birthday

The professor and Joanne Seiff -and Harry and Sally, the dogs- are very pleased to announce the arrival of their twins!
(written by the professor, with small contributions from Joanne)

Note that we have chosen to follow Jewish custom and will not formally announce the names of our two baby boys until they are circumcised a few days after they are released from the hospital (in Yiddish, a circumcision is called a bris). Until then, we're calling them Lokshen and Kugel. (Lokshen Kugel means Noodle Pudding in Yiddish. When they get old enough for solid food, we suspect that the Kugel twins will love this stuff.)

Joanne went into labor at about 7 pm on Monday, May 30, we reported to St. Boniface hospital soon afterwards. After laboring naturally for about 10 hours, they began inducing Joanne. After 24 hours of increasing dosages, we concluded that the induction was not working, and Joanne decided that she was ready for a C-section after 36 hours of labor. Our two boys joined the world as we know it on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 just before 9 am.

Baby A weighed 5 lbs, 15 oz. and was 20 inches long.
Baby B weight 4 lbs., 3 oz. and was 18.5 inches long.

Baby A was released from the NICU within 2 hours of birth, and roomed in with Joanne in the hospital. Baby B is almost as long as his brother, is extremely active, and their heads are the same size, but Baby B is very thin. They are watching him carefully in the NICU to make sure he is feeding well and gaining weight, but everyone is encouraged by how vigorous he is. Joanne is recovering well. Her mother took turns with the professor when it came to staying in the hospital with her. Joanne and Baby A were released from the hospital on Saturday. Baby B may remain in the hospital a little longer, depending on how quickly he gains weight. So far, all signs are very encouraging! We hope Baby B will be able to join us at home sometime this week.

The dogs are thrilled by the new arrival and will be in for a surprise when Baby B comes home to add to their litter of puppies. Harry likes kissing babies and Sally points out (by barking, of course) every time when her baby is crying. They are quite the nannies.

As might be expected, Joanne is really worn out from the long labor and c-section, but is slowly trying to respond to emails and other online comments. Please don't be surprised if it takes her a while to respond to you.

Thanks to everyone who has shared their well wishes and congratulations with us!