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Tonight was supposed to be J's last night before she went back to working days, but nooooooooooope.  She got to work and found out she's in for another two nights.  I know it doesn't seem like much, but I almost burst into tears when she told me.  At least she's on vacation next week.  That's something to look forward to.  We were planning on bringing the babies to the day care lady tomorrow so we could get some packing and cleaning done, but I guess that "we" is now "I".  I thought about canceling, but I may as well take advantage of being baby-free for a few hours and get some shit done.

That's really all I have, but let's end this whiny post on a high note.  Here are some cute pictures:

And baby said...

I couldn't think of a title and I have "Dance Magic" in my head.

We found a house!!!  It's not quite where we wanted to be, but it's close and the price is awesome.  Big bedrooms, huge yard, nice deck... We get the keys on Friday!  We're going to wait until next weekend to move, though, since J will be on vacation for a week after that.  I'm thinking about buying some paint and painting our bedroom a fun color since we're not moving in right away.  We're going to have our day care lady watch them for a couple afternoons while we're in the process of moving to a) let us move without worrying about the babies and b) give the babies the opportunity to get used to her and being at her house.  We brought the babies over to meet her the other day and she did really well with them.  Even got H to stop crying for a little while!

I think the new place might actually help the little monsters sleep better.  Right now, there is a street light right outside their bedroom window, so it's hard to keep it dark.  Their new room won't have that problem and it's in the back of the house away from all the "traffic" (people, dogs, other sounds).  I'm also excited because their room is huuuuuge and will allow us to give them a sleep area and a play area.  It'll be nice to have a place where they can play with toys without us having to worry about the dogs eating everything.

I had my two month follow up with my MFM today.  The timing was good, because I started bleeding [extremely] heavily the day before last and I wasn't sure if it's my period or if something's wrong.  She said it's a combination of my period and my uterus clamping down on the placenta sites.  She gave me something to take for 24 hours to get all the extra blood out and then my periods should get back to normal.  I guess it will make me super crampy, but they gave me painkillers to help that. 

G has been extra fussy lately.  He will just cry and cry and cry... and oh my god, he is LOUD.  We decided to switch him to soy formula, too.  Hopefully that will help the little guy.  And maybe someday, H will stop screaming all the time?  Please?

I have some really cute pictures I took yesterday of the two of them in the sling, but I can't reach my camera to upload them!  I've got H sleeping in the sling and G sleeping on my lap.  I HAVE TO PEE!!  Gonna try putting them in their pack and play... Wish me luck.  I'll post the pics later!

Tootle McFartypants

The amount of noise coming from my little son's butt right now is downright impressive.  Just saying.

Smiles and houses and dogs (Oh my!)

Got some pictures of little G-Man smiling today!  Pretty shocking, actually, since they were both suuuuuuuuuuuper fussy all day long.

We decided against the house with the weirdo landlord for a few reasons:

1) The street doesn't have a sidewalk and with babies and dogs, that's kind of a deal breaker.  It's a pretty busy street.

2) If something were to go wrong with the house, chances are she'd have no idea how to handle it and we'd end up getting screwed.

3) We're going to be moving with our BFF (to help him save some money for an upcoming custody battle against his batshitcrazy ex) and his work truck won't fit in the driveway.

We're going to look at some other potential houses over the next few days and I'm sure something will work out eventually.  One of them is in the right area, but it's smaller than we'd like.  The other is the right size (and cheaper), but is not where we want to be.  Maybe the perfect house will magically appear on CL tomorrow?  I just wish it wasn't (weren't?) so hard to find a place that doesn't have a problem with the dogs.  We have dobermans and everyone seems to think they are evil and mean.  They are so far from that it's not even funny.  They throw themselves into your lap on the couch and just cuddle.  Sigh.

Here's J and the BFF with the "vicious" beasts:

(Yes, that brown thing under her head is a dog)

Don't you totally fear for your life right now?

Sleeping/House Hunting

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally got H to bed... Every time I put her down, she would start crying within two minutes and she was starting to wake up her brother.  I brought her into my bedroom for a little while and she eventually relaxed and stopped squeaking/wiggling.  Fingers crossed that they will sleep for at least a couple hours now!  I think it's time to separate the two of them at night, but we just don't have the space.  We're working on that, but for now, I'm not sure what to do.  The other night, one of our friends wanted to babysit H for the night (fine by me!), so they got a chance to sleep without each other.  G did a five hour stretch without his sister here and my friend said H did a four hour stretch.  Wow!  However, last night was back to the usual every 2-3 hours "routine".  And then H decided to only eat half of every bottle, so she was waking up every hour to eat more.

As I mentioned, we need to find a bigger place.  Right now, we're in a two bedroom townhouse.  That was fine when it was just the two of us, but holy shit, babies take up so much space.  Plus, we're sick of being so far away from everything.  We're trying to find something in SW Pdx, so we're closer to the city and our friends (and not too far from work), but it's proving to be quite the challenge!  Seems like every ad I respond to on CL is either a scam or the place is already taken.  I can't tell you how many emails I've received that go something like... "We will be pleased to rent our wonderful home to you.  I have relocated to Nigeria to spread the good word of my Lord Jesus Christ (no joke!) and I am looking for clean and honest tenants to keep our home beautiful."  Then something about emailing the application and them mailing the keys.  Yeah, I'll get right on that.  I've found pretty much every place I've lived over the last 10 years on CL and I have never encountered this problem before.  I hate people.

We actually found one place that seems pretty great, but the lady has clearly never rented out a house before and has no idea what she's doing.  She responded to MY housing wanted ad, so I thought we were on the same page about timing (within the next 1-2 months), and then she suddenly asked if September would work so she can move at the same time her son leaves for college a couple hours away.  THEN she asked if it's okay if we "overlapped" a couple of weeks while she found another place.  As in, all live there together.  Um, are you kidding me?  It seems like she's finally started to figure out how this rental thing works, though, so we'll see what happens.  Not holding my breath or anything, but it's in a great area and is the perfect size/price.

In other news...

H was smiling up a storm today and I finally got a couple pictures.  However, G was in the middle of a crying fit, so all I got of him were crying shots.  Silly boy.  He has been nearly as fussy as H lately; not sure what's going on.  I remember a couple people telling me that the second month is the hardest, so I'm hoping this will pass!

Smiley:

And Mr. Grumpypants:

Trying to survive

We took H back to the pediatrician on Friday, because the screaming has gotten out of control.  She had been on Za.ntac for a month and it wasn't doing anything.  Every time I called, I ended up talking to this super condescending nurse who just said to increase the dosage.  I'm sorry, but after doing that three times, clearly the medicine wasn't helping.  The doctor agreed that it wasn't working, so H is now on Pri.losec and we switched her formula to soy.  She said it might take a week or two for the meds to take effect, so now we're just waiting.  Hopefully it helps... I don't know how I'm going to survive the next three weeks of J's overnight schedule otherwise.  So tired.

On a happier note, both babies have started smiling!  It's so adorable.  I haven't managed to get a picture yet, but I'm trying!

My little goat

Apparently I have given birth to a farm animal?  I finally managed to record G's little goat noises!  I think it's hilarious... except when I'm trying to sleep.

 

We're on day 2 of increased reflux meds for H and I haven't noticed a difference.  She still has her screaming fits and seems miserable half the time she's eating, but I'll give it a couple more days before I call the pediatrician again to see if there's another option.  A lot of people have been saying that Pr.evacid is much more effective than Z.antac, but the pediatrician wanted to try increasing the dosage before trying something else.  Makes sense, I suppose.  I just want her to feel better.

So glad it's almost the weekend.  I like having J home to help me... and I miss her.  It will be so nice when she has back to her regular schedule. Sigh.

It's already been a month??

The babies are a month old!  Crazy!  Little G Man is doing really well.  He is so calm for the most part and only cries when something is actually wrong.  We had a photoshoot the weekend before last and he was happy as a clam when he was all naked and curled up on the pillow with a heater blowing on him.  It was adorable!  H on the other hand was a little terror, but they eventually got her to sleep and took some cute pictures of the babies together.  I can't wait to see the proofs!!!  Side note: Is "proogs" a word?!  I accidentally typed that instead of "proofs" and spell check didn't underline it.  Weird.

We started H on Za.ntac for reflux, but I'm not sure if it's doing much yet.  It's only been a week, so I'm going to give it a few more days and then see if maybe she needs a bigger dose or something.  I've been doing everything I can think of to help her - feeding her in her bouncy seat and then keeping her there for a little while afterward so she's more upright, inclining the crib mattress, giving her "sensitive" formula, gas drops, etc. - but nothing seems to work when she's in the middle of a 2+ hour screaming jag.  I make sure she has a clean diaper, swaddle her, give her a pacifier... nothing works.  Maybe it will just take time for her to grow out of whatever is going on.  I hate feeling so helpless, though!  Poor girl.

I am really starting to remember why I like living on the opposite coast from my family.  It's not that I don't like seeing them (well, most of them), I just hate feeling like I have to "entertain" people for weeks at a time.  I like having my space.  And it would be nice to be able to take a quick nap during the day if the babies decide to give me that opportunity.  Ah well... They leave tomorrow and then I think we're free of visitors for at least a month.  YAY!

This is completely random, but it made me a laugh, so I must share:  My BFF is engaged in a constant war with the blackberry bushes in his back yard.  I guess he went to a home improvement store today to get a new weapon for battle and the sales girl recommended a machete.  He then asked "Is that something you carry here or do I need to go to the serial killer store?"  Okay, maybe I'm just suffering from exhaustion, but that was funny.

Anyway, here's a picture of the little demons in their semi-matching onesies that J is in love with: