Kicking Butt

When one's days and nights are an endless cycle of monotony, sleeplessness, and stress (ie. by being a stay at home mom of twins) it is necessary to celebrate the small victories and accomplishments, or else there would be scores of mothers-of-multiples walking off cliff edges in the style of lemmings. So please forgive me as I do a bit of bragging, for my sanity's sake.

Today I celebrate because it is the first day that I have successfully packed up Nora & Nolan with their gear, strapped them into their car seats, and actually ran errands...alone! True, they were all drive-thru errands, but this accomplishment should not go unrecognized.

In addition, the weather has been so unseasonably amazing lately that I was able to take them for a walk in the double stroller AND bring the dog with us! We couldn't go very far because a) I'm still not 100% after the C-section and b) I took twins for a walk in the double stroller AND brought the dog with us, c'mon. But wow did it feel great to get out of the house and get some fresh air!

First Date

Last night Corey and I has our first Date Night since Nora & Nolan were born. It was nothing extravagant, we just went out to a neighborhood place for a drink and an appetizer, but what an amazing feeling to be outside of the four walls of your house! In all we were only gone for about an hour. Honestly we wanted to be gone for longer and we were in no rush to get home, but we're just so tired that it wasn't really worth being gone any longer.

I have to say I expected going out and leaving the babies to be harder than it actually was. I have heard so many times from friends and coworkers that I'll feel so guilty, I'll check my texts a thousand times, I'll make Nana send me photos on her phone...

Nope. Nothing. I don't know if that makes me selfish or a bad mother (I'm assuming not) but not once did I look at my phone, feel guilty, or really think about the babies. Oops.

Instead I feasted on goat cheese and fresh bread, savored a strawberry basil martini, and enjoyed the company of my incredible husband. Who (as a result of martini after nine months of sobriety) then had to drive me home to my wonderful babies, who I ended up missing after all...just a bit.

Goooo Team!

As new parents Corey and I are learning all kinds of interesting things and developing many new and useful skills. Even though we had never done them before, holding, changing, bathing, nursing, and dressing babies are all jobs that are becoming second nature. Our success at not letting our children die of exposure or starvation can mostly be chalked up to good ol' teamwork. With two babies, we really have to work together to make the logistics of caring for both come together.

If we were to entertain a guest, our visitor would most likely find us in the living room (see previous post), each sitting on a couch and each holding a baby. This is how we spend most of our time. One parent. One couch. One baby.

Because of this setup Corey and I have unexpectedly developed an awesome talent. Despite my almost crippling lack of coordination and athletic ability we now are able to throw things (blankets, burp cloths, camera, remote, etc) from couch to couch and catch said object in one hand while holding a baby in the other. No misses, no drops. Teamwork.

It's pretty impressive, really...so be impressed.

Living (Hell) Room

Our house is shrinking.

Since coming home from the hospital we have set up our base of operations in the living room. We put up a Pack n Play in the corner so we can set the babies down every once in a while, and they can nap. We feed them in the living room. We try to nap on the couches. We eat in there.

Large chunks of the house itself seem to be missing. I thought I remembered it having more square footage when we bought it. Bedroom? What bedroom? It's not like I need my bed for any reason and I've been wearing the same sweats for 3 days. Bathroom, yeah, but who has time for a shower? I would go to the kitchen but it's basically just a sink used for washing pump parts now. Thank goodness nice people keep bringing me food. Yum. We still have a basement? Interesting. I see no evidence of that fact.

Adding to the claustrophobia is that we have the TV on almost constantly; mind-numbing reality shows, the Weather Channel, sitcom reruns. We like to watch movies but we a) can't commit to a full movie because we'll just have to stop it when we feed/change/whatever the babies and b) all of our movies are downstairs, which, remember, we're not sure if that still exists.To remedy this we've been watching movie channels like FX, AMC, and the like. Did you know they play the same movies over and over again? We know now. 2012, Armageddon, Day After Tomorrow, Star Trek.We've seen these movies (or parts of them) so many times that combined with the lack of sleep it's starting to have an effect.

All Ben Affleck and no sleep make Kate and Corey...something, something.

Please. Let us out.

Still Alive

We have officially survived being home with Nolan and Nora for 24 hours. I just wanted to let everyone know, in case you were concerned. I can't say how much longer that will last, however. Whew.

Christened

It's official: on January 13, 2012, at approximately 7:00 p.m., my boy peed on me for the first time. I really think this should come with a prize, like a badge, or a certificate, or a decoder ring or something.

-Corey

Set 'Em Up

“Okay, go ahead and get dressed then walk over to the hospital. Labor & Delivery will be expecting you. I’d say the babies will be here before noon.”

It was 7:45am.

We weren’t necessarily expecting this. I had only brought The Suitcase as a precaution. The dog was at home still, there were dishes in the sink.  I mean, yeah we were 36 weeks and 3 days pregnant with twins and I couldn’t WAIT to not be pregnant anymore, but this was it. It was going to be REAL. No turning back; full on parent-hood was apparently less than four hours away...and we were terrified.

After nine months of my doctor warning of bed rest and premature labor, we walked (well, I waddled) across the skywalk to the L&D unit, bellied up to the nurses’ station at about 8am and half-stated, half-asked, “Hi. We’re supposed to have our babies now?”

A flurry of activity ensued. I was taken to a room where I changed into my gown and was given an IV. Corey ran home to get his things (we had been pretty certain we’d be going back home to wash those dishes) and a rapid succession of texts and phone calls were fired off, informing our loved ones that today was the day! By 9:45 Corey was changed into his scrubs and we were walking hand-in-hand down the hallway (my other hand was holding the back of my gown closed…yikes) to the OR. As we passed the nurses’ station everyone was cheering and waving; wishing us luck and telling us how they couldn’t wait to meet the babies. 

As we rounded the corner we could see the OR through the open door. Clean, cool, and calm, the sight of it offered a bit of relief from my nervousness and made my pulse slow slightly as we walked in. “Turn left,” the nurse said.

Apparently that was not our OR.

As we turned, an entirely different scene came into focus. This one was loud with sounds of beeping, loud talking, alarms, and other machines. It seemed as if the room itself was moving because there were so many doctors, nurses, and techs hurrying about, making adjustments and setting up equipment. The table at the center seemed to be a tiny, motionless island in a sea of chaotic preparations. My eyes were huge as they sat me on the table to administer the spinal. I don’t even remember where Corey was at this time, but the nurses held my hand as they placed the spinal and I cried, saying I was scared and wasn’t ready. 

The anesthesia started to work immediately and it felt like the most intense case of pins-and-needles I have every experienced…then I was just numb. This must have cheered me up, because I remember loudly telling the nurses that I was disappointed they couldn’t see my feet (I was wearing socks) because I had had a pedicure and got the right toes painted pink and the left toes blue. Very important stuff.

After a few pretty unpleasant few minutes on the table (I was not feeling well at all) and not even three hours after leaving our house that morning, at 10:01am on Monday, January 9 Nora Rose was born and her brother, Nolan Joseph joined us two minutes later.

And that is how our story begins.