Best birthday ever

Its my birthday today...happy birthday me. I think I'll spend the day remembering my best birthday ever, which was this time last year, when I turned...eh...35. I was 12 weeks pregnant, feeling pretty horrible, had just spent Christmas sober and was not seeing any pluses to the whole baby thing. We had our first scan in the afternoon and after waiting for about 2 hours in a freezing old hallway the consultant brought us in, laid me on the bed, top up, gel on and started his scan.

"Uh huh, uh huh, thats my second set of twins today" was how we found out that there were two buns in my oven. Everyone says that it must have been a big shock when we found out, but there was no shock, just instant delight. I was breathless with amazement, Sean was patting my shoulder to calm me but he was the same. The two of us giggled our way out of the doctor's office and we spent the rest of the day laughing in disbelief. We couldn't believe our luck and we still can't. So far, its up there as one of the happiest moments of my life. Another was the next day, when I told Mam I had two announcements...that her first Irish grandchild would be born in July and (after a few minutes of jumping up and down) that her second Irish grandchild would also be born in July.

If I live to be 100, I'll never have a better birthday. This year Mam is babysitting, I'm heading off for massages and facials, etc. and a few hours peace away from the little wretches...heaven!

Solids

We've been introducing solids for about a week and a half (various pureed fruit and veg...ugh). In summary, Lucy loved it from the very first spoon, Ronan clamped his lips shut and hasn't opened them since. So I have two babies crying in my ear at the same time...I'm not feeding one fast enough and the other just wants to go and play. Grrr. And what a mess! Clever ideas on how to contain it (other than feeding them naked in the garden) would be very welcome.

Nail biting stuff

It was Sean's job to cut the twins' nails using a nail clipper, cause I was too scared to do it. But after nail-gate, which involved lots of Lucy's blood and tears, I've had to give in. After a failed attempt with a nail file I've had to bite the bullet (or rather the nail) and use my teeth. Despite recommendations from public health nurses, I've been resisting this since they were born because I think its gross...and doing it when there's dirt under their nails is even grosser.

So one of my jobs today is to cut the babies nails...with my teeth...all TWENTY of them. I think I'll just let the toenails grow indefinitely.

1st Halloween

Okay, so we didn't actually do anything for the twins' first halloween, other than dress them up in outfits that Tara sent...and it was two weeks after halloween before we actually did that! They're pretty cute though.

Multi-tasking twin mom

I've become an expert in multi-tasking (my right foot is nearly always rocking a bouncy chair, even when there isn't a baby in it) but here's the one I'm most proud of...

Feeding Ronan while expressing for the next feed, while rocking Lucy with my foot, while taking phone calls on my hands-free phone, while watching tv and throwing a few pelvic floor exercises in for good measure. If only I could put a soother in with my toes, then we'd be sorted...I've tried it with mixed results!

Sleeping through the night...

I hope I don't jinx myself by blogging about it, but I think we've reached the sleeping-through-the-night milestone. Last thursday the twins were 12 weeks old and by some strange mystery, that night they both slept through the 3am feed and woke at 5am. The next night they went to 6am and since then they are waking between 7 and 8. Hurrah! I now have to train myself out of the habit of standing over the cot from about 5am, with feeds ready and bottles holstered, expecting them to wake at any minute. For the most part I'm getting about 7 hours sleep, so don't quite know what to do with myself.

I'm reliably informed that children are the universal masters of dashed hopes when it comes to sleep, so I'm trying not to get too excited just yet.

1st anniversary

Sean and I had our first wedding anniversary yesterday. As a special anniversary present, Sean did both 11pm and middle of the night feeds and for the first time since they were born, both twins slept from 4am until 7am (thats my shift)...so I got 9 hours sleep. 9 HOURS SLEEP!!! I'm a new woman.

We spent yesterday saying "this day last year we wouldn't have believed where we would be this day next year." We're celebrating today - Mam and Clo are babysitting and we are going to the cinema and a meal, possibly getting the ferry to England so we can run away together and come back when the twins are walking. Its been a roller coaster year, what with wedding, honeymoon cruise, house flooded, unexpected twin pregnancy followed by actual real-live twins. I really, really hope that our 2nd year of marriage will be slightly less eventful...boring even.

So after a year, for me so far, the secret to a happy marriage is...

Sean.

Bon voyage Col...sorry about the pooh!

Thursday was one of those disaster days, never to be repeated! It started with me up at 5am and sleep deprived as usual. The babies got their vaccines - they screamed like I've never heard before, all the while looking at me with frantic betrayed eyes while I held them down so the mean doctor could torture them.

Then I abandoned my poor traumatised children to dash over to work, buying a card and gift on the way, to say goodbye to a retiree who was on her last day. Except it turned out I got my dates wrong, it wasn't her last day, so all I did was give the impression at work that babies have driven me completely insane.

I got back home to discover poor Col got poohed on by Lucy (even worse, the sofa got some too). I'd to go out that night for dinner to say goodbye to Col (first night out in yonks) and an hour before I left, my poor twins went mad (a belated reaction to the vaccinations). We broke out the Calpol for the first time, settled them somewhat, and then I drove off...betrayed and abandoned twice in one day. Worst mother ever! Lovely meal though.


Click here to see my little aliens at 9 weeks.

Sleep deprived

There are bound to be a few postings with this heading! I'm soooooo tired. This is what has been happening for about 3 weeks. Lucy and Ronan have their middle of the night feed at 3am and go back down at 4am. Lucy goes back to sleep til 7am but Ronan wakes at 5am, fussing and looking for his soother, and pretty much does that every 20 minutes until morning. Its torture...I drift off and a few minutes later I'm awake again, searching blindly for a missing soother.

Its his tummy, its never been quite right, it bothers him after most feeds. We've tried everything that other people swear by...constant winding, over the counter drugs, gripe water, some amazing remedy from a pharmacy in Clonmel, cranial osteopathy, baby massage...nothing works. Why can't we be those people that swear by some miracle cure?

On the plus side, they've been going to bed at 8 every night without any arguments, since last week and they have a good nap time schedule going on. Lucy is the model baby when it comes to eating, winding and sleeping, which just torments us. One model twin is no good to anyone!

Great intentions

I'd great intentions of making sure to put up photos of the twins each week, but there's been a bit of a gap. I got an infection in week 3 and that stopped me in my tracks. Feeling sick while minding twins is not fun at all, I really hope it never, ever happens again!

Here's a video of my little aliens at 3 weeks. More to come now we are almost at the milestone of 6 weeks.

Lucy and Ronan in their cot, 3 weeks old.

Our schedule

This is definitely worth writing down for posterity! Here's our current schedule, which centres more around mammy and daddy getting sleep then the demands of the poor twins!
8pm-1am: I go to bed while Sean does the 10pm feed on his own
1am: We both do the feed together, which takes half the time
2am-7am: Sean goes to bed while I do the 4am feed on my own (takes an hour if I'm lucky)
7am: We both do this feed, unless I feel generous and let Sean sleep in
10am: We both feed, top and tail, and dress the twins for the day
1pm-4pm: Usually I've a helper (Mam) to share these feeds
7pm: Sean and I do this feed together and put the twins down for the night

Coinciding with all of that, I've learned the skill of hands-free pumping, so express during each feed and a few times in between, while Sean does the sterilising, goes grocery shopping, loads the dishwasher, does the laundry and cooks dinner! The twins are in sync with the feeding schedule, but unfortunately not yet in sync with sleeping. So when one is sleeping his/her head off, the other is usually wide awake. Lucy is the night owl that comes to life at around 2am and Ronan is awake mostly in the day.

So the schedule is pretty good, none of us are too sleep deprived and killing each other yet. It'll all change when Sean goes back to work though, he'll need his sleep to bring home the bacon.

2 weeks old

Here the twins are at 2 weeks old, under their play gym. Lucy is the one with the hair, Ronan is as bald as an egg. They are a bit more alert this week, they look like they are having a chat here, but they are not really aware of each other yet.

Fallen in love

Sean and I have fallen head over heels in love with two little aliens that descended on our home 12 days ago. One (Ronan) has a little Mr Potato head and Lucy's is more peanut shaped! I'll try my best to track their progress with photos, so the family diaspora can see the changes, and for me for posterity, so here's some photos. The first is at 49 minutes old and the second is a week old.

And now, the end is near...

It'll be any day now (thank God - the last week has been tough) so here's a last photo of me pregnant at 37 weeks. Everyone tells me all the bad stuff will be forgotten when the babies are here, so if thats the case, here is a catalogue that I can re-read if Sean and I ever get any crazy notions about number 3...

Things I won't miss about being pregnant: heartburn, back ache, pain in my fingers and the soles of my feet, agonizing you-know-whats in the you-know-where (I know what I mean and if I ever forget, I deserve to be shot), putting my socks on, dropping things constantly and then having to bend down to pick them up, dropping food on my bump - I never knew I was such messy eater, turning over in bed. But the top prize goes to...going to the bathroom at least 8 times every night and who knows how many times during the day. My life for the last 9 months has been going from one bathroom to the next.

In the interests of fairness, things I will miss about being pregnant: the babies kicking, Sean waiting on me hand and foot, everyone telling me I'm glowing (its nice, but I think its more down to my Mac makeup than any maternal inner glow).

This is my last post as a pregnant woman, from now on it will be twins, twins, twins - so exciting. I'll try not to bore everyone with how wonderful they are (even though they are).

Sizes

I'd a scan last friday at 35 weeks and the estimates are that baby girl is 6lbs 9 ounces and baby boy is 5lbs 8 ounces. If they keep growing at a rate of half pound a week they'll be 8 pounders by the time they arrive. After I picked myself up off the floor, raced home and googled it, I discovered these scans can be way off, so they might be smaller. Although according to Mam I was 9lbs 14 ounces, so I suppose there's an element of poetic justice there.

According to the consultant they also have above average heads. He says it'll be very useful 18 years from now when they are doing the leaving cert, but not so useful in the coming weeks when they decide to make their big-headed entrance (ugh!).

In other size-related news, for the sake of history and posterity...at 36 weeks I am 12 stone (agh!) and my circumference is 44 inches. I feel huge, Sean agrees but there are still a few myopic people out there telling my I'm a tidy size, which is very kind.

Where's Ciara?

I'm morphing into an unrecognisable being, like caterpillar to butterfly except backwards. Aside from my waist, the first to go was my long hair, cause the time for straighteners will be gone soon and I might as well get used to it. Next off the list were the high heels and sexy underwear...I'll admit to feeling sadder about the former than the latter. After a relatively brief period of use, my wedding rings got the bullet a few weeks ago because my hands started to swell.

Last weekend I discovered none of my shoes fit me so I'm now wearing old woman sandals that close with velcro to accommodate my 2 sizes bigger feet. But the WORST and biggest sacrifice I've had to make so far was to get my beloved nails cut last week :<( I'm a shadow of my former self!

Last night in an act of defiance and great discomfort I almost gave myself contractions by painting my toe nails, because by God, I can't give everything up...and when I'm in labour (and possibly in stirrups) at least I'll know, if nothing else, my toes are still pretty!

Free a nipper...

We got our stroller, an important milestone so I hear. Its the Out n About Nipper for twins. Here's a picture and for future reference for me, when I'm trying to figure out how to open it and I've two babies crying and I'm crying, below is a demo for my future self.

We also have two car seats, two travel cots til we figure out the best sleeping arrangements, two bouncy chairs, a swing and a play gym. And I've nighties and baby grows from Tar and Sean's sister, so we're all set. All we need now are two babies. Am 32 weeks today and he said he'd bring me in at 38, so only 6 more weeks!!!

Two peas in a pod

Okay, if I'm putting up photos of birds, I'd better give in to requests from the Czechs and put up photos of myself and my bump. So here I am at 28 weeks (I'm 29 now but it took me a while to get around to uploading it onto a PC). The pretty cool t-shirt came from the Americans and the photographer was Dearbhla.

Kilteragh twins

Here are the first set of twins to appear in our house this year. A bird recently built a nest in a tree in our garden and is now happily coming and going to fetch worms. She must have known she's in a twin-friendly zone.

Antenatal classes

Sean and I had our first antenatal class this week, on the topic of labour. Needless to say, we're a bit traumatized by the whole thing. It involved a midwife and a physio going into all the gory details about things we'd have preferred to remain blissfully ignorant about. It was also eerily reminiscent of the premarital course.

The crowning moment had to be when the physio decided we were all going to practice our pelvic floor exercises, men included. I maybe should have mentioned the whole pelvic floor thing to Sean before. He looked clueless but happy to go along with it, ready to take his shoes off or stand up or stretch or whatever. Imagine the confusion and bewilderment on his face when the next words out of the physio's mouth were "everyone close their back passage, then the front, suck both it and count to ten".

After doing ten sets of ten Sean was frozen in horror, staring fixedly on the floor so he didn't have to make eye contact with anyone while I was desperately trying not to pee from laughing. Just as well I was doing pelvic floor exercises at the time!

Pain in the arse...

The lower back pain (aka pain in my arse) that I had a few weeks ago is back. I'm walking along (or waddling along, to be more precise) without a care in the world when all of a sudden I'm writhing in pain, gasping for breath and involuntarily clutching my arse with both hands! Its really embarrassing. I'm big enough now for people to think I'm all of a sudden going into labour. Its something to do with one of the babies lying on the sciatic nerve. I hope they get off it soon, if only for the sake of my dignity.

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!

I'm on weekend duty in the library this weekend and was at the desk help a visiting student from Nottingham a few minutes ago. When he was leaving he wished me luck with the twins. I asked him how he knew I was having twins and he said he just sees things. Then he said I'd have my hands full, they'd be beautiful but full of life (ugh!). And THEN...he says..."and you'll have another one 11 months after".

I told him he's barred, get out, no longer welcome in the library!

All excited...parcel from America

In the best US/Irish tradition, Mam came back from Boston with a suitcase full of hand-me-down maternity clothes. I've gotten to the stage where I'm a bit sick of wearing the same stuff, so I was all excited about what I'd find. It was like opening a birthday present, I'd dreams of pretty dresses and girlie tops, lots of colour to get me away from black. Based on the last box that came from Boston I knew there would be a few misguided clown pants in there but a few gold nuggets as well.

Imagine my horror when I opened the suitcase and out burst about 100 breastfeeding pads, a couple of huge maternity bras, and knickers that would be too big for Sean, never mind me. I'm not ungrateful, in fact I'm very grateful that I don't have to go shopping for these things, but is this where I'm headed? Am I really going to get that big? And what the hell are super maxi disposable pants extra large??? They're in a sealed bag that I'm too afraid to open!

Teasing aside, there's a few gold nuggets in the mix...thanks Tar.

I'll take one of each, thanks

Its looking like one of each - a boy and a girl. We'd another scan last week and the signs are pointing to one with an appendage and one with no appendage. The consultant is still hedging his bets so it isn't a 100%. He said we can paint two walls of the nursery blue for sure and leave the other two white for the moment.

This is great news. I'd have needed therapy to mentally prepare myself for two boys. And because we'll have both, there is absolutely no way that we'll get any crazy notions about going again...and ending up with two sets of twins of the same sex.

Of course, should a second appendage come to light at the next scan, I'll still be happy. All we want is healthy babies, yada, yada, fingers crossed.

New car

I bought a new car. The realities of two car seats, changing bags and a double stroller were starting to dawn on me and my poor little Yaris just wouldn't cut it anymore. So I'm now the proud owner of a 3 year old Ford Focus Estate. Its blue and lovely, apart from having 666 in the licence plate. Hope thats not a bad Damien-type omen.

I can't believe I'm now an estate person, or in Ireland-speak even worse, a station wagon person. I keep thinking of Dad's bangers. Its definitely more of a daddy-mobile than a mommy-mobile which I like. But I've the song "Shake your booty" in my head since I bought it, cause it is one big-ass car, I feel like I'm shaking my booty at all the cars behind me. The boot really is enormous, big enough for two double strollers (heaven forbid) plus a whole lot more...even room enough for a misbehaving twin or two!

Shake, shake, shake...

Five good things about having twins

1. I've a readymade family all in one go.
2. I'll save loads on buy-one-get-one-free offers.
3. Twins are never lonely or bullied in school.
4. No one can ever judge me on my possibly questionable parenting choices.
5. I'll only have to organise one birthday every year.

Adapted from "Double trouble: twins and how to survive them" by Emma Mahony, which is hilarious and got me through the "Oh Sweet Jesus, I'm having twins" stage...definitely worth a read.

Scan...

We'd our second scan today. Everything is going fine, the babies are the same size as single babies at this stage and look big and healthy. They are lying crossways and did lots of moving around and waving. The doctor said if left to their own devices they might grow to be big 8 pounders but hastily added that he wouldn't let it come to that, when I looked alarmed.

Its too early to see the sexes but he thinks one might be a boy. We'll have to wait til 26 weeks to find out for sure. There was a lot of focusing and zoning in and squinting...which hopefully won't be a recurring theme in possible son's life. The doctor said he wouldn't take a picture of the is it/isn't it body part, in case we whipped it out at his 21st birthday!

17 weeks today

I'm 17 weeks today, looking the size of about 21 weeks. Its probably just as well I didn't blog in the first 14 weeks of horror because it would have been one long, boring moan fest. Now that the all day nausea (kept at bay by the wonder of acupressure travel bands) and sleeplessness due to bathroom trips every hour are behind me, I'm me again. Apparently that was the dreary trimester, I'm now in the cheery trimester with the weary trimester ages away.

The blog is back

The Froggy song (see last post) was obviously prophetic although we should have bought 2 travel cots instead of 1!

Now that everyone knows I've two buns in the oven I can start blogging again...hoorah! The blog formerly known as "Keeraweera is getting married" has been revamped to "Keeraweera is having twins". It can keep my far flung family up to date with baby-related news and can also double up as my pregnancy diary, minus any gross stuff.

And if a complete stranger happens upon it desperately searching for twin support or advice, thats okay too. Although, as it will become obvious pretty quickly, I haven't a clue what I'm doing, pregnancy with twins and ensuing motherhood is an undiscovered country for me...soooo exciting though.