Eat sleep poop. Eat sleep poop. This is what I've heard babies do.
Eat, burp, fall asleep, get diaper changed, get woken up, eat again, fill diaper again, won't burp, squirm, sneeze, fuss, spit up, finally burp, pretend to sleep, get swaddled, put in crib, and wake up again with big bright eyes. This is what babies actually do. And with twins, it's x2.
Life has changed. And as exhausting as it might be with adjusting to life with babies, it's so wonderful in every single possible way. Words can't adequately express how much these boys have brightened our world.
Twins? Check. Completely different looks and personalities? Check.
Yes they are definitely fraternal.
Brayden = fair skin, light hair color, small eyes, loves the pacifier, known to get hiccups multiple times a day, stomach of steel, and sleeps best when being held
Cooper = dark skin, dark hair color, big eyes, not such a fan of the paci, sneezes in 4's, urpy-burpy, and could sleep through a freight train barreling through the room
And of course as soon as we think we have them figured out, they conspire against us and switch roles.
Some have referred to Cooper being Mexican and Brayden being Swedish due to their looks. This may be true since Cooper smiled as big as his grinner would go when Gram & I walked into Panchero's for lunch the other day! And Brayden frowned, which mom narrated to be him saying, "Where are my Swedish meatballs??"
We've been having WAY too much fun putting words in their mouths with every little funny expression.
Nicknames
Cooper:
Cooperman, Super Cooper, Coopdog, Poopy Coopy, Cooper-de-super-duper, and Cooper Nuker (which is Nate's favorite)
and so far for Brayden we have:
Raidin' Brayden, Brayden Boy, Brainy Brayden
we are open to nickname suggestions for this guy! ;)
New common phrases around the house:
"Here, burp this one"
"Who do I have?"
"mark Cooper down for a pee and a poo at 6:15"
"Do you want to go ahead and feed Brayden now or hold him off until Cooper wakes up too (background noise from Brayden: waaaaaaaa)"
"Do we have more diapers?"
laying them side by side ... *pooter* ... "Ok, which one of you was that??"
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA he's spraying everywhere!!!"
So here's the whole story
(for those of you who like details ... if not, skip to the pictures)
The way it began: Nate drove us to the hospital at 4:30 am Sunday morning after a certain obvious indication that things were happening. Not long after we got there, Nate had me walking the halls to get things moving along! However, nothing happened for hours. Until the pitocin began. And still, things went pretty slowly.
So let's press the fast forward button and skip over all the unpleasant stuff! They finally rolled me into the Operation Room at 12:20 am Monday morning and Brayden was delivered at 2:28 am. As soon as he was delivered, they immediately whisked him away and several pairs of hands were attempting to turn little breech Baby B into a proper position to be delivered. The doctor made the call after a few minutes that an emergency C-section was necessary because he wasn't turning as he should and it was unsafe for him to be delivered naturally. The room suddenly flooded with people, the blue sheet went up, I was knocked out, and Cooper's time of birth was 3:09 am. Hopefully Cooper's "older" brother, Brayden, doesn't give him grief his whole life about being 41 minutes younger! :P
After surgery, I woke up to these comforting words ... "Congratulations, you have 2 healthy boys!!" Even with being rather exhausted and delirious, those words cut through very clearly and my heart had never filled with so much joy! Well ... then I got to hold them for the first time, so the joy only kept growing :) ... and hasn't stopped since. (It was later that I learned about what had happened with Cooper ... he wasn't breathing on his own at time of delivery and was intubated and hooked up to an IV until he began breathing on his own 90 seconds after birth.) - I can't say enough about the excellent care at that hospital ... absolutely amazing. I'm so thankful our boys were in such skillful hands. And while I'm at it, I can't say enough about my awesome husband who was there at my side through it all, being the best coach I could've asked for! What an experience to go through together.
My recovery seemed to start out real slow but has progressed very quickly. Later in the day of when I had delivered, the nurse came into my room and asked me if I was ready to get out of the hospital bed for my first walk. I was really excited to be getting out of bed after having been in it for many many hours! So I tackled it with a "let's do this" attitude, only to be extremely discouraged when it took me nearly 10 minutes to be helped out of bed only stand to my feet. I began to wonder just how long this recovery would take ... Nate & the nurse both cheered me on and told me how well I did and promised me that I would walk the next day. I remember thinking "yeah, right."
Well they were right! It's amazing what you can do with enough painkillers! The next day I made a walk all the way to the ice/water station and back (the few feet seemed like a great distance to cover at the time). I can't explain how good it felt to be able to do that! Then the next day I walked the whole loop.
Recovery kept moving right along after that! One of the craziest things was how much my feet and ankles swelled up. They definitely looked like water balloons! But after a couple days of being at home, keeping my feet elevated, and drinking gallons of water, they were back to normal. I remember looking down at them and thinking, "WOW I have skinny feet!"
Thursday we were dismissed and got to bring our boys home :)
And since then, it's been completely normal, nothing has changed, and we all sleep through the night.
HA just kidding.
My mom and Nate's mom have been taking turns helping out with night duty on week nights, and Nate is able to help out with night duty on the weekends. So with the few nights that Nate & I have accomplished together, we are starting to get into a good routine. I try to make sure there are enough bottles in the refrigerator for the night so that he can help out with feedings. For example, at the 8:30 am feeding this morning, I pleaded for just a little more sleep and asked Nate if he could take care of feeding both boys all by himself. He more-than-happily agreed to it and I got another wink of sleep! I hear that Lara & Calliegh were up and about and got to pitch in and help, too!
Never wake a sleeping baby?? My opinion: this applies to one baby .. not twins. If one baby wakes up and wants to be fed, it takes close to half an hour to get him fully satisfied with feeding, burping, diaper changing, etc. Then baby #2 wakes up? Another half an hour. That equals an hour of "feeding." They eat every 3 hours. That doesn't leave much time in between. I suggest the double football hold ... which I've also started calling the "double drive-thru."
Closing advice: if you ever have twins, accept help and be extremely grateful for it. Don't try to do it alone .. it's impossible. Much thanks to my mother and mother-in-law for their numerous sleepless nights of closely watching the video monitor and responding to the boys' squirms and squeals, I have gotten sleep in between feedings and have had a well recovery!
At their 2-week post-delivery checkup last Monday, Brayden weighed 6 lb 8 oz (8 oz past birth weight) and Cooper weighed in at 6 lb 3 oz (1 oz past birth weight). They're headed in the right direction! And this mommy loves it that they're getting squishier :)
Pictures!!!!! finally.
the happy moment of getting to hold both of our newborn sons at the same time :)
ahh ... showered and feeling great!
Nate proving that he too can do the double football hold!
the boys' birth information
Linda was my 12th and final nurse of the entire hospital stay!
Cooper on the left and Brayden on the right, waving bye-bye to the hospital
the boys all bundled up in their "cuddle bear" and "little monkey" going-home outfits!
loaded up and ready to go home!
it takes a small village :)
a warm welcome home!!
Brayden getting a sunbath to help with his jaundice!
this got the attention of a very curious Kayman (our dog) who came up and stared through the window
Darin & Kyla brought over a steak dinner!!
so to thank them, we let them win at ticket to ride ;)
sleepy snuggles
more sleepy snuggles
preparing for yet another night
"the assembly line" consists of:
burp cloths, changes of clothes (2 onsies and 2 sleepers), blankets, and swaddling
Papa taking it all in
this woman is our live-in maid, cook, caretaker, and night nanny
she also goes by names of: super-mom & Gram
and this woman is always showing up at our front door with delicious food
... even at 5am!
aka: Grandma Stidolph? or Granny Lora?
I guess we'll let the boys choose once the start talking
(I need to get a picture of Grandpa John! He's sure been enjoying snuggles too :)
wow ... these are really ours?!? :)
that's pretty awesome.
