That’s how many days since my last blog post. It’s probably also the number of hours Melody has slept since Ainsley and Isla arrived. I really intended on blogging at least once a day, even if it was just a short sentence or summary about what happened…but that was not to be. I am only sitting down now because the babies are two months old, and they’ve apparently decided to give me a few minutes of peace after I just fed them. Who knows how long it will last.

So…i figure i’ll do this post in bullet point form. Random thoughts I’ve had over the past couple of months, in no order of implied importance or relevance. I’ll be hitting post as soon as the babies need me….so here goes…see how far i get:

1. I love Ainsley and Isla so much its ridiculous. They are awesome. Before i had my own children, I wondered if it was some kind of insider secret about how you have unconditional love for your kids. Turns out…nope…it’s just there. I want to see them all the time. I don’t want to go to work each day, even on the days where I know they are fussy and are going to have a hard time. I mean, don’t get me wrong….its not as tiring at work….but i still don’t want to leave them.
2. Im convinced that there’s nothing more difficult in life than looking after multiple children. I’ve heard that having twins is not twice as much work as a single baby..it’s more like 3 times as hard. And I’d believe that.
3. Melody is amazing. She gets less sleep than I do. She gets more stress during the day as she’s looking after them…and she handles it all so well.
4. It is important to figure out a routine that works for both the babies and the parents. Our schedule is now: Melody goes to sleep around 7 or 8pm. I look after the babies until around midnight, feeding them twice (1 bottled breast milk, 1 bottled formula). Melody wakes up and takes care of the babies all night until I get up around 6am or so. I watch the babies while she goes to shower and eat something. Then I go to work around 7, and get home around 4 or 5. We hang out for a couple of hours together, and then she goes to bed. She breast feeds every feeding during the day.
5. Cloth diapers aren’t as difficult to put on the babies as i thought they would be.
6. When babies have a cold with a sore throat/stuffy nose….their breathing sounds like zombies who want to eat your brains. The cutest zombies ever that is.
7. Isla looks very impish…and like she’s always plotting a scheme of some sort. She almost completely closes her eyes, and looks side to side like she’s casing the joint. It’s super cute.
8. Ainsley has had a hard time, with her acid reflux for a while now, and i hope she gets over it soon. It cannot be pleasant. At least now she’s a happy/smiley spitter upper.
9. I feel guilty about not spending as much time with Mobius as I used to. I hope she knows why.
10. I was hesitant about ever having more than 2 kids, and I’m not sure my mind has changed, but i can see why people have one set of twins, and decide to have more. They are so much work, so so much work…but they are so awesome.
11. I like to snuggle…and babies are awesome for that. Isla especially likes laying down with her face about 2 inces from mine and just staring at me. It’s really cool.
12. Before the babies, Melody and I usually stayed up talking and watching TV until around 11 or midnight. We then slept until i woke up at 6am for work. My schedule is very similar now, but I am so so very much more exhausted all the time now. I don’t know why…i mean…i do…but on some level it doesn’t make sense to me. I guess it’s just the stress or the constant looking after the babies each night for 5 hours, instead of doing what I used to…watch TV.
13. I’ve put on about 30 pounds since Melody went on bed rest. I am not happy about that, but i haven’t started to remedy that situation yet. If my 30 extra pounds translated in any small way to having 2 awesome and healthy babies…then i wouldn’t change it for the world. However, my logical mind says my weight has nothing to do with it…so it annoys me that i let it get this bad.
14. Melody gets upset that i’m rushing the babies….but i really can’t wait until i get to talk to them or at least have an expression conversation with them.
15. It still freaks me out when i say in my head “I have 2 daughters.” For some reason it sounds different when i just say i have 2 babies. I guess it’s that “daughters” has a future context to it…..meaning im going to have 2 women to look after. Crazy.
16. I wish I earned more so that Melody didn’t have to go back to work. It’s hard enough for me to go to work each day, but it’s going to be hard for melody in January, as she’s really been connected to these 2 bundles for 12 months.
17. Baby poop doesn’t freak me out.
18. Cloth diapers are awesome for the wallet, but not awesome for the nose. As soon as they get “used” they need to be changed…and quickly.
19. I was never too much of a procrastinator, but now that’s not an option. Because the babies could need something at any time, I have learned not to put off simple (or complex for that matter) tasks….as you might not get back to them. That’s why i take the opportunity to do my web work whenever i can…at 5 minute increments if necessary. It’s why i make sure to clean the kitchen each night before i go to bed…because if i don’t…i’ll need to do it while the babies are screaming at me the next day.

babies woke up.

babies ate.

babies slept.

babies pooped.

babies did all these things, not necessarily in that order.

The twins are great….i mean..our exhaustion is not directly from them. For the most part..once they are put down in between meals, they sleep though until we wake them up. The exhaustion comes from the trouble of not getting enough “good” sleep throughout the day. Melody’s parents have helped with that, and we are very appreciative of that. I for one, have been able to get one full night’s sleep while they took care of the night time feedings with Melody. Of course, Melody doesn’t have that option, as she has to be up for feedings. And, while the twins are still on supplementing feedings with formula (in addition to 20 mins on Melody), she has to be awake every time, without exception.

But…it is of course, all worth it. We really love our babies, and they appear to love us too.

.

Both Ainsley and Isla did really well…not crying really at all, except when they got the blood test (in the heel of their foot).

This afternoon, we got the results back from the blood test, and they weren’t exactly what we had hoped. Isla’s sample had clotted, which means she has to go back tomorrow for another test. Ainsley’s level was 15.6…and the cut off was 15.0. That means she has to go back on a billi-blanket at least until tomorrow. We had a medical supply place deliver a billi-blanket to the hotel tonight…the guy got here at 11:45pm….and now Ainsley will be sleeping with it wrapped around her 100% of the time (except when feeding and being changed of course).

Hopefully tomorrow, when we get the next blood tests, she’ll be under 15, and therefore won’t have to wear the blanket anymore.

So, we’re hoping that today is the day we get to go home.

They took both the babies for the car seat test this morning, around 6am or so. Basically they need to put them in the car seats for an hour, hooked up to a bunch of monitors for blood pressure, and other levels. It’s basically a test of the babies, not of the car seats…just to make sure they are healthy enough to sit upright in a seat. Considering since they were born, they’ve basically been laying down constantly, I was reassured that they both passed the car seat test with flying colors.

There was a chance today that we wouldn’t get to bring everyone home today. Ainsley is still dealing with jaundice, and Melody is still recovering from trying to martyr herself and leave me with two little miracles. But….Ainsley was checked, and her Billi-rubin level was just barely where they were comfortable taking her off the light bed. She was only a couple of decimal points away  from having to stay, but they let us go, with the instructions to come back in the morning for a blood test.

And just like that…. we were taking two babies home. The next chapter of this adventure officially begins.

And that’s after 2 days….yeah…i’m serious. I’m seriously tired.

The twins had a rough night last night, and so today I switched placed with Melody’s mom. I hit the bed at the hotel at 10 and didn’t budge until 2 when mobius woke me up to take her outside. Then i crashed again until 6, when i went and picked up some food and supplies, and headed back to the hospital.

The girls are doing great…I posted more details over at spawnwatch.com…but right now I am rethinking the daily blog. I may go to a weekly format, or i may attempt to switch to more of a photo blog with captions or something. All i know, is that i am super tired, and that’s after getting 8 hours of sleep today. Who knows how bad things will get once we bring the babies home.

Ainsley and Isla are doing great. Ainsley is still in her rave-inspired light bed of fun…looking like an x-man getting his powers or something:

Isla is doing well too…sleeping a lot today apparently, and hopefully she’ll do the same tonight.

This is the only picture I took all day:

It was of the breakfast tray they brought for Melody. She didn’t like it all that much, so i devoured her left over french toast and bacon with delight.

And another telling factor of how busy and tired we are……we haven’t even turned a TV on since the babies were born…not even in our down time while the babies are away in the nursery being tested.

We have two new additions to the family…Ainsley Krause Young, and Isla Cameron Young.

Ainsley and Isla are just names we really liked (and we don’t know anyone personally with those names)….but Krause is my maternal grandmother’s maiden name, and Cameron is Melody’s maternal grandmother’s maiden name.

So…amongst other things, we can now release the pictures of the girls’ room with the wordles Melody put together for them. They have the girls’ names, mixed with lyrics from two of her favorite songs (Tupelo Honey and Sweetest Thing by JJ Grey & Mofro).

This is Ainsley Krause. She was born at 10:33am on September 16th. She weighed in at 5 pounds, 9 ounces and was 19 inches long, with a head measurement of 13 inches.

This is Isla Cameron. She’s a little smaller, being born at 10:47am, weighing in at 4 pounds 15 ounces. She measured 18 inches long, 12.5 inches for her head.

Melody was wonder-woman as usual, choosing not to go the C-Section route, and was able to successfully deliver both babies. Ainsley required a little suction, so she’s dealing with a little head bruising right now. But she’ll be okay very soon.

Melody had a little bit of a scare after both babies came out (and were whisked away very quickly before we could really look at them), as she lost 4.3 litres of blood…which, if you’re wondering….is not a good thing. I had to keep her awake so she wouldn’t pass out while the doctors worked their magic to keep her with us. It was all very dramatic, but i just remember trusting the doctors completely and not really getting freaked out. Looking back, I should have been a LOT more freaked out, as Melody really was crashing pretty quickly. I think her blood pressure dropped down to something like a 20 for a while there.

Both babies are healthy, although Ainsley needs a little help from the light machine (risk of jaundice…billyrubin levels aren’t what they need to be).

So…we have our babies, I have my melody…and we’re ecstatic (and tired already)….but it’s all worth it of course.

I’ll be posting more details over on www.spawnwatch.com for those interested

Well, after close to 3 years of “trying” my cell phone rang today at around lunch time…and Melody said that the Doctors told her it was go time. She had to be admitted to the hospital for observation for pre-eclampsia (Pre-eclampsia is a medical condition in which hypertension arises in pregnancy (pregnancy-induced hypertension) in association with significant amounts of protein in the urine.) She said there was no urgent rush, and that I could take my time coming home, but not to procrastinate.

So…I quickly sent what would be my last couple of emails, set my out of office reply, told my bosses that I may not be back…and headed home.

We had a quick bite to eat…a last meal if you will….and then went over to the hospital. Melody’s Mom was with us, so she helped carry some of the bags in.

We were admitted at around 2pm, and they started doing the usual monitoring and tests. At around 6pm, our doctor (Seidel) came in and said yep….this is it…we’re going to induce you. They started the magnesium drip (to ward off seizures and complications from the pre-eclampsia) and the started the Pitosin drip too (the one that induces labor).

Gradually, up until about 11pm melody started feeling worse and worse….but still not actual final stages of labor, so they said that she should try to get some sleep.

All in all, it was an exciting day, but nothing to report just yet. I’m sure we won’t last much longer as a 2 person family in the morning.

My favorites are now:

• Doug Loves Movies
• Nerdist Podcast
• NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me

If anyone hasn’t heard them….go now and subscribe (all are free via itunes or their websites).

This screenshot also commemorates the time i left work…after getting there at 6:35am…..long day…i’m tired.