Nanny Needed?

Getting ready for her first at home bath.

Napping the in the Pack-n-Play

Day 2 is in the books. All continues to go well, but I am really beginning to wonder when I am going to sleep once my mom leaves. The twins are fed every 2 1/2 to 3 hours and it usually takes an hour to feed both (feed, burp multiple times, change diaper, cuddle & put back to bed). We are talking more and more about hiring a day nanny to help me out a few days or hours a week...especially since Mark is travelling so much right now. If I am doing day shift and night shift (so Mark can sleep for work), when I do sleep? Do any experienced twin moms have advice on this topic...sleep, nannies, time management? A NICU nurse suggested placing an ad with the UT School of Nursing. Good nanny help might be found there. Thoughts?

Here are some photos from today...including Kate's first bath at home. Overall she appeared to love the bath, but it's funny how it took three adults to determine the proper water temperature! The rest are posted on Kate & Carson's Flickr page (link in the sidebar).

Homecoming

Kate & Carson are home!

First Visitors

My cousins Julie (who has 6 month old twin boys) and Jil stopped by for a quick visit with the twins. We had a good first full day home...get a routine down, feel less overwhelmed, and grateful that my mom is here! She did "night duty" last night with the twins, and let Mark and I get a full night's rest. It was one of the best gifts she has ever given me!

Home

We are all home. Exhausted. Overwhelmed. Functioning on 2 hours of sleep. A few moments of crying...me & the twins. My mom came in a day early to help. Thank God! More later.

Goodbye Sleep

Okay, ya'll, I'm freaking out just a tad tonight. Tonight is my LAST alone. Tomorrow night we do the rooming-in thing with the twins at the hospital, and then they are home with us after that. I have been running around preparing the house as if I was expecting house guests that I am trying to impress. (Hmm, do you think the twins will notice how nicely the guest bathroom hand towels are folded?)

I have been fighting and pushing like hell to get the twins out of NICU, and now that it's happening...umm, I have no idea what I am doing!

I know this must sound incredibly crazy, but I feel like I will officially become a mom on Thursday morning. Nevermind the fact that they were cut out of my body over a month ago or that I have been visiting them twice a day since that time. Thursday is when it happens.

Everyone has been telling me to go to bed early tonight because it's the last time I was sleep again. However, it 1:00 AM Wednesday morning and I can't sleep!

By the way, does anyone know how long I need to boil the bottles (sterilizing)? It's the last item of my list to do in the morning. Sheesh...you see what I mean? I don't know what I am doing. I don't even know how to sterilize the bottles. Oh, and what about the nipples and whatnot? Do I toss them in too?

Car Seat Test

Kate is so tiny in her car seat!

Both twins passed their car seat tests with flying colors. It was a little tricky for Kate because the car seat holds a minimum of 5 lbs and she is just barely over 4, but they managed to make adjustments to her seat to make it work.

Walking Papers!

It's official...the twins are coming home on Thursday morning! HOT DAMN!

I brought their car seats up there this morning so that could do the car seat test this afternoon, and I spoke at length with the neo doc. He feels good about sending them home. So, Mark and I will be rooming-in with the twins at the hospital on Wednesday night, and then we are outta there the next morning.

I can finally exhale!

Now it's back to my nesting rituals... :)

Could it be true!? Freedom?!

I am trying so hard to contain my excitement because nothing is official yet, but...

I had two nurses (one being a nurse practitioner in charge of discharging babies) this afternoon that the neo doc was going to talk to me tomorrow about discharging the twins THIS WEEK!!!!

If this is true, there is so much I need to get done. I need to schedule the OB (who I think is on Spring Break with his kiddos) to do Carson's circumcision, I need to sign up for Mark and I to room-in, I need to get all of the last minute stuff done (installing car seats, sterilizing the bottles, laundry, etc.). What makes all of this even more crazy is that Mark will be out-of-town on business Monday (tomorrow) through Wednesday, and then again the following Monday. My mom is trying to clear her schedule at work so she can come up from Houston to help me while he is gone.

I am so excited and basically running around like a chicken without its head. Is it possible to be experiencing nesting a full month after delivery?!

Anyway, Kate has hit 4 lbs today!! I can't believe it. She gained a pound in a little over a week, and she is now in a bassinet like Carson. They moved her into the new bed this morning. They both continue to feed well and everything with both of them is excellent. I couldn't be happier!

I will be truly shocked if their neo doc sets them free this week. He tends to be a nervous Nelly, but it gives me some hope since I heard from the discharge nurse.

Clothes & Cribs

After yesterday's post you would think I'd have something profound to say....

Nope. :)

Twins reached more NICU milestones today. Carson was moved from his elevated platform looking NICU bed into a traditional hospital crib. That's one step closer out the door for him. He also took it upon himself to remove his own feeding tube (again), and the nurses decided to just keep it out since he is doing better with bottle feedings. Miss Kate has learned to regulate her own body temp, so she is wearing clothes and is swaddled. It was so strange to visit her today and see her in one of the pink PJs I brought up there for her. I am so used to see her naked in her plastic incubator. She is still in the incubator because her hospital crib (like Carson's) won't arrive until Monday. By the way, she is swimming in her preemie-sized PJs!

Here's the NICU checklist:

• Self-regulating body temp (YES)
• Gaining steady weight (YES)
• 100% bottle feedings (YES)
• No apnea for over a week (YES)
• Wearing clothes (YES)
• In normal cribs (YES)
• No IV (Yes...for a long time now)
• Over 4 lbs (Yes for Carson; Kate is 3 lbs, 13 oz...3 more oz to go!)

The only things left are the 1-hour car seat test and the overnight rooming-in practice run. We are also signed up for the preemie care class and baby CPR class at the hospital for good measure.

I am sincerely hoping the twins come home a week from today -- St. Patrick's Day. Given what my name is -- and I think some of you know -- it would be a huge dose of irony!

Slight change in direction

Since finding out I was pregnant, this blog has become almost exclusively about the pregnancy, birth, NICU hell, and photos of the twins. I am still going to post a lot about my adventures in twin mommyhood, but I need to go back a little to why I originally started blogging in the first place -- for my own sanity and entertainment. I've even deleted past posts and done other acts of self-censorship because I felt it was too "edgy" (i.e. bitchy). I need to stop doing that. That is so not me, and goes against who I have always been. Anyway, I want to really combine all the aspects of my life into this blog -- motherhood, marriage, thoughts, the past, encounters, political, humor, random opinions, and observed ridiculousness.

I think what brought on this realization is (1) I am so scared of forgetting/losing who I am and just mindlessly going 100% into mommy mode. Does that make sense to anyone out there other than me? Of course, I love being Kate & Carson's mom. It's the greatest thing -- BY FAR -- that's ever happened to me...and the journey's just begun. I want to document all of it because I'm sure (like everything else in life) it will go by in a flash. But I miss expressing the other side of me too. (2) Once upon a time, I was an op-ed writer so I need to vent out opinions with a good dash of salty humor and sarcasm. And finally (3) I just remembered today that I am turning 30 at the end of the month. It's a big birthday! I can't believe I completely over-looked it until this afternoon. I have no fear of getting older -- and 30 is not old anyway -- but it does steer you down memory lane just a bit.

Twin Update: We had a great evening visit with the twins again. Kate has hit another big milestone...her feeding tube is out! She has done 24+ hours of 100% bottle feeding and now her test begins. I am trying like hell not to get too excited and stressed over it like I did for Carson's first attempt at solo bottle feeding. (And, yes, his tube is still in, but he has taken all of his feedings today by bottle...so, it might be out tomorrow.) Kate is now 3 lbs., 10 oz., and Carson is 5 lbs., 6 oz. They both took it all by bottle tonight, but Kate is the champion eater. She may have a future in competitive eating one day. She finished hers in less than 10 minutes, and he took a full 30 minutes.