And Now, to Really Gross You Out...

Brickley and Oswell will be 6 weeks old tomorrow, and will have been home for 2 weeks.  Last time I brought a baby home (Seville, obviously), 2 weeks into it was getting pretty difficult for me personally. I struggled mightily with deep postpartum depression and had an extremely difficult recovery from a C-Section to boot. Since I had another unavoidable C-Section this time, and since I was warned that pregnancy and post-pregnancy hormones are twice as severe with twins, we wanted to do everything we could to avoid the dark days of last time. We were better prepared in lots of ways, but there's one thing I really honestly think made a huge difference.

It's like this... every mammal on the planet eats its own placenta after birth - except humans, for obvious reasons (like, the fact that we would barf all over ourselves even attempting such a feat, completely defeating the purpose, for example).  But there are rumors about eating the placenta and what it does for you. Like that it eases and speeds your recovery. And that it stabilizes your hormones keeping postpartum depression in check.

I had heard these things, but since the babies were born 2 months early - at least a month before we expected to have to think of any immediate post-birth needs - I hadn't had time to look into what is called "placenta encapsulation," - where they put your placenta in capsules for you to take, like any other benign, un-disgusting supplement, with your daily vitamins.

In the recovery room, one of the doctors brought my placenta for me to see. Its rupturing was the cause of the emergent C-Section. She knew I was extremely disappointed at not having a vaginal birth, and came to show me the signs of rupture so I could see, with my own eyes, why my baby needed to come out asap and why he might not have survived a vaginal birth). You could see the signs of distress and hemorhagging on the one placenta. The whole "eating your own placenta" thing came up then, and I mentioned to Jared that it was a bummer we hadn't had time to look into it.

The nurse looked at us and told us it was easy to do yourself.  "What?" She was from Russia or something, and I don't know whether this is more common in Easter Europe or she was just a hippie at heart, but she walked us through how to do it yourself. And bless Jared's heart, he actually did this for me (that is serious dedication!).

Step 1: Wash thoroughly (there's a video at the bottom of this post of Jared washing the placentas. There were two of them, in my case.)

Step 2: Freeze until you have time to do something with it (and/or so you can slice it later) (you could skip this step, actually, if you had time to work with it right away and planned the "blender" method).

Step 3: Slice thinly and/or puree' (Here is where it gets a little confusing. Russian Hippie Nurse told us to freeze it and then slice it very very thin, and then dry on a dehydrator, not unlike jerky. Jared tried this and it just wasn't drying fast enough and he was afraid it would go rancid, so he looked up how to do it on our "friend," the Internet. The folks he Googled were putting it right in the blender and drying it like fruit leather, so he switched methods and went with that.

Step 4: Spread blended placenta on a fruit dehydrator and dry.

Step 5: pull or chip dried placenta off the dryer, and pulverize it into a powder (blender, magic bullet, mortar & pestle. whatever works. I think Jared used our magic bullet).

Step 6: borrow capsule-making thingy from brother in law (Thanks Bryce!) (or get one at local Natures/Wild Oats/New Seasons/hippie food store), and put powder in capsules.

Voila! Placenta Pills.

These have been my friends these last 6 weeks, and oh what a difference they've made. Unless it's all in my head, which is ok too. Whatever works.

(WARNING:)If you're a glutton for punishment, and you have a strong stomach, here's a video of Jared getting the placenta out and washing it...

Introducing Seville

Since Seville is not allowed into the NICU, we have a challenge including her in our new family and introducing her to her new baby brothers. It broke my heart to learn they wouldn't allow her in - she had been so excited to meet them.  In any case, we decided we'd have a challenge either way, because it would be difficult to explain to her where they are and why they have tubes and things, even if she was allowed in. None of this is what a 3 year old might expect. Thankfully, she doesn't really know any different, and so when we explained that the babies came out a little bit too soon and they're in a place where they are still pretending to be inside a tummy, she took it at face value.

We introduced her to them for the first time with pictures, in my hospital room, and I caught a little of it on my iPhone. It's cute, you can see her little mind churning, trying to process what's going on in the pictures.

Merry Christmas from Seville

Grumpy Old Pirate Cat

Okay. I'm not usually a big poster of other people's YouTube videos, but my brother-in-law showed me this in Sunriver, and it made me laugh so hard I had tears streaming down my face, I had to sit on the floor to keep from falling over, and I seriously thought I was going to pee my pants (a disaster narrowly averted). Granted, this was very late at night when family can get silly, and we proceeded to do other stupid things we found funny at the time that probably weren't so much, so I don't want to hype it up tooooo much and ruin it for you. But still. I can't stop laughing.

Introduction: you know how cats make those weird devilish noises when they're mad or "growling" or whatever it is? Here somebody has listened closely to what his cat is saying, and translated for us all.



There is a possible happy byproduct of this video for me: Almost nothing scares me more than waking in the night to the sounds of neighborhood cats "caterwauling" at each other. Next time I wake to Richard Parker engaging in some neighborhood turf battle, I'll probably start cracking up instead of falling into fitful nightmarish sleep, like usual.

Autumn Leaves

Her first time in a leaf pile. And one of the best afternoons of my life.

Food Glorious Food

Seville finally had her first shot at "solid" food this week. It's so weird to think that, until now, every single cell in her body was provided by my body (except for one. thanks Daddy).

Anyway, Mommy was all excited about trying solid food, but Seville didn't think much of it.


This is the face she makes every time she gets any on her tongue. She is eating "rice" here. I didn't think it tasted like anything, but she shudders involuntarily every time I put it in her mouth, like it's so bitter she can't help it. So sad. I homemade her rice cereal (using whole brown rice, because I want to avoid refined foods). I'd better get used to her not appreciating my efforts. :) (see her shudder yourself, in the videos on the right)

Here she is, literally scared of the next bite, poor thing. I tried organic bananas next, thinking she'd like them better because they're so sweet, but no go. Her shudder was a little different, her tongue coming out like she was going to gag. I guess let's face it. even I don't like straight-up bananas that much. They have a pretty strong flavor. I shoulda thought of that.

Finally! Something she likes! Today we tried sweet potato. She sucked it up and played with it all happy. I'm so relieved, because I was starting to think I'd never get her to eat anything and I'd be nursing her till she was eighteen.

Now... if she could just learn to swallow it.

Get Yer TyBooks!

Time for my personal soapbox of... Products I Would Endorse For Free Because They're The Best and Everyone Should Know About Them. Up first....

TyBooks!

These are the coolest coolest things! They are indestructible baby books that feel like paper, but can be chewed and crinkled so babies love to play with them! Seville has had a prototype for a few weeks and they're her favorite thing. The company was just launched this week and they have some introductory prices at www.TyBookInc.com. They are well worth the price. Here are excerpts of their announcement:

Anybody who's ever watched a baby knows what will happen with anything he gets his little hands on--he'll put it straight to his mouth! Books are no exception. In fact, paper seems to be a favorite material for chewing, crinkling, crunching, wrinkling, sucking on, and playing with. Unfortunately, paper books (even board books) can get soggy and come apart, not only destroying the book but becoming a potential choking hazard for baby. Don't you wish you could let your precious little one delight in exploring books the way she'd like?

Now you can!

TyBook introduces a revolutionary new baby book invented by a mother of triplets who wanted to share books with her babies, hassle-free. They are water-proof, tear-resistant, and baby-durable, making them the perfect books for babies who "read" with their little hands and mouths.

• Tear-resistant - can hold up to baby's tugging and pulling (see "Dare to Tear")
• Waterproof - can be chewed and sucked on
• Simple stitch binding allows them to slide easily into a diaper bag
• Easy-clean with water and soap if needed
• Great baby-shower gifts!
• Age-appropriate, wordless pictures to encourage dialogic reading
• Featuring illustrations by artist, Kaaren Pixton
• Meets ASTM safety standards

Baby Videos

Okay, so I keep going a little crazy with the 20 second videos. Rather than post them all here, I'll just provide a link to the family "playlist" on YouTube.

Chatting with Seville

In the last couple weeks Seville has started "talking" to us. It took several tries to get it on film (how does she know to stop when she sees the little black and silver box?!), but at long last, ladies and gentelemen, here she is!

SuperBaby!

This is what Seville does when you hold her in the air. She stiffens her body and legs and arms like she's flying. Funny. Come to think of it, I aughtta get her a cape. We call her SuperBaby when she does it.