what's up weekly. (time flies! the twins are a month old!)

Hi, friends!  Long time, no write.  I haven't had a ton of time with my hands free; I'm sure you understand!

So let me fill you in on what's been going on the last few weeks:

First, we finally decided on names for the babies - only two weeks after their birth.  World, meet Knox Nolen Reuel, and Eulalie Day!

Todd wrote their names on the white board and propped it in our room, which helped the kids for the first week or so.  We lived so long calling them Mister and Sister, or Boy Baby and Girl Baby, that it took a while for their real names to settle in.

Todd is better at writing about the meaning of the names we chose, so when he posts a blog about it, I'll make sure to link it.  In the meantime, here's my abbreviated effort:

Knox, after John Knox, the Scottish Reformer.  Nolen, after Todd's side of the family.  (His mom's maiden name.)  And Reuel, after Moses' father-in-law, and a gentle nod to Tolkien.  (Have you ever wondered what the "J.R.R." stands for?  Well, Reuel, among other things.)

Eulalie, which means "sweetly spoken," or "good news."  I've always liked the name, but it seemed especially apt after we got the good news that she was a bonus blessing we weren't expecting!  Day, after my sister, and the postmillenial understanding of the world.  (The light is increasing, the day is here.)  I love the line from Hillaire Belloc, "Do not, I beseech you, be troubled about the increase of forces already in dissolution.  You've mistaken the hour of night; it is already morning."  I am reminded of this when I think of her name.

Callista standing sentry while I took a shower.

When Todd was home those first few weeks, he'd bring me breakfast on a tray and I'd get to eat in bed with the babies.  (He had also made me bacon and chocolate milk, because that is what I've been eating every day.  That sad little egg on a plate is not all he brought.)

I love about twins that they can do all the things singles do, but TOGETHER.  And they look so cute doing it!

Getting some sunshine to cure his jaundice, and some sister hugs to cure their blues.

In baby milestone news, the babies are now a full month old! 

Todd went back to work after three weeks off, and it has been an adjustment for everyone.  We loved having him home, and he was a big help, so I'm working on adjusting to managing/supervising by myself during the day, and he had to tackle all the workload that piled up at work while he was gone.  

Holding both babies at once.

Feeding both babies at once.

The babies are starting to sleep a bit longer at night, and more consistently sleep at night.  Daytimes are still a bit less predictable - sometimes they're really sleepy, sometimes they're wiiiiiiide awake for long stretches, and sometimes one is in one rhythm while the other is doing something wildly different.  Many days I don't leave the couch much except to grab something to eat and use the bathroom.  My arms are always full and and I'm almost always nursing.

The babies are growing!  Carolyn came at three weeks postpartum to weigh them, and since then I've also borrowed a baby scale from another twin mom.  Knox has already gained over a pound, and Eulalie has gained more than half a pound!

Knox's jaundice has mostly cleared up.  His eyes are still a bit yellow, but his skin is a good color.  He's still a good sleeper and super chill, though, so it's good to know that wasn't just due to his jaundice!

Lots of time outside.  Lots of furrowed eyebrows.

This is how I spend a good portion of many days.  It is toasty with all those swaddled babies up against me, I have to say.  

The brothers holding the babies so I could get a shower and cook my breakfast.  The kids have been so helpful to me - I don't know how I would do it without their help.

Callista the Baby Whisperer steps up to bat.

While I've been snuggling Knox and Eulalie, Todd and the kids have been veritable socialites.  The kids went to a LOTR-themed birthday party and dressed to the nines.

Samwise Gamgee.  He had all kinds of authentic gear in his pack and everything.

They also went to an airsoft war with some friends at church.

They went to a park with a splash pad.

We've been treated to a lot of baked goods, which is good/bad since I eat them all.

We celebrated Todd on Father's Day.  Atticus was especially excited to have an actual gift budget to work with now that he's working, and he got him some nice cigars.

Todd also got some amazing original art.  

A couple of kids had half birthdays!

And now that she's two-and-a-half, Oey has been acting like a big kid.  First, she got her first turn to go get the Friday night pizza and groceries with Todd.  (He takes one kid with him each week for a little one-on-one time.  She has been too little to care until now, but she was very excited to go.)

She's so proud to get to carry the grocery list!

And she's also exercising to grow big and strong.

And while that's far from everything that has been going on around here, that's all I have photos for and time to tell you about!  Five very intimidating kids would like to wish you a good weekend.  (Or, five very good kids would like to wish you a very intimidating weekend.  Whichever.)

"Are you sure it's not twins?"

So, a question I got a lot after the babies were born was, "Did you really not know you were having twins?"  I wasn't keeping anything secret the whole time; I was as surprised as everyone else!  

I didn't have more morning sickness than normal.

I only gained about ten pounds more than I usually do.

Even though I never got ultrasounds, only one heartbeat was ever detected.

My fundal height (uterus size) always measured normal.  At my twenty week check, I was even measuring a week too small, which is how I always measure at twenty weeks.

I (mostly) never felt unusual movement.  (More on this in a minute.)

Even though people made comments like, "Are you sure there's only one in there," people have said that literally every single pregnancy and, before now, they've always been wrong. It's hard to put any stock in comments like that.

When my neighbor (mom of five) found out after the birth that I had had twins, she said, "You never looked Twin Big."  And my milk farmer has nine kids of her own, and when she commented about how big I was a week or two before the birth, I joked and said maybe it was twins, and she said, "You're big, but you're not that big."  I think that was a perfect, succinct way of saying how I felt all through the pregnancy when my size made me wonder about twins: "I'm big, but not that big."  I wasn't Twin Big.

Except.  There were things that were different through the pregnancy that made me at least wonder at times.

I started putting on weight and showing a bump earlier in the pregnancy than I normally do.  Because we waited to tell people until we were about 18 weeks along, it made it more challenging to keep the secret than I'd anticipated - usually I don't start showing until after twenty weeks.

My belly ended up getting so big, and it was heavy.  I felt like the weight was balanced much farther forward than normal, and my skin and muscles were stretched so low under my belly.  I was constantly asking my midwife if I was growing at a normal pace, and if she could tell how big the baby was.  I felt like I could feel my muscles and new stretch marks actually ripping!

I felt unwell for a lot of it.  I had no energy at times; it was like my legs were filled with water.  I had a hard time with my protein and glucose readings - every time we measured up until the very end, my protein and glucose would show up so wonky, even though I was eating (though I also struggled against almost zero appetite and tons of heartburn).  My upper back killed me - I wonder now if this had to do with the positioning of the back baby.  I almost passed out at the chiropractor when asked to stand too long.  Just strange/unusual pain and weakness that I hadn't experienced in previous pregnancies, at least as far as I remember.

I felt more concerned than I ever have before about the size and positioning of the baby for birth.  I spent a lot of time praying about this, which I'm really glad for because I do believe those prayers were answered.  The babies weren't a single ten-pounder like I was worried about, but they also weren't too small.  And their positioning was beautiful - each baby was out with just a few pushes.  Neither was breech.  It was perfect positioning.

I think there were a few days where I felt both babies.  My midwife, Carolyn, was unavailable that week, and after months of knowing exactly how the baby was positioned - I could feel exactly where the head, bottom, feet, hands, etc were located and moving - all of a sudden the positioning changed.  Instead of a single baby curled along my right side, I could feel a hard spot on either side of my stomach, and all the movement was in the center.  I was worried the baby had turned sideways and I was feeling a head on one side and a bottom on the other side, and feet and hands were moving across the center.  By the time Carolyn had gotten back, movements and positioning felt normal again - except this time the single baby was curled along my left side.  It makes me wonder if somehow I felt both babies at once, or if they even switched positions during that time.  I can't know for sure!

I had heard the Purely Parsons story about the gal who had been surprised by twins at her home birth, even though she had had an ultrasound the day before (due to her unusually large pregnancy growth) and only one baby had been detected.  Babies get missed sometimes!  It was in the back of my mind, and it would come to mind when I was feeling especially big!  

Todd took this photo the night before the babies were born because, "There is just so much belly!"

But those things from above never changed!  Still only one heartbeat, only one set of movements, a uterus that was measuring normal and a baby that seemed to be average sized.

So, yes, to answer the original question, I was genuinely surprised it was twins!  ...Mostly.

what's up weekly: two weeks of life with the twins. (my perspective)

If you missed it, I posted the babies' birth story yesterday - click here to read!

Whoa.  Tomorrow will mark two weeks since the twins were born.  Time is so bizarre.

It has been a full and also not full two weeks.  Lots of snuggling, lots of nursing, and lots of very little else.  At least for me.  Todd and the kids have been living on a parallel track, so they have more news to share than I do.  I'll make a separate post for their shenanigans.

The first couple of days at home with the babies were good but a bit challenging.  While they were sleepy, and therefore easier on me, Brother had a poor latch that was really painful and made nursing him really challenging.  On their third day, my midwife returned to check on us, and brought a lactation consultant.  Nursing is still sometimes more complicated with him, but she gave me some really great strategies to help him latch better.

Everyone with multiples of their own has been suggesting I feed them at the same time (tandem nurse) to save myself some time (at first, they were each taking about 40 minutes to eat, which left very little time at the end of a two-hour schedule to do basic things like go to the bathroom).  The truth is, I'm still trying to get the hang of just feeding one at a time with these latch issues, so I haven't even attempted it yet (with the exception of one failed, desperate, exhausted attempt in which one of the babies rolled off the nursing pillow).  They currently take much less time than they had been (15-30 minutes each), so it's working for us right now for me to feed one, then immediately feed the other, waking them up if I need to to minimize chaos. 

Night sleeping is going pretty well at the moment (knock on wood).  The first few nights were rough, and I needed a lot of help from Todd.  The second night, the babies rotated feedings constantly for six hours - Todd took one fussy baby to hold, while I fed the other baby, and once the nursing baby was done, we'd switch.  Finally we just embraced reality, turned on Frasier, and binge watched episodes while I nursed until the babies eventually went to sleep around 5:30 a.m.  I got up around 9:00 to give the kids instructions to just pretend they were the Boxcar children ("You've been orphaned for the day.  Forage for food; find meaningful and productive work to put your hand to; keep each other alive") but by the time I got out to check on them, they had already made and served breakfast, gotten Oey up and changed her, started a load of laundry, and folded another load.  Well.  Apparently my job here is done and my children are already very comfortable with Boxcarring.  So I went back to bed for a bit.

Since then, sleep has been a bit easier at night.  The babies will go 3-4 hour stretches at night.  After one wakes up and I feed them, I automatically wake up the other.  It takes me about an hour per feeding at night.

Brother has had jaundice, which makes him very sleepy and less likely to wake himself up to eat.  Luckily, Sister is not so laid back and keeps them both on schedule.  They're a good pair.

Every morning for breakfast, Todd or Penelope brings me breakfast in bed: an egg, some bacon, and some chocolate milk.  For lunch, Todd has been making me a steak and a baked potato.  Gotta fuel to win.

A couple days ago, they may have hit that two-week growth spurt a little early (or they added an extra and I have another one looming) - they spent all day awake and eating constantly.  But the next day they slept a lot and seem to be mostly back on track, though more willing to stay awake after feedings instead of falling asleep right away.  It's hard with twins, because you don't necessarily have the time to stop to help them get back to sleep immediately after feeding, because you need your hands free to nurse the other one.

Todd measured the babies' length: they were both exactly 20 inches.

My mom and stepdad came last weekend to visit and meet the babies!  My mom also did some fun activities with the kids, so I'll cover that in the next post.

Sun and fresh air out on the deck for a few minutes while the babies were asleep.

On Memorial Day, my sister's family came down to visit and meet the babies, and to help around the house.  They cleaned the kitchen, helped me organize the freezers, and hung out with the kids while I napped and Todd took a walk.

That same day, the babies and I had a postpartum chiropractic adjustment.  My midwife's husband is a chiropractor with a portable table, PRAISE THE LORD.  He was so kind to drive up to see us.

Quite the audience.

Brother's jaundice is clearing up, but to give it a boost out the door, we took the babies outside for a little sun bathing.  (It's hard to see in these photos, but their faces were in the shade.)

I have been healing well!  There has been very little bleeding this time around compared to most of my previous babies.  I think it has to do with how slowly I delivered the placentas - my midwife gave me time to just gently let it detach instead of forcing it or hurrying it in any way, and the difference in recovery has been really remarkable.  

I have been trying to get plenty of protein and water in each day, and I'm really grateful Todd and the kids have helped me stay on top of that.

I have also been resting a lot and napping when I can (which has been harder the last few days with the twins being more awake and eating more often, but I still have gotten a nap in the majority of the days).  I still get tired out easily, and I've noticed I am much more sensitive to feeling stressed or anxious when there is a lot of activity happening around me.  But I do feel like I am doing really well physically at this point.

Two weeks down, a lifetime to go!