Homecoming

May 31st is a special day in our household, because it is the day we brought Matt and Will home from the hospital after an extended stay of 5 weeks and 1 day. It also means that Chris and I have managed to take care of two strange and helpless beings for 365 days with only a few minor incidents. The fact that we are all still sane, alive and occasionally happy is a remarkable achievement.
The night before we brought Matt and Will home, Chris and I roomed in with the boys at the hospital. We had our own room within the nursery and could call a nurse at any time. We were responsible for feeding, diaper changes, taking temperatures, and giving medicine. In other words, we had to take care of our children. By ourselves. At a time when we would have rather been sleeping.
Those 12 hours or so were rough. At any given moment at least one baby was crying. We had never really heard the boys cry before. I remember calling for the nurse that night to ask her if something was wrong with Matt. We had gone through our routine of changing, feeding, etc. and he was still unhappy. I remember her looking at me and saying, "Well, he probably just wants to be held." And she scooped him up and he immediately stopped crying.
At this point, you're probably thinking "and they still let these idiots take TWO children home?" I know, I sometimes wonder the same thing.

Beach Boys

Our first family vacation with Matt and Will was a trip to St. Augustine Beach, FL for a week filled with lots of "firsts." First walk on the beach- check. First sea creature- check. First ocean encounter- check. First sandcastle- check. First taste of sand and shells- check. Photos to document all the firsts- check.
Matt and Will also got lots of quality time with their very proud grandfather Rich and his wonderful girlfriend Nancy. They met great uncle Jimmy and great aunt Karen for the first time and loved seeing their great aunt Marie again.
My dad also hosted a gathering at his house to show off the boys to his friends and neighbors and I was pretty shocked that they were completely unfazed by the large group and had no problem being cared for by one person after another. It sure was nice to have both arms free from baby holding because there was lots of great food to eat.
Most good moms would say the best part of their first family vacation was enjoying all the firsts and making memories that will last a lifetime. My favorite part? It would be a tie between the pan roasted sea bass, the shrimp and avocado salad and the orange cranberry cake.

Aim Low

If I could only give one piece of advice to expectant parents of twins, it would be to aim low. Never get your hopes up. Never set expectations. That way anything they do that is remotely good seems like a huge triumph. And we all need those victories.
We had no idea what to expect from Matt and Will on vacation, and as always they pleasantly surprised us. Most of the flights were uneventful, they behaved well in an unfamiliar condo and even slept (for the most part) in pack n plays in another room. They happily were passed around from person to person without so much as a whimper. We were able to take them to dinner with no fuss. I hate to admit this, but they were almost perfect!
This doesn't mean we'll become a world traveling family. And I know Chris would agree that the logistics of traveling with the boys was at times tough. So we will revel in our success and avoid any air travel with them for at least another year.
Enjoy the before, during and after photos! I'll post more about the actual trip sometime later this week.

And We're Off!

We're taking our first family vacation with the boys and have no idea what to expect. After the whole church experience a couple of weeks ago, I'm very afraid of how we're going to entertain them on the airplane. They are wonderful in car seats, but we were too cheap to purchase 2 additional seats and will instead be holding them on our laps. I have a feeling we might be begging to purchase those extra seats when it comes time to fly home.

Since I am not much of a planner, I didn't really think about how to keep them entertained while on the airplane. I finally did come up with two plans. Plan A- wing it and Plan B- Benadryl. Our ped told us to do a trial run with Plan B before the trip, so I tried it today. All it did was make 2 already fussy babies even more fussy. Looks like we'll be going with our trusty Plan A.

We tried to pack as light as possible and limited our bags to two checked and two carry ons since we are also bringing our stroller and car seats. Chris actually thinks we will all make it onto a terminal bus with everything in tow. I'll have to report back on that one.

Mother's Day

This Mother's Day will be very different than last year's. Instead of driving to the hospital at 7:00am to deliver milk and visit with the boys, I will be able to hear them wake up, babble and then summon me with their cries. Being able to walk into their nursery and be the first one to greet them good morning will certainly make tomorrow the best Mother's Day I've ever had.

Last year at this time, Matt and Will were 18 days old and closing back in on their birth weights. They were sharing an open air crib and we were even attempting to breastfeed once per day. From this point on it was smooth sailing (until we brought them home of course). To commemorate my 2nd Mother's Day, here's my 1st photo holding both the boys.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms who read my blog! Whether your children are grown and now have kids of their own, or you've only carried a baby inside of you for a few short weeks, you are all mothers who deserve to be celebrated. May your day be filled with love and laughter!

Score: Will-1 Matt-1

Matt's been upset all week over the fact that Will won the last smackdown. He's been patiently waiting for just the right moment to retaliate. Today, while innocently drinking his bottle, he decided the time was right to even the score. Matt decided to take away the one thing that Will loves above all else- his food. As you can tell from the last picture, Will was a little surprised. He just can't comprehend why someone might want to play when there is eating to be done.

Virtual friends

When I was pregnant, I discovered the greatest place on the planet- babycenter.com. Whether you are TTC (trying to conceive) or a SAHM (stay at home mom), you can find your place on BBC (babycenter). Whenever I had a question I would log on to BBC and never even have to post a thing, because typically 100 other women had the same question and 200 women answered the call. If there's anything that women enjoy more than talking, it must be typing!

When I discovered I was pregnant with twins, I found a group of women who were also pregnant with twins and due around the same time. We were from all over North America and varied in age, profession, number of children and background but our common bond was our twin pregnancy. We were each others biggest cheerleaders. We celebrated each milestone, each pound gained, each day without morning sickness. One by one we all made trips to the hospital for pre-term labor or pre-eclampsia and one by one we started having our babies early.
Our group is still together, and we still celebrate our most notable achievements- setting a schedule, sleeping 8 hours, going on a date, surviving vacation. We don't check in as often as we used to, but it's so nice knowing that there are "friends" out there who share your same experiences. Isn't technology great?

Big boys!

I never thought I would be so happy to have children in the 2nd and 3rd percentiles for anything, but we are ecstatic that the boys are finally on the the growth chart for weight. Today was our 12 month appointment and the doctor was pleased with their recent weight gain. In just the last few weeks they have really packed it on. Today's stats:

Matt
18 lbs. 4.5 ounces
29 inches long

Will
18 lbs. 10.5 ounces
28.5 inches long

Typically at this age we would wean them off formula and onto whole milk, but our ped suggested we continue to use formula for another 3-6 months. This is what went through my head as he dropped that bomb- 3 1/2 cans of formula per week x $26.00 per can x and additional 12-24 weeks = holy-cow-that's-a-lot-of-darn-money!

There are many, many benefits to breastfeeding but let me tell you just a couple:
1. You save lots of money
2. You don't have to wash bottles

I'm pretty sure I'll come to terms with spending all of that money on formula, because after all I have a sugar daddy. Unfortunately my sugar daddy doesn't wash bottles, so that means my hands will be cracked and bleeding for another 3-6 months.

Holding Matt

May 5, 2006 was the first day I held Matt. He was 10 days old. Before that day came, I distinctly remember feeling an overwhelming need to hold him. It was hard on me to be able to go in and do kangaroo care with Will while Matt laid in his bed. Apparently the responsibility of being a parent to twins was already weighing heavily on me.

I have a feeling that someday we will be talking to our grown boys about the first 5 weeks of their lives and I'll slip up and mention that we first held Matt a full 5 days after we held Will. I can already hear the bantering that will ensue, and those 5 days will explain away everything that Matt did wrong throughout his whole life.

Weekend

The boys have been on a weight gain diet for the last few weeks since I discovered at Matt's last appointment that he still had not hit 17 pounds. I started pumping them full of formula until they were taking five 8 ounce bottles a day. I have a feeling it's paying off, but we'll find out tomorrow at their one-year check up. Since they've been drinking so much formula, we've noticed that they are also sleeping much better. We now put them down around 7:30pm and they don't wake up until 6:30 or 7:00 the next morning. For the last few days they've also taken a nap- something they rarely did in the first year. It is so nice to finally be on some sort of schedule.

Check out some photos from this weekend. Matt is on the left in each picture. I totally did not plan on Will matching Chris today, but we both got a chuckle out of it.

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia

I cannot tell you the number of discussions that my on-line twin mom buddies and I have had about Miss Marcia Cross. I'm sure she's a very nice person, but she's really starting to irritate me. So, Marcia if you are one of the 3 people who actually read my blog, I'm just going to apologize now.

Are you out of your mind? Are your hormones unbalanced? Are you feeling as though you must live up to Bree Van De Camp standards? Do you wish to make enemies of every twin mom in the country?

I'm still trying to get over the whole People magazine article. You know, the one where you made this remark... "Earlier in the day, Tom was dancing with Eden... we put on some Tchaikovsky and they were dancing to Swan Lake. That was just so (insert deep contented sigh) beautiful."

And this comment regarding bed rest... "I thought I might as well learn something so I got some books on tape- ancient Greek civilization, something on the symphony, Middlemarch."

Oh and remember this one... "I think we both feel happy that we're so prepared and have lived enough and been through enough that parenthood seems relatively easy."

Gosh my experiences have been so similar. Seriously, we could be BFF!

I can't tell you the number of times I have hoarsely sung "5 Little Monkeys" to a screaming baby in the middle of the night while we paced the floors, uh I mean "danced" together.

I didn't have time to listen to ancient Greek civilization books on tape while I was on hospital bedrest. I was too busy making my 30 minute round trip to the bathroom every hour. It's quite a chore to roll yourself out of bed and unhook 12 monitors, leads, pumps and plugs and then drag your IV pole across the room and back and hook yourself back up. The other 30 minutes of every hour was spent listening to the "thud, thud, thud, thud" of two babies' heartbeats and watching my contractions peak on the monitor. Oh, butI did watch the Price is Right every day- you can learn a lot from that show.

I'm kind of at a loss for the "parenthood seems relatively easy" comment. Are you sure you are a mom? To twins? Who are only a few months old?

Today you were on The View. I only caught about a minute of your interview. Unfortunately it was the minute in which you bragged about losing 40 pounds in 2 weeks. I'll admit I was feeling pretty impressed with myself after having Matt and Will, but soon the reality of caring for two babies set in and the pounds came piling on. My problem was that my publicist, nanny, personal chef and trainer were all on vacation and couldn't stop me from putting the chocolate into my mouth every minute I was awake. Did I tell you that I was awake at least 20 hours everyday for 11 months? That's a lot of chocolate!

Marcia, one day your nanny will call in sick, your husband will be out of town, and you will realize that you are alone and responsible for two beings who prefer to communicate their needs with loud, irritating voices. My advice to you? Don't bother dancing to Tchaikovsky, don't call upon your knowledge of ancient Greek civilization, just grab those darlings, pace the floor and sing "5 Little Monkeys" 100 times. I promise it works every time.

Wednesday Smackdown

Matt and Will might make a great tag team wrestling duo someday; they'll have perfected all their moves on one another. A few times a week we have a smackdown. Typically one is the instigator and the other is his unwilling partner. Today Will came out on top and enjoyed wearing the featherweight champion diaper for the day. I have a feeling Matt is dreaming of ways to reclaim the title at the next match up. Stay tuned.

Holding Will

May 1, 2006 was the first day I held Will. He was 6 days old and it was only for a couple of minutes while his nurse changed his bedding. I wish I could find the picture. I'm awkwardly holding him as if he's on a serving platter. The wires, tubes and IV's limit how far I can raise him, but I do my best to get as close to him as possible. He cried when I picked him up after leaving the warmth of his heated bed, but soon he settled down and fell back to sleep.

Here's a photo of Will and Chris from that same day.