't carry anything heavy, so my poor husband almost killed himself trying to get everything up and down the stairs. A lot more to this story, but suffice it to say that it was kind of a nightmare but we survived. And given how hard so many people have been hit on Long Island, New Jersey, and elsewhere, we have no right to complain. I can't believe there are people still without power or worse, who have lost their homes. Luckily for us, the babies made it through the experience beautifully, so this is now just a great story that we will tell them some day.
Post Partum Recovery - Finally starting to feel a bit more normal, after 7 weeks. My incision took forever to heal, to the point where my OB considered, twice, reopening it and sewing it back up. But both times she reconsidered and literally as of two days ago it finally stopped oozing. I hope that means I'm done with going back to the doctor - so sick of it!! I got the lump under my arm/above my left breast looked at by sonogram. They thought that it was just a collection of cysts and nothing to worry about, but they wanted to aspirate it to be sure. I set up an appointment and then cancelled it - just cannot deal with another medical thing right now. Plus I don't love the idea of messing with something that is likely a milk duct when I am breast-feeding. I think if it's still there in a month I'll go back and have it looked at again (sigh). I also really need to get a moles check - I had a million new moles grow during pregnancy, and some that got larger. Don't really feel like dealing with that either, but I really should. Targeting January to get all of that stuff done.
I'm currently about 10 lbs above pre-pregnancy weight. My weight seems to have stabilized about there, which I'm okay with. Don't really care what I weigh, just how I look. As far as I can tell, I am as skinny or skinnier than I ever was everywhere but my stomach, which is still loose and stretched out looking. I'm sporting about a 3 month bulge there, which isn't going anywhere. I am not surprised given that I was carrying 13 lbs of baby and 2 amniotic sacs! I suspect my stomach will never be the same, but I'm hopeful that once I'm cleared for exercise I can at least get it down from where it is. New mamas - how long did it take you to get your stomach back? Any recommendations on good exercises to strengthen/tighten the belly?
The Babes - Are amazing, beautiful, strong, big-eating, fast-growing bundles of joy. I cannot believe they are mine. My parents have been here for the past month and I put them to work in a serious way - they were chomping at the bit to come here, but after a month of heavy-duty childcare I think they're ready for a loooong break! But we had so much fun with the little munchkins, and made so many precious memories.
O is huge, just huge. Suddenly around 4 weeks he got these enormous cheeks and about 5 chins. He's a solid kid with a huge appetite. J is growing really fast too, but he's probably 1 -2 lbs lighter than O. He's got huge, beautiful blue eyes that look nothing like either me or my husband's. We speculate that someone at the hospital switched him, because he looks nothing like O either - skin, hair color, physique and features are completely different.
Both kids are breast-feeding and bottle feeding well. I am mixing up breast feeding with pumping/bottle feeding and some formula supplementation when needed. Seems to be working reasonably well, and I think they are probably getting around 70 - 80% breast milk most of the time. I'm pretty happy with that, all things considered.
The kids are growing so fast it's scary - they have already outgrown their 3 month clothes and are wearing 6 month clothes, and they aren't even 2 months yet! I have a pediatrician appointment tomorrow and I'm wondering what they are going to say - maybe I'll be told that I'm overfeeding them or something? We'll see...I think O is already over 13 lbs!
I have so much more to write, but I'm going to cut it off here or this will never get posted (I've already started & stopped this post 3 times!) Here are a couple pictures to share, more to come:
This is during Hurricane Sandy when I was staying with my friends in Brooklyn. Walked into the room and saw them asleep like this.
More recent picture of O
More recent picture of J
