Now Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Show

First, to answer a few questions I saw in the comments:

The girls are in the same bedroom but differently cribs. Bizarrely, they don’t seem to mind the other’s crying. Maddie sleeps through Avery crying out and vice versa. Thank goodness for that. The other night, Avery had a rough night. She cried out for almost an hour. But Maddie slept through it, with her cute little footie-pajama’d butt in the air.

In the midst of the nighttime CIO we are also trying to set them onto a nap schedule. They both wake up between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning. Within about an hour and a half of waking up they are ready for a little nap (about an hour long). Then they take morning nap for an hour or two and an afternoon nap of about an hour and a half. This, of course, changes on a daily basis but we are working toward putting them on that two-nap schedule, with an early morning just-after-waking-up nap.

Avery most definitely looks like Nicole but, alas, she is of my egg. Both babies came from my eggs. After my first two failed IVFs, we looked into using Nicole’s eggs. I wanted to do that anyway: One baby with Nicole’s egg and one with mine. But the logistics were insane: Nicole would have to relinquish all rights to her own egg if it were to gestate in me and then, once the baby is born, which is biologically hers, she would have to adopt said child back. Crazy and wrong. So we went with just my eggs, making life much simpler. But Avery really looks like Nicole. And people say Maddie looks like me, but I don’t see me in either baby, really.

Life as we knew it is slowly coming back. We are starting to get our nights back! Last night was CIO Night 11. We have a new plan: One of us sleeps on the couch and monitors the babies while the other person gets to sleep in the bedroom, baby-monitor-less and peaceful. Last night I won the lottery and got to be the one who slept in the bedroom. And I slept ALL night! That is the first time in almost a YEAR that I got to sleep all night!

It was weird, being alone. I felt like Nicole was on a business trip and took the babies with her. I slept in my special alone mode: In the middle of the bed with an iPod and book next to me. I went to bed around 9 and read for a while (not sure how long) and woke up at the alarm at 5:00. It was blissful and amazing. I was so rested. I went to the gym and when I got home I was so energized that I was practically running, moving from kitchen to living room to bathroom and bedrooms, organizing, cleaning, straightening up. It is insane what a difference a good night’s sleep can make.

And I may luck out again tonight because Nicole thinks that consistency is key. So for consistency’s sake, she will be the one to greet the girls in the morning and attend to evening needs, should there be any. I am not going to argue! However, I do know that means a couple of nights for me on the couch is in the future!

So CIO is going really well. Maddie, I am proud to say, has been indoctrinated into the world of long-term sleeping. She goes down around 6:00 or 6:30 and sleeps until around 5:30 or 6:00. I can’t believe that this is working! CIO is truly successful, if you can endure the nightly hell and stick to it and keep plugging away, no matter what. Avery wants a bottle once a night still. If she cries at night and we give her a bottle, she happily drinks it and goes right back to sleep. We aren’t sure when we will wean her from the bottle, but right now it’s okay for her to get us up once a night to eat. MUCH better than our previous schedule of getting up about 5 times a night.

Our next challenge is to get them to sleep a little later. Daylight savings kind of threw things off. They are waking at 5:00, which is really 6:00 in their baby brains. I think 6:30 is a good time for them to get up and I would like to move toward that paradigm. Healthy Sleep Habits Healthy Baby or whatever it is called says that in order to do that you have to put them to bed earlier. This of course is counter intuitive: I would think that if I want them to sleep later I put them to bed later. Not so. So We will be trying to put them done a few minutes earlier each night, inching toward the 6:0 p.m. mark I guess.

I am reading this book called Slow Fat Triathlete. It is about a 200 plus pound woman who races in triathlons. The book so inspiring. I wouldn’t exactly say it is written well (it’s conversational style is so annoying at times and her attempts at wittiness are over the top), but I love the message: That we all can live out our fitness goals in the bodies we have. It’s really inspirational (and practical, if your really want to do triathlons).

I always thought I had to lose weight to be a runner. But really, you can run in whatever body you have. My entire life I thought I couldn’t run. I listened to people tell me that I had the wrong body type to run. While there might be some truth to that (it’s hard to lug around big boobs while running) it really doesn’t matter because I am not trying to be an Olympic athlete. I never said I wanted to be a star runner. I’m happy to just go at my own pace. I started running one minute at a time because that was all I could do. I can now run for 45 minutes without stopping. It’s insane, watching myself get stronger at this. For me, this has been a huge accomplishment and something that I am proud of. I never thought I could do it and now I am doing it. I am signing up for my first race: Four miles in Central Park in December. There is something to be said for setting goals and working toward reaching them.

This weekend my friend Chris was in town and we went to see Spring Awakening. We had amazing front row center seats! It was great. One thing I found interesting was that the show warns that there is brief nudity. And there was. I spent the entire show looking for the brief nudity that I was stunned that I didn’t see the sex scenes or masturbation scenes coming (no pun intended).

We are going Northampton leaf peeping this weekend and I am so excited! Technically we should be past foliage prime now but the long hot and dry summer makes the season longer and not so vibrant. I was at my friend Jen’s house yesterday and was amazed at how beautiful it was. Here in the concrete city there aren’t many signs of fall. Her entire yard was strewn with crunchy brown and yellow and red and green leaves. It is fun for me, since I don’t have to rake them up! And I collected some leaves for a project I want to do, that I will now have time to complete, since the girls are going to bed so early.

Pictured above, my little eaters! They are really messy. Avery has joined the world of solid-food eaters, following the lead of Maddie. Maddie LOVES solids and cries in between bites. I literally need to have a spoon waiting at her lips or she starts crying!

By the way: I have a copy of taking Charge of Your Fertility. It is a great book that is looking for a new home. Anyone need it? I'll send it out...just let me know in the comments if you want it and I'll send you my email address.