It helps to show up on time

Today was the first day of Bubby's new swim session. Since he's now 3 we don't have to go in the pool with him which I was looking forward to. I got the girls fed and we were on our way to class and on time even - which is a miracle these days. Then when we got there I found out that we had showed up at the wrong time - one hour late! So I asked him if he just wanted to swim in the outdoor family pool with me and he said okay (the swim class is affiliated with the club we belong to). We didn't last that long since it was a bit chilly, even though it was heated well above 80 degrees we weren't moving enough to stay warm. I had just wanted him to get used to the water again since he hadn't been in a pool in months. And unfortunately he didn't want to go in the hot tub which would have been really nice. We did a quick change in the outdoor locker room and then got some hot chocolate before heading home.

Bubby has become really logical in his thinking and conversation so these were some of the many questions I got from him:

"Why did we swim in the outdoor pool?"
"Did they tell us we had to go home?"
"Why did we swim so short?"
"Why is steam coming out of the pool?"
"Which door did we go in?" (referring to the locker room)
"Why is there no hair dryer"? (like there is in his usual locker room)
"Do the girls go there and boys go there?" (I haven't even attempted to explain why he still goes to the girls' room with me)
"Is hot chocolate food?"

He did also watch me earlier in the day do the entire kenpo workout for P90x that honestly I didn't really enjoy. I've done one week of the workouts and really liked everything except for the yoga and kenpo. For future weeks I can probably tough it out for 45 min of the yoga (not 90) and will just go running instead of doing the kenpo.

The girls also had fun modeling their Tour de France onesies that E. got them....cutest outfits ever!

Sleeping, eating, running

I haven't posted in a while but we are all doing great. The girls are eating and sleeping well. They've grown a lot - around 10 lbs now! Thankfully the tandem nursing has been going well so that gives me some options depending upon how their schedules are each day and what time they wake up. They are more awake in between meals so it's more fun although more work also. Here Princess is taking one of her frequent afternoon naps on her tummy. She's the one that likes to sleep and eat more.

Shortly after my last post I tried out the moby wrap (and so did K) and we LOVE it. There have been times that we each have a girl in the wrap. I've taken short walks around the neighborhood with it although longer walks are still in the double stroller. Yesterday I finally got my infant seat adapter into the Bob and tried it out with Bertie. You can see she was a little skeptical although I had a great time pushing my Bob compared with the double stroller. I've started jogging a bit, just 15 minutes or so the last two days.

We've settled into somewhat of a routine although we're still mostly at home and I've been working on getting out more with them. Last week D. and I ventured to Target with them for a little shopping but I have yet to take them out on my own. We still have a lot of fun visitors coming by so that we never get bored even being at home.

And my workout buddy Kdog who over the years has done all my big races with me (Alcatraz swim, Nike marathon) has insisted that we start P90x. I have ~90 days left of my maternity leave so this seems like a good window of time if I'm ever going to try it. She made me take the "before" pictures the other day, which was 7 weeks postpartem for me...yikes. Regardless it'll be a good chance to see her more and have some additional motivation. I think Sunday or Monday will be day 1!

And now that the girls are sleeping longer at night, they're usually sleeping when Bubby wakes up in the morning so we have a nice window of time together before he heads to school. Right now we're eating a leisurely breakfast together!

The Gentle Leader

Today we tried out the Gentle Leader collar on Nikko - recommended by D our daytime baby helper. It worked really well and reduced the amount of pulling she did. We went out on a ~1 mile jog with it and she only pulled a little bit when she saw squirrels, which is understandable since her outings have been greatly reduced since the arrival of the girls.

I'm now in that mode that I remember back after Bubby's birth when I really do want to get out and exercise, but often the opportunity doesn't present itself or I'm just too tired. It's tough choosing between exercise and sleep! Last Friday I was going to go swimming at the outdoor pool at our gym, but the weather was just terrible. I've done a little yoga and mostly walking. Hopefully I'll get around to the swim sometime in the next week or so.

The girls are one month old and both over 8 lbs now! They seem to be going through a growth spurt so I'm nursing even more than I was before, which was already a lot. But I've read that breastfeeding twins burns 1000 calories a day, which seems to be the case since I'm hungry ALL the time.

One of the girls has been nicknamed Princess since birth and that still seems to suit her. The other one was Birdie at birth since she was smaller and looked like a little bird, but now that she's caught up in weight and doesn't look anything like she did before, K suggested we call her Bertie (as in King George VI) since we really liked the movie and it was the only one we've seen together for a long time. Anyway, they seem more aware of each other now and Princess gives Bertie some really funny looks sometimes, like she wants her to keep to her own side!

Hooray for MILs

My MIL has been in town for a week now. She came around this same time when Bubby was born so we have somewhat of a tradition of her taking the babies on their first walk outside and giving them their first bath at home. Their first walk was to the nearby playground with their brother. They slept so well in the stroller that we've been walking a lot with them. Yesterday we walked with the stroller for 45 min and the day before for an hour. I'm just using a double snap-n-go and while it's definitely not as easy to maneuver as the single (especially over any kind of small curb) we were still able to go at a pretty brisk pace and get some exercise.

Earlier in the week I tried jogging for a short stretch - on my own, no stroller. I did < 1 mile and it felt okay, not great. So far I'm not planning on getting a double jogging stroller since it would slow me down so much I really wouldn't be jogging anymore. My plan is just to rotate the kids each time I run and just walk when I want to take both the girls out. If I want a double stroller that's easier to push I'll look for that when they're a little bigger. I'm also excited for them to get to 8 lb so I can try the Moby. They're getting very close - in the mid 7's now.

Mostly life has still centered around feeding them, which will be the case for many more weeks to come. But with my MIL here I've been out several times this week on my own to run some errands and even to get a pedicure with H. and a haircut yesterday!

And I've had time to read a few books. I really liked Let's Take the Long Way Home - a very well written memoir about friendship, water sports, and dog parenting. During all my hours of feeding I also listen to my pastor's podcasts which are great and < 20 minutes each.

My new workout accountability partner

My 3-year old has been very interested in pregnant bellies this whole year. There have been questions about belly buttons,especially if/when they may start "sticking out," and how the babies come out. He definitely knew that the babies were out of my tummy when he saw them but has been asking me almost every day since then - "why does your stomach still stick out??" And even worse than that - "Is there another baby that's going to come out?" Hello, it's only been less than two weeks!

So today when we had some time together while the other three family members were napping, we did some exercises. We each got to pick some for the other person to do. You can see him checking out the foam roller and trying a tree pose - well a falling down tree pose since he didn't hold it more than a second or two. I also did some very short planks and very bad push-ups. Unfortunately I haven't gotten out to walk again in the last few days but am going to try for tomorrow.

Sorry G. - you've been temporarily displaced!

The girls are still doing well and are just about back at their birth weight. We have had SO much help this week from friends stopping by with food and offering to take Bubby out on playdates. It's given me enough time and enough of a mental break to think about things like moving Bubby to the next class in his bilingual preschool, which we may start to try next week. Btw, every new mom seems to remember their first excursion out of the house not counting the doctor's office. My first two were to Trader Joes and the preschool to figure out the class transition thing. Anyway, more on the class change and bilingual / language immersion topic later.

New arrivals and new blog name!

Well the waiting didn't last long since the girls arrived last week! I was very thankful to make it to 37 weeks with twins and had an easy labor and delivery. It was < 5 hours, I was already fully dilated upon arriving at the hospital, and they both stayed head down so I didn't need a c-section.

It has been a blur of days since then, but we've also settled into somewhat of a routine. The other day my friend was commenting that after her baby was born all that existed in her world was the three of them. That's pretty much what it was like for us after Bubby was born. We did have multiple visits from both our parents (before my parents moved out here) but K took a 6-week paternity leave and it was mostly the three of us and Copper for that period. Now our world is the five of us, plus our dogs Nikko and Selena, my parents who come by daily, our fabulous night nanny/doula 4x a week, and our college-aged family friend who is a doula-in-training and comes 3 afternoons a week. It has allowed K to start working again this week and me to still do other things besides feeding the babies like spend time with Bubby, play with the dogs, and take walks. I've taken two 40-minute walks the last two days in the amazing sunshine we're having right now!

This is also largely because we've been blessed with two babies whose schedules are in sync right now. I tried out the tandem nursing a few times and while it worked okay, I didn't really enjoy it as much since I like spending some time with each of the girls separately. They seem to be pretty efficient at nursing so the total time I'm spending is not that much more than I did with Bubby. And then they sleep 90% of the remaining time (well one seems closer to sleeping 99% of the remaining time). I'm also feeling okay this time around about doing some combination of nursing and formula, especially since they are on the small side. One is just getting back to 5 lb again after her initial weight drop.

My new blog name was inspired by a favorite writer of mine - Henri Nouwen - and obviously a refocusing of things with our big life changes. When I started this blog years ago I was thinking that the focus would mostly be on fitness and triathlon training with other random life events included. It turned out to be a bit of everything and I never really got fully back into the triathlon scene. There's no one community now that I feel primarily associated with (e.g. triathletes versus twin parents) so it's still going to be a bit of everything. I do really care about fitness and am excited to get back into the swing of things.

And I'm happy to say on the topic of fitness that for years I've hoped for K (my hubby) to get into a good exercise routine besides the 2-3 years that he did a lot of road biking with me. So a month before the girls came we joined our local gym. They also happen to have an evening masters swim group that will hopefully work out for me. But K seems to have found his own exercise routine of going 2-3x a week and doing some spinning or treadmill and weights. I was hoping he had established it enough to keep going after the chaos descended. Yesterday we were having a relatively peaceful afternoon together and he asked when I thought he should target going to the gym. We had just finished a feeding so I looked at the clock and said - well if you go RIGHT NOW we can probably survive on our own until you get back. And we did! It was a nice milestone for both of us. I think everyone (including me) has been afraid to leave me on my own with the girls in case things were to go crazy and cause me to want to abandon the whole twin parenting thing. But so far so good....

The waiting period

I've actually had more time with this pregnancy than the last one after I took off work. I thought the girls would arrive around the holidays and that I wouldn't even go in for my last week of work. Now it's the start of the second week of my leave that I never expected to have. By mid-last week my co-workers were asking me to please stop checking my email! I was telling K that without working or being able to workout and my son being in preschool, I feel like I've become a lady of leisure. I've been reading a lot, meeting up with friends, and starting to paint the mural that I wasn't planning to start until the end of my leave. Here's a preview - it's about halfway done.



I discovered that I had the book Jane Austen Book Club on my shelf and finally read it. For being a big Austen fan, I can't believe I waited this long. It was a really fun read.



I've also done some productive things like finding a tax accountant and trying a new vet to get a second opinion on some of my lab Nikko's chronic issues with her leg and GI stuff.