thetadpoles.com

Time, where does it go? I feel like I am up most of the night, up early to feed and change the twins, but between there and me getting a shower I lose a huge chunk of time. It is suddenly noon and I am finally eating some breakfast, then I feed the twins, change them, rinse, repeat. Not to mention pumping, washing bottles and numerous loads of laundry every day. How my life has changed when I feel that I have accomplished something if we are all clean and not wearing pajamas after 1 pm. The other day I had an elaborate plan to make pink lemonade cupcakes to bring to the NICU nurses – especially after they came down and drew Derby’s blood vs letting the lab staff do it (the pediatrician wanted to check Derby’s labs since leaving the NICU). I knew that wouldn’t have been good, since there have been some sketchy times when they drew my blood and I’m not the one with minuscule veins. Well I bought the supplies for cupcakes but I ended up making box cupcakes and using a tub of frosting with Loen in the sling and Derby at my feet in a moses basket. It was not what I envisioned but I would like to say I made 40 cupcakes….. with twins….ALONE. In some ways it is worse, in others it is better than I thought having the twins at home would be. There are definite moments of exhaustion where you feel like you could puke. When it is 2 am and they are both screaming. You look over and wonder how Tadd is sleeping through ALL OF IT (or is he pretending to sleep?). The nice thing is they are usually easy to calm down. Derby was so wide awake the other night, just sitting in his swing looking around. I told Tadd I felt bad, that we should be taking advantage of his “quiet awake” time to interact (like the baby books tell you). But then we both realized we were so exhausted we should take this quiet time to try and get some sleep. I turned on the glowing star light show on his swing and hoped that would be sufficient interaction for the time being. While I feel like we are handling everything fine someone told us you will dull over time, with every sleepless night and crying day adding up. We were also told to say sayonara to our identities because we will now be known as “the twins parents”.

The other day I was changing both of their diapers and put Loen in the crib while I changed Derby, then laid him beside her while I washed my hands. I came back to Loen just staring at Derby with the funniest look on her face while we was flailing around screaming. She doesn’t really know what to think of him yet. They are at their cutest in the morning when I put them both in the bed next to me. They just lie next to each other, wiggling around. Usually they are quiet. It is during that time that I attempted tandem nursing. It takes a lot of set up, having the pillows just right, making sure I have everything within reach since I won’t be able to move for 20 minutes. Derby was a champ, Loen decided to keep pulling herself off requiring me to have to readjust her which would mess Derby up…. So far I have yet to find a quick and easy way to do things with twins.

Loen has Miss Dragonlady claws these days and has been scratching her face. I have tried cutting, filing and putting preemie scratch mittens on her hands. Nothing seemed to work until I put on the mittens then a pair of tiny socks on top of them. She hasn’t been able to Houdini her hands out of them……yet.

It has been wonderful having them both at home. Fauxma Dee has been over to help almost everyday which has been great considering the twins have had numerous doctor appointments. I swear we just got out of the NICU and we have been to 4 doctors appointments already. Derby had his eyes rechecked and they said it is “ROP Stage 3 resolving”. Hopefully it will resolve on its own and he will not require laser surgery. He has to go in for weekly exams for a few more weeks to watch it.

Thats about it here. I apologize if this post doesn’t ‘flow’ nicely but if I try to fine tune it it will never get posted. I know you’re all here for pictures anyways.

After 110 days for Loen and 116 days for Derby the NICU monitors are finally turned off

Finally leaving the NICU

Visiting the Faux family

It looks like Derby is explaining taxes or a retirement account while Loen is totally uninterested (hmmm I guess they really do take after us)

Daddy conked out on the couch with the twins

They are posing like rock stars

Yup tastes like a boy

Why buy 2 Svan bouncers when you can cram them into one

Derby yawning like a lion

Napping peacefully for a minute…