Our 1st Thanksgiving...

...as a family of 4! :D Our holiday weekend has been pretty uneventful as we continue to more or less go about our typical routine. Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, Paul and I just hung out around the house taking care of Amelia and Penelope. It didn't really feel like a holiday and had the Macy's Day Parade not been on TV, Thanksgiving could have slipped by us mostly unnoticed. Next year should be a totally different story though, with our girls being much more active and possibly even walking! That should be a Thanksgiving to remember... Although when you think about it, this year is also a Thanksgiving unlike any we'll ever have again as we finally have what we've been dreaming about -2 beautiful and healthy baby girls. Now that is something to be truly thankful for! And when I think about what was happening with us one year ago, praying everyday to be blessed with a baby and struggling to understand why it wasn't happening as quickly as we wanted or thought it should... I had no patience for the unexplained and it was very difficult believing Paul when he would tell me that it would eventually happen for us and we'd have a baby sooner than we realized. What a difference 12 months can make - I never would have imagined we'd have 1, let alone 2, babies in that time. We've been doubly blessed! As I struggle with some of these early newborn days, I need to try to put it in perspective and remember all that we went through in the last year to have these babies. Of course, that is a little easier said than done, especially at 3am when both girls are taking turns fussing and crying and I've had an average of 4-5 hours of sleep every day for the past 3 weeks. :D

Yesterday, Friday, I started to get a little stir crazy and antsy with being cooped up in the house every day so Paul suggested I take the dog for a walk. In fact, he pretty much insisted I go outside for some fresh air so Barkley and I went for a short 20 minute walk. It was a little chilly but it felt great to be outside and it did help to clear my head and lift my spirits. Later in the day, the girls had their first major outing (other than to a doctor's appt) as we went to Grandma and Grandpa Clopton's house for their 1st Thanksgiving dinner. Again, it felt good to break up our usual routine (both physically and mentally) and even better, there were lots of extra hands around to hold and soothe the babies. Oh, and speaking of "soothing", we finally got to try putting both girls in the "sweetpeace newborn soothing center" and as of this morning, it works great with both of them! So great in fact, we are considering buying a 2nd one so they don't have to take turns in it. Thanks to Aunt Debbie, Melissa, Megan and Julie for the WONDERFUL shower gift!! The bouncy seats on the other hand have yet to work their magic. We'll keep trying though.....

We don't have much planned for the rest of the long weekend - just try to rest a little (me), do a little laundry (Paul), get a few groceries (me), maybe work on posting some of the latest pictures to Smug Mug (Paul).... The weather here in Columbus is beautiful today, sunny and not much wind so maybe I'll get to squeeze in another quick walk with Barkley (before the rain/snow mix hits tomorrow). I wish it was a little warmer so all 5 of us could venture out... We could all benefit from the sunshine and fresh air.

I hear someone starting to fuss and make a little noise (probably Amelia) so it must be getting close to lunch time which means I need to wrap this up. To all of our family and friends, Happy Thanksgiving!
Love,
April, Paul, Amelia and Penelope

P.S. Keep an eye on our Smug Mug site (or slide show here on the blog) as we definitely have some new pictures to share soon. Both girls certainly are changing and growing fast. Last night, they had big jumps in their weight - Amelia is up to 6#12oz and Penelope is up to 8#5oz. They both must have had a lot to eat at Thanksgiving dinner! :D

3 weeks and a day

So today, November 25th, was our original due date. When we first learned that I was pregnant, way back in the spring (Easter Sunday to be exact), this day seemed so very far away. Paul and I knew we had lots to do and lots to learn, but we kept telling ourselves we had 9 months to figure it all out. Then we got the news that we were having twins and that shortened our "9 month" window by a little bit, but we still felt like we had plenty of time. And when I was put on bed rest in the middle of August, this day still seemed a long ways off. And now here it is... And our girls have already been here with us for 3 full weeks!! While my 37 weeks of pregnancy definitely had its slower times, the last few weeks on the other hand have just sort of flown by. I'm starting to understand what all those people mean that keep telling us to enjoy these days because they go so quick. I'm afraid I won't remember as much as I'd like to though because I'm so tired and my head is in a bit of a fog. And I feel like I'm stuck in some sort of never-ending circle, like Groundhog's Day... Regardless of what day of the week it is, my routine is exactly the same. Every 2-3 hours I'm feeding babies and in my "spare" time, I have something to eat, get a little nap, maybe check my email, change a diaper or two (although Daddy and Grandma do the majority of that right now), etc, etc . Sometimes I manage to shower and get dressed in something other than pajamas.... And tonight I'm actually making time for this post! I guess I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with how each and every day sort of slips by and I feel like I get a whole lot of nothing accomplished except for nursing babies. And while I know that my priority right now is feeding the girls and getting my rest, it would still be nice to have a clear head and an extra hour or two to take care of some of the things I want (or need) to do. I've got a few things written down and I swear when I actually manage to get one thing crossed off, by the end of the day, two or three new things get added on. I'm really trying to not let that stress me out, but it's hard.... Paul keeps telling me that I need to get more naps in during the day so that when I do get that spare hour, I'm more alert and focused and I'll have an easier time getting through my list. I think he's right!

Wow - I got a little sidetracked... I really didn't intend to use this time to complain about how hard things are right now. I know it won't always be this challenging, but when you're sleep deprived, it's difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The last week has had some good moments though. I did get out of the house a couple times (minus babies) for trips to the grocery store. I felt a little guilty being out and about without them, but at the same time, it felt really good doing something so familar and normal. It's hard to believe that that was the first time I'd driven a car or gone somewhere by myself since early August! Then mid-week, Grandpa Reinke drove down from Michigan to visit for a few days and he got to do his fair share of rocking. He even got to do one of the 2am shifts when Amelia refused to go back to sleep after eating. :D On Sunday evening we skipped the sponge bath and switched over to the little tub. It still took us awhile to do 2 baths, but it's bound to get easier and quicker. Also on the positive side of things - both girls are consistently gaining weight. As of their last weigh-in, Amelia was up to 6lbs 2oz and Penelope was 7lbs 6oz. The 1lb 4oz difference between them didn't seem that noticeable at birth, but right now, Penny both looks and feels significantly bigger. And as of yesterday, Penelope officially moved up from Preemie clothes to Newborn clothes. Exciting! Now we just need to get Amelia caught up a little so they can wear some of their matching outfits at the same time. Right now, Penelope is going to get to wear all the new clothes before her sister. ;-}

Happy 2 Week Birthday!

It's hard to believe that it's been 2 weeks already... I wonder how many more weeks before we get some quality sleep??? I know...I know... That is still quite a long way off.

Yesterday (Sunday), the girls had a nice visit with their Grandma and Grandpa Clopton and then after that, Daddy and I gave them their first bath at home. We thought doing a sponge bath would be fairly quick and easy, but it turned out to take longer than we planned (no surprise there though!). I feel like baths will get easier (and more fun for them) once their cords are completely healed and we can use the little tub. It was still fun to do the sponge baths though and neat to see how each reacted differently to the bath process. Penelope seemed the most annoyed and really wiggled and squirmed the whole time. She did calm down a little towards the end and it looked like she enjoyed when we put on a little lotion. Amelia, for the most part, didn't seem to be as bothered by the bath as her little sister was. At the end of each bath, both girls were super wide awake and I think it was the longest length of time I'd seen Penelope's eyes open in the whole 2 weeks I've known her. :D

In general, we are starting to notice some differences in personalities even though I'm sure a lot can change in the upcoming months. Amelia spends a fair amount of time awake and looking around and seems content with just laying there. She seems to only fuss and want to be held after her nighttime feedings (of course!). The quiet, awake moments are similar to what she was like in utero. She didn't move much, didn't kick or punch me very hard and in general, seemed like she would be a laid back little girl. Penelope, on the other hand, can get pretty upset. When she gets mad, watch out! There is a lot of her pushing away with her arms and legs, lots of arching her back and throwing her head around. In utero, she was the one who could kick me enough to really hurt and she was always more active than her sister. When she gets upset, her face gets SO red. In fact, I would say it turns more purple than red. The funny thing is how quickly she can go back and forth between being OK and being mad. When she needs something, you better figure it out quick or else.... :D Such interesting little girls and we have so much to learn about them. I love watching them sleep and all the funny little faces they make. If I didn't need to get my own rest, I think I could spend hours on end just watching them. I'm sure every new parent feels the same way.

At home and doing well

The first car ride - they slept the whole way home!

It sure doesn't feel like we've been home for over a week. The hours and days just seem to slip by so fast. I guess that's why everyone keeps telling us to try and enjoy this crazy time when they are so young because it'll be over before we know it. Of course, it doesn't feel that way to me at 4am when I'm trying to feed one baby, calculate how long before I'm done with both feedings and how much sleep time that will leave me before starting the cycle all over again. Until last night, I don't think I'd slept more than 2 hours at a time. We tried something new though and had Grandma Reinke do the early morning (5am) feeding today and I got to sleep a whole 4 hours. It was wonderful! One weird thing both Paul and I have noticed is how we keep waking up throughout the night and have these feelings that one of the babies is in the bed with us. Paul says he wakes up and feels like his pillow is a baby and I often wake up fearing that I fell asleep while feeding and the baby is mixed up in the comforter. I wonder if these are common for a lot of new parents.... It's like we spend so much of the day consumed with baby thoughts that we can't let it go when we sleep.

Anyway, back to the past week... Last weekend, my sister and her family came down from Michigan to visit. It was great to see them and fun to watch our nephew and niece (Braden and Kendall) hold the babies. My favorite was when Braden asked if they could crawl yet. :D Thank goodness that is still several months away! I kind of have a feeling Braden and Kendall are looking forward to when the girls a little more interactive and at least stay awake and maybe give a real smile or two. I imagine that by the time they see us again, the girls will look - and act - quite a bit different. My Mom went back to Michigan on Sunday afternoon, with Brooke and Todd, giving Paul and I a chance to try a couple nights on our own. While a little scary at first, we all survived.

On Monday, the 10th, we had our first outing. I knew it would take us longer to get ready and out the door, but I had no idea how much longer! I better practice and get a good routine in place before I start back to work. At least I have about 10 more weeks to get that figured out. The first trip out was to the pediatrician's office for the 1 week visit and both girls had good reports. Amelia was already a couple of ounces over her birth weight, at 4lbs 10oz, and Penelope, while still a little shy of her birth weight, was 5lbs 10oz and had still gained compared to her weight when she left the hospital. Their Dr said that while they are really small, they are still doing great, especially since we had transitioned to 100% nursing and hadn't given them any formula supplements since our first day home from the hospital. Paul has been weighing them here at home every night and on the 12th, Penelope hit a mile mark and was 6lbs 1oz and on the 13th, Amelia had her own big moment, coming in at 5lbs 1/2oz. The jump from 5 to 6 pounds and 4 to 5 pounds was a really big deal to us. I guess it just made us feel like we're doing OK as a new Mom and Dad. Another good sign - the preemie clothes are getting too small, especially in the length. Unfortunately, the newborn outfits are still pretty big so we are stuck in a weird phase, trying to make do with the 2 or 3 preemie items that do fit. That means more laundry right now, but thankfully we've got Grandma Reinke staying here for a little while to help with those kinds of chores.

Tuesday, the 11th, was my 33 birthday. Things have been so crazy around here, I really didn't have any time to even think about it being my birthday. Paul keeps asking for gift ideas, but nothing comes to mind. Maybe by Christmas I'll think of something I'd like to have. :D I'm sure this is one birthday I won't soon forget though... I spent the day in my pajamas, hanging out here with Paul and the girls. For dinner, Paul's Mom brought us Applebee's takeout and some really yummy desserts from the Whole Foods bakery.

On Wednesday the 12th, we had another outing, this time to my Dr's office. I went in for a quick blood pressure check while Paul waited in the car with the babies. My blood pressure was down a little from what it was in the hospital but my Dr said that if it's not considerably lower by the time I see him for my 6 week check-up, I'll probably need to find a good internal medicine doctor to try and find a more effective medication. I'm hopeful that the more comfortable I get with all these changes at home and maybe even squeeze in a little time for exercise, my blood pressure issue will start to resolve itself.

Thursday and Friday were hard days as "Dad" had to find the energy to go back to work. Grandma and I did our best to handle all the nighttime feedings and fussiness so Paul could get as much rest as possible - although the sleep deprivation had already set in and was already pretty severe at that point. Thank goodness it was a short week for him. Not that the weekend really meant anymore sleep for anyone at our house....

The rest of the story...

Here I am holding them together for the first time... Penelope in the front and Amelia (w/ the hat) in the back.

The rest of our hospital stay went by in a blur although at times, it seemed like we would never get to come home. I had some post delivery bleeding issues and whatever my Dr did to fix that was quite painful. It took some time and a few tries and after several minutes of suffering (it was as bad as the birth itself), I was given Demarol for the pain. Unfortunately, that pretty much knocked me out for the rest of the day. I'm pretty sure some family came in my room to visit, but I don't have much recollection of it. So I spent the remainder of Monday in L& D, completely out of it and looking back on it now, I wish I hadn't said yes to the pain meds. Most of my memories from that afternoon are so hazy and I feel like I missed out on part of the experience. Especially since Paul got to do all the fun stuff like take our parents to the nursery to see the girls, watch them get their first bath, take pictures and video, etc, etc. At least by that evening the pain medication was starting to wear off and I was feeling a little more alert so we had a nurse bring Penelope to the room so I could see her. Unfortunately by that time, Amelia had some questionable oxigenation numbers and was sent to the NICU for the night. That was hard, only getting to see one of my babies and not being able to leave my bed to at least visit the other one in the NICU.

My magnesium-imposed bed rest was finally over at 9:50 on Tuesday morning and what a relief to have the IV and blood pressure cuff removed. By then, both Paul and I were super antsy to get into my post-partum room and have the babies with us. Of course, in a hospital, everything seems to move at a snail's pace and it wasn't until sometime after 11am that I actually changed rooms. And then it wasn't until close to 2pm that we actually had both Amelia and Penelope in our room. We spent the rest of Tuesday and all day Wednesday getting to know our girls, visiting with family and meeting with a couple different lactation consultants to help get nursing established. By Wednesday evening, we were feeling more comfortable with the idea of going home (at least Paul was - I still felt a little uneasy at the thought of taking care of something so tiny and innocent) but then my blood pressure readings started creeping back up and my Dr decided to try a couple different medications and keep me in the hospital at least one more night to see if we could get them to come back down. On Thursday morning, my blood pressure was a little better and both Amelia and Penelope passed their car seat tests. Yay! We were ready to come home and get settled into our new life. But remember, we had to move at the hospital's pace which meant waiting for hours to get discharge papers for all 3 of us. We spent a good three or four hours bugging my nurse to get a Dr down to my room with a couple prescriptions and then finally around 3pm Paul took all our bags out to the car and a nurse wheeled myself and the girls down to meet him. By 4pm on Thursday the 6th - 1 day before our scheduled delivery day, we were back in Plain City as a family of four. What a relief to actually be back home!

And then at the same time, the fear and anxiety set in..... Did we know what were we doing? Could we actually manage two tiny babies? When would we sleep? How would I survive on my own with Paul back at work? Plus I wanted to unpack, get the house back in order (I had originally intended on getting it clean and organized before the 7th), catch up on emails and this blog, the list just keeps going on and on. My brain just wouldn't quiet down. It was all so overwhelming. And here we are 1 week later and it still is a little bit. Thankfully my Mom has been here most of the time to help out with the cooking and cleaning and laundry and I've managed to get caught up on a few things between feedings.

Introducing Amelia Ann and Penelope Sue

Here is one of the earliest pictures - the girls are less than an hour old! Amelia is wide awake, checking everything out while her little sister, Penelope is fast asleep.

I suppose I should back up a little.... When I left off on the last entry, we were just heading off to the OR for the actual delivery. And while the epidural was great during labor, the same can't be said for how I felt during delivery. I was in a lot of pain during the contractions and pushing and then during my little breaks, I was super drowsy and had a hard time staying awake. I was a little frustrated feeling so out of it but Paul was right by my side talking to me and feeding me ice chips and that definitely helped. Although we had both been warned about how many people would be in the delivery room (each baby gets a couple nurses plus my nurses plus my Dr plus some interns plus the neonatalogist) we were still kind of surprised. The room was packed! And another mystery of childbirth was solved - I always thought I'd have a hard time feeling so exposed to that many strangers, but in the moment, I couldn't care less. Whatever it took to have babies is what it took, regardless of who was in the room. And during one of the worst moments, I believe my exact words to my Dr were "I just want them out of me". Nice right....real motherly :D

So on Monday, November 3rd, after an hour of pushing in L&D and a short 30-40 minutes more in the delivery room, we finally met Baby A. Amelia Ann was born at 9:30am and weighed 4lbs 8oz and measured 17in. I got a short break in the action while we waited for the 2nd baby and during that time, one of students/interns in the room actually got queasy and had to sit down and then eventually leave the room. I'm not sure what exactly got her sick, but it happened right after #2's water broke, so I like to tell Penelope she might have just changed the course of that girl's future, turning her away from a career in the OB field. ;D Anyway, back to the birth... At 9:51am, we met Baby B. Penelope Sue came into the world weighing 5lbs 12oz and measuring 18in. Both Paul and I were surprised at how small the girls were but we were told that those ultrasound measurements during the last couple weeks of the pregnancy could be up to a pound and a half off... Also, I must commend the women out there who are in labor for hours on end and give birth to 7lb and 8lb babies - I thought 2 hours and 5lbs was hard enough!! After the birth, Paul was in camera heaven, going back and forth between pictures and video. He took lots of pictures all day Monday and you can see some of the favorites in our little slide show here on the blog or you can link to our photo site acandpc.smugmug.com (we will eventually have lots more on Smug Mug). Even though both girls were small, they were as healthy as could be (crying loudly and scoring 9s on the Apgar test) and I got to see them briefly before they were taken off to the nursery. Penelope slept through our introduction but not Amelia. She was awake and alert and looking all around. And I think that was about the time when it all started to hit me at once... I just couldn't believe that these 2 little precious babies were ours and they were actually here with us. After all these weeks of waiting and waiting and waiting and then in a few short moments, it's all over and no more waiting.

A crazy couple of weeks!!!

So here we are - the middle of November, the girls are 10 days old and I'm still trying to find time to get my story posted. This will probably be an incredibly long post, but I want to get as many of the details written down before I start to forget them. For those of you that already know most of what happened, feel free to skip this entry....

On Sunday, November 2nd, I wasn't feeling very well all day. I was extremely tired and moody (lots of tears - mostly for no particular reason) and had a hard time eating anything without getting a stomach ache. Paul took off late in the day to get some groceries while I napped and did a few little things around the house. By about 5 or 5:30, I decided to start paying some bills and when I sat down at the table, I started to have some pretty bad blurred vision. My right eye had a weird blind spot that just wouldn't go away and made it hard for me read the numbers on the bills and write checks. After about 20 minutes, it still wasn't any better and I was starting to get a little scared and nervous so I called Paul and asked him to try to get home asap. Once he got home, I took my blood pressure reading two different times and both times it was very high (173/113 - yikes!!!). I knew my machine was a little high compared to the doctor's office and hospital, but I'd never seen it that high.... I immediately called my doctor to see what he wanted to do - although I was about 99% sure I already knew the answer. He agreed that those numbers were way too high for me and that we needed to get our bags packed and get to the hospital. Yes, it was time to have babies! And here I was just telling my sister earlier that afternoon that I was sorry we told so many people about the November 7th scheduled induction date because that meant we couldn't call and surprise our family when I went into labor. Now we were getting to make those surprise "it's time" phone calls! :D By the time we left for the hospital an hour later, I was determined that I was not coming back home without our babies.

Once at the hospital, we had to go through the usual routine - register, hang out in triage for a couple hours, get hooked up to monitors, have some blood drawn, answer a bunch of the nurse's questions and chat with the on-call doctor about what the plan would be. My blood pressure readings were still pretty high even after we'd been at the hospital for a couple hours and my doctor decided that since I was just a couple days shy of 37 weeks, we would go ahead and move over to Labor and Delivery and start to induce me. Initially, I was very excited to hear that - but then I learned that I would have to be hooked up to the dreaded magnesium again and that meant I would feel sick and be confined to the bed for all of labor. Even worse, once on the magnesium, you have to stay on it for 24 hours after delivery which meant I couldn't move to the post partum unit right away (where the well-baby nursery is) and it would be complicated for me to the see the girls and harder still to try to nurse them in those early hours and they definitely wouldn't be able to stay in the room with Paul and I that first night. This was not going the way I planned and that led to more tears. Eventually I calmed down ( I really had no choice in the matter, right?!) and looking back, I know it was the right thing to do for my own health. Pre-eclampsia related seizures are pretty common in the first 24 hours after delivery and the magnesium helps to bring the blood pressure back under control.

Back to the story... by about 10pm, I was hooked up to the IV and getting magnesium, pitossin and fluids. Shortly after that, around 11pm, I got my epidural. I was quite nervous about the epidural and the big needle going into my spine, but truth be told, I've had blood draws and shots of novocaine at the dentist that felt much worse. Although my nurse did tell me that magnesium is considered to be a sort of muscle relaxer so maybe that played a part in the epidural not feeling too bad. Or maybe the anethesiologist that gave me the shot is just really good at his job... Either way, I was happy that at least one of the potentionally scary labor moments went so smoothly. And once that drug kicked in, I felt pretty good. My L&D nurse kept telling me that I was having some pretty strong contractions, but I couldn't feel a single thing. Very Nice.... :D At that point, I tried to get some sleep, but it's hard when you're hooked up to the IV and all the monitors, including a blood pressure cuff that took a reading just about every 30-40 minutes so I just dozed off and on and around 2am, my water broke. I was starting to make some real progess (at 3-4cm dilated) and the nurse kept coming in pretty frequently to turn up the pitossin. By early morning (6ish), I was beginning to feel uncomfortable and a little nauseated. They adjusted my epidural and offered me some drug to help with the nausea. My nurse said it would make me feel better but also a little sleepy. At that time, I was only 6cm dilated and we all thought there would be plenty of time for the sleepiness to wear off before the action started. Unfortunately, we were wrong... By about 8am, I was really uncomfortable and no matter how I laid in the bed or how many times I hit my epidural button, I had horrible pain in my back and hips. Paul tried to help me get more comfortable lying on my side, but nothing worked and I was in tears (again!). I called my nurse in and she told me that I was already 10cm dilated and ready to start pushing. My doctor was paged and when he got there, he agreed - we were ready to go! Since this was a multiples birth, I would have to go to an OR room for the actual delivery, but I did most of the hard work in my L&D room. Because of my bed rest, I never had a chance to go to a childbirth class and was a bit nervous about how I would do. Thankfully, I had two wonderful nurses who told me exactly what to do and sometime around 9am, Paul was getting into his scrubs and I was being wheeled to my OR room.... It was finally time to meet our baby girls!