Mommy's 1st week alone

So this week flew by!! My mom left on Friday so once JD went to work on Monday I was left to take care of the kiddos all by myself! It was a little scary but I think it went pretty well :) I managed to get out and take a walk for a while every afternoon. We even went to meet daddy for lunch everyday except for today. I shopped a little downtown during my walk instead :)

Not much to report here other than the fact that both kiddos have become nursing pros! Daddy still gives them a bottle for one early morning feeding so I can get some sleep but other than that they are all boob. lol Peyton had a dr. appt. today because her stubborn umbilical cord is still holding on. The dr. put a little silver nitrate on it so it should fall off in the next few days. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. which means she gained over an ounce a day since her last appt. so she is doing great!

Uh oh! I hear Peyton waking up so I guess I'll leave you with some pictures...

Happy (adjusted) Birthday Peyton and Lucas

Today is the day. Yes, it is. The day the kids were due! It's hard to imagine not having them here for the last 3 weeks and 6 days. They're officially 0 days old according to their preemie adjusted age. We celebrated by taking a family self portrait. We're high class.

Our friend Annie came to visit today and of course we made her take some photos with the kids. It sure is hard work getting people to hold the babies. Hah!

Hungry Peyton

Naked Lucas

All this excitement tired out poor Tiger. She found a cozy place to take a nap.

Of course the kids were stoked and just begged for some tummy time on their cute floor mat.

And I snuck in a picture of Erika being the wonderful mommy she is. She doesn't allow many of these to hit the light of day so count yourselves lucky! ;)

Geeky growing kids

Wow, the kids will be four weeks old this Monday! Since our time at home we've used 5.75 gallons (736oz) of pumped milk and gone through 404+ diapers.

Last wednesday we had an appointment at the newborn club and both kids were doing great. Peyton was 6lb 14oz and Lucas was 6lb 7oz. They both gained well over an oz/day. We scheduled a 2 week followup to check their weights again.

Before they outgrow these onesies, you've got to see the pics. In case you're wondering, Peyton is the one dressed as the future programmer. ;)

Lots of babysitters = Dinner & a Movie!

Sunday we had another full house of visitors! My dad brought my grandma over to meet Peyton & Lucas. They stayed and hung out for the day. JD & I decided it was a good time to get away and have some time with out the babies. We caught a 4 pm movie (Slumdog Millionaire) at the theater down the street and then went out to Thai Food. When we got back to our house JD's parents were also visiting on their way down to Winton. And now I gotta run because I am attempting to dye my own hair and I think I've had the dye on too long! Here are a couple pictures:

Peyton & Lucas enjoying the playmat Alyssa & John gave them

Gma Wanda & Gpa John w/baby burrito Lucas :)

Poppy feeding Lucas

Great Gma Betty feeding Peyton

Feeding Calculations

Yeah, I'm a big geek. I couldn't handle looking at a piece of paper and doing math every time I wanted to find out how milk much our kids are supposed to be eating each day. So, I whipped up this spreadsheet where you can see a chart or play with some numbers. We're thinking about taking out one of the night feedings soon and this lets us know with confidence how much food they need to get in all the other feedings.

Just follow the link:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p7TrnSVngknO3ojqelQfqaA

Alyssa visits and grandma makes funny noises in a video

It's been a while since Erika or I have posted. I guess this has been a pretty uneventful week, though it was my first week back to work. It seems very strange not to be home and around Erika and the kids 24 hrs/day.

The kids are doing great. They're both eating a ton, gaining weight, and soiling a lot of diapers. We're still supplementing with a bottle every feeding, but they're starting to latch on better and actually get some food straight from mommy! That'll make feeding time a lot more convenient when they get the hang of it.

We had our first pediatrician appointment on Monday and it was pretty uneventful (a good thing), except it was really cold in the exam room and the kids didn't like that much. The doctor was randomly assigned to us – none of the ones we were referred to were accepting patients. He was pretty cool though. I think we'll stick with him for a bit.

Alyssa came to visit today. I met her, Erika, Kathy, and the kids at a Mexican place for lunch. It was the first time we took them out to eat! They did pretty well until the end when Peyton woke up from a nap and got a bit upset with the loud restaurant. Good thing we were on the way out and didn't have to be too uncomfortable with screaming babies hanging out in the restaurant. :)

Erika took a video today while Alyssa was visiting and the kids were hanging out on our bed. Check it out:

And, of course they took a bunch of photos:

More Pictures :)

We did a little photo shoot today to try and get some good shots for our announcements.  Here are a few pictures from that.  Also my mom & dad, Uncle Rick & Aunt Cindy came to visit.  My dad is staying one night but my mom will be staying here for a few weeks since JD is going back to work tomorrow.  Hopefully we can keep the same schedule with out gma spoiling the kiddos too much!

Nitty Gritty with Trixie Tracker

Erika and I are both a little crazy when it comes to using our computers (and phones) for things. We don't have a phone book, maps, TV Guide, newspaper, paper books, or physical photos. We spend most of our time communicating through IM, Email, and social networking sites like Facebook or Myspace. About the only traditional media left in our lives are some magazine subscriptions I have -- It's a major pain to bring your laptop into the bathroom! Well, this addiction has bled into the lives of our babies. 

If you've had kids and breast fed you know all about counting the number of wet and poopy diapers to make sure they're eating enough. You also know about pumping and storing milk and trying to figure out how old that bag is you stuck in the fridge -- I mean, you can put a date on it but days are really a blur at this point. We didn't want to have to write all that stuff down, tally it up every day, or have to think  much about it. Yeah, we're lazy like that.

We use a web site called Trixie Tracker to monitor what's going on with our kids. We made part of it public so you can check it out if you want: Conley Chaos Nitty Gritty

So there you have it, how geeks keep up with counting diapers and milk inventory. It's great to be able to accurately, quickly, and definitively answer the question "Did we pump enough milk so we can get away for a day?" or "Did our kids have enough wet diapers yesterday?"

First Tummy Time

The strangest thing happened today. The kids decided to be awake between feedings for a bit rather than just snoozing. Erika and I looked at each other and I knew we were both thinking the same thing: "Hmm, what do we do with them now?" We (along with Aunt Amanda who's visiting) decided they could play on their tummies a bit. So, we took a video. Looks like Lucas is going to be a break dancer. Check out his moves.

Day of Visitors!

Today was the day of visitors.  Kara arrived last night and is hanging out for the day.  My sister Amanda came in this morning (she is staying for the weekend).  Sarah stopped by for a bit early this afternoon.  Then JD's Sister Rhonda & her family all came later in the afternoon.  It was a full house!  Here are some pictures :)

Lucas Snuggling w/Peyton

Peyton

Lucas

Kara w/Lucas & Peyton

Sarah & Peyton

Amanda feeding Peyton

Cousin Abbey & Lucas

Aunt Rhonda & Uncle Rick w/Lucas

Cousins Veronica & Drew w/Peyton

Great Gma Friesen w/Peyton & Lucas

Cousins Abbey & Allie w/Lucas

Peyton & Lucas are 1 week old!

I can't believe it has already been a week since the babies were born!  I think the whole hospital stay was a sleep deprived blur for JD & I.  Speaking of sleep deprivation... I feel GREAT today!  I'm not sleepy at all!  JD let me sleep through the 6 am feeding so I got almost 5 straight hours of sleep until the feeding at 9.  It was amazing :)  I think we will start doing that regularly.   My step friend Kristi came to visit for a while and meet Peyton & Lucas.  She is pregnant with her first baby so she got a little taste of the sleep/eat/poop cycle she gets to look forward to in July.  I had her go through my closet to pick out any of my maternity clothes that she might wear.  She finds out on Monday whether she is having a girl or boy & I can't wait!!  

Kristi brought a yummy peanut butter chocolate dessert.  We all played Streetfighter 4 for a while when Peyton & Lucas were napping.  Then we had a couple people come and look at our truck that we are trying to sell.  Looks like we found a buyer!  Now its 4:30 and JD and I are deciding what to do with the rest of our day.  It is the first day since we were discharged from the hospital that we haven't had to go back to the dr. for an appointment at 9 am.  The day seems soo much longer, we don't know what to do with all our free time! lol  JD is folding some laundry so I guess I should go find something productive to do as well.  Here is a picture of Kristi & the twins.  (I just decided as she was leaving that we needed a picture...but the babies were sleeping so we didn't want to disturb them..hence the odd pose.)

1st Bath