Blogging is a Blessing

Today I’m feeling amazing!  I want to thank whoever it was that created blogging.  Since I started doing this I’ve realized how blessed I really am. 

Just writing about the good times has made me temporarily forget all those nights where I’d lay in bed listening to Paige and Carter scream through their monitor, waiting to be fed, and thinking ‘why in God’s name did I think having more children was a good idea’ or that ‘I hate this life’ or ‘I’ll never forgive you Grandpa for being a twin’ or ‘if I died right now, would they even care as long as someone, anyone, gave them a bottle’ or ‘why in the hell has this not woke daddy up yet?’ or ‘I wonder how much a night nanny would cost us’, this doesn’t even include the thoughts I’ve had during the day while running between the two of them to get them to keep their binkies in their mouths and be quiet while Noah is screaming he wants juice and cookies, or just plain screaming for no apparent reason…

My kids are amazing!  My husband is amazing!  I’m one of the luckiest girls in the world… and I can feel that today. 

My cardiologist told us that I can’t have any more children because my heart can’t handle it and won’t handle it.  It was fine with me to only have two children when Jay and I decided that I would have a tubal ligation… but to be told you CAN’T have more makes things more permanent and takes everything out of your own hands.  I like to think that God knew we would regret stopping at two… I remember asking Jay once before we knew about the twins “What if this isn’t God’s plan for us, what if He doesn’t agree with our decision”.  Jay’s response was simple “It’s God honey!  If he wants us to have more, we’ll have more.  You’ll either get pregnant despite the surgery, or he’ll give us twins”.  God’s plan must have including us having three children because he made it happen!  And I really believe him having a cardiologist tell me that I cannot have any more children was his way of telling us His plan was done.

It dawns on me every now and then that this is it… I might not be fond of the “helpless baby days”, but I’ll never experience it again.  I’ll never feel a baby kick in belly again, I’ll never hear that first cry again, I’ll never get to see that first smile again or see the first roll over.  Yes, I have many firsts I still get to look forward to, but as I’m sitting here thinking life will get easier when the twins can walk and feed themselves, I’m realizing that for every first they have… it’s also a last. 

So yes, I’m blessed!  I might not get to have any more children but God has given me my last experience in double vision!

A Day With Noah

As I mentioned in our history, Noah is getting to the age where he starts doing and saying the funniest darn things!  I’ve been waiting since he was born for this and I’m so excited about it I can’t stand it!  I’m not much for the “helpless baby” stage, but I love, love, love the toddler years…. even though it comes with the “terrible twos”, which Jay and I refuse to believe exist! 

The other day I came home from work and couldn’t help but notice that Noah had shiny stuff on his face.  Upon further inspection I realized it was glitter.  I hadn’t noticed an art project on the kitchen counter, so I knew Nanny Dana didn’t have craft day.  She then proceeds to tell me about Noah’s day (my day reports from her are quite amusing).  Here is what that day brought… Nanny Dana had gone into the bathroom.  In the two minutes she was gone Noah opened up his normally locked closet door (he had broken the lock a few weeks ago and we hadn’t replaced it yet).  I had moved all of our craft supplies into his closet so that Nanny Dana could access them better on craft day.  Noah found two jars of glitter.  He proceeded to open them and throw himself a party!  Glitter ended up all over his room and all over him.  After hearing this I realized that he not only had glitter on his face, but all over his body!  At this point I dare to take a glance at the babies… they were sparkly too!  Within ten minutes of being home we were all sparkly because, as I’m sure you all know, you just CAN’T clean up glitter!  Later that night I learned that the hardwood floors don’t give up glitter easy and that Noah’s bed looks like he spent the evening at a strip club and brought home a bit of the girls!  I have to give mad props to Nanny Dana over this one because had it been me… I would have not handled it so well!  She cleaned it up the best she could and because it happened on her watch, I’m able to laugh hysterically at the fun my little guy was having!

After Nanny Dana left the babies were enjoying some tummy time… of course Noah was right there “helping” them roll over!  He then decided he needed to “play” with them and leaned in to get a good “look”… it ended with Noah laying on top of his baby brother and me having to rescue Carter from being “squished” as Noah would say!  After the baby rescue, Noah and I decided it was time for his dinner.  I made him a lovely spread of macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets… I even threw in a pickle garnish which he loved!  He gets all excited about dinner time and drags his chair over to the coffee table (or dining room table is currently the Island of Sodor under construction) while I bring in his plate and juice!  We get him all situated eating and I go back to the kitchen to clean up the dishes.  I finish up in the kitchen and look in on Noah (the rooms are right next to each other) only to find macaroni and cheese and juice all over the floor!  Here is what progressed from there:

Mommy:  Noah, what did you do?

Noah:  Huh?  (his favorite new response)

Mommy:  What did you do?

Noah:  Babies (with this look of guilt on his face)

Mommy:  Are you saying the babies made this mess?

Noah:  YES!

So, the blame game has started and he’s not even two yet!  Noah helps me clean up the mess and we move on.  Here is a picture of Noah... not even on the same night, but it will give you an idea!  At least this time he was immobilized!

I put Carter in the bumbo (bimbo as we call it) chair and I start playing with Noah.  My phone rings so I walk to the kitchen to grab it.  I come back into the living room and immediately notice that Carter is missing, bimbo chair and all!  I turn to right to find him chilling in his bimbo in Noah’s room.  

Mommy:  What is going on?

Noah:  Huh?

Mommy:  How did Carter get in your room?

Noah:  Noah push

Mommy:  Why did you push Carter into your room?

Noah:  Brother need play!

So they played!  I’d love to say this was the end of Noah for the day… but it continued into bath time when his starfish fountain floated away from him and he couldn’t get to it in time. 

Noah:  Oh shit!

Mommy:   (laughing hysterically) What did you say?

Noah:  (turns around all innocent) Uh-oh!

When your two year old can use such colorful language in the perfect context, you know you are to blame!  I can’t take all the blame for this, as this isn’t the first time he’s said it.  We had a lovely car ride once, where Daddy could not stop saying it.  I think he was saying it just because he couldn’t stop…

Daddy:  Oh Shit

Noah:  Shit

Daddy:  Shit, I need to watch my mouth

Noah: Shit

Daddy:  Shit, I said it again!

Noah: Shit

This went on for about five minutes while I just giggled in the passenger seat keeping my mouth shut because I had finally gotten something over daddy and I didn’t want to accidentally say it!  Needless to say, I guess mommy and daddy need to work on their potty mouths before we end up in timeout!!!

By far the best thing he’s ever said to me:

Noah:  Mommy pretty!

The First 12 Weeks

Since we are late starting this blog we thought we’d give you the rundown of the last twelve weeks to get you up to speed.

We have been to the doctor several times now with the babies.  They left the hospital weighing close to 5lbs each (Carter being the smallest).  At their first doctor’s appointment Paige weighed in at 7lbs 1oz and Carter came in at 7lbs 2oz, passing his sister up by just one ounce!  Not bad weight gain for twins who are only one month old!  Their next appointment was at two months… Carter weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 13oz… and Paige had to beat him this time with 9lbs 13.5oz!  The doctor was thoroughly impressed with them skipping the 6lb category and the 8lb category all together!  Both babies are now getting “on the curve” with babies the same age as them!  The both fall in the very low percentile range, but for babies who are 4 weeks behind their actual age we are very impressed!  It was nice to see their graph charts… when they were born they weren’t even on the chart and then suddenly they shot straight up and into curve!

They took their shots pretty good, only crying for seconds before calming back down.  It was pitiful to hear Carter cry because he rarely does it, but we were expecting Paige to bawl as soon as the doctor looked at her.  She is a total center of attention, drama queen just like her mommy!  It wasn’t until two days after their shots that I realized I totally forgot to give them Tylenol before hand, poor kids!  At least I’ll be ready next time.  I’ve already put a reminder alarm in my cell phone!

The twins (before they were born I swore I would never call them that) are eating pretty good.  They take between 4-6oz every four hours during the day.  Some people think this is a lot for 12 week babies, but they will freak if they get less!  Paige sleeps through the night now, from about 9pm or so until 6 or 6:30am.  She will occasionally wake up in the night to eat, but not very often.  Carter, on the other hand, still gets up once in the night to eat.  Jay and I have started taking turns on who feeds him because we both work full time jobs and have to get up early.  It is nice to occasionally get a full nights sleep again, but it sucks when it’s your night to sleep and Paige decides she’s hungry… that means we both get up to feed and you lose your night of sleep. For the most part we like this new system.  It’s so much better than what the first ten weeks were like.  I swear we never thought we’d sleep again!  They were both up every four hours to eat… doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it takes 30 to 45 minutes to feed them and change them (each if you are by yourself), then another 15 minutes to get them back in their beds and fast asleep… at this point an hour is gone.  THEN you have to get yourself back to sleep… another ½ gone… giving you approximately 2 ½ hours before they have to get up again.  I remember at the beginning when Jay was working nights for a road widening and I’d do all this myself.  The 2 ½ hour window of sleep back then was only 1 ½… and Noah was up at 6am!  My Lord I was tired!

We have learned that sleep deprivation can be fun!  At first we complained about it.  Now, we find ourselves doing the most humorous things and we find the dumbest things absolutely hysterical!  I can’t tell you how many times my co-workers have to hear me say “man I need some sleep” after the dumbest things flow out of my mouth!  But, we’ll save that for another post!

After the babies were born, we ended up pulling Noah out of daycare and hiring a Nanny!!!  Nanny Dana joined us in the middle of December.  She was home with me for about three or four weeks before I went back to work.  She was totally awesome and I was able to come and go as I pleased.  Looking back I know I should have listened to Jay and used that time to sleep, but I don’t sleep well during the day and things needed to be done!  You’ll probably hear a lot about Nanny Dana as she has become part of our family in a very short amount of time!

Paige and Carter are now 12 weeks old.  Carter started rolling over around 10 weeks and at that time Paige cried if you tried to make her do anything she didn’t want to.  She surprised us though and started rolling completely over (and off her mat) at 11 weeks.  She was so proud of herself that she couldn’t stop smiling, and I even heard her first giggle!

When we first brought the babies home they slept in our room in pack and play.  That lasted about a month and a half before I said they absolutely had to go!  We moved them both into Noah’s crib (he had moved to his twin size bed months before).  Once Carter started rolling at 10 weeks we got a little nervous and had to put up another crib for Paige.  So, yes at 10 weeks they were separated.  I personally think Carter had a harder time of it than Paige.  She slept like a rock and he would fight us when he had to go to bed and he’d fuss for about ½ hour.  He is much better now and we believe he has the same crush on “Beth” the starfish light as Noah once had!

Noah loves the babies as much as any 23 month old could!  If we lay the babies down for tummy time, he is right there showing them how to roll and even “helping” them along!  The other night I found him in Paige’s bouncy seat with her, and we occasionally find him in the bassinet of the pack and play!  He gets bored and a little jealous sometimes with the attention we have to give the babies, but he handles it well.  We feel bad during the week because he doesn’t get out of house much and he is begging to go bye-bye, but try our best to be sure at least one day on the weekend is spent letting Noah do what he wants.  We go as a family, but it’s all about Noah.

Jay finally got his own job site after about six months of “training” on another site.  While he loved working with Grandpa (his dad) on this site, we are very excited about him going it alone!  The site he is currently on is close to completion and his new site is starting all at once.  This makes for very long days for daddy!  He leaves before I do to go to work and doesn’t get home until after 8pm.  We recently had a long talk about our schedules (and by this I mean, I came up with some ideas and now he just has to fall into our routine).  I get home from work and say hi to the babies, and play for a bit.  Then I play with Noah and make sure he’s fed, given a bath if it’s bath night and get him in his pajamas.  Because Nanny Dana has helped us get onto a schedule, the babies don’t eat until around 9pm after I get home giving me more time to spend with Noah.  When Dad gets home we make our dinner and he tries his best to play with Noah, then we try to eat really fast and get the babies fed!  Then the babies go to bed and then Noah goes to bed.  If we can get all of this done before 10pm we are giving high fives!  We use to try to have Noah to bed around 8:30pm, but with two crying babies he couldn’t sleep so we figure it’s better for him to be involved in the last feeding and then be put to bed after the little ones.  He sleeps until 7am or 8am during the week, and till 9am or so on the weekends.

Now that you are all caught up… our posts will probably become a lot shorter!  Thanks for sticking with us through our history!

The Public

Taking the twins out of the house is a challenge to say the least.  We handle getting out just fine, it’s the other people who make it a challenge.  Here is how we get out of the house:

We pack a diaper bag (we combine Noah and the twins for ease).  We feed and change the twins.  We load them into their car seats (which Noah will now drag through the house to us when he wants to go somewhere).  We get Noah’s shoes and coat on.  I take the diaper bag and Noah to the car, Jay brings the babies.  Off we go!

If we are alone… and by we I mean ME… I do everything above until I take Noah to the car.  I generally take the diaper bag, my purse and a soda to the car.  Go back in, get Noah and strap him into the car.  Go back in and get Paige and strap her into the car.  Go back in and get Carter and strap him into the car… then realize I forgot to lock the door and go back yet again to take care of that!  I’ve only had to do this twice, but let me tell you by time I’m done I’m out of breath and sweating! 

So, we have a system for leaving our house… but it takes about an hour with feeding the babies.  We finally get to where we are going… lets use Wal-Mart as an example because when you have three children you find you have to go there a LOT!  We get to Wal-Mart, get the stroller out, load the twins, get a cart, put Noah in it and head for the store.  Suddenly it’s like WOW we are CELEBRITIES!  A trip that should take about 15 minutes takes us at least an hour because we are stopped every three feet so someone can look at the babies or ask us questions!  We can’t get anything done!  I’m usually the more friendly one and I’ll thank people who make nice comments, but it’s getting to the point where we have to keep moving and say thank you over our shoulders just so we can get the milk home before it expires!  We hate to be rude, but we have dinner to prepare, kids to feed, showers to take, laundry to fold and bottles to wash.  Poor Nana (my mom) usually doesn’t leave before 9pm if she comes over because there is so much to do! 

This leads me into my next entertaining insight of being a parent of twins… and this is after only a few weeks!

Crazy things that are asked or said to parents of twins…(most of these apply to strangers and not family and friends):

1.      Are they twins?  No we adopted one and I got pregnant at the same time we started the adoption!  While this is COULD happen, is it all that likely?!  My favorite response is:  No, they were buy one get one free at the hospital!

2.      Did you plan that?  HELLO?!  Yes, I wanted to save my insurance company some money so I planned a two for one!  WHO plans twins?????  Even fertility treatments can’t plan on twins!!!  My normal answer is this:  She was planned, he was a gift from God!

3.      Are they boys or girls? … Really?  One is in pink and one is in blue.  Do you really think that every person in this country is metrosexual and okay with putting boys in pink?!  If you see newborn babies in pink and blue there is a 99% chance that they are girl and boy.  If by some reason you get it wrong and they are both boys… their parents deserve to have to explain to you that they dress their son in pink!

4.      Are they identical?  My response… well they were, except her penis fell off just after birth!  Really, I just told you that one was a boy and one was a girl!  (I’ll be the first to admit that having identical boy/girl twins is possible as new studies show, the girl will be missing a chromosome and she’ll have Turner’s Syndrome… however there are only about 10 reports of this in the United States… the possibility of you running into them at your local Wal-Mart are slim!  With only 10 confirmed cases, please assume boy girl twins are NOT identical and let those 10 reported sets WOW you with their story when you run into them… not only that but how many people in the world ACTUALLY know about this study… not many… so yes, it does come across as a silly question)!

5.      Which one is the evil twin?  For Pete’s sake…  (who ever Pete is) they are babies!!!  Children are taught evil… please do not insinuate that God would give someone the devil’s spawn as their child!!!  AND please do not be the one to give my children the idea that one of them is evil!

6.      Are they natural?  Um, no they are made out synthetic fibers, and they are full of processed meat!  All children are natural.  What business is it of yours if fertility drugs were involved?  But, to answer your question, if natural means no fertility drugs to you, then yes, ours are natural… usually this question also comes after “do they run in your family”… that is the polite way people ask if you used fertility drugs.

7.      Glad it’s you and not me!  My response “me too”

8.      Bet you have your hands full!  My response “better full than empty”

9.      When were they born?  How much did they weigh?  How far apart are they?  Who is older?... Okay this one does not relate to family members or friends, only to the lady following me down an aisle in the grocery store and is standing over them while I’m trying to put eight twelve packs of diet cherry pepsi in my cart so that I have enough caffeine to get me through one more day!  Okay look lady… I know you are interested, but ask me something better than that, are you going to remember these stats when you walk away from me?  NO!  So please let me continue shopping so that I can go home, and try to enjoy the last few minutes of my day with my children before I pass out!

10.  Are you breastfeeding?  REALLY?!  SERIOUSLY?!  I don’t know you and I’d prefer you not asking questions about parts of my body that I spend a lot of money to cover up!  When did it become okay for a perfect stranger to talk about my breasts?!  I mean really, we all know that modesty ends when you have a baby, but that STOPS when you leave the hospital!!!

11.  Are they yours?  This one annoyed me until two things happened… one, my mom and my husband explained to me that I did not look like a person who just delivered a set of twins, much less just had a baby (again, thank you gestational diabetes!) and two, I saw my nanny pushing my babies in their stroller! 

12.  They are not twins unless they are identical.  REALLY?!  REALLY?!  I don’t even think I can comment on this one!

Believe it or not we have actually been asked all these questions, and many more (including do they have the same father.. thank you Jerry Springer for drawing “those” kinds of girls out of the woodwork for me to be compared to, I appreciate that).  The attention the kids bring is amazing and it really is sometimes fun!  It’s just hard when you are actually trying to finish your errands in a limited amount of time.  We are not trying to be rude or insensitive, but it does get frustrating.  We understand that people are curious and we DO try to answer everyone politely.  But now you know what is going through the head of a parent of multiples when you ask these questions.  We love our kids, we love to talk about them, we love that you are interested… but please keep it brief.  If you are a waitress, please let us try to have a normal meal as a family, rather than surround our table and ask questions that we feel obligated to answer between bites!

This brings me to the number one most annoying comment people make:

·         I have children (insert number here) months apart.  I know exactly how you feel!

Unless you are a parent of multiples, you have no idea of the challenges that come with it.  I’m sure you can relate to some of the challenges of having kids close in age, but you don’t know what it’s like to have them the same age.  We hope by writing this blog to give everyone some insight on the challenges and blessings that come with having multiples, but also the challenges and blessings that come with having three children under two!  I give mad props to all the other twin parents out there and sing insane praises to parents of trips and quads.  God definitely has a sense of humor!

Twin Facts

Along our journey of growing twins, we learned something interesting about twins that I thought I’d share with anyone who might be interested in twins!

Identical twins are not hereditary… they are actually a fluke of nature (sorry for all you identical twins out there, I don’t mean that in a bad way)!  Anyone can have identical twins, it just happens.  An egg that is supposed to be one happens to split into two!

Fraternal twins are hereditary.  They do not skip a generation like many believe… they can pop up anywhere.  But here is what is most people don’t know… it’s only the girls that will have them (yes, I know what you are thinking… that was a dumb thing to say as only girls can have babies, but hear me out)!  My grandfather was a fraternal twin.  He passed it to my mother, who passed it to me… now… Noah and Carter will only have twins if it runs in THEIR wives’ families, however Paige can have twins!  Does this make sense… here is another example…. My mom passed it to me and both of my brothers, however my brothers would not have frats unless it ran in their wives’ families, however their daughters could have them!  Interesting?!  Basically since my grandfather was a twin, all my female cousins could have them, but none of the male cousins, but their daughters could! 

I guess the science behind this is simple:  Fraternal twins are hereditary.  There is a gene in there somewhere that causes a FEMALE to release two eggs at random times (thanks grandpa).  And BAM… both eggs are fertilized and you have twins!  Obviously, boys don’t release eggs so they have nothing to do with the equation… this is why Jay blames me personally when the twins are bad!  Haha!

Meet the Family

MEET MOM AND DAD

Mom’s name:  Karrie

Dad’s name:  Jay

The quick version:  We met through a bible study at our church.  We became fast friends and stayed that way for some time.  For anyone who knows me (mom) you know that I flat out refused to date Jay… for anyone who knows Jay, you know that he refused to give up!  He won and I am grateful!  We began “officially” dating in October, 2007 (and by “officially” I mean “Karrie’s admittance to the fact that we were already dating”, Jay would tell you April, 2007 but hey, who’s counting).  Jay proposed to me in June, 2008, we got married in March, 2009.  Finally, we had our first little boy in February, 2010!  Mom currently works as a legal assistant at the Charlotte office of a large law firm out of Birmingham, Alabama.  Dad is a self employed contractor who is currently in a 10 year project of building gas stations for a wonderful company out of Oklahoma. 

MEET NOAH

Noah was born on February 22, 2010.  8lbs 2oz.  My entire pregnancy went pretty smooth, but it ended up a little rough.  After a few hours of labor my blood pressure shot up and so did Noah’s heart rate.  We were rushed in for an emergency c-section.  I was put to sleep and when I woke up Jay handed me the cutest little baby!  Awesome way to have a baby if you ask me! 

Turns out I developed preeclampsia after giving birth.  My blood pressure was through the roof and they gave me some medication to bring it down.  They brought it down all right, they almost killed me.  Thank God Jay was watching over me and caught it in time to get the nurses in there to fix me back up!  We were in the hospital for about a week and finally got to go home.

Noah is an amazing little guy!  He is about to turn two now!  He began walking around 9 months.  He started talking around 1 – 1 ½ years.  Like most new moms, I was worried he wasn’t talking enough, but let me tell you… he hasn’t shut up since!  (something I am loving every minute of)!  Noah likes Veggie Tales, Thomas the Train, Toy Story, and recently he’s decided he likes Yo Gabba Gabba and Annie!  His favorite foods are cheese balls, pizza, beefaroni and popsicles!  He hates vegetables just like his daddy!  Noah has recently started talking a LOT and some of what he has to say is getting pretty funny… even when he’s being scolded he somehow makes us laugh!

I wish I’d started this blog when he was born so that you could watch him grow these first two years, but I didn’t.  He has his baby book to look back at for his infant moments and he’ll have this for his toddler and childhood years!  The twins will have this as their baby book!! 

YES I SAID TWINS!

MEET PAIGE AND CARTER (THE TWINS)

Paige and Carter were born on November 4, 2011.  Jay and I decided to try for our second and last child.  We made jokes that if God wanted us to have more than two children, he’d send a miracle… and boy did He!  We were a little shocked the day we found out, but accepted it the best we could.  We were happy, surprised, but happy!  The day we found out it was a girl and a boy we were stoked!  We expected all boys so we were a bit apprehensive about a little girl… after all, we had Noah, what did we know about baby girls?!

My pregnancy started out smooth.  I never thought I’d make it to the end.  Honestly, I figured I’d lose them somewhere along the way, so you can imagine my surprise when we got to the day of our scheduled delivery!  Around 7 months pregnant I developed gestational diabetes and had to change EVERYTHING good in my life… bye bye chocolate, bread, potatoes, pasta, fruit… hello lettuce!  For anyone who has ever had to do this, I am truly sorry and I feel your pain (and I don’t just mean pricking your finger and testing the blood four times a day).  It was extremely hard, but we got through.  Around 8 months I developed “on again – off again” preeclampsia.  I went to the hospital a few times for dehydration (turns out that Diet Cherry Pepsi over ice is NOT considered water intake).  I had contractions starting around six months or so, and I demanded to have another c-section because “why in the world would anyone want to go through that”?!  (keep in mind, I did labor and deliver Ethan, the son I lost years ago, and I did labor some with Noah, so please don’t send me comments about not knowing how it feels)!  The doctors finally said we had to schedule our c-section for 36 weeks!

At this point I could not stand up.  My legs and feet were so swollen.  You couldn’t touch ANYTHING below my waist or I’d holler in unbearable pain.  It was horrible… but I ate my lettuce and got through it! 

I was awake for this c-section, it was AWESOME!  With Noah we had an emergency situation and when they went to cut, I felt it all… so they had to put me under.  I thought this was a fabulous way to have babies, up until I had the twins!  Now, I am happy to report that I have had children all three ways possible and being awake during a c-section is the best way to go!  Recovery sucks, but it’s better than labor!  The reason I say this is that when Noah was born I saw him while I was waking up… I honestly don’t remember much of those minutes because of the anesthesia.  When they delivered Paige and I heard her cry it was the most amazing moment.  I immediately began to cry.  I am sure you can all think back to when you heard your baby cry for the very first time… and if you can even try to image them holding a second baby out to you, Carter, and having that overwhelming feeling all over again when you hear another one cry… it was insanely awesome!  I didn’t think I’d react that way until it happened, but I’m glad it did.  I’m glad I got to experience that first moment without anything to block my memory of it.  I wish I’d had that moment with Noah, but I’m okay with it… heck, until I had it with the twins, I didn’t know it existed, and we made it this far without it!

Paige and Carter arrived at 36 weeks and 2 days!  Paige weighed in at 5lbs 4oz, and Carter came in at only 4lbs 12oz.  Carter is my preemie!  According to the nurses, anything under five pounds is considered a preemie, so I get to say I had twins, and one was a preemie!  Cute, huh?!  The babies did fabulous!  They held good temperature, held good weights, had good color and pooped enough for us to consider buying stock in diapers!  We were about to go home… when everything changed again!

There must be something about me and delivering babies because once again… I almost died!  Everything was going fine until this nurse, who was around when Noah was born and annoyed us thoroughly during that stay, walked into the room!  My blood pressure shot through the roof.  She started telling me all these things I needed to do, that I physically couldn’t do, (like lay on my left side when I couldn’t breathe laying down).  At one point Jay told her “you might want to leave before my wife goes all wolverine on you”… needless to say, she was banned from our room by the head of the nursing staff!  The doctors thought I had pneumonia due to my need to cough while laying down and not being able to breathe.  After a CT scan, 3 EKGs, Constant monitoring on an ECG monitor, pulse/oxygen monitor, oxygen breathing tubes, echocardiogram, 4 chest x-rays and being registered to three hospital rooms all at one time (one of which was the ECU; yeah, where they keep those with TB, MRSA, and other highly infectious diseases)… they realized they were wrong.  My doctor was fabulous and realized that I had cardiomyopathy, or heart muscle disease, a rare side effect of giving birth to multiples.  My doctor said he’d seen only three cases of it since he started practicing years ago… I was number three.  Most people recover fine from this in anywhere from three months to two years.  I was lucky and there was improvement in three months!  I’m currently on numerous pills, including blood pressure meds, and will continue on them for at least a year, and I’ll be visiting the cardiologist for the same amount of time.  The good news is that I only gained twenty pounds with the twins and lost it the minute they were born… Thank you gestational diabetes and heart problems!  Gotta look on the bright side!

Back to the babies… we went home after about a week and life has been insane ever since. 

God really gave us something to be thankful for.  Not only did He teach me a valuable lesson about loss with my first son, he gave us an incredibly awesome little boy, a perfect little girl, a miracle baby boy… and he took an EXTRA twenty pounds off before we left the hospital… for a total weight loss of 40 pounds!  Halleluiah!