2 months old!

I'm undecided if I'm going to keep a separate blog for the babies. I was thinking I would use it for family/milestones etc, but really, I am making them photo albums and such as baby books and I have a shutterfly site...so...for now, its on hold. Besides, they're still newborns so we don't really have any fun activities to write about yet.

In the meanwhile...

The babies are 2 months old now (4w adjusted). At their last appointment, they were both officially on the charts!  Quinn weighed in at 7lbs 13 oz and 20.5 inches (that's 2 lbs in 3 weeks) and Avery was 8lbs 14 oz and 22 inches. They're both on the chart now (just barely for Quinn, and around 10-15th percentile for Avery). For their adjusted age, they're around 25th percentile (with Avery being 75th or so for length). So far so good!

And the little dolls are getting big so freaking fast. Here they are in BumGenius XS AIOs (with the lil'joeys, BG Ss (which fit), and a BG 4.0 pocket (which we haven't tried, though Avery is starting to fit into some of the smaller One Size pockets now).

running

So my new goal for my fall half is to beat my spring performance. A 2:08 isn't exactly spectacular, and is 15 minutes off my PR from 2008 (15lbs lighter and running, oh, 20 miles more/week than I am now). That said, my training has been spotty, with spotty midweek runs and roughly every other weekend long runs. I MUST get 10 mile+ runs in this Saturday and next though...A look back at my training log shows 3 10 miles within the 5 weeks pre-race, and fairly similar (though slightly higher) midweek mileage (though I am doing Crossfit twice a week now, so I think it balances out), so I think I can do this. This week and next (and the week of taper) I will focus!!!! haha. (AND I will not beat myself up...I have newborns at home! I am doing a good job here, right?)

Last night was our first true fall evening and it was spectacular, if overcast. I ran 6.3 miles after work.  I ran 30 minutes IN A ROW (I cannot tell you the last time I did that), then 3 10 minute periods. I felt good. I feel good today! I am going to try to squeeze in 3 miles tonight but we'll see.

At this point, weekend long runs aside, I'm shifting my focus to my Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. My 5k times have always been dismal, so a PR  IS in my future.

on exhaustion

Don't get my wrong, the babies are adorable. They're even starting to sleep more (more on that another day), but for most of the last 7 weeks (5 home in Quinn's case), they've been up every 2-3 hours over night. I often think how easy a single baby would be - after all, it WAS easier before Quinn came home, logistically anyway - but I know that's (somewhat) unfair since our girls ARE fairly good sleepers for their gestational age. I don't know how people with bad sleepers (I'm looking at you Katy!) survive (and am hoping I am not jinxing myself with this post).

Our nighttime plan (which sorta kinda works out, as we haven't really worked out Bedtime yet, though I suppose the girls are a little young) is basically for me to be on duty until midnight or so, then Chris takes over until 5 am. I get 5-6, then she's got the babies from when I get into the shower until I get home. The upside of living with my parents right now (between houses and all) is my mom is sometimes around to help.  We've been able to make this work since (something finally went right and) Chris has been very productive in the milk department (again, fingers crossed) and is usually a feeding ahead. Neither baby loves to breastfeed, and Avery in particular doesn't latch well, so they're mostly on pumped milk. I think this is awesome for so many reasons:

• I can feed them
• breastmilk has such great antibodies formula can't replicate
• I'm pretty sure what we've spent on a pump + bags for the last 7 weeks is just over what formula would have cost us, so we'll be ahead financially soon
  and
• breastmilk (and breastmilk poo and spit up) doesn't smell that bad. I had a few wiffs of formula in the hospital and it freaking reeks. I don't want to think about the out-of-baby stuff until I am forced to!

But, before I am too sunshine and roses, here is what we get a lot of in the evenings:

so we're buying a house

because you know, having (two) tiny babies, a new job, and moving sounds like a good idea. Especially since it needs renovations. We're pretty high on the life stress list.

So, since I've been pretty MIA (new job and babies and all) I leave you with some pictures of what is (hopefullly) to come...

Home Sweet Home to be

the leaky utility sink. see the basement walls? that's old peeling paint. yum.

soo....the second floor was never painted....

The first floor bedrooms are smaller, but we'll be living downstairs for a long while (this will be our room).

That nook used the house the fridge (we think). Note that it is not in the kitchen.

new-ish oven. Old cabinets. No fridge or dishwasher. And can we discuss the countertop?

Looking a little skeptical about the weird corner range top and no fridge (or AC) at 34 weeks and 93 degrees.

can't fit your boat of a car into the garage? ok, trim the studs....

cancelled

I just cancelled my NYCMarathon entry. I'm kind of sad. I am in no shape to consider it and barely training for my October half, but still sort of sad (and I have to pay again next year...$$$...but it is NYC and amazing).

sigh.

my fall half

I am sure you're all in total suspense. Am I training? Yes.
Am I training a lot? not really
Is it even enough/interesting enough to write about? No.

I did 16 miles this week, including a 6 mile long run.  After taking a couple of weeks off when the babies were born, I reworked my schedule to ditch NYC (which I still need to defer from) and work up from effectively nothing to 12 miles the week before my half. Hopefully its enough. I'm still hanging on to the see-sub-2-hrs-again dream...

As a sidebar, this is my first rugby-free season since 1999. Which is before I played rugby. This is weird and a little sad (sort of, I don't really miss the being pummeled into the ground aspect of practice),  This vast expanse of free weekends is bizarre too (and endless feedings aside, I have no idea how to fill them).

Newborn diapering

Size conundrum I mentioned in my previous post aside, I've been pretty happy with cloth diapering so far.

First, they're pretty darn cute. 
Second, Bailey has, um, snacked on a couple of used disposables. Have you ever seen pee soaked disposable diaper gel? It reminds me of that silica gel stuff used to keep new shoes and such moisture free. Everyone in our house looks at me a little weird when I talk about it, but having that stuff next to our little newborn's bottoms 24/7 kind of skeeves me out.

Anyway, Avery is in cloth about 50% now, and Quinn will be soon (eg, when I make diapering decisions).

So, a rundown of my reviews to date on our newborn diapers:

Prefolds: nice and soft, love how fast they wash/dry, cheap and absorbant. I don't love changing them since, well, they're wet, but they go on fast and I love them for when I know I'll be changing a diaper again asap (eg, before a feeding). They're also a million times better than bibs as, well, bibs. Maybe we have crappy bibs but spitup seems to roll right off of them.

Workhouse fitteds: So far s