Week 14, sick days at home

The babies are sick.  Two days in daycare and they get sick.  Zane has a double ear infection and Lily has a single infection in her left ear.  She was pretty ill on Tuesday so we spent the day at home recovering.  She was very happy to have mommy all to herself and be away from her noisy brother.

Lily laying bed, trying to chill out

No more pictures please!!

Ya, that's phlegm, Zane coughed it up onto my shoulder...yum.

He's been pretty tired so he has collapsing into his crib and going to sleep

Our visit to the doctor was a good one though.  Babies are still gaining weight, Zane is 15lbs 11oz and Lily is 11lbs 6oz.  Ya, he's a beast.  We now have pink medicine in the fridge so I feel like I'm officially a mom now.  Funnily enough, the smell of it brought back memories of all my childhood sicknesses.  

Hurricane Ike- Now in HD!

We are ok!

Wow, what a scary night.  It started with a soft wind and ended with bangs, snaps and crashes.  

Zane had just started crying at around 10:30, we're trying to push the little guy a bit further into the night for that night feeding so Jason said, no I'm going to wait to warm up the bottle.  10 seconds later Zzzzzttt!  Power outage.  Now we have a screaming baby wanting a bottle and we're having to warm it up the old fashioned way with hot water (which is not flowing fast due to a downed pump station in Houston).  Babies get fed, we all hunker down for a long night.

The wind ripped through our neighborhood with a "Wizard of Oz" like sound that was constant for about 4 hours.  Through our windows in the bedroom there would be brilliant flashes of blue light that lit up the room like daylight. This happened over and over as transformer after transformer blew out with the sound of POP! ZZZZZTTTT ZZZZZTTTTT ZZTT ZZTT.  Trees were snapping all over the place and the wind made outdoor canopies bang against the houses.  The rain sounded as if it was hitting water instead of concrete which made our flooding fears heighten.  Luckily, we did not flood.  Jason went out during the eye to clear the storm drains of all the leaves and debris.

We didn't sleep much.  But, the babies did.

We made it through the night with no power, the next day was a bit more challenging.  Hot babies are cranky babies.  We were about to make a decision as what we were going to do for the next week or so (Mayor White said it maybe two days or 3 weeks before we got power), when the hummm of the large fan in the bedroom kicked on and the microwave beeped.  WE HAD POWER!  How in the world did we get power?!?  Why were we so fortunate?!?  Then we remembered, we are on the same power grid as the Texas Medical Center...priority clients.  Woohoo!!  Many of our friends still don't have power and some can't get to their houses.  Parts of I-10 look like a lake.  Hopefully the water will recede soon, and clean up can begin.

Our daycare was hit by the storm too, was damaged, and is currently closed... so that's a whole 'nother situation we need to deal with.

short clips of damage on our block and the bayou next door (too close to the top for my liking!)

Riding out the hurricane

Today we spent our Friday making sure we were prepared for Hurricane Ike.  The kids don't know who Ike is but they are glad he's making a visit so they didn't have to go to daycare today.

We even went and took a long walk around the neighborhood since it is finally cool enough and there is a nice wind so they babies don't overheat.  Tonight is going to be fun, but I have a feeling this one may dive north like Rita did a few years ago.  But if it doesn't, I guess we'll be hanging out in the bathroom (it's the only room without windows :) )

Little Tidbits at 12 weeks

Here are some things I've learned in the past 12 weeks and thought I'd share

* You never realize how loud opening a ziploc bag is until you have two sleeping babies in a room with you

* It is possible to hit the trifecta more than once in a day (peed on, pooped on, and spit up on all in one feeding)

* No matter how much you think you know, you will never understand 'being a parent' until you are one

* I no longer judge any methods used by parents...whatever works for you, do it! (my daughter sleeps in her swing all day, sue me)

* It is not possible to describe the melancholy feeling when you are the grocery store in pajama pants, tshirt, no makeup, no shower, buying diapers and formula as fast as possible, and you look over to see kids your age buying beer and salsa for the party that they're throwing that night.

* But when you rush home and see your kids smile, you know the beer and salsa aren't worth it.

* No matter how careful you walk around a nursery to check on the babies at night, you will hit or bump something

* Babies can smell you!

* Having twins will make me fill my birth control pills on time, every time

* Books on the developmental advancement of babies were written just to make you feel behind

* Even though I, shut the door and check the room each night before going to sleep on the pull out couch in the nursery, I can still wake up with Bailey sleeping next to me...how does that cat do it! 

* Before being a mom I swore I would never bring a baby into bed with me during the night.  But when its 2am and you've gotten up at least 10 times to stick a pacifier back in, snuggling up is not such a bad option and I do it anyway, but not everynight 

(it's amazing how bad babies just want to sleep next to you!  Although I'm not a hippie by any sense the parenting books that talk about co-sleeping with your infant do make sense (I mean, every animal in the world does it, humans are the only animals that need our "space", so we invented cribs))

* Also, it is impossible to truly 'sleep' with a baby lying beside you.

* No matter who you ask, every persons' child is sleeping through the night but yours

* Pacifiers can get stuck in baby ears

* No one, no book or no show could ever prepare you for how difficult and stressful the first 12 weeks of raising a baby are.

* The louder and more panicky the cry is directly proportional to how long it takes to warm up a bottle

* It's not fair that celebrities get day AND night nanny's

* Blow drying your hair IS a luxury

* Babies will always get the hiccups at the 2am feeding

* Putting a little sugar on your finger and letting the baby suck it will not cure the hiccups, it instead makes them vomit all over you

The babies started daycare today.  Mom is doing ok...but not great.

I had to go back and drop off some of Lily's medicine, both babies were screaming their heads off, until they saw/heard me.  They instantly calmed and stared me down as I backed out the door.  Talk about heartbreak.

10 weeks old

This week in baby news:

Zane sleeps better on his stomach...period.  He will not sleep on his back for naps no matter how tight we swaddle him.  So daytime sleeping is on his stomach (b/c I can watch him).  However, at night, sleeping on his back is a must.  He puts up quite a fight and wakes up a lot but all the books etc. have scared us enough to think he's going to die if he sleeps on his stomach at night.  As soon as he has the ability to roll himself over from his back to his stomach, it will be totally safe, and we may get more sleep.

Lily is doing...well...ok.  Her reflux has improved with the thickening of her formula but she still has a terrible gastro-colic reflex (curls up into a ball when eating b/c her intestines and digestive track start moving things about).  Sometimes feeding sessions are short and easy, and other times it's a mess.  The other night it took an hour and a half to get 3 oz down her to which she started screaming afterwards, because she was so tired.  

On Friday night, she threw-up after a 2am feeding in her crib.  I could hear it come out and it's amazing how fast my feet can hit the floor and get to her.  I grabbed her as her arms and legs flailed about with her eyes the size of quarters.  I had to quickly grab the bulb sucker and suck out her throat and nose so she could start breathing again.  Once she did the poor baby screamed for over 20 minutes absolutely terrified from the ordeal.  Her disposition has been getting worse as well, she's 6 weeks old biologically which is marked as "the peak of fussiness" and boy is it that.   Each night at 7:20pm, she starts curling up into a little ball and begins screaming...if we did nothing about it, this screaming would not stop until 8:30pm.  

So, what I have to do (each and every night) is swaddle her, put her on her side, sway her back and forth, hold her ear near my running hair dryer and give her her pacifier to suck on.  It instantly calms her down, but unfortunately I'm stuck doing this for an hour.  During the "cuddle cure" event, her eyes are closed and she looks like she's sleeping, however, if I stop the hairdryer for even a second, her eyes pop open and the screaming starts again (I watch that clock like a hawk waiting for 8:30).  I've ordered a white noise machine that will hopefully replace the hair dryer soon.  Her "colic" will resolve itself in 45 more days...at least that's what they tell me.  Meanwhile I keep a calendar to which I mark off the days until she and I are free from the night time ritual.

In other news:
We have the night off! Yes, NeeNee and Pop decided to take the babies for the night to allow Jason and I some free time...and guess what happened on our way home.  We got a flat tire. sigh.  It's God's way of saying, yes go have some fun, but not too much fun, you are parents now.  Anyway, we fixed it...in the rain.

Well, since I have time, I decided to upload some pics and videos

Here is a vid of a few of the babies visitors that we captured.  Included are visits from Aunt Jodie, Christy and Meredith.  

Here's a video of playtime with the twins.  We're trying to expose them to as many genre's of music as possible during the day.  This day happened to be country music day.  Looking at the video myself it seems like we're being kind of rough with them.  But I promise you, they are tough little ones and love this type of play.  Don't judge :)

I start back to work in a couple of weeks, so I'm trying to get as much playtime in as possible...pretty soon, I'll just have to cherish and hang on to the weekends.

I love the weekends

Why do I love the weekends? Because daddy's home.  Stress is gone from the house (and from me) and the babies are so much happier.  Happy 9 weeks old to the babies this week.

We've had some major milestones this week.  The Babies are alive!!!  They know we exist! 

We've been getting smiles, coo's and a few giggles.  It's so nice to witness some of the hard work pay off.  There is nothing like the feeling of your little baby finally looking at you and thinking, hey! I know who you are, and you're pretty cool.

Zane loves his daddy.

Mom's attempt to start teaching self-soothing (the puppy is your friend, when you wake up from sleep, look at the puppy and be comforted...)

Lily in her boppy just hanging out

For those of you curious our feed/sleep schedule has changed this week.  Babies eat at 6pm then 10:30pm, then 2:30am, then 6am.  We decided to stop waking them after they fell asleep at night (around 8pm, even though their bedtime is 7pm, they will normally just cry and fuss from 7-8) just to see what would happen.  Well they dropped a feeding and rearranged the night a bit (pushed the 9pm feed, dropped the midnight feed, and moved the 3am feed up by half hour).  

BUT we have a small problem.  When we feed them at 10:30pm they are still nice and drowsy and go right back to bed.  However at the 2am feed, both of them wake up excited, smiling and ready to party. It takes quite an effort to get them back to sleep (sometimes up until 3:30am for Lily).  But then at 6am, they are back to being sleepy and not awake.  I gotta figure out what is triggering the party mentality at 2am and the drunken baby attitude at 6am.  Mama don't want none of that.

Anyone with suggestions?

ummmmm...ok

Well...I don't know what to do with myself.  The twins were sleeping through most of their feedings at night (we had to rub feet and pinch cheeks to get them to down their bottles) so Jason and I just decided to let them sleep instead of waking them for their scheduled 3hr feeds during the night last night.    Well...they're sleeping....and not waking up.  ummm... ok.  

Apparently doing "Baby Wise" works.  So for you expecting or want to be expecting parents out there, I guess I highly recommend using the Baby Wise system of baby management.

The theory says that during weeks 7-9 if you follow the system, your baby will start sleeping through the night or at least drop a feeding.  So far, so good.  

Could this mean sleep for Jason and I?  Maybe.  Everyone told us that things "get better" at about week 8.  I see a light at the end of the sleepless nights tunnel.

Happy 8 weeks old...

This is Zane's "No more formula, I"m full" face

Lily girl sleeping away

Her oooo! face

The most exhausted family you will meet today (notice the bags under the eyes...ya that's hot)

Happy 8 weeks old!

Feeding and burping... 6-7am, 9-10am, 12-1pm, 3-4pm, 6-7pm, 9-10pm, 12-1am, 3-4am....

Miss Lil' and Daddy

Everybody scream!!!! and fuss!!!!! and scream!!!

Yes that is what life is like in the Hawthorne household as of late.  There is something called the 4-6 week fussy period peak.  Since you have to age adjust according to their due date (not birthdate) our twins are biologically 4 weeks old now.  So, we are getting to experience lots of crying, fussing, screaming, crying and more crying.  Feeding times are nice because they stop and they get calm for about 15 mins following the feeds...but then...bring it on!  

Apparently (as we have learned from book after book) napping is a skill.  You have to teach babies how to nap so that they stay well rested.  As soon as babies realize the world exists, they do not want to sleep, it's much too interesting to look around.  So naptime is a battle to convince the little ones to sleep.  They don't really fill you in on that part in Baby 101.

In other news not related to fussing...both Zane and Lily rolled over this week.  On Monday Zane rolled from his stomach to his back and then today, Thursday, Lily did the same.  I bet Lily would have done it sooner, I just had not put her on her stomach in almost a week due to some spit up issues.  Zane took about 5 minutes to grunt and push to get himself over for the first time, but Lily just plopped right over (which is why I think she would have done it sooner than today if I had let her).

Ok...back to babies

Has it already been 7 weeks! / Has it ONLY been 7 weeks!

Mr. Zane

Miss Lil'

Tomorrow the twins will be 7 weeks old.  Somedays it seems like its been years and other days it seems like it has just flown by.  Babies are becoming more aware that they are not alone in this world which causes some difficulty at nap time.  It is much more interesting to investigate the new world around them than close those eyes and go to sleep.  Personalities haven't changed much either.  Lily is laid back and happy most of the time and Zane has a beef with the world. When you wake Lily up to feed her she stretches and smiles a huge grin.  When you wake up Zane, he looks at you with a death stare and screams.  Proof that personalities have genetic components!!  Will update more later but if you want to know whats going on....Eat (30 mins), Wake (30 mins), Sleep (2 hours (that is if they sleep))...Lather, Rinse, Repeat....every 3 hours round the clock.

The Dayz of Haze

The first few weeks of life with newborns are well...nuts.  There is absolutely no sleep on your part and so much to do.  All the books say...sleep when the babies sleep...but the babies have to sleep for one (and not cry/fuss) and secondly, it is quite hard to just lay down for a nap in the middle of the day for 30 minutes especially when your mind is on hyper alert.  However, we are very fortunate because we have the support and help of our families to get us through this very tough stage of their little lives.  Without them, we'd be lost.

Now on to babies.  

Zane is a strapping young boy.  He eats like each meal is his last and is so strong.  He lifts his head up and can almost pull his whole body up with his arms.  He is quite the baby though.  If there is crying to be had, it's him.  The other night he cried for 4 hours straight...he just needs a little extra love and attention.

Lily is an angel.  She sleeps very well, rarely cries and if she does it is because something is obviously wrong or she is uncomfortable.  She is a dream baby and we are very thankful for her disposition while trying to deal with Mr. Cranky and Impatient.  She's put on a lot of weight and is filling out quite nicely.

Overall things are going amazingly well.  We're tired and exhausted but these days will soon be over and some day they will sleep through the night in about 3 weeks (or so the books say).  We average about 1-4 hours of sleep a day and we're still trying to figure out why when the babies are getting 16+ hours of sleep a day.  Funny how that happens :)

Click link for some pics

Here is a quick picture dump. These pictures are the day of delivery through Monday June 30th.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CcNmzNsxaMWEO&emid=sharview&linkid=link2

WE HAVE BABIES!

All..babies are here. 

 

Delivered Thursday 6/19 at 4:25pm(Z) and 4:26pm(L) by c-section

Zane Gregory was 7lbs 5oz    19 3/4in long

Lillian Davis was 5lbs 4oz      18 in long

We're home and life is crazy.  We are on a strict 3 hour feeding schedule around the clock so forgive the brief update and the lack of pictures, but I promise as I heal, I will have more time to upload my pics and show our babies to the world.

Contract-shee-awn

So these are the results from my Non-Stress Test today at my doctors appointment.  The top set of wavy lines are the babies heartbeats.  Nice and steady with no big dips.   The bottom line measures my contractions.  As you can see my contractions are about 8 minutes apart (the wave is the contraction).  The doc wanted me to go get admitted to the hospital but I talked her out of it.  

My cervix is still way up there and undilated.  If I went to the hospital, they would admit me ($$$$) put a monitor on me, tell me that my contractions were 8 minutes apart, examine me and then tell me to go home and call if the contractions got closer together or more intense.  I live 5 minutes from the hospital so I'd rather just skip all that hoopla.  So I'm going to keep my feet up tonight, drink lots of water and keep my stopwatch going.  I really am a difficult patient...sorry docs.

36 weeks!!!

Can you believe that my belly is this big? I mean Good Lord.  How has it not split in half by now.  Behold, the amazing power of stretchable skin.  Today was an interesting day, I thought I was going into labor at around 10am because I had terrible cramps and it felt like the babies were about to fall out of me.  I rested a bit and the cramping went away and the babies retreated.  I have a doctors appointment tomorrow so I'm interested to see if my cervix has opened or thinned out...or if the weight of the babies is just too much for my little uterus to handle anymore.  Should be an informative visit none-the-less.  

There's a full moon on the rise

Tomorrow Tuesday June 17th is a full moon.  Why does this matter?

Well there is one of those Old Wives tales out there about the moon's gravitational pull sending women into labor.  The reason behind this theory is that the moon will effect the amniotic fluid the same way it effects oceans etc.  The moon's pull will make the amniotic sac break (water break) and send women into labor.  Now no evidence exists to prove this theory but much like many of the tales the old wives tell, some people will swear by this phenomenon.  As much as I would like to give these babies their eviction notices, I want them to hold out until June 22, so they can be born under the sign of Cancer.  If they are born under the sign of Gemini (the twin sign) they will have to put up with "oh you're a twin and a Gemini! That's so crazy!" their whole life...poor things.  

How do the babies grow?

Had my last appointment with Dr. Hare yesterday. It was also the last time I will get to see Lily and Zane in utero. Next time I lay eyes on them they will be out and in the world! Great news on the baby front. Lily weighs 5lbs 4oz and Zane weighs 5lbs 14oz so I am officially past 35 weeks and the babies are both over 5 pounds. Chances of them spending anytime in the NICU are very slim!

Lily has turned a little and instead of being breech she is now transverse, which may have helped her grow more these past couple of weeks but it sure has made it mighty uncomfortable. Zane is still stretched out like an L and his favorite activity is to try and stretch back (like he's in a recliner) and kill mom with the pain. He's also sitting right on top of my bladder which feels like I have a full bladder all the time, when in fact its empty.

They are still set to be delivered June 26th (13 more days!) but Dr. Hare hinted that my water may break before then because of their size.

Today is also my last day at work...feels very strange.

I'm big but not dirty...

yes that's me...well...minus the flowing blond hair and rockin' body...but yes, I am superwoman. I am growing life inside me. Had a quick doctors visit today. My belly is measuring 41 weeks (I'm actually 35), no protein in the ol' urine and things seem on the up and up. My OB doesn't seem to worry about me anymore because she said that I've been doing so well and my size is so big that if these babies came tonight, she thinks they'd be happy and healthy with no complications. She didn't even check my cervix b/c well if I'm dialated then I'm dialated, who cares now?!? (and thank goodness, those cervix checks are not the most comfortable things in the world). Tomorrow I have an ultrasound with the perinatologist to check on the babies growth. If they've gotten too big or have stopped growing...they may be here sooner than you think!

In addition to my quick vitals check I also had a GBS test strip. About 35% of women have Group B Streptococcus bacteria in their intestinal and vaginal area. It's completely benign however, if you are positive for this naturally occuring bacterial, there is a chance that you could pass it along to your baby. Unfortunately for babies it causes a serious illness. So, if you test positive for the bacteria, you will be administered Penicillin during labor and the baby will be given antibiotics as well.
The doc took an extra long q-tip and swabbed the southern area of my body and sent it off to the lab where they will streak the swab on a plate and see if it grows any colonies. Presence of colonies indicates that I have that bacteria. I'm willing to bet that I don't. Why? Because it just seems gross if I did and I'm not gross. Test results in a week. I'm also not worried because these babies are coming out of me through a different route, no trip down the tunnel for them.

You're still riding in cars!

This week we travelled to Galveston to say goodbye to our friend who is moving up to Dallas.  I can't believe I still think I can do these sort of things.  After I got home my ankles and hands were swollen like water balloons and I ended up crawling my way into bed for quite a while.  Apparently, the little bit of energy it takes to sit up right in a car for an hour is too much for my system.  pathetic huh.  Babies liked the car ride though, they slept the whole time, so it was a nice break for mom :)  But no amount of discomfort or swelling was  going to keep me from saying toodle-loo to the babies Auntie J....

34 weeks

Growing in fullness...sort of like pumping air into a beach ball that is already full.  I feel like my skin is getting tighter and tighter and soon, its just going to blow.

POP QUIZ!

Q:  How do you know you're 34 weeks pregnant with twins?

A: You split your once baggy pajama pants down the back when you sit down....