Two Weeks Old!

Happy 2 week birthday, Sam and Anna!

Yesterday we trekked to the pediatric cardiologist's appointment with both babies. It took an hour long drive to get there. It is not fun to drive that far with two 2-week-old babies, hang out at the doctor's for a few hours, then return home after another hour long drive. That was pretty much our day, and I was exhausted by the time we got home. I think the change in our routine threw off the babies routine too, because last night was not a good sleep night around here. Some days/nights are better than others- so I'm hoping for a good one tonight!

The good news from the pediatric cardio doc was that Anna's VSD heart murmur sounds very high pitched, which is a great thing. She showed us on a diagram where the hole is located. According to her opinion, she thinks it will be very unlikely that Anna will ever need medication or surgery (but is isn't completely ruled out). She thinks it is likely to close on its own, or may just always be there throughout her life. We go back for a monitoring appointment six weeks from now. If things look good at that appointment, we won't have to go back until Anna is 6 months old, and then if things still look great- we don't go back until Anna is 3. That would be the best case scenario. For the next six weeks though, we just need to keep a close eye to make sure her lips aren't turning blue, watch how she is eating- to make sure she isn't laboring while sucking- and make sure she is gaining weight. Anna got weighed yesterday and was 5 lbs 9 oz- up 9 oz from last week, so that's a great sign. We've been noticing she's eating with more vigor lately, too. While we were watching Man vs. Food, Anna decided to have her own food challenge, and downed 4 oz (!) of formula in one sitting. Sam and Anna have been consistently drinking 2-3 oz each time lately, so this is the first 4 oz feeding we've had.

Or it could be that I have a very competitive little girl on my hands (taking after her momma?) and wants to close in on her big brother Sam. At Sam's two-week weight check today, he weighed 6 lbs 4 oz, up 13 oz since last week. According to some info I have, they should gain 1/2 oz to 1 oz a day on average right now. Way to go Sam! That weight gain makes sense because you can tell that both babies' faces are filling in a little bit. I wonder how long it will be before newborn-sized clothes won't look so huge on them and how much longer they will wear newborn-sized diapers.

We also took the babies on their first store trip today. A benefit to formula feeding that I didn't even think of until the decision was made: I get to drink alcohol again. During the 3 + years of TTC, I very sparingly drank, "just in case." Then I completely stopped a few months before the IVF because I wanted to be in the best physical condition for it. And of course, I haven't had a thing to drink in over 9 months. So since we live within walking distance to a grocery store, we went for a walk to pick up some tequila for margaritas to go with our Mexican dinner. Is it wrong that their first trip to a store was to buy alcohol? Eh- I think not. I also got my first real experience with curious strangers- we were in and out of the store in a matter of minutes, and yet there were several people that made comments and wanted to look. I know this is only the beginning of the rest of our lives of being a twin-sideshow attraction. It was kind of fun today, though. I do have to say that it was the best tasting margarita I've had in a long, long time.

More baby pictures:

This is a good example of one of Sam's sleeping faces with raised eyebrows

Anna is such a observer, she often sleeps with her eyes partially open- I think because she still wants to see what's going on!