Ready for Summer

It's almost June, and the weather is finally starting to get warmer here.  That is very exciting for me because the girls have some very cute summer clothes.  We tried not to buy too many clothes in advance because, before they were born, we had no idea how big the girls would be by summer time.  After they were born, we had no idea how fast they would grow.  For the record, they're growing pretty fast:) 

When they were born, Harper was 6 lbs 6 oz and 21.5 inches long (she wasn't actually this tall - she measured shorter at her first well baby appointment.  This was most likely because her head started to round out).  Tannah was 7 lbs 7 oz and 20.5 inches long.  At their 5 week appointment, Harper weighed 9 lbs 2 oz and was 22 inches long, and Tannah weighed 10 lbs 3.5 oz and was 22.5 inches long.  They'll be eight weeks on Friday, and they are still growing like crazy.  I'm excited to find out their current stats at their two month appointment next week.

Most of their summer clothes are either size 3-6 months or 6 months.  We had an 80+ degree day last weekend, so we decided to try out the warm weather clothes.  They're still a little big, but it looks like our estimates were pretty good.

When I sent the next picture to my family, my dad sent a message back saying, "Dad, she's touching me!"  This was a common complaint from me and my sister during our frequent road trips as children.  My sister really liked to spread out all over the back seat of the car, which generally meant that she had her feet or legs or something on me.  However, if I tried to put any part of my body on her side of the seat she was not happy.

Apparently my girls have the same mindset.

And neither was very happy by the end of the photo shoot.

Adventures in Swaddling

The nurses at the hospital where the girls were born taught us how to swaddle using receiving blankets.  When they did it it, the babies were swaddled up nice and tight, and they actually stayed swaddled.  When we did it, the babies busted out in about three minutes:

We tried it at home with varying amounts of success.  Please note that these pictures were taken very shortly after swadding the girls.  They never stayed in the blankets for long.



Then we discovered the wide variety of blankets that are specifically made for swaddling.  One of my friends had given us two Summer Infant Swaddle blankets.  They have a pouch for the babies feet and velcro tabs that don't come loose if you have wiggly babies like we do.  They were a life saver for the first few weeks.

Unfortunately, the girls are getting longer and stronger.  Their feet are hitting the bottom of the pouch, and Harper somehow managed to work her arm out of the blanket.

Another friend had given us two Miracle Blankets, which were a little too big for the girls when then were smaller, but we decided to try them out now that they are getting bigger.  They also have a pouch for the baby's feet, but they have "wings" to confine the arms and then fabric that wraps around the baby a few times.  They're really nice, but I found Tannah like this the other day:

Her arms were still swaddled, but she had managed to get her legs out of the pouch.  I've also found her with just one let out.  I'm wondering if that means that it's time to stop swaddling, or if it means we just need to wrap them tighter?

Adventures in Shopping

Getting the girls out of the house for a shopping trip (or really for any reason) is quite the undertaking.  I generally feed them right before we leave, so I try to make sure that I'm ready to go before we start a feeding.  I feed the first baby, put her in her car seat, then repeat with the second  baby.  Generally, the first baby doesn't really like being put in her car seat (or anywhere other than my arms), so we have to deal with some tears.  Both girls are fine once you pick the car seat up or just rock it a little.  They almost always fall asleep when the car starts moving or if I take them on a walk in the stroller.

We're currently using a tandem stroller that a friend of mine loaned us.  It's very nice for right now because the car seats fit into it.  We also have a side-by-side stroller that I'm really excited to use, but the girls are still to little for it.  The tandem stroller is a big beast of a stroller.  It definitely attracts attention:

We get a lot of comments when we go out with that stroller.  The first thing everyone asks is, "are they twins"?  Um, yes.  The next one is, "one boy and one girl"?  I can understand this when one or both of them are dressed in a gender neutral outfit, but when they are wearing pink and both have hot pink blankets, it kind of throws me.  Another popular question is, "did you know you were having twins"?  This one kind of floors me because how could you possibly not know that you were having twins if you are receiving any sort of prenatal care.  At the very latest you would find out at about 20 weeks at the anatomy scan.  If your doctor misses a second baby during that scan, you need to find yourself another doctor.  Wei-Yand pointed out that the people who ask that question tend to be older women, who might not have had a routine ultrasound when they were pregnant.  Anyway, we get lots of comments.

Last Saturday, Wei-Yand and I decided to take the girls out to run errands.  We decided to try using the baby carriers rather than pushing the double stroller.  Wei-Yand took Tannah in the Baby Bjorn, and I carried Harper in the Moby wrap.

It worked out pretty well other than that I forgot to put socks on Tannah.  Wei-Yand pointed out that they probably would have just fallen off in the store had she had them on anyway.  I also need to work on a new wrap with the Moby so Harper has a little more fresh air.  She has enough head control now that I don't have to wrap her head up quite as much.  

Wei-Yand protested to taking the picture in the liquor department, but that was our last stop, and we hadn't gotten a picture of the Moby yet.  This is not to say that having twins has driven me to drink.  Although I have enjoyed being able to have a glass of wine every now and then now that I'm not pregnant anymore, we were actually picking something up for someone else.

I also didn't actually make it into the next two stores because I needed to feed the girls, and then it started to rain.  It just seemed like a better idea to hang out in the van with the girls rather than take them out in the rain.

I'd also like to note that we only got one comment while at the store.  Since each of us only had one baby, it was a little easier to miss the fact that we had twins since we weren't always right next to each other.  Don't get me wrong, I don't mind getting comments, but it adds time to a shopping trip when so many people want to chat and ask questions.  These days, when I'm in a store, I'm generally on a mission to get done as quickly as possible in order to get home before the babies need to eat again.

I apologize for the lack of cute baby pictures in this post.  More to come soon!

You Can't Spoil a Newborn Baby

 I've read this mantra many times, and I've repeated it to Wei-Yand more than once over the past six weeks.  However, I now know that you actually can spoil a baby.  Just have Grandma and Grandpa come to visit.

Grandpa and Tannah

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit last weekend, and the girls hardly got put down.  Let me first say that I don't mind.  One of biggest concerns with having twins is that I can't give the girls as much attention as they would get if they weren't twins.  There's always another baby to feed or bathe, etc.  I can't hold both of them all day long like some moms do with their single babies, so my girls end up sitting in the swing or bouncy chairs more than I would like.  Therefore, when I have another pair of hands available to help out, I readily let them snuggle one (or both of the babies).  However, the girls got used to this over the weekend:

Grandpa and Tannah



Grandpa and Harper

Grandpa and both girls

Grandpa's favorite phrase for the weekend was, "Gimme that baby". 

This made for a slightly rough Sunday afternoon and Monday after Grandma and Grandpa left and the girls still wanted to be held all the time.  Unfortunately, we're back to the swing and bouncy chairs now that it's just me at home with them during the day.  However, we can handle a little spoiling now and then when this is the result:

Grandma and Grandpa can come back to visit any time they want! 

We don't like shots!

 The girls turned five weeks last Friday, and we had a check-up with their pediatrician.  We had to visit pretty frequently when they were born because they were losing too much weight, so we're off of the normal schedule a little bit.  I'm happy to report that the girls are having no problems gaining weight now.  Harper was 9 lbs 2 oz, and Tannah was 10 lbs 3.5 oz.  They are healthy little girls. 

I'm not so happy to report that they had to get a shot at this appointment.  It's hard to say who enjoyed it the least.  While the girls had the deal with the pain of the shot, I had to watch my babies faces change from happiness to pain as the needle went in.  Needless to say, all three of us were crying when all was said and done.  Luckily my mom was visiting, and she came to the appointment with us.  We were both able to hold a baby to comfort them after their shots.  I've already decided that Wei-Yand needs to go into work late for their next appointment because they have to get two shots then.  That will not be a fun day.

This week they each got a shot in their left leg.  They also got Tweety Bird bandaids.

They seem to have recovered well.

Of course, snuggles with Grandma help:)

Calling in Reinforcements

If you want to see a total meltdown, try telling your wife, who had twins less than three weeks previously, on your third day back to work, that you have to go to Germany the next week.  That's not pretty.  Luckily, I have amazing family and friends, who stepped up to the plate to help out.  Also, Wei-Yand was none to happy about having to travel so quickly after the girls were born, and the trip got pushed back a week, which was good for everyone.

Wei-Yand left Monday morning and returned Friday afternoon.  I know that I could have handled taking care of the babies by myself during that time, but when your hormones are still out of control and you're being double teamed by two babies, it seems very, very difficult.  Let me say at the outset that Harper and Tannah are very good babies.  They are sweet and adorable, and I couldn't love them more.  They also cry, as babies generally do.  When you have twins there are two levels of crying: tag team crying and double teaming.  Tag teaming is when they alternate being upset/fussy.  Double teaming is when they are both going at it at the same time.  This is the worst, as I only have so many hands, and while it's hard to pick up two babies at the same time, it's even harder to put them down.  If I manage to pick both of them up, I often end up holding them until Wei-Yand gets home.  Luckily, they don't really get fussy until around 5:00 pm.  This is when I really look forward to having a second set of hands.


When I called my mom (there might have been some crying involved) to tell her about Wei-Yand's travel plans, she immediately formulated a plan.  I would take the ferry to Michigan while Wei-Yand was gone.  I would still be on my own while my parents were at work, but I would have help at night.  Unfortunately, that same day the ferry launch date was pushed back into May, so I would have to drive to get to Michigan.  Again, that would be doable, but logistically, the idea of driving two babies through Chicago by myself was a little daunting.  I would have to stop at least once, but probably twice, to feed them.  What if I needed to use the restroom?  There were multiple issues with this scenario.

This is when Aunt Brynne really stepped up.  She decided that she would take the train up and stay with me on Monday and Tuesday nights.  This meant that I also got help during the day.  Jackpot!  A good friend of mine volunteered to come spend Wednesday night with us, and my parents had already planned to come visit that weekend, so they came in on Thursday.  I so appreciated all of their help, it made the week a lot less stressful for me.  The girls enjoyed all of the attention and extra hands as well:)

Brynne and I actually took the girls our for lunch while she was here.  It was a very nice outing!

Lions and Tigers and Bears (and Giraffes and Monkeys) Oh My!

We received a lot of adorable clothes from our friends and family before the girls were born.  They have mostly been living in footed sleepers because it's a miracle if socks will stay on their feet for more than five minutes, and I don't want their cute little toes to get cold.  Some of my favorites are the sleepers that have little animals on the feet.  My parents gave us some cute newborn sleepers with ladybugs and monkeys on the feet.  Here's the ladybug sleeper (although you can't see the feet).

Look at how big it was on her.  We recently packed up all of our newborn footed sleepers because the girls are too long for them.  It was a sad day, but it means that they are fitting into the 3 month sleepers, and those are cute as well.

We have monkeys:

and giraffes:

and for good measure, we caught the beginnings of a smile last week. 

We've now been getting big smiles for the past week, and it makes me a very happy mommy!  They have the most beautiful smiles, and they melt my heart every time!

One Month

We got to celebrate both Mother's Day and the girls' one month birthday yesterday.  They didn't seem quite as excited about either occasion as I was, but it was still good.  Lots of moms seem to want to spend the morning sleeping in, but as I snuggled with my baby girls early yesterday morning, I realized that I'd much rather be spending time with them than sleeping.  Maybe next year I will sleep in.

In honor of yesterday's celebrations, I took lots of pictures.  As I mentioned before, I'm still getting the hang of this newborn picture taking thing.  We have a long way to go, but I got a few cute shots.

Harper

Tannah

Mommy with her girls

 And for good measure, a picture with my wonderful mom!

The girls are growing so fast.  Both girls are in size 1 diapers and have outgrown newborn sizes that have feet because they are too long.  We have a doctor's appointment on Friday, so I'm excited to see how much they've grown!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!



Harper and Tannah's Birth Story

The snowgoose need not bathe to make itself white.  Neither need you do anything but be yourself. – Lao-Tse

              I arrived at the hospital at 7:30 am for a scheduled induction.  I had to have monitors attached to continuously monitor the babies’ heart rates and my contractions.  This meant that I was pretty much confined to bed for the whole experience.  I was about 2 cm and 80% effaced.  The Pitocin drip started at 8:21 am.  As had been the case during my NST’s we had a hard time keeping Baby A’s heartbeat on the external monitor because she was down so low.  My OB came in, and we decided to break my water so they could attach an internal monitor to Baby A.  She broke my water at 8:52 am.  I felt a warm gush of liquid.  My cervix was 2.5 to 3 cm, 85% effaced, and Baby A was at -2 station. 

          I thought I might have felt my first contraction around 10:30.  I was dilated 4 + cm, 98-100 % effaced, and Baby A had moved to zero station.  I was very excited by my progress, but my contractions were becoming increasingly painful.

          I asked my family to leave the room at around noon because I was having really strong contractions and I wasn’t getting a break from them.  I was in more pain than I have ever felt before, so I asked for an epidural.  The anesthesiologist came in to insert the epidural around 12:30.  I had to lay on my side curled up as much as possible around my almost 39 week twin baby belly while dealing with extremely painful contractions.  Wei-Yand stood in front of me and held my hand.  Getting the epidural wasn’t really painful (although I did feel a bit of pain from time to time), but it was uncomfortable.  I could feel pressure and brief shoots of pain.  I was told that the epidural could take about ten minutes to take effect and that I could expect the contractions to start feeling shorter and less painful.  Ten minutes came and went, and the contractions were only getting worse.  The anesthesiologist had to redo the epidural, this time with me sitting up.  Apparently, he had to go in really deep (12 cm!), and the first one wasn’t deep enough.  I finally started to feel relief at around 1:15 pm.

          I let my family come back in the room, and they were surprised by how calm and happy I was.  I was so happy to not be in that much pain any more, that everything was great.  My OB came back to check on me at 2 pm, and I was complete!  10 cm and fully effaced.  I labored down to get ready for pushing.

          I had to deliver in the operating room because of the increased risk for an emergency c-section with twins.  We did a few practice pushes in the delivery room, and then we were ready to move to the OR to start pushing.  I was wheeled to the OR, and Wei-Yand  got dressed in his OR gear and met me there.  There were quite a few people in the OR.  We had the anesthesiologist, two OBs, a team of nurses for each baby, a respiratory therapist, and a few other nurses for me.   The epidural was still blocking all pain, so I couldn’t feel my contractions.

          I only pushed through three or four contractions, when I started to feel pressure to push.  After two more contractions, Harper Charlotte entered the world at 4:43 pm.  She let out the cutest little cry and Wei-Yand cut her umbilical cord.  OB #1 showed her to me before Harper was taken over to the warmer to be checked out.  I sent Wei-Yand over with her to take pictures, and I kept trying to lift my head as much as possible to see her.  She was such a good baby during the examination.  She hardly made a peep.  She weighed 6 lbs 6 oz and was 21.5 inches long.

          In the meantime, OB #1 performed an internal to determine Baby B’s position.  OB #2 performed an ultrasound.  OB #1 was concerned because she felt a hand presenting rather than Baby B’s head.  OB #2  confirmed that Baby B’s head was a little off to the left of my cervix.  Baby B was still pretty high up in my uterus, and her bag of waters was still intact.  The OBs discussed whether to break my water and see if her head would move down and her arm would move out of the way.  The problem with this option is that if her arm came down first, I would require an emergency c-section.

         Wei-Yand  brought Harper to me, and I got to hold my sweet baby girl for the first time while we waited to see if Baby B would move into position.  The OB’s decided to break my water, and the nurses prepped the room for a c-section.  This was a little scary because I really didn’t want to have both a vaginal birth and a c-section. 

          OB #1 broke Baby B’s water.  I didn’t feel anything this time.  Luckily, Baby B’s arm moved out of the way, and her head moved into position.  Unfortunately, she was still high up. My contractions slowed down, and I moved back to the laboring bed and asked to feed Harper.  My nurse helped to position her, and I nursed her for about 20 minutes.  The nurses had restarted the Pitocin, and nursing Harper helped increase my contractions.   I noticed that I could feel the contractions again, and we realized that the anesthesiologist had turned off my epidural.   A little after 6 pm, OB #1 decided I should push again to see if Baby B would move down further into the birth canal.  However, Baby B had a different idea.  Every time I pushed, she slipped up rather than down.  OB #1 presented the option of performing a c-section, but since the baby and I were both doing fine, I wanted to wait to see what would happen.  My nurse was great; she was a real advocate for giving me time to see if Baby B would move down.  Since we didn’t know how long it would take for Baby B to move down, we decided I could move back to the labor and delivery room to labor down.  At around 7:30, the anesthesiologist bolstered my epi, and I held Harper while we moved back to my labor and delivery room where my family was waiting.  Everyone was instantly in love with her.  She slept almost the whole time while the family passed her around because everyone wanted to hold her all the time.  At about 8:00, my cervix had dilated to 10 again, and Baby B was at 0 station.  I nursed Harper again to help increase the strength and frequency of my contractions, which I again couldn’t feel.

          It was time to push a little after 9 pm.  Since I only had one baby inside me at that point in time, OB #1 decided I could stay in the labor and delivery room for the delivery since it was the equivalent of a singleton pregnancy.  I decided to let my mom stay in the room with me and Wei-Yand.  My mom held one leg while I pushed, and Wei-Yand stayed up by my head to support me.  I only pushed for a few contractions, and Tannah Claire joined us at 9:21 pm.  She weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and was 20.5 inches long.  My mom said that Tannah looked at her as soon as she came out, and Wei-Yand cut her umbilical cord.  Tannah was just as perfect as her twin sister, and I can’t imagine being more in love with them.

          The four and a half hours between my girls was very long, but worth it to me to have the delivery that I wanted.  I think my Mom jinxed us because earlier in the day she had asked how far apart twins usually were and what was the longest the OB had seen between twins (8 hours!).

         

Pregnancy Highlights

I found out that I was pregnant on August 7, 2010.  We had been trying for about five months, and I knew it was too early to test, but I did it anyway.  We had an early loss in May, so I tried not to get too excited when I saw that faint pink line, but it was impossible not to be excited.  I called my OB first thing Monday morning and went in for beta testing to make sure that the pregnancy was progressing normally.  My first beta was 105, which is pregnant.  In a healthy pregnancy, the beta will double in about 48 hours.  I went back on Wednesday, and my beta was 264!  My excitement was pretty much out of control, and my parents happened to be in town that day, so Wei-Yand and I told them our exciting news at dinner that night.

My OB knew that I was still very nervous, so she scheduled me for an ultrasound at 5w1d.  I remember craning my neck to try to see the screen while the sonographer was scanning me.  I also remember her asking me if I had undergone fertility treatments, but I didn't think much of it at that point in time.  She finally turned the screen toward me and pointed to a dark circle with a little white spot inside of it.  She said that the circle was a gestational sac, and we could see a yolk sac inside that would eventually be the placenta.  I stared at the screen and saw that there was a second black circle.  I asked what that was, and she told me that she wasn't sure.  She couldn't call it a gestational sac because there wasn't a yolk in it, but that didn't mean that one wouldn't develop because it was still so early.  Basically there were two possibilities: 1) that sac would disappear for a variety of reasons, or 2) we were having twins!

Because of the possibility of twins, I went back for a second ultrasound at 7w2d.  This time, Wei-Yand came with me.  It only took about 30 seconds for the sonographer to say, "Congratulations!  You're definitely pregnant, and it's twins."  Since we knew that was a possibility, I don't think I was quite as shocked as I would have been otherwise, but finding out we were having twins was still a surprise.  We got to see two beautiful little hearts beating away on the screen, but you can't see much else at that point in a pregnancy. 

I was ready to start discussing names right away, but Wei-Yand thought we should wait.  He suggested names like Mango Freeze and Mazda in order to dissuade me from discussing it non-stop.

Morning sickness set in right around that time, and it was pretty rough until about week 23.  Everything continued to progress normally.  I got to hear one heartbeat at 11 weeks.  We couldn't tell for sure if we heard the second one, but their heart rates were very close for most of the pregnancy, so we might have heard both.  I got to see the babies again at 16 weeks, and they actually looked like babies!  It was so exciting to get to see them and get that visual reassurance that things were progressing well.

Baby A - 16 weeks

 Baby B - 16 weeks

We had our anatomy scan the day after Thanksgiving at 20 weeks.  My mom and Wei-Yand both came.  I had a feeling that both babies were girls, and my instincts turned out to be correct.  We also found out that both babies were healthy and measuring big for their gestational age.

I had lots of extra ultrasounds throughout my pregnancy because all twin pregnancies are considered high risk and my doctors wanted to closely monitor the babies' growth to make sure that one didn't start lagging behind the other.  Starting at 32 weeks, I also had a non-stress test every Tuesday and a bio-physical profile every Friday.  During the NST's I had monitors strapped to my belly to monitor the babies' heart rates and to monitor contractions.  The BPP's were ultrasounds that looked at the babies' movement, practice breathing, and amniotic fluid levels.  The babies were rock stars and passed every test.  Baby A did like to be stubborn sometimes.  She was often sleeping during the BPP's so we had to prod her to get her to move.

One of the big risks with a twin pregnancy is pre-term labor, so I was certain that the babies were going to come early.  The babies, however, had different plans.  I worked until 36 weeks, and I thought there was a very good chance I would have my babies within the first we or so of being on leave.  I got put on bedrest the day my maternity leave started, and I ended up having to schedule an induction for 38w6d.  I never thought I would carry the girls for that long, but I'm very grateful that I did.  I spent a lot of time on the internet during my pregnancy, and I read so many stories about twins being born early and requiring NICU time.

My last bump pic - 38 weeks

Pictures for Grandpa

Harper and Tannah are my parents' first grandchildren.  To say that they were excited about their impending grandparent-hood is an understatement.  While my dad might not have been as overtly excited as my mom and my sister, he's the one who starts complaining if I don't send him updated pictures every few days.

I noticed that he has been forwarding these pictures to others, so I decided to create a blog where anyone who wants to can visit to see the cuteness that is my daughters (not that I'm biased or anything).  I'm not promising daily posts.  We are still adjusting to life with newborns who sometimes prefer to be snuggled for an hour or two in the middle of the night rather than let their mom sleep.  I will, however, try to post at least a few pictures and notes about our adventures with our little bundles of joy.  My next few posts will also probably be documenting some important parts of my pregnancy.  It was such an amazing experience, and I don't want to forget any of it!

I will note that we're still working on our baby picture taking skills.  I've learned that it's pretty much impossible to get two newborns to look at the camera at the same time:)  Hopefully, we'll get better.

Aunt Brynne and Grandma and Grandpa are all coming to help out next week because Wei-Yand has to travel to Germany for work.  The girls are getting excited for their visit!  Without further ado, here are the pictures:

Grandpa gave the girls their leopard outfits for Christmas.  He calls it baby camo.  I call it adorableness.