The boys almost always wake before I do. They are dependable to watch tv or play until I get up. If they get into something, I hear them. A few memorable times I have not heard them.
Today was a good thing. They found some polymer clay in my artish room and have spent hours making dogs, dragons, and dinosaurs. Their creations just came out of the oven and they are really cute. Great activity and I would not have thought of it for them because they are so busy. It is hard to get them to color or draw for very long.
When they were about 3 and a half it wasn't so good. In those days, I did not sleep in. I had to be up with them. They never called me to get up. As soon as they could crawl over the rails, they were up and about.
Anyway, I woke up to eerie silence, yet knew they were up. Maybe I knew I had overslept. As I rushed through the house, I met two small white shiny toddlers. Only shiny black eyes were not white. We were having the house painted inside and they had opened and emptied 5-10 gallons of white paint in the entry hall. They'd been sliding across the tile on it. Then apparently they went through the house touching furniture and walls wherever they went. I was in shock. I was really in shock. I grabbed them and dumped them in the bathtub, screamed for Greg, ran around saying "Oh no", and then wandered outside unsure how to care for them and clean up the mess.
Thankfully I met some neighbors in the street and they came to the rescue. They took the boys outside and hosed them down and kept them while we cleaned up.
The short story is I called the painters and with them we cleaned up the floor and furniture and removed the dining room carpet. To this day I have furniture with white spots or sloshes on it. (You may have seen the clip that went around a few years ago about the little boys with paint in the living room and on their tv - it was much worse than that!)
When we decided to have children, one of the goals I set was to help/allow them to experiment, to be adventurers, artists, scientists. Either we succeeded or they are naturally that way. I'm glad, but believe you me, it has its drawbacks!
I wish I had pictures of that day, but I truly was in shock. Not one record remains (except some paint).
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
In the Beginning
We knew from the outset that the babies were twins and that they were probably boys due to birth-family history. We picked their names quickly. My husband had a name he had wanted to use for years. I had a family name that fit with it nicely. Days later we realized we should pick girl names too. Another few days later we thought of selecting a girl and a boy name. We had only thought of a pair of boys or a pair of girls. We really never settled on the mixed names before they were born boys.
Being born at 28 weeks didn't scare us. We were so happy to have them we were oblivious to the dangers. They weighed 2 lb. and 4 oz. and 2 lb. 4.5 oz. The second was delivered by C section, all in 12 minutes. We were driving from another city and getting updates by phone.
They were healthy considering their gestational age but had hurdles to cross. We were fortunate to be in a branch of a large city hospital. The NICU was small but had access to big hospital staff, equipment and procedures. I don't remember more than 5 or 6 babies at a time. One baby was smaller than ours - 1 lb and a few ounces and he survived too.
As the days progressed there were some scares, in what we learned could happen, in waiting for tests, in watching their oxygen rate go up and down, and in one awful night when one stopped breathing many times. That was the only night I lost my composure with fear. We were assured they had a high probability of survival and cautioned they could have any number of health and learning problems. They have had little effect from being "Very Low Birth Weight Babies, VLBWB). More on that in another post.
We were allowed to be in the NICU as soon as our sweet birth mother signed papers and then at anytime there weren't procedures in progress that prevented visitors. At first we could only lay a finger tip on them to avoid over stimulating them. They were unbelievably small. My fingertip covered most of their hand. Their heads were about the size of a tennis ball.
They were on tube feedings and oxygen and diagnostic lines at first so we didn't feed them or change them. But soon we could hold, change, feed, and even bathe them. When I could tell they could recognize my voice I couldn't leave town for anything. If having children in a NICU can be a good experience, ours was the best.
Being born at 28 weeks didn't scare us. We were so happy to have them we were oblivious to the dangers. They weighed 2 lb. and 4 oz. and 2 lb. 4.5 oz. The second was delivered by C section, all in 12 minutes. We were driving from another city and getting updates by phone.
They were healthy considering their gestational age but had hurdles to cross. We were fortunate to be in a branch of a large city hospital. The NICU was small but had access to big hospital staff, equipment and procedures. I don't remember more than 5 or 6 babies at a time. One baby was smaller than ours - 1 lb and a few ounces and he survived too.
As the days progressed there were some scares, in what we learned could happen, in waiting for tests, in watching their oxygen rate go up and down, and in one awful night when one stopped breathing many times. That was the only night I lost my composure with fear. We were assured they had a high probability of survival and cautioned they could have any number of health and learning problems. They have had little effect from being "Very Low Birth Weight Babies, VLBWB). More on that in another post.
We were allowed to be in the NICU as soon as our sweet birth mother signed papers and then at anytime there weren't procedures in progress that prevented visitors. At first we could only lay a finger tip on them to avoid over stimulating them. They were unbelievably small. My fingertip covered most of their hand. Their heads were about the size of a tennis ball.
8 years later, ....
In September 2003 we were given the heavenly gift of the opportunity to adopt twin newborns. We took it! In October, they were born at 28 weeks and the adventure began.
In hopes of giving information, encouragement, and entertainment to other parents AND to post-journal our lives since then, I'm starting this blog about raising twins. I'll go back to the beginning while recounting our current adventures. btw, I was 53 when they were born..... add that up!
In hopes of giving information, encouragement, and entertainment to other parents AND to post-journal our lives since then, I'm starting this blog about raising twins. I'll go back to the beginning while recounting our current adventures. btw, I was 53 when they were born..... add that up!
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