Stuck in a blizzard...

The city of Boston was hit with about 18 inches of snow the day after Christmas.  While I had planned to go into work, the city was declared a 'state of emergency', and the mayor recommended that all non-essential workers stay home and off the roads.

I am a non-essential worker.

Nicole is a non-essential worker.

Jason is an essential worker.

I lose.

We actually had a nice day.  The kids did decide to tag team naps, however.  The girls are still taking two naps a day, while Zev takes one.  Which means they alternated and at least one child was always awake.  As I said to Jason later:  I'm not sure which is harder...entertaining one three year old or entertaining two one year olds.  Especially when you don't rely on television.

Zev was up at 7 and we had breakfast.  I got the girls up by 8 and Jason ran out as soon as possible to account for the snowy roads.  I did let Zev play out in the snow while the girls and I watched from inside.  While the girls were napping, I raided the craft bag and we did some glitter pens, stickers, markers, puff-balls, glue, pasta shapes...quite artistic!  By that time the girls woke up and everyone had lunch.  I kicked Zev upstairs to nap by promising him a bath when he woke up.  Then the girls and I played, which consisted of me laying on the floor and letting them climb all over me and stick their (grimey) hands in my face and mouth, while pulling my hair.  I delayed their nap as long as I could, knowing that once I brought them upstairs, Zev would wake up.  Sure enough, I brought them up at 3:20...and at 3:25 Zev came down.  I then delayed HIS bath as long as I could, knowing he would just wake them up when he got in the water and started splashing around and yelling.  By 4:30, Zev was in the tub and the girls were awake.  By 5:15 the girls were having dinner, and by 5:30 Jason was home. 

And I was wiped.

Some recent pictures, a few from the night before when the snow started, and the other two from the indoor playground we go to.

Our Christmas was nice.  We went to my sister's house for her annual Christmas Eve open house.  The kids were well-behaved.  We bummed around the house for the rest of the weekend, due to the snow.  And now things are back to normal.  No major plans for the New Year...I'm lucky if I'm still awake by 11pm....



a few photos from the party

I admit we were really bad at taking pictures at the girls' birthday.  Luckily my mother shot some:

Tzelia cut her third tooth.  Jason had commented on how 'behind' she was compared to Meorah...and then she went out and cut a tooth.  She's been fantastically needy recently, and perhaps this is why.  She has always been a very needy girl, so it could just be a coincidence.  Its interesting how similar Meorah is to Zev, and how different Tzelia is to the two of them.  Both Meorah and Zev are very independent and generally happy children.  While I wouldn't say Tzelia is UNhappy, she is definitely more clutchy and more emotional compared to the other two.  Both Meorah and Zev (when he was their age) are content to play alone and never complain unless they're hungry.  Tzelia doesn't seem to like to be alone:  she will look towards an adult in the room to make sure they are there.  Only then is she ok to be alone.  But even then there are times she will only be happy if she is playing on your lap.  Meorah (and Zev) can't stand to be held for that long...they'd rather be off and playing somewhere.

Its just interesting.

We are a little concerned about Tzelia.  She hasn't gained any weight in a month.  She eats fine, better than Meorah sometimes.  But she doesn't drink.  We started tracking her fluid intake today because we are also noticing she has significantly less wet diapers.  We don't want her to be dehydrated, but I hesitate to give her water because it will just fill her up and she'd eat even less.  Her doc isn't concerned yet, but we're supposed to keep an eye on her.  Today she was about 15.5 lbs, compared to Meorah's almost 19.  Meorah herself isn't all that big, but compared to Tzelia she seems huge.  I'm not horribly worried, mainly because she is still healthy and does eat quite well.  I make them the same foods for their meals, so I am trying to compensate for Tzelia and give her more of the solids, knowing she'll take less milk later.  If that doesn't work, I'm going to have to spike her food with milk powder or something.

Nothing really planned for the upcoming holidays.  We don't celebrate Christmas, but we usually go to an old family friend's house for the day.  Unfortunately they had to cancel due to family illness, so I'm pretty disappointed.  Since it means my dad is free as well, we'll probably do something with him for the day.  And no New Years plans either, although its my sister's birthday and I have to still get her something.  She also usually has a Christmas Eve open house, and I need to find out if she is having that again.  If so, we'll of course go:  we had a lot of fun at her house for Thanksgiving.

Spent the day trying to clean.  And it looks like it may finally snow a bit.  I like looking at it, but hate the cold.  In my next life, I'm going to live somewhere nice and warm....

40 days of my life

I officially stopped pumping a few days ago.  Since then, two things:

1) I am VERY VERY uncomfortable.  I had to sleep in a bra last night, and God forbid something bump into me.  Painful, painful, painful.  Hello boobage.

2) I don't know what to do with myself.  I used to give up my lunch hour to take breaks during my work day to pump, and now I don't have to.  I got used to shoveling down half of my lunch in 20 minutes while pumping (and then the other half during another pumping session), that I've forgotten how to actually TAKE a lunch hour.  So now I'm still eating in 15 minutes and just go back to work...and realize I'm not actually taking a designated 'lunch time'.  While I'm certainly more productive, its probably better for me if I actually TAKE a break during the day.  And then when I get home, I realize I DON'T have to worry about when I'm going to pump, that I CAN sleep in an extra half an hour, etc.  Weird.

It was the second point that made me wonder how many hours I actually spent pumping.

So I did a rough estimate.  Granted I pumped a lot more in the beginning, and less at the end, but I figure this will be a decent estimate:

For most of the year, I pumped 8x/day.  For roughly 20 minutes a session...closer to 45 in the morning, and maybe 15 at the end of the day.  If you do the math, that's about 950 hours of my life.  Or about 40 days.

I spent 40 days of 2010 attached to that damn pump.  That's 10% of my year.


Give me a freaking medal already.

Happy Anniversary!

Its the one year anniversary of my blog.  Happy anniversary to me.  I can't believe I've kept it up for this long.  I'm glad I did...its been a long year.  And, despite all the heart ache, trials and tribulations, and rough times...its actually ending pretty well.

Perhaps its fitting that we had the girls' birthday celebration today, then.  It went surprisingly well.  Jason's mom came over the day before and took Zev out for lunch while Jason and I scrubbed the house down.  And today we had a fair amount of friends, family, and kids come over to help us celebrate.  Very simple party:  pizza and cake.  But fun, nonetheless.  We aren't able to be social all that often, so it was nice having so many friends together at once.  And of course I like to show off the girls.  When I get some photos, I'll post some of the party.

The girls are doing so well.  They had their one year check-up a few days ago, and it went well.  There was a little concern about Tzelia's size, and we were told to try to beef up her foods.  At one year, she's only 15.5 lbs, so she's not even on the percentile chart.  Meorah is also rather small, but being 3 lbs bigger, she looks huge compared to Tzelia.  So I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on their intake.  I think she's just going to be a petite girl.  She's healthy, she's just small.

Other highlights of the weekend:  Jason and I went out on a date for the first time in 1.5 years.  I can't believe it, but its true.  Obviously we couldn't go while I was on bedrest, and we haven't been since the girls were born.  Which makes it about a year and a half.  We went out to a Hibachi-type restaurant that we like that definitely isn't kiddie-friendly.  Unfortunately I was exhausted:  it was a Friday night and I had a long work week.  But it was still nice being out sans kiddos.  We had Meredith (summer nanny) come and watch the kids.  She is one of only two people who could probably babysit in the evening...the other being Nicole, obviously.  We really do have to do that more often...its important and very recharging.

So nice weekend.  Nice date.  Nice party.  Hard to believe its been a year.  There were days I never thought we'd make it this far...or I'd end up killing someone along the way.  But it truly is getting easier.  And more fun.  I'm laughing a lot more and enjoying everything a lot more.  Looking forward to a lot more.

I hope I'm still keeping this blog a year from now.  Wouldn't that be something...

And Happy Birthday to my girls!

I was just re-reading my post talking about the day the girls were born.  It was a pretty rough day.  Looking at pictures of them, I find it so hard to believe how much they have changed.

I don't remember all that much of last December.  Stress, lack of sleep, pain....all washed away a lot of the memories.  Which is why I'm glad I started writing this.  I had forgotten some details of my pregnancy and labor and re-reading them brought back a lot of memories.  I wish I had posted more pictures, but we have them all at home on our computers, of course.

After work I am meeting Jason and the kids at the NICU for a visit.  I haven't been there since they discharged Tzelia (Meorah had been discharged 1.5 weeks prior) back in January.  I have mixed feelings.  I love showing off the girls and I'm very proud of how they are doing.  And I know the nurses will like to see them:  its what makes their job worthwhile....healthy and happy babies.  But I worry it will also bring back a lot of sad emotions and memories, and the stress and anxiety I felt at the time.  Just re-reading some of my thoughts brought back a little bit...its been a long year.  But I think the overriding emotion is really joy.  They've come so far, and we are just so lucky.  I read preemie message boards and I am well-aware of the problems we could be facing.  And there still may be some down the road.  But for now...things are great.  The girls are happy babies (even the drama-queen Tzelia).  Even Zev has grown a lot in the last year.

We're having a birthday party for them this weekend.  But for now...happy birthday little girls.  I'm so happy you're here and I can only hope things continue to be as wonderful as they are.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to me!  Its the 10th anniversary of my 23rd birthday.  Ha.

Already the day is going much better than my birthday last year.  Haven't thrown up yet, I can move my feet, and there is no bed pan in sight.  Much better than my ninth anniversary.  Zev summed it up very nicely this morning as we were walking down the stairs:  "Don't want to slip and fall because mommy doesn't want to go to the hospital today".

Is it sad that my goal for today is not to be hospitalized?

Joking aside, the day is going to be rather low key.  I'm working.  I have kids who need to be catered to when I get home.  So its not like I can party hard.  But, my husband and I will be going out for dinner on Friday night!!!!!

Yes, that needs lots of emphasis.  Yesterday he asked me when the was last time we went out on a date in the evening.  I don't remember.  But it had to have been at least 15 months ago, because I was put on bedrest 15 months ago and we haven't been on one since then.  And we probably hadn't gone out prior to that with my pregnancy complications anyway.  So, it is very sad to say that my husband and I haven't been on a 'real date' in a year and a half.

How sad.

How very very sad.

Why haven't we?  Well, the bedrest issue.  Then the girls were born and preemies.  Since then, its been an issue of finding someone who could actually watch and put to bed all three children by themselves.  Hell, I wouldn't even want to do it, and I'm their mother.  Its drama-filled and difficult enough with two parents.  Not a good task for a babysitter....until recently, now that both girls are now pretty easy to put down.  Once you drag Zev up the stairs, he'll stay put as well.  But there was a good two-three months of bedtime Hell.  Every night.  So no babysitting.  Still, the only two people I would actually trust to do it would be Meredith and Nicole.

This will be fixed on Friday.  He told me Meredith will be coming over to watch the kiddos and we can go out.  Yay!!  That alone is a nice birthday gift.  He also got me a GC for a spa treatment, which I plan to take advantage of sometime in the next few weeks.

My gift to myself today:  I'm not pumping during the day.  Did it in the morning, will do it in the evening, but that's it.  I didn't even bring the parts to work.  I will be cutting out one of those sessions in a few days and then I'll be out completely.

My birthday present to myself:  hanging up the breast pumping horns.  Thank freaking god.

Pictures and update!

First a few pictures:  Zev out in the leaves

My prisoners on a Sunday morning:

Food poisoning is over.  Thank goodness.  However, I am still having a lot of bloating/gas problems (yeah, TMI, but its my blog so whatever).  So I am finally getting these GI tests done.  I had started getting tested before I became pregnant, but had to stop due to the pregnancy.  I actually had a gastric emptying study scheduled the week I found out I was pregnant with the girls.  

So I'm going to be getting tested for lactose intolerance, intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and actually get that emptying study done.  There is something I am intolerant to, and I'm tired of being bloated, gassy, and in pain from either gas or reflux.  As I bitched  said to Jason this morning, I'm so bloated its like I never had the surgery for the diastasis....sigh.

Speaking of, I did start going back to the gym, and while the first two weeks were fine I think I ended up doing a bit too much because I've been in more pain the last few days.  I would have taken some yummy drugs, but they tend to have a .... constipating effect.... and...well, see the previous paragraph.  So I'm just going to have to take it a little more easy when I go.  Or be more careful in choosing my exercises.

Kids are good.  Tzelia is just getting over a bad virus.  She didn't have any real symptoms other than a very high fever.  Poor thing.  She was better today, so I think it ran its course.  Meorah is going to be walking soon.  I've caught her almost standing on her own.  So maybe in another month or so.

We're having some potty issues with Zev.  He's great at peeing when he sits on the potty.  But if you don't ask him to sit down, he'll just hold it in.  We know, because he won't pee all morning (he's in underwear when home) and then when he naps, his diaper will be SOAKED.  We do ask him regularly if he has to sit on the potty, and he usually argues with us that he doesn't.  BUT when he does sit down, he will pee.  So I'm not quite sure what to do with him.  He knows when he pees in his diaper because he will say it 'feels warm'.  He just won't sit on the potty unless you badger him.  I know boys are supposed to take longer, so I suppose I shouldn't be too impatient with him.  I don't want it to be a big issue.  

Girls are turning one on Tuesday.  I can't believe it...

And I'm turning 33 on Monday.  Can't believe that either....  Here's hoping this birthday is better than last year's birthday.  At least I won't be in labor again.  Ha.  I'd rather not be puking or paralyzed from drugs either.  Or have a bed pan anywhere near me.  Not a nice way to spend a birthday....