Just a quick follow up.  After all the excitement on Friday, Kate was pretty exhausted on Saturday morning, even after a good nine or so hours of sleep.  So she got in a nap while we got ready to take her to see the doctor again.


In the end, removing the eye patch was the most traumatic part, I think.  I wanted to ensure that she couldn't pull a piece of the tape or gauze off and choke on it so it may have been a little, well, extra secure.  In my defense, though, she did have the same number of eyebrows after removing the patch that she did when it went on.

We got in pretty quickly to see the doctor.  I didn't think they were open on Saturday; they might have been open just to get caught up with one doctor out, I guess.  He didn't see the scratch at first so he put dye in her eye again.  After a moment he flipped the lights off, and pronounced her eye "perfect".  Which, of course, we knew already.  She even forgave the doctor before we left, grabbing his cheek to show she's still friends.  Or maybe as a warning - you can't really tell with that one...

She hasn't yet shown the signs of any other problems in that eye so it seems to have indeed healed overnight.  She was pretty worn out by the whole thing afterwards, though...


But after a nap she was back to her old self:

We were in Athens this afternoon and had to stop by Target, as is our habit.  For some reason we do tend to tear through the diapers and formula and they have both for cheap (though not in plenty this time, for some reason).  As a total coincidence it's also a convenient place to acquire the latest World of Warcraft expansion.  Of course, they were out of those too, which doesn't make any sense, but that's for another time.

It was a usual trip, each of us taking a cart with a baby in it.  Both of them were irritable in that we interrupted a nap but being general good sports about the trip.  After getting back to the car with our baby stuff and some Panda goodness, I noticed that Kate had three big tears running down her face.  She'd been crying but this was a lot for her.  Her eye was also red and a little puffy and the tears just kept coming.  We called the doctor, being in Athens already anyway, and they said they could work us in if we came in right away.

The pediatrician's office is always a special kind of challenge with twins.  We have to keep them settled, happy, and above all not touching anything!  All while people just stare and ask stupid questions.  Today we even got a couple "THIS one is the X, and THAT one is the Y", which occupies a special dark spot in my heart.  But 1.5 hours or so later we were seeing a doctor - the girls' regular doctor being out today.  By this time her eye had gone back to normal and she wasn't crying so we figured it had resolved itself.  But he took a look and saw something in there still.  He tried a sodden cotton ball, special dyes, even holding her head under the faucet - something particularly alarming to me.  But nothing.

Meanwhile Kate is making deafening sounds that bore directly into my hindbrain, but there was nothing I could do.  Eventually he decides it's not an object but a scratch - since it's not moving.  He sends us home with some gauze and a prescription for some ointment we're to marinate her cornea in overnight.  So it's 30 minutes to get the prescription filled and by this time both girls are hungry, tired, scared, and even hysterical.  The ride home with them screaming, at dark, in the rain, we won't speak of.  But we did eventually make it home safely.

And yet, the fun was just to begin.  If you've ever tried to slather an infant's eye with ointment, then tape gauze to it, all in a way that ensures she can't - in the middle of the night - tear off pieces and choke on them, or injure her eye, then you'll know.  Otherwise you'll have to use your imagination.  In the end it took a trip to CVS to get some reasonable-sized pieces of gauze and some stronger tape.  But she seems ok now.  She's sleeping now and given her day today she'll likely sleep soundly.


Oh, yes, we have to take her back to the doctor's tomorrow morning where we get to see the downside to using stronger tape...  Prayers are welcome, hopefully she'll endure another examination and it'll be gone.  Otherwise she's going to have to see an opthamologist tomorrow too.

6:45 PM	Leesa's home with the girls. I need to attend to dinner for a few more minutes so she's getting them changed into sleepers and ready for bed. The plan is to let them play some on the floor while we eat to get them nice and tired. Then give them a bottle until they're drowsy and send them to bed.
6:55 PM	Ok, that plan worked about as well as it always does. They're too tired to play. So it's bottle time. Lately I've gotten good at keeping dinner warm and sanitary for hours.
7:10 PM	Feeding them now - I have Kate. We're going to swaddle their legs at first just to keep them from constantly waking themselves up by kicking. They can still flip over if they need to, unlike if we did their arms too. Not that they can't flip over with their arms swaddled, but the concern is they'd only be able to do it once...
8:00 PM	Ok, the girls are fed and both asleep (guess that counts as "drowsy"). So here we go...
8:15 PM	The girls have been in their cribs for about 15 minutes now and they're quiet. Natalie stayed asleep for the most part when we put her down but Kate cried some.
9:00 PM	They've awakened a couple times but settled down after 5 minutes or so. Now they're both up and screaming like crazy. Leesa's going to go in the other room so she doesn't have to listen to it. This is probably the worst screaming I've ever heard out of them.
9:45 PM	Kate has fallen asleep but Natalie is still wide awake and screaming her head off. She is actually on her hands with her head up and sometimes even hitting the frame of the crib.
9:55 PM	Well, Natalie's been quiet for 5 minutes now. Maybe she's gone to sleep.
10:05 PM	Still quiet. Maybe I should go check and see if she's ok. They have the movement sensors in their cribs, but I had to turn her sensitivity up some since she kept moving away from the pad.
10:15 PM	Ok, I checked on them. They are both sound asleep on their bellies, looking very physically exhausted. We'll see how long that lasts.
10:20 PM	Leesa's gone to bed and I think I'll follow.
Sleeping (3 hours, 10 minutes)
1:30 AM	Awakened by crying. It's just Natalie - Kate's still asleep. I'm going to feed her and put her back.
2:00 AM	6 ounces later, Natalie's gone back to sleep. I laid her down and now she's crying again. I think. Problem is there's no way to tell which one is crying so I'm not sure when to feed Kate.
2:05 AM	The crying's stopped. Leesa's pretty sure she can tell who's crying and will tell me when it's Kate. I'm going back to bed.
Sleeping (1 hour, 55 minutes)
4:00 AM	More crying. Leesa says it's Kate. I make another bottle and go upstairs. Sure enough, she's right as always. Kate's diaper has leaked some so I change her sleeper and give her a new swaddle blanket for her legs.
4:25 AM	Kate's done eating and fallen asleep - as have I once or twice. There's either something wrong with our TV our the audio levels of the latest House episode because I can't understand half of what they're saying. Falling asleep may not help much either, I imagine.  Natalie's cried a few times over the last half hour but never more than 30 seconds or so. I've put Kate to bed and am now going myself.
Sleeping (2 hours, 5 minutes)
6:30 AM	Awakened by the alarm clock. The freaking alarm clock. That hasn't happened in a long time. One of the girls is fussing a little but not really crying.
6:35 AM	Upstairs now with today's clothes. Natalie has a leak again, so that's another swaddle blanket down. Definitely going to have to do a load of their laundry today.
6:45 AM	Downstairs with two dressed girls watching Backyardigans while Leesa gets ready to leave with them in about 15 minutes. All together a pretty painless process, actually. Total sleep time is 7 hours, 10 minutes, which is an incredible amount. I suspect some of our earlier failures were due to trying it on naps instead of actual night sleeps. Tonight, too, might present more challenges, but at least Leesa will be able to help more tonight since she works from home Fridays. Hopefully, though, they've gotten past the initial fear and they'll be sleeping easily in their rooms from now on.

After many false starts and struggles, tonight is the night that the girls begin sleeping in their own beds and not in their bassinets in our bedroom.

Last night, Natalie managed to turn around onto her belly while completely swaddled - arms too.  Then today Kate managed to flip over a bouncer (a what?) while she was inside it.  So it's no longer a matter of convenience, it's become unsafe for them to stay there.

So, yeah, probably a long few nights ahead of us because they don't like their beds and are just remarkably stubborn (for some reason).  But hopefully when we're done they'll be sleeping on their own, upstairs in their own beds, without the need for swaddle blanket, vibration device, white noise machine, blackout shades, and all the rest of the baby sleep-aids.  You know, hopefully anyway.

The title pretty much says it all.

  

Well, mostly Kate. Natalie was pretty tired. But there's more Natalie coming shortly.

 

Natalie, shortly after birth:

First, a primer:

There are two types of twins: fraternal and identical.  The differences are complete and absolute and have nothing to do with physical apperance.  Fraternal twins are created when more than one egg is present at fertilization - resulting in twins no more genetically similar than ordinary siblings.  Identical twins occur when an already fertilized egg splits into two distinct (you know, usually anyway) embryos.  These are (for all intents and purposes) genetically identical.  Of course you know all this but I thought I should get it out of the way first.

Having said that...

• Yes, they are identical.
• Yes, we're sure.  Really.  Really very sure.  I promise.
• No, it doesn't matter if they look the same.
• Yes, they are both girls - please see "genetically identical"
• Yes, we can tell them apart.  Well, usually, anyway.
• Really very sure.  Seriously, I saw the single placenta and everything.
  

Furthermore...

• Yes, they're twins.
• Yes, twins run in her family.
• It's really not as uncommon as you're making it out to be.
• Oh, really?  Your cousins?  Wow, small world.
  
• That's just really a rude question and fertility drugs cause fraternals not identicals.
• Yes, they're a double blessing.
• Yes, they're more work.
• Yes, I've thought about what college is going to cost.
• And the weddings, yes, them too.
  
• Yes, they are precious, thank you.
• They're about seven weeks old.
• Natalie and Kate.
• Thank you, we like the names too.
• 7 pounds, something, and 6 pounds, something.
• This one's Natalie, this one's Kate.
  
• Yes, I suppose they're smaller than other seven-week-olds you've seen.
• Yes, very tiny.
• Yes, they were early.
• Actually she's already lost the pregnancy weight.
• No, I don't want to hear about your labor.
• No, there's nothing "wrong" with them - they're just early.
• It's a monitor for Natalie's heartrate and breathing.
• She's fine - growing like a weed.
  
• No, you can't hold them.
• No, please don't touch them.
• No, even if they weren't immunodeficient I wouldn't let random strangers hold them.
• Please stop your kid from trying to touch them.
• Yes, indeed, very precious.
• No, this one's Natalie, this one's -- you know, what difference does it really make to you?
  
• They're dressed identically in pink outfits, in pink carseats - no, one's not a boy.
• Stop whispering "twins" and "two babies".  We hear you and they are not a sideshow attraction.
• We will not lower the shade or move the blanket so you can see better.
• Yes, I can tell you love babies.
  
• Seriously, I'm trying to eat here.  Keep walking.
• So... if you're just going to stand there and stare at them you really don't need me for that so I'm going to go back to eating
• Umm... are you done asking questions?  If so, keep it moving, we have a line to get through.

There, now all I have to do is format this into a FAQ sheet I can attach to their carseats and it'll save us all a lot of time.

Ok, Picasa's really getting on my nerves.  So unless I find another system that works I'm just going to host my own pictures.  It's just bare-bones right now (thumbnails - click to get the full image) but I'll add tags, etc. time permitting.

http://www.smilingkevin.com/babies.asp

Babies are here!  I don't have the energy right now (nor the grammatical skills, evidently) to do a whole thing about what's happened, but for those in search of pictures, your journey ends here:

 http://picasaweb.google.com/smilingkevin.com

Use caution in viewing the Delivery album.  There be blood.

Well, we've made it to 28 weeks as of yesterday.  Our girls would stand a pretty good chance of surviving without permanent problems now if they had to be delivered, though they would likely spend 4 - 6 weeks in an incubator.  So I'm happy to say that they are still safely with Leesa and growing more every day.  She hasn't had any other issues recently.

We did have to go to the hospital last Tuesday around 11p, which was fun.  She hadn't felt them move much for a couple days and the discharge slip from our last visit said that was something to watch for.  So we called her OB on call and she said to head for the hospital for some monitoring.  Which means we had a few hours of find-the-babies, with both of them becoming very lively indeed once they felt the monitors on them.

So we weren't real concerned about their lack of movement by the time we left since they hardly stopped moving the whole time and both had good, strong heartrates.

I'd like to momentarily call attention to the excellent nursing staff working at the new Family Birth Center at St. Mary's in Athens.  They are really exceptional - Angela, in particular.  Especially considering all of the challenges of constantly putting up with our hyper girls and taking care of easily-excitable new parents, it's wonderful how professional and still friendly they are.

That being said, I'd really like it if I only see all of them once more in my life.  You know, nothing personal, we just never go there just because we're bored and have little else to do.

Leesa has an appointment with her perineonatologist (hah, Firefox's spellcheck isn't even going to try) tomorrow where I'm hoping we get some more great ultrasound footage (maybe even the 3D (4D?) dealie) and she's hoping he'll say, "Your placenta is like the Rock of Gibraltar and you may feel free to decorate the nursery, take frequent trips to Target, and lift objects many times your own weight at will!"

Probably not, but hopefully she'll at least be cleared to go up the stairs once in a while or take short shopping trips.  I know it's killing her being stuck in the house all the time and not even able to come upstairs and see the nursery.

Leesa's been discharged and we're back home now.  She's been put on bed rest until delivery to try to prevent any further problems, but the doctor says that it's unlikely that we'd get a complete placental abruption -- which is my big fear.  Still, no reason we won't end up doing the very same thing later today or tomorrow.  But we know that God's watching over our little ones, no matter what.

It's a rough thing this father bit and I know it only gets harder.  It's a never-ending source of stress, fear, anxiety, and even terror -- to say nothing of the strain on sleep and finances.  Last night they refused to go to sleep and kept dodging and kicking the fetal monitors, turning what should have been an hour of observation into a night-long, sleepless marathon of find-the-baby.  I already have a long list of reasons to spank them once they finally get here and are big enough to know why.  Maybe I'll just make them wait until they're 18 to get their driver's license.

But, then again, we saw them on the ultrasound again today.  They were asleep (no wonder after last night).  Kate was lying sideways and Natalie was lying with her head resting on Kate's belly.  It was very cute.

So, you know, it's ok.  Whatever my little girls need. 

It started out as an ordinary day, but it is certainly not one.

I'm sitting here, reclined in a chair, next to my lovely wife.  She has three fetal monitors, an IV full of yummy dextrose, and a pulseox sensor.  The fetal monitor beeps every once in a while to indicate the Natalie and Kate's heartbeats.  Kate has been particularly bad in this area as she keeps moving around and away from the sensor.

It started earlier today with a yell from Leesa that I can honestly say I hope I never hear again.  I've always maintained that men (most men, anyway) are hardwired with a feature -- a cut-off switch, if you will -- that is tripped when a woman cries.  It's just something that says: "Stop what you're doing right now.  If you're busy, stop.  If you're angry, drop it.  Fix the crying now."  This was something else, though.  It was a mix of fear, anguish, panic, despair, and confusion coming from my beloved.  The kind of thing that goes right to your hindbrain.

It was blood, and lots of it.  The doctor has said it's a partial placental abruption.  Basically, the placenta has come partially loose from the uterus.  Which is bad, but it could be worse - and that's the real danger right now.  She's been admitted and we'll be here for a couple days at least.  Personally I'd feel safer if they just kept her after that until she's full term, but we'll see how it goes.

We certainly appreciate any prayers for us and the girls.  I'll try to keep this up with any status changes when they happen.

 

Says the doctor: "I'm not very good at seeing the sex."  So we know nothing yet.  Next appointment is 12/5 so hopefully we'll know then.  Still, most importantly, babies and mother are just fine.

Today's the day, hopefully.  We hae an appointment in a few hours for an ultrasound and the twins are old enough now that the doctor should be able to tell the sex.  That is, if they'll cooperate.  So there may be some news posted here later today.

A prayer here and there that the ultrasound go well and that the twins are nice and healthy would, as always, be much appreciated.

Sorry, kids.  This is just the beginning...



Highlights:
0:15 - Baby B's heartbeat
1:28 - Baby A apparently planning to conquer the world
3:20 - Baby A's heartbeat
3:45 - Baby B trying to suck its thumb
5:09 - Baby B finally catching its thumb

* Times are from the beginning - click on the clock if it's negative and counting down

As many of you know, recent silence hardly means that nothing is going on.  By no means.  I am thrilled to announce that we are expecting identical twins around the end of March.  No word yet on boys vs. girls but we'll hopefully know next week or soon after.  We would certainly appreciate any prayers as we finally begin this long-awaited phase in our lives.

And, yes, in true Smiling Kevin form, expect to see some new infant creepers to show up in the official store very soon.

So.  Now that that seriousness is out of the way I can feel free again to return you to the regular deluge of navel-gazing writing exercises, bizarre news stories, and hacky political commentary that you love so dearly.