Catching Up

Last night for Valentine's Day Abe planned a date for us --weeks in advance! A real it-is-like-we-are-single-again-and-have-to-plan-to-impress kind of a date. With free babysitting (our Christmas present from Abe's sister) and even free overnight babysitting (from Abe's parents just because they are awesome).

We had a real night of romance with burgers from Teddy's Bigger Burgers followed by a Second City comedy show here in town. We had hoped for a nice dinner before but when you have two babies things don't always go as planned, so we settled on something quick --burgers. We had also hoped to leisurely enjoy our burgers but evidently it takes about 25 minutes to make burgers at a place that looks fast food-ey and so we had all of 5 minutes to eat before we had to run over to the show. (Ha!)

This picture makes me laugh! Couch potatoes.

After a way too fast uninterrupted night of sleep I awoke sadly to my alarm. I wanted to sleep more but knew I needed extra time to get ready for church, pick up babies, and maybe have time to pump. And then church was cancelled. Evidently it is snowing outside. So I slowed down the pace on my oatmeal slurping (everyday breakfast lately, evidently good for milk supply. Eh.) and decided to take full advantage while my in laws kept the babies and took them to their (un-cancelled) church. After almost an hour pump session I decided to take advantage of almost three more hours of delicious sleep. (Abe is at the hospital rounding and on call during all of this, by the way.) What could be better for a sleep deprived mommy of twins who wakes up too early to feed babies and drive to work and back every day and goes to bed altogether too late to have time to pump and have a free minute for herself after bedtime?

Except I guess mommy has too much on her mind because here I am unable to sleep. And so what's the next best thing? Blogging? I hope so because that is what I am going to try to do!

We have had a few big happenings around here. Abe (now known as Daddy) is back at work at the hospital. After 10 glorious and well timed weeks on research (meaning more flexibility and time at home!) he is back to the grind of long hours of surgery, call, rounding, etc. In the meantime, we found a nanny we really like who seems to be doing a great job. I really battled with myself on the way to go with childcare and in the end I decided I feel most comfortable knowing they are being well taken care of in our own home, with less opportunities to get sick, and more flexibility for me and help with things like baby laundry and bottles.

 

And I finally completed my boards. I hope. Assuming I passed. I left the babies while I flew to Dallas for the test earlier this month to become a board certified Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon. Obviously having two babies at home made studying a challenge and I was quite nervous and dreading the trip. I was nervous about leaving the babies for the first time and really missed them. Luckily, despite the stress of the test it ended up being a pretty nice trip.

Quiet time

On my way to the test!

When I found out I was pregnant with triplets I joined a secret group on Facebook for other triplet moms. Even though I lost our Baby C early on, I was encouraged to stay.  "Once a triplet mom, always a triplet mom." I have been able to gain support and learn a lot about being a mom of multiple babies from this group and have made a few friends as well. I was excited to meet up with one in person while I was in Dallas. It was really great to meet Sara Jo who works in the dental field and also has "twinplets" after losing one of her babies early on. Luckily, she wasn't a serial killer or even a creep! She very generously picked me up from the airport, took me to lunch with her adorable identical twins, and then to celebrate after the test by treating me to dinner. It felt like we were old friends and I am sad we are so far away because I think we really hit it off. 

Celebration with a chocolate piñata --it's a Texas thing

The chocolate piñata before picture.
You better believe two nursing twin moms could do some damage!
We didn't take an after picture.

I also took advantage of some me time during my trip. I de-stressed with a pedicure and a massage before (and after) the test. The morning of my flight home I met up with an old friend Mike from high school and his adorable family.

I don't have a picture with Mike and his family but I got one of the white Alligator at the aquarium

They were so sweet to brave the Dallas traffic to pick me up and share the morning with me despite the fact it was his wife's birthday. We went to the aquarium before they took me to the airport to go home. It was fun to catch up and wildly enough, he also just had twins a few months after mine. So it really turned in to a twin mom meet-up weekend!

 

Now that the test is done I have had high hopes for decluttering my house, making gourmet healthy meals, getting in shape, and being an amazing and focused mom. But amidst all of that studying I guess I forgot that I still have two babies and that makes it hard to do much of anything. Still.

 

As for the babies, they are doing great! They are adorable and interactive. They smile and laugh a lot. They seem to be in the early stages of teething so are a little grumpier lately, have been sleeping in their own beds for quite some time now, and sometimes sleep through the night. Mister weighs over 15 lbs and Sister is 14.5. That's a lot of baby for one mamma to carry!