almost 3 months

The landmark 3 months and I find myself looking forward to this milestone, not for the growth spurt, no way, but for the thought that they might just soon start sleeping through the night. Although this seems so unlikely to me at the moment as they are only just managing to extend the first part of the night sleep to 5 hours.

A bit of a routine is developing with them though and the changes happen so gradually that it is easy to forget how far they have come from those tiny little ones when they were first born and I was just worried that they would drink rather than sleep. No concern with that these days, particularly not with Safiya! Safiya even got her first taste of natural yoghurt yesterday, very tasty thankyou very much :)

They are just starting to recognise each other which is really sweet with Sol taking more interest in Safiya and Safiya looking everywhere but Sol and then eventually her eyes coming to rest on her. I took this cute piccy this morning on our bed, one of the rare oppurtunities where they were both happy to chill together and smile and coo for Mummy.

Nina's blog made me quite teary yesterday and not a day goes by that I don't appreciate having Mum here helping out. She will be sorely missed by us all when she leaves, but I don't want to talk about that right now, it just makes me sad :(

I have got into the routine of half a morning of work a week and may up this soon as we may have a baby sitter lined up who I am to meet this Thursday, one of the lovely ladies who comes to Medicap Pharmacy (first name Barbara ironically) found her for me. It will be nice to have someone else to help out when I'm working and give all of us some relief.

Spring is on the way with more outdoor opportunities, yey!

Survival of the fittest :)

Mummy and Nani play dress-ups

Coming up to 2 months now and team Ahmed/White seem to be hanging in there with Sol and Safiya growing gradually and starting to have little cooing conversations with us and beautiful smiles. There is no doubt that having twins can be pretty tough sometimes, you just get one sorted and then the other one starts but its the smiles and hysterical laughter that get you through. I honestly don't know how anyone could do it without an amazing support team or maybe do it sanely I should say :).
We are getting more comfortable getting out for outings now and the weather is warming gradually so our slings are getting lots of use, its the recipe for keeping them nice and peaceful. They certainly attract a lot of attention when we are out!
The next step is trying to organise regular babysitting which is going to require some serious research. This week I'm going to try the working scene again with one morning a week and see if its do-able. It will be good for me mentally and to keep up with whats happening in the land of pharmacy.

The men of the house ready for lunch at thai orchid

Shammy is on call this weekend so Mum and I are going to take the little munchkins on a trip to Amish country, it could be dangerous as there is going to be lots of yummy bakery food on offer :).

I just had to interrupt my blog to change Sol's nappy this morning. I was patting myself on the back as I'd managed to contain his pee with the nappy and keep his clothes dry and I thought he'd finished and then a few seconds later he let fly again, there goes all his clothes, his wrap and he gave himself a facial shower and mummy also who was bending over to put his nappy on. He has already pooped in it again so it will be off for another change now but for the moment he is sitting on my lap smiling and cooing at me. I guess I can handle a facial shower any day for that.

Safiya ready for walk in oversized suit and just chilling

Well the days keep on flying by and the feeling that I'm never quite catching up with everything but just managing to complete the must do tasks before they spiral out of control. Another week of adventure begins ........

Spending some Monkey time

Occasionally Sol and Safiya are waking from their sleep and drink cycles to take some peeks at the world around them and are really starting to focus on our faces. We have had lots of fun with Auntie Neens and Uncle Adam's monkey present and are loving the swing our friends gave us which is fantastic for keeping them settled which Nani has discovered.

I came back from my walk the other day to find Mum had packaged them up in a wrap together and they were quite happily chilling out together on the swing, even when feeding time approaches which beats crying babies any day!

They also had their first baths this week and it looks like we have two water babies, they both loved it and I think Papa enjoyed giving them one just as much, that was their birthday present for him :).

Shammy's was on call Friday, Saturday and Monday so it has been a busy and tiring weekend for all but our reward is that we are heading to Princeton for the rest of the week so Shammy can attend a conference and the rest of the entourage can get a change of scenery and maybe a bit of a look around. Hopefully we will get to have a look at Princeton University which is supposed to be quite impressive, even if its just to drive around it.

It will be an interesting to see how it all goes with our first trip away, I can't believe the amount of gear we need to carry, gone are the days of light packing. Watch out Princeton here we come :).

Snug in their winter wonderland

Its hard to believe its been almost 3 weeks already and Sol and Safiya are starting to stay awake a little longer, Safiya in particular is very interested in Nani Barbie's mobile design over the change table.

They are both incredibly in sync with their 4 hourly feed times which can make it interesting for feeding, its working out well with the twin pillow for me but Mum finds it interesting on her early morning feed balancing both babies and the bottles of milk :). We are getting into a nice routine and the days fly by and I am at least able to get out for some exercise and to grab a few things thanks to Mum and Shammy.

I'm holding Sol at the moment and thinking its time to change another poopy nappy, but it doesn't matter, I'm constantly wondering how we are lucky enough to score 2 beautiful little bubs!

Our 2 little rays of sunshine!

On Monday 10th of January at 4:56pm and 4:59pm Shammy and I fell instantly in love with our 2 little cutie pies. Sol Leslie Azziz Ahmed (5 pounds 7 ounces) arrived first followed shortly after by Safiya Tahera Louise Ahmed (4 pounds 12 ounces).

The induction went well and it seemed throughout the Day when Mum and Shammy decided to go for a coffee break all hell would break loose. Shammy went to grab coffee for Mum and when he left I was peacefully reading a book during the contractions but by the time he got back I was curled over in pain with the epidural team on their way, 5cm dilated and with the increased Pitocin intensity I had definitely had enough. Lucky Shammy was back to keep me nice and still for the epidural. After the epidural the rest of Labour was not bad at all.

Sol on the left and Safiya on the right getting in some touch time

In the afternoon Mum and Shammy again decided to go for a coffee break and I was thinking at the time I'm not sure that is a good idea as these coffee breaks are jinxed. Sure enough as soon as they left the doctor came in to exam me and realised that Sol was very ready to be delivered and he was warning me not to cough. Everyone was like where is your husband, as they called in the large delivery team and got me organised to go to theatre. It was to the stage where they were going to overhead page him in the hospital when he walked back through with coffee and was handed scrubs and told we would meet him in theatre :).

This week has been around the clock busy but incredibly rewarding, and with proud Daddy and Nanny to help out they are settling into a nice little 4 hourly routine and we have a bit of a shift work pattern happening for the nightly feeds.

We have had so many explosive poos, my computer coped the brunt of one which made for an interesting clean up and last night Shammy and I both got hit by Safiya's fountain poo which left us in hysterics. Sol also thought his pee would make a good hair conditioner for me and maybe a good facial toner as well.

So many rewarding moments and I treasure every day with them.

Surprise chrissy treat

The gang in our apt

Well I'm still waiting to meet James's friend Andrew who is supposed to be taller and more solid then James. As I pulled up to meet James I didn't really scrutinise "Andrew" that much just thought he was smaller than Mum had described him :). Then I realised "Andrew" was Nathan and there couldn't have been a better way to make my day. I was now spending christmas with Shammy and not one but 2 of my brothers, yey!!

Nathan and James managed to arrive into one of the more dubious bus stations in the area which consists of a hut and some very dodgey surrounding area. Not the best first impression. We did get a chance though to show them around the area including the infamous Allentown. Shammy had a week off from wednesday so after some sound advice from my doctor to check out where the local hospitals with good facilities were located we headed to Washington DC.

Such an impressive city, with interesting architecture, feel and layout, so Nathan and James loved the feel here and Shammy and I enjoyed chilling out and the facilities of the Sofitel hotel the boys had booked us into.

We managed to catch an NBA game and the boys hired bikes and took in all the monuments while Shammy and I went for a wander and bought the 5th latte for Nathan and James who had finally found a coffee they could enjoy in US.

Shammy outside Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington DC

It was a fun time spent with them and there is some good footage floating around of Nathan's split pants :).

We waved goodbye to them new years eve and then Shammy and I enjoyed some chill out time together over the next few days and some sleep-ins which we know are going to be non-existent very soon. The only drama being Shammy having to make an impromptu trip to New York to renew his passport after realising it was expiring on the 7th of January.

We have had light snow here overnight so the winter wonderland has returned for Mum's arrival.

Shammy and I are both eagerly awaiting the arrival of our twins, not long now as inducement will be discussed with 38 weeks arriving this Saturday.

And another journey begins with start of 2011 and a happy new year to everyone!!

The twins have both passed the 5lb mark :)

Discover Rx baby shower

The week started on a good note as the much awaited 5lb milestone was reached for the duo, with Twin B making a late come back on the growth scale. Twin A is now 5lb 7 oz and Twin B is 5lb 3 oz. The doctors couldn't be happier and they are both very active when its time to get their heart rates monitored, Twin B is not too fond of having the monitor placed on it and goes to all measure to try to bump it off :), while Twin A seems to be the calmer of the two.

I have finished working at Discover and am now doing the odd day at Medicap. This Saturday will be 36 weeks, which is apparently when most Twins arrive so not long now.

We are also excited to have James and Andrew arriving for christmas and Shammy will finally get a week off from Wednesday next week which he will thoroughly deserve with his current intense on-call schedule. Merry Christmas to everyone xo xo

Sammy, Shammy and the double bump