No Nanny

So much for a new nanny. She called yesterday evening and said she can't make it in today. Hopefully she will show up tomorrow.

Swapna starts 'work' tomorrow!

Both girls are sick for most of this week;) They caught the cold from Swapna, not sure where she got it from. Shruthi seems to have recovered from it, but Vennela is still having lots of trouble breathing. She is a lot better today, compared to Fri. Hopefully she will recover soon. Shruthi did well, she just slept through the whole thing, for two days, waking up only for her food. That must have really helped. Poor Vennela, she tries to sleep but wakes up unable to breath;)

Rajeash, Poornima and kids stopped by yesterday. Their kids are good, well behaved. They were very excited to see the squirrels and the birds:)

Think we made another big step in the parenting/baby process, took Costco membership. Swapna and her mom went there this morning, leaving both girls with me. Girls were fine, by the time they came back from Costco, I was done feeding Shruthi and was almost done with Vennela, truly a proud moment in my parenting career.

Swapna starts work tomorrow. She is not actually driving to work, planning to work from one of the bed rooms:) A nanny, Teja starts work tomorrow. She is a student at Stafford, is from Vijayawada. She says she is ok working with kids, but we told her next week is a trial period, for both of us, see if she is really comfortable dealing with these tiny babies. Hopefully it will work out. We got a lot of responses to our ad in Sulekha. Got a lot of responses from Nepalese women, and everyone was a preschool teacher back in Nepal;)

Amy, Jim and Tommy came by to see the babies this evening. Tommy is growing fast. I think he is taller than Swapna now. I'm sure next time we see him, he will be taller than me, and he is only 7 now;)

No More Grand parents

My parents left for CA on Mon, it' back to us three to try and hold down the fort. Both girls caught the cold from Swapna, poor things, they are very uncomfortable. They had a hard time falling asleep.

Swapna put together the second bouncer, no need to put both the girls in the same bouncer at the same time anymore.

Had my share of full drenching on Mon, was trying to burp Vennela, she was almost done with her bottle. She tried burping, but ended up throwing up all the milk, all over me.

One more week before Swapna goes back to work and my parents leave for CA on Tue. We have to find a nanny and do it quickly. I did the night shift last night and it's not fun. It will be interesting once we both start working, doing night time feeding and then trying to stay awake at work the next day.

Took the girls to DC on Fri, wanted to show Haupt gardens to my mom, but they close at 7pm;) We walked around the mall, it was a nice day for a walk. And of course, Swapna wanted to go to PotBelly and as luck would have it, they closed at 7pm too;)

Swapna is sick, has cough and cold and a little fever(98.5 and she says she has a fever). Hopefully the babies won't catch the cold.

Girls are being fussy this week, they finish about half their feed and take forever to finish the rest, and most of the time they are not finishing it. They haven't increased their feeding amount in about two weeks.

Madelline from across the street stopped by and brought gifts for the mom and mom's mom. It's very nice of her, she is 80 years old and living by herself.

New Crib

We have a second crib now, got it from Saritha's this weekend. We flipped a coin for the new crib and Vennela lost. She got the new crib. All of us went to Fredericksburg to pick up the crib, leaving Swapna with the girls. We left at 10am, planning to be back by 3pm feeding, and then Potomac Mills happened;) They first wanted to go to Corning and then they saw IKEA. I had to practically drag them out of the store. We finally made it back at 5:30. Swapna managed fine without any of us, Robyn helped her out for feedings. The girls were also well behaved, she says, just ate and slept, didn't bother their mom at all.

Babe Mobile

Got new wheels on Thursday, a minivan;)

Girls made the first out of state trip yesterday, took the whole gang to DC in the new van, took a walk along Ohio Dr, along the Potomac and the tidal basin. They fell asleep as soon as we put them in the van and slept through the drive, the walk and the drive back:) We just left them in their car seats in the living room and they woke up 10 mins before their 9pm feeding.

Daily Quiz

This is like a daily routine, Robyn comes by in the evening and we ask her to say the girls names and of course she gets them wrong, every time! May be she should do a George Costanza and do exactly opposite of what she thinks.

I'm doing ok with them now, can tell who is who correctly, with confidence. My mom and dad get them wrong, mom more than dad. Mom got them wrong twice yesterday, 5 mins apart, and they are wearing different outfits:) Swapna's mom got them wrong too. Their excuse is that the girls keep changing their complexion;) Swapna is the only one that still hasn't 'openly' admitted to getting confused between the two girls.

We weighed them today, Vennela is 6lb 13oz(3.09 Kg) and Shruthi is 7lb 8oz(3.4 Kg).

Weekend

Weekends are exhausting! I'm getting more tired on weekends than on weekdays. I don't know how Swapna, her mom and my parents are doing it everyday. Especially Swapna, don't know how she is dealing with everyone telling her what to do and what not to do, the whole day.

We changed the girls feeding times, moved it one hour later. Now it's 6, 9, 12, 3, 6, 9 and 12am. Don't know about the girls, but this timing is working better for me. I can do the 6am feeding since I'm up at that time anyways, but as always, so are my parents and Swapna's mom;)

Girls are moving their hands now, and they are quick too, can knock off the feeding bottles from our hands.

Tired

Giving Bath

We changed their daily bath schedule to evening from morning, the theory being they sleep well all through the night if they had a nice warm bath in the evening. The theory isn't working as well as we thought. One good thing about the evening schedule is that I get to give them a bath once I get home. Both of them love getting a bath, they look so relaxed and happy sitting in the warm water.

Doc's Appointment

Went to the pediatrician this morning. Girls are doing very well, Vennela is at 6lb 2oz and Shruthi is at 6lb 15oz, almost 7lb! They didn't get their Hepatitis shots today, doc said to wait for the 2 month appointment and get all the shots at once, not looking forward to that day;)

Girls are starting to look more like each other every day. Shruthi was in the living room with us, Swapna's mom was so sure that it was Vennela, she wouldn't believe us;) A few weeks more and I'm sure no one can tell them apart.

Walk in the park!

Tara left for CA this afternoon. She missed the babies first trip outside in their stroller! We put them in their double/twin stroller and walked up and down Rosemary Ln. They seemed to like it, fell asleep right away. We took them to visit Robyn&Scott and Amarnath&Jessee.

Todd&Cassandra and Tracy stopped by in the evening. It doesn't look like Todd&Cassandra will move back to the States after her Malawi contract is over in about 6 months.

Namakaranam

Yesterday was the first Puja for the girls, their Namakaranam (naming ceremony). Tara came from Fremont in the morning, caught a red eye flight. Dad and I went and picked up the Pujari from the Lotus temple, was a pain finding the temple, because there is no temple yet! Girls were all dressed up in their fineries, silk dresses and jewelery, looked really cute. Girls did great, they stayed quiet and slept through the whole ceremony. They even slept through the huge thunderstorm that rolled through in the afternoon. So glad for the thunderstorm, cooled down things a little, more important because our A/C unit died yesterday;)

Saritha & family stopped by this afternoon for lunch. Didn't know that Saritha hasn't been to India in more than 5 years! Both of her kids had been to India, but not her.

Today is the Clarendon Cup races, the first time that I missed the races in 10 years;)