Perspective

As you can see, we have our hands full.
Jeremy can't decide if his vacation is really more or less work than being at work.

This is our styling child. She loves her sunglasses (well, mine really), and has to have a coat on all day. I like how she matches so well.

Katie Lou has discovered how to walk in mom and dad's shoes. She'll do laps around the house wearing one of ours. I'm impressed, I have a hard time walking in my own shoes.

One week old, weighing in at 5 lb 7 oz (both of them). Anyone able to tell the difference? Sydney is on the left and Cora on the right.

We figured out how to help them snuggle. They don't like being exactly even side-by-side, but if you stagger them like they were in the womb, they love laying together.

Cora was actually picking Sydney's nose earlier. Now she's just covering her face.

So how are we doing? Actually, really well. My mom's out here now and helping out with everything (moms always make a difference in the house), but I feel so much better than I did after Kate was born. I think it's a combination of things. One, I bled out quite a bit after Kate and was grey for about 6 weeks, trying to recover. Two, I was really not prepared to be up with her as I needed to be. And three, I was just scared to death and clueless about having an infant. Now, I'm still tired, but this is nothing like what I was expecting. I'm really enjoying this. My mom said it might also have to do with how horrible the pregnancy was - it makes getting up just to feed babies seem like nothing compared to months of crawling on the floor. I think she's right. So I guess what I'm saying is, it's amazing how your perspective can change based on what you've had to go through. It's good to go through not fun experiences so you can enjoy others so much more than you would if everything came easy.

Drum Roll Please....

After my OB appointment on Monday, the doc told me I was dilated to a five and to come in Tues and they'd break my water. This is my Honey doing a little victory dance with Katie that we finally have a plan so we're not going back and forth every third day to the hospital. She's such a doll!
Water broken at 11:00 am January 5th, and at 1:40 miss Sydney was born: 5 lbs, 11 oz, 19 inches long. Shortly thereafter, miss Cora flipped and they had to do a breach extraction which was a miracle in and of itself to have a doctor willing and capable of doing it instead of a C-section. At 2:25 Cora was born: 5 lbs 10 oz, 17 1/2 inches. Jeremy thinks they're really closer to the same length and it was just because a different nurse measured her that they were that far apart in length.

This is me not knowing exactly how to load pictures, but Kate enjoyed coming to visit us, especially once she figured out how to page the entire hospital from our room phone.

Look, I'm smiling! How weird is it that the best I felt the whole pregnancy was from week 35 - 37? Thank you everyone for your prayers. I didn't bleed out either, like I had with Kate and we're feeling so watched over. Tired, but truly blessed.

I love this one because it looks like Sydney is kissing Cora. They love human contact and it's so fun to have them together all the time.

One proud papa. We can't believe how tiny they are, especially once we look at Katie Lou.

Look how thrilled they are to go home! We really don't know if they're identical or not. They both have a dimple in their chin, the same blood type, the same hair line. We painted a few of Cora's nails so we've got some sort of a marker. We already mixed them up last night in between the every hour feedings. (What, were we tired or something?) Good thing we were able to correct that this morning.

It's nice that they love to snuggle. Katie Lou was not as much of a fan of the loves.

Safe at home.

Just Thinking

Jeremy and I were talking last night. What counts as labor? More or less contractions and cervical changes, right? So I've been in labor for a month and a half. Once again to quote my husband, "Can you do nothing normal?" I will say I'm not "suffering," just waiting. But hey, if they'll eat better, the wait is worth it.

Want to go really off subject? Jeremy just finished a palliative care rotation. For anyone who doesn't know what that means, it's basically hospice care - making people comfortable as their life comes to an end. The head physician gave Jeremy a book to read (that he wrote) that I ended up reading called Dying Well. I'm not trying to be morbid or depressing by talking about death, but Jeremy and I had many an interesting conversation about the whole ordeal.

One thing the book points out is that our culture has a terrible fear of death. We were all born, and at one point we will all die, and though birth is so celebrated death is something we just do not talk about. I don't want to go into too much detail here other than it really changed my perspective on dying. It's an opportunity to really honor those who go through the process by taking care of them and letting those loved ones know how blessed we feel for having them be part of our lives. The author talked about how natural grief and sorrow are and we should embrace them as part of the circle of life, not as though something has gone terribly wrong. It's OK to let ourselves and others grieve and acknowledge what we have lost. When the time is right (which is different for everyone), we will be able to feel joy again, and for some it is even during the time of death. I don't feel I'm an expert on any of this, I was just very grateful for a hopeful, loving, compassionate perspective on dying. Everyone can die with dignity and in peace, but it takes effort from those around them. If anything, I think Jeremy and I gained the perspective that it's OK to talk about what we want when the time comes, so that when it does come we will have already discussed some of the more difficult things during a calmer moment. Just things to think about.