Most. Surreal. Month. Of my life?

The twins are here! I have obviously been a little preoccupied what with 20 feedings per day, nanny research/interviews, thank-you notes, and housekeeping and am now going to attempt to summarize the incredible series of events and physical and psychological transformation I and Akhil and our household have undergone in just 3 weeks.

Wyatt Akhil Madhani and Liv Surya Madhani were delivered by C-section on Monday, August 9, 2010, at 10:35 and 10:38 a.m., weighing in at five pounds, 11 ounces and five pounds, seven ounces. 37 weeks and one day. No NICU time! We love them dearly and can't quite believe we're being entrusted to take care of these beautiful little people. They are apparently healthy, gaining weight like champs, and eating faithfully every two-to-three hours, much to their parents' exhaustion.

I on the other hand had a few post-delivery problems. I'd been to the hospital at the advice of my doctor for a stress test the Thursday before, and after 4 hours of monitoring, they sent me home, but I had to go back Sunday for another one. Apparently my blood pressure was up and down, and my platelets were dropping slightly. Not to mention my edema was becoming disgusting. Giant feet, giant legs. Signs of preeclampsia. It only gets worse, they said. They gave me a choice on Sunday: deliver that day or stay overnight and wait for my actual doctor to return from vacation and discuss with him. I stayed overnight in the high-risk unit; Akhil stayed with me. At 8:30 a.m. on Monday we decided with my doc to go for the open slot at 10.

The delivery went fine - very quick! It was a bizarre experience. Your entire body is so numb you can see them lifting something heavy about 3 feet from your head and then you realize - oh my god, those are my legs! Like they've become unattached from your body or something. Then they're cutting, and all of a sudden, these fully formed humans come out and you just can't believe what you're seeing. First it was Wyatt, who looked absolutely nothing like what we'd expected. Some say he resembles my father? And then Liv, who is such a girly girl, you could see her eyelashes from across the room.

They let Akhil hold them for a photo or two then whisked them away to the nursery. I went into recovery and proceeded to have a hemorrhage about an hour later. That put me back in the OR, where I learned to revere my OB - and the incredible team of nurses who took care of me all day long and all week for that matter. I was in high risk two more days, unable to really do anything, with bags of blood and magnesium sulfate and other stuff hooked up to my wrist, exhausted, bloated, and in no shape to see or feed little babies. I didn't see them again until Day 2, and then, only once.

By Day 3, I was feeling pretty good, and they transferred us to a nicer, larger recovery room where we stayed 2 more days and had the babies with us the rest of the time. That's when we really started to try to get to know these little people. Who's fussy (Liv), who's chill (Wyatt), and who looks like whom in our families (no one, really???? So far).

Meanwhile I have to give a massive shout-out to the nursing staff at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, who are incredible. In our isolation from the outside world for 5 days, they tended to my every need and then some and gave us unbelievable training all week on feeding, swaddling, nursing, sleeping... it was like a free week of Extreme Baby Boot Camp, and had I not had a C-section we would have missed out on all that. It also sort of warmed up our psyches for the intense life change we were about to undergo. It's true, the pregnancy really WAS a blip. These last 3 weeks are when the true work has begun. We feed every 2-3 hours, round the clock, and the kitchen has become a conveyer belt of bottle prep, pumping, washing, sterilizing, feeding, repeat, repeat, repeat. I lost all but about five pounds of the forty I gained by the end of my first week home, and can see my ankle and knee bones again. I've also been out for several short walks, twice with the twins in their enormous, new Chicco Together Cortina stroller. I stop and think about how uncomfortable those last few weeks and days of pregnancy were so I can relish my reclaimed ability to sleep, eat and move comfortably now. Well, sleep is an exaggeration - let's say, "catnap" - sleep is a distant memory. We're hoping to find a nanny to come and help out at the end of the Sept., when Akhil is back at work and our visitors have all gone home. And life resumes. With twins!