One Month

Here's my mom, one of my most favorite people in the world and a total life-saver. She has a gift for handling the little people and a post-baby daughter. Plus she's beautiful and fun.
Here's my mom getting ready to take Katie Lou on a walk.

Three generations of women. Out of control.

So taking a walk is possible. Cora's on my chest and Sydney's next to Kate. My mom helped this time around and we haven't all been out again because it's so cold and windy, but we'll be out walking again as soon as it's not below freezing!

This would be what Katie does to entertain herself when I'm feeding the girls once my mom left. The bookshelf looked the same. Good thing she can't reach the dishes yet.

And because we hit the one month mark, I thought I'd put up some pictures to see how they've changed. This is day one. Sydney is on the left and Cora the right. Week 1: Sydney on the left and Cora on the right.

Week 2: same order. They weighed in Sydney just over 6 lbs and Cora just under.

This is week 3, same order of Sydney on the left and Cora on the right.

Week 4, same order. They look bigger, but can you really tell a difference other than the fingernail polish on Cora?

And one month. These girls have grown. I'm curious how much they weigh. They've filled out a bit more, but we are still struggling to tell a difference if they're not side by side. Sydney's head is a bit more elongated, but it's evening out. Cora's hair seems a bit lighter, but you always wonder if it's the light they're in.

I thought I figured out how to turn the picture, but I guess not. At least both of their eyes are open.

And we are still surviving. They're awake more at night than I appreciate and Jeremy's gotten more sleep on call at the hospital some nights than when he gets up with these girls. But of all the things that could be hard about a baby, I'd take the lack of sleep. Kate calls them by name, or babies or twins, then says, "wah-wah." She'll kiss their heads and try to wipe their mouths with a burp cloth. Unfortunately, they puke as much as she did. Pele's patiently waiting for some to hit the floor one of these days for her to beat me to it and lick it up. Jeremy's mom is here to help us right now and we sure appreciate it. My cell phone, however, has suffered a tragic death in the process of all of this. We now have a land-line that I will gladly e-mail to anyone who needs my number because I don't think I'll be getting a new cell phone for a few weeks still. Someday I'll start posting my deep thoughts again as well, but right now I'm just getting the pictures up.

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.

Tick Tock Tick Tock..........

Here's Daddy putting on our rugrat's shoes.
Christmas morning with Jeremy, his mom, and still our only child.

All of Kate's Grandma's hunting paid off - she found a double stroller and two baby dolls to help this little one have her own babies to push around.

As groggy as she looks, she hasn't had any Christmas punch, she's just been playing with so many toys her head is spinning (What would we do without grandparents?). She loves scribbling on the Etch-a-Sketch.

I had to put this picture in because she looks so stinkin cute in that dress.

I'm sure many have been wondering our current family size. Still nothing. We've had two big fake-outs - one two Tuesdays ago and the other just yesterday. For anyone who's really curious - I'm dilated to a 4, 80% effaced, contracting anywhere from every 2-6 minutes to not at all (though I typically can't feel a darned thing), and both babies - last ultrasound anyway - are head down. Miss Sydney is WAY down in my pelvis and Cora is not far behind. Our outlook for a vaginal delivery of both is VERY good. What's the hold up? Wouldn't we all like to know. Yesterday I was told if I was 37 weeks (Tuesday, Jan 5th), they would just break my water. But these little ladies are still premies, so unless my contractions are longer (lasting 60 seconds instead of 30 seconds like they are now), I open up to a 5, or my water breaks, we're all just hanging out until next Tuesday. The funny thing is that my body seemed so ready to deliver them until we passed the 35 week mark (our goal to be able to deliver at the hospital with the docs we want). Suddenly everything has slowed down. Though this may be the best I've felt for the whole pregnancy. I waddle like a duck and getting out of bed is entertaining to say the least, but what a wonderful thing to have made it this far. Thank you everyone for your love, support, and prayers. Hopefully we will have pictures up of the new rugrats a week or so from today. Course, my mom keeps joking one will be born 11:30pm Dec 31 and the other 12:10 Jan 1st. We'll just wait and see I guess.....

Chatterbox

Here's our little small fry dancing away with a white elephant gift her daddy brought home. Jeremy asked me to make a list of everything she says right now (the girl's a parrot) so we don't forget. Here's everything I can remember: Mommy, Daddy, Papa (grandpa), Mama (grandma), Pele (she says it pay-lay-eee), doggie, puppy, meow, moo, piggy, night night, eat, please, more, tuby (bath time), snow, no, go-go, coat, dress, shoes, bow, tie, pants, chair, truck, bus, beep-beep, Katie, Tommy, Ann, Lori, Ady, Sydney, Cora, Ella, nose, eye, teeth, crash, mash, tatoes (potatoes), apple, peas, pasta, zanya (lasagne), milk, cereal, toast, hot, cold, bunny, blankie, tickle, crow, caa (what the crow says), juice, dink (drink), baby, shhhh, and Jesus. That's what I can remember. I can't believe how much she picks up on things. I think she's being blessed to be able to do so much since things will be so crazy when her sisters come. Three girls in less than three years of marriage. Who just does that? You count myself and the dog and Jeremy's way out numbered. She sure loves to dance, though (like what she's doing in the picture). Dancing and running and reading. I can't wait for warmer weather and the ability to walk returned to me so we can explore this beautiful country!

Double Placenta Brain

There have been multiple blog addresses I've been meaning to add to our blog for months. Well, in the process of doing it, I happened to eliminate all of the previous ones I had listed. I have a hard enough time with technology when I'm not pregnant. So I am begging anyone who I've checked in on before or who wouldn't mind having us check in on you in the future on your blog to please leave a comment so we can still stay in touch!