we have success!!

hopefully this doesn't jinx us, but after a week of sleep training, zoe has now slept two nights in a row from 7pm to 6am and zach's slept from 7pm to 4am!! it sure wasn't an easy road getting to this point, but it's amazing what a week can do! i so hope i am not setting myself up for trouble by celebrating prematurely!
we're still struggling a bit with getting our naps down pat during the day, but i think once we've got our nightime routine established, that will soon follow (with a little coercing of course!)
this has obviously made a world of difference for jason and i...it's nice to be able to enjoy a meal together once again without having to constantly tend to babies.
i'll keep you posted, but so far, so good!!

8 week checkup

yesterday was a big day for the lawless household. not only did my mom desert us after staying with us for two months, but we also had zach and zoe's two month checkup. (i was kidding about the deserting part...we sure do miss her already!!)

the doctor's appt went very well with the exception of having to watch my little angels endure three injections a piece and a yucky oral vaccine! luckily though, not even fifteen minutes post shots, they were both back in good spirits again. even mommy forgot about them until she saw the big ol bandaids on their thighs as a reminder!

so here's the latest...

zach is now 13 lbs 5 oz (50th percentile), 23 inches long (50th) and his head is measuring 15 1/2 inches (25 - 50th percentile).

zoe is 10 lbs 15 oz (50th), 23 inches as well (75th) and her head is 15 inches long (25 -50th).

so...as you can see...they're doing quite well! can't knock the breast milk!

other than that, we're just chugging along. like i said, it's only the first day since my mom has left, so we'll be faces some new challenges, but are also in the process of looking for a nanny. we're actually "trying out" a few first since i'm here and hopefully we'll find someone we really trust and the children really like. i don't go back to work for a few months yet, so at least we have some time.

we were fortunate enough last week to have jason's aunt betty and aunt linda spend some time with the kiddos and with us last week. not only that, but they cooked up a storm and filled up our freezer with lots of meals that we can't wait to try! thank you aunt betty, aunt linda and mrs. lawless!

zoe is just smiling up a storm these days and is definitely a morning person. as long a night as we may have had, she wipes the slate clean for both her and her brother once we see her precious smile bright and early! zach is a little more reserved with his smiles, but he does like to spread his throughout the day!

the goal is to try and start sleep training them this weekend. i'm nervous...i think it's going to be torture, but hopefully it will make for happier children and parents at the end of the day! i quizzed the doc yesterday on the matter, and she was a big advocate of starting it now, so we've gotten the green light...wish us luck! thanks erin for sending me the book...that will be my bible for this sleep training!

otherwise...keep referring to the picasa website for picture updates. i'm trying to be good about it, but forgive me if i'm delinquent at times! but since this week's haven't been posted yet, here's a couple...zoe with my mom and zach this morning with two of his three bandaids still intact.

picasa website

i've been meaning to put this link out here for quite some time now. it's the tool i'm using to post updated pictures of zachary and zoe.

hopefully you have no problems accessing.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chiangkvc

one month old!

our one month appt was rescheduled from wednesday till this morning, so we've just gotten back. so...my goodness, here goes...

zach is now 10 lbs 2.5 oz...i never in a million years thought he would have gained 3 lbs in just two weeks, but that he did! that puts him in the 75th percentile for weight. he is now 22" long (50th - 75th percentile) and his head is 15" (50th percentile...which surprised us...we think his head is rather large!)

zoe hasn't done too bad herself...8 lbs 9 oz (25th percentile), is 21" long (50th percentile) and her head measures 14 1/4'' (25th percentile).

after birth, zoe has developed a strawberry birthmark on her neck which got me a little anxious at first, but per the doc, this will continue to grow for the first year and then will slowly fade and disappear.

otherwise, they are both very healthy and the doctor was very happy with their progress.

things are still as crazy as ever, and they've gotten fussier here as of late for no apparent reason...fun fun! supposedly this should level off by six or eight weeks, so i'm ready for these next few weeks to hurry on up and pass!

for fun, i've posted pics of both jason and i when we were babies and compared them to zachary and zoe. it's amazing how zoe really resembles me and zach jason. these pics may not do it much justice, so you'll just have to trust me!

newborn pics

as you are probably well aware, it's been a while now since i've published any posts, but time is a little hard to come by these days! zach and zoe are actually one month today and it just blows my mind! we have their one month check up tomorrow, so i was going to wait till after that to post, but our newborn pics were just posted to the photographer's website with only a limited timeframe, so i thought i would share that with you while i have a moment.
they were taken when they were just over a week, and it is amazing how much they've grown! i'm very anxious to see what we hear at our doctor's visit tomorrow. it feels as though zach has doubled his birth weight (obviously not a reality, but he's quite the chunk now!)
click on the attached link to access, then click recent sessions and then "lawless." it definitely wasn't the perfect shoot, but we did get some keepers!

http://www.studioainsley.com/?splash=1

she must be recognized...

i just realized that cindy actually nailed the date that the babies would be born on the actual day! go cind!! i'll be honest, when i saw your guess initially, my immediate thought was there is absolutely no way!
well...what do i know?!! i'm impressed! so what about you...do you have your expected date pegged???
sorry there isn't a huge prize or something for you, but i'll come up with something!! very impressive!

introducing zachary grant and zoe katherine!

BE FOREWARNED...may be TMI for some of you...and sorry so long.

jason and i welcomed zach and zoe into this world on saturday, january 10th at texas woman's hospital. as per the plan, we went in that morning at 7:15 for induction and within an hour and a half, the doc broke my water, started the pitocin and contractions were coming full on not soon after. i was a little disappointed in myself for not being able to bear the pain longer that i did, but after an hour and half of contractions coming every minute and a half to two, i was pretty eager to get that epidural!

when we arrived at the hospital, i was 3 cm dilated, and beared the contractions until i was 6 cm. the epidural was beautiful...i never thought those words would come out of my mouth, but they are! for those women who have done it all naturally, i have so much more respect for you...i have no idea how you did it!!

anyways, so once they inserted the epi, i was good to go. it just became a waiting game at that point. it was probably another three to four hours before the action began. i was pretty much fully dilated at 10 cm by about 2:30, but there was a little "lip" of my cervix that was still in the way. at that point, the doc had me start pushing a little bit to see if we could she could maneuver it out of the way, but before i knew it, she was prepping me for the operating room.

i remember checking into the OR at 3:39 and making my exit at 5:40. but i tell you what...those two hours were the longest of my life! to begin with, there is definitely no time to be modest while there! there seemed to be twenty people of which i think i knew four in there and they had me propped up and exposed in under a minute flat it seemed. i was completely at their mercy totally unaware of what was going on down there! i'm not complaining by any means, since they are the experts and did a fabulous job, but not something that i'm quite used to!

this post is actually a lot longer than i had anticipated...sorry! i didn't realize it was going to turn into my birth story! so let me try to speeden things up a bit! hmmm...so i pushed for what seemed like forever and it got to a point where the doc said "two more pushes and then i'm sorry, but we're going to have to do a section." in between contractions the babies started getting distressed, so she didn't want to take any risks. you better believe i gave those last two pushes my all after i heard that, even though i felt like my head was about to explode! to be honest though, i was so close to just giving in...i didn't know how much more i could endure. whatever i did worked because by this point zach was so far down now in the birth canal that there was no turning back! sounds fine and dandy, but my goodness. the next thirty minutes were horrible! his positioning was off (sunny side up) and she kept trying to turn him, but nothing was working...all the while me still pushing for dear life! she pulled out the vacuum to no avail and then came the forceps. after a lot of thought and debate, dr. swaim just felt that something wasn't right for forceps use because of where the soft spots on his head were located, so we collectively decided against it. so of course that meant it was all in my court now!

zach was finally born at 5:03 pm and little zoe soon followed at 5:06 pm.

that wasn't even the worst of it. when zach came out, jason said he was purplish blue and looked lifeless. the look on the doctor's face didn't make things any better nor did the mass of people who rushed in to tend to him. of course, i didn't know any of this was going on at the time, since i was still working on getting zoe out. at the end of the day, zach was okay...thank goodness. he did need to be resuscitated and suffered two major hematomas on his head, but healthy overall. jason and i are just fine with him having a square head for a few weeks given the scare he gave us.

the babies were in the NICU for six hours following their arrival, so around 2am that morning i finally got to hold and admire these little angels. i just don't think it quite sunk in that these little guys were mine for quite some time. we spent two days in the hospital and came home late monday night. zach had to go back to the hospital the next morning to check his bilirubin levels and as it turned out, we had to put him under the lights for almost five days but thankfully we were able to do it at home. he is now officially in the clear as of yesterday!

what else? we did go to the doctor four days after they got home to get a baseline established and the good news was that zach maintained his birth weight and zoe lost only 0.06 oz. i guess i should provide their birth stats...zach was 6 lbs 4 oz, 19 3/4 inches long and zoe was 5 lbs 9.6 oz, 19 inches long.

i am nursing and so far so good. using some formula to supplement, but i'd say that's probably about 10-15%. they're really quite good during the day, but of course the nights are a bit more of a challenge. we've had a ton of much appreciated support especially from jason's parents and my mom. my aunt is here from jersey for two weeks to help out as well...thank you! it's amazing how much two little ones can take out of you! it's been worth it though!

it just amazes me to see their progress each and every day, even thought they only are ten days old! zach is much more laidback, quiet and quite the eater whereas zoe just loves to sleep and will let you know LOUD and clear when she needs something!

we had their newborn session done yesterday and it went suprisingly well. i've attached a pic that we got from it (below) as well as a pic of the two of them in the hospital (above).

thank you all for your emails, calls , presents and support...it has meant so much! i owe many of you a call or a note back, (and probably a thank you note) but please bear with me! i can't wait for you all to meet them!! :)