A long night

Well, it's finally happened. After being off since February, Callie is returning to the working world.

We had our first taste of it Saturday night. The hospital called her in for a short shift to fill in. She was gone a little more than six hours.

IT WAS HELL. I know I've been leaving her home to take care of Saxon and Ella since they came home over a month ago. But they LOVE her. I'm serious, there is no comparison to the bond between mother and child. They like me, but they prefer their momma, no doubt about it.


(Ella can now sit with the assistance of this foam chair)

I walked Callie out to the van, and came back into the house to be greeted by crying babies. Actually, that doesn't come close to describing it. Wailing, screaming, totally inconsolable babies is closer, but still not quite there.

It was like they could sense that Callie had gone. Nothing I could do could calm them from total body-shuddering cries. How long can a baby cry like that? I'm not sure, but mine held out for an hour. Finally spent, they fell into a restless sleep.

They slept for about 45 minutes and woke up crying. The only way I could stop them was to hold them. So I spent most of the night rocking babies. I did manage to slip out to the kitchen and wash a few dishes, but I got nothing else done.

I always believed Callie had a tough job caring for the babies. That's why I always said "That's okay, honey." when she would tell me all the things she wanted to do, but didn't have time for. My belief was confirmed in that six-hour stretch Saturday.

Callie works again tonight, but this time its a full 12-hour shift. With drive time, plus arriving early and staying late to receive/give report at the beginning and end of the shift, I'm looking at about 14 hours on my own.

Pray for me.

Bigger and Bigger

Size, I think, is a relative term. People still see Saxon and Ella and remark "Oh my, what tiny babies!" But, to me, they seem huge. We had another doctor's appointment yesterday and the scales confirmed what I already knew: The twinfants are still growing.

Saxon was 8 pounds 3 ounces and Ella weighed 9 pounds 11 ounces. For those of you keeping track, that means both babies have gained 4 pounds and 12 ounces since they were born. It also leaves Ella just 3 ounces short of doubling her birthweight.


(Saxon takes in some sun while watching Nick and Amanda ride horses)

Saxon and Ella also got another round of immunizations during this visit. Both cried at the time of the injection, but Ella bounced back in no time. Saxon's reaction wasn't as good and he was in a bit of discomfort throughout the night. The babies still have one more set of injections to get, but we will likely hold off on it for a while. We don't think there's a big risk of diphtheria around the house and he will probably do better if we let him get a little bigger first.


(Ella went to sleep holding this texture blankie our friend Andrea made and had it in a death grip until she woke up.)

Beyond that, things are pretty much on a steady course around here: Work and School, sports and activities. Nick and I are getting more involved in Civil Air Patrol, Amanda almost scored a goal in St. Peter's victory over the Dresden Dragons, Callie is preparing to return to the working world.

It's fall now and the weather is great. I know I for one am looking forward to some outdoor activities with the family.

Horsing Around

It never seems like the weekends are long enough, but we took some time after church and before 4-H to saddle up the horses. Nick and Amanda are getting where they can do just about everything but tighten the girth straps on their own. This is a good thing because it means much less work for Callie and me.

In fact, the two have taken to riding bareback with only a bit and bridle so they don't need us at all. Thank goodness our horses are so well behaved these days.

The kids also got to do a little entertaining as Amanda's friend Abigail came to play. Abigail is on Amanda's soccer team, is in the grade between Nick and Amanda, has a horse and is in our 4-H club. She's an all-round good kid and the kids were happy to have her over.

The BIG excitement, though, was giving Ella and Saxon their first riding lessons. Actually, that's a bit of a stretch. They each sat on a horse. But the horses did not move and they were only there for a minute if that. No sense rushing into things.


(Saxon isn't quite ready to take the reigns from Nick.)

The weather has been great, so we've been trying to get the babies out a bit. We've been to soccer and church mostly, with trips to Wal-Mart as needed. I know it isn't so, but I feel like I'm buying diapers and formula almost every day. Those things just seem to disappear.


(Amanda and Ella, team ropers of the future? It could happen.)

In amongst all the activity of maintaining the house, trying to reclaim the yard from the overgrowth of summer and all the other myriad of activities the kids had going on, Callie and I also did some entertaining ourselves as several groups of friends bringing gifts dropped by.

In addition to dropping off Abigail, Andrea also surprised me with a portable crib. This gives us a crib to use in the living as the one in our bedroom is too big to be moved easily between the two places. Then, unbeknownst to us, the ladies at Bothwell Hospital had a baby shower of sorts for Callie. One of her friends from there brought the presents to us this weekend. We were overwhelmed by the volume of clothing we received.

Two months old

Today marks two months since Saxon and Ella turned our lives upside down. The whirlwind started just around 4 p.m. Friday, July 18. It's strange that it feels like only yesterday but at the same time seems a lifetime away.


(Saxon at one day old. He's still small, but nowhere near this tiny!)

As I think about it, I'm struck by the contrasts of what has changed and what remains the same.

For example:

We still do a ton of dishes. But now half of them are baby bottles.

We still help Nick and Amanda with their homework. But now I do it while rocking a baby.

We still watch the news after the kids go to bed. But now I do it while feeding a baby.

From the outset it was a goal for Callie and me for these babies to have as little a negative impact on the older kids as possible. In large part, I believe we have been successful in this. As pictures on this blog can attest, Nick and Amanda have taken to Saxon and Ella and the bond of family is already strong.


(Ella, shown her at one day old, spent her early days in a glass box. You wouldn't know it today)

I know that in the scheme of things two months is not a long time, but it certainly does feel that way sometimes. Maybe it's the long nights. They certainly don't make things very easy. In fact, the lack of sleep usually makes things harder.

I recently ran into the wife of one of Amanda's old soccer coaches. She is the mother of triplets and she offered me some insights. Her boys are the same age as Amanda (10) and people ask her if its any easier to raise them now.

"It never gets easier," she said. "It just gets different."

While somewhat of a stark prospect, she and I both agreed that singleton parents have no room to complain and that we wouldn't give up a single one of our multiple miracles.

They keep growing and growing...

Well,

The twinfants had a check on their growth and they are doing great. They will be 8 weeks old this Friday (can you believe it). Since the 4th of September was their original full-term due date, they are now essentially at what would have been their birth weights.

For those that don't recall, Saxon came it at 3 pounds 7 ounces. Since that time he has actually doubled his weight and now weighs 6 pounds 14 ounces. He still seems tiny, but looking back at his pictures from the hospital he really is coming along.


(Nick and Saxon share the recliner while watching some TV. Both are having a growth spurt)

Ella is still heavier and seems like quite the chublette next to Saxon. However, her total weight gain has been just slightly less than his. She was 4 pounds 15 ounces at birth and now weighs 8 pounds 7 ounces for a total gain of 3 pounds 6 ounces.

It doesn't surprise me that they are growing so well though. I've seen the steady increase in the amount they eat. Callie is still breastfeeding and we are fortifying with formula. It's not unusual for Ella to down 6 ounces in a setting and Saxon is not far behind drinking 4 or 5 ounces. Since we use two ounce bottles it's increased the amount of dishes to wash, but it minimizes wasted breast milk which is like liquid gold.


(Ella, Amanda and Nick re-enact a scene from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe while visiting the Lake of the Ozarks.)

Finding a proper formula was a bit of an adventure. After we finished with the preemie formula we tried soy. We tried sensitive blend. We tried milk free, lactose free, blue containers, red containers, orange containers. Nothing seemed to be ideal for them both. Some caused bloating. Others made them spit up (well spit up more than babies normally do) and others caused constipation.

Finally, we decided to just try the plain old regular style formula. Eureka! It worked. Whoda thunk it?

Sleep, who needs it!

I sit here on my lunch break contemplating my life as the father of twinfants. I'm happy to say that I got almost seven hours of sleep... if you add up the last two nights together.


(This is what Saxon looks like when he sleeps. Notice that it is daylight outside)

And my sleep comes at the expense of Callie's. Unless you've suffered from insomnia (which I have) it's hard to describe the way lack of sleep affects you. Here's my best shot at it:
1. Take your starting I.Q. divide it by 2 and round down. Now subtract what you have left.
2. Add caffeine.
3. Substitute agitated alertness for rational thought.
4. Trade your ability to focus for that of a four-year-old.
5. Continue to maintain your job, housework, help your older kids with homework and care for the aforementioned twinfants.
6. Repeat. EVERY DAY.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love Saxon and Ella with everything I've got and I wouldn't give them up. But, geez, is it tough.

Despite the fact that the babies don't sleep through the night they are doing quite well. I guess it's all the sleep they get during the day.


(Ella catches an afternoon nap to rest up for a long night of crying, pooping and being fed.)

We are still supplementing the twinfants' diet with formula. Finding one that agrees with their little tummies has been a little tricky, but I think we're getting there.

The babies are growing at any rate. We are now officially done with preemie clothes and diapers. We realized this when we noticed Saxon can no longer stretch his legs out in a preemie sleeper. Fortunately, when mom found those clothes at the church sale, there were newborn and 0-3 month clothes in the mix. Callie was digging those out today.

We are also settling into a more routine schedule now that the kids are back to school. Of course with the twinfants, there are always new experiences. For example: I had to buy diapers for the first time this week. The supply given to us as gifts had run out except for a box of size 2s. --This is the size for babies up to 18 pounds, so needless to say, they were quite huge.--

Those of you who haven't purchased diapers recently may think that a diaper is a diaper. Let me tell you, you are WRONG! Not just a little wrong, but utterly, totally, completely and in all ways WRONG!

I can't even begin to tell you how many different brands, styles, sizes and varieties of diapers there are. As I stood before the monolithic wall o' diapers, I felt my brain begin to implode. Fortunately, I recognized our "brand" (Pampers) and quickly located their Swaddlers style. Next it was a simple matter of finding our size (N, which I think stands for newborn, as opposed to P which was for preemie).

I was stumbled, however, by a packaging/price variance. I couldn't figure why the bag of 70 diapers cost $19 while the box of 92 cost $20. They appeared to be the same brand, style and size. But why was the box with 22 more diapers only $1 more? WHY would they practically give me 22 more diapers simply for taking them in a cardboard box rather than a plastic bag? Were those in the box somehow defective? Do diapers have expiration dates? What was I missing?

Confident that I was never going to solve this mystery while standing in the baby section of Wal-Mart, I opted for the box with 22 extra diapers. I figured if they weren't as good as those in the bag, at least I'd have a lot more of them. To date, I've not been able to tell any difference.

(Road) Trippin' Out

Faced with a long holiday weekend (Labor Day here in the USA) it was hard to decide what to do. Worlds of Fun was a bust as I had hoped to get press passes for the family. When that didn't happen, our options were narrowed to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival or a trip to Bagnell Dam at Lake of the Ozarks.

In the end, it was Nick and Amanda who decided we should visit the Lake. After all, they reasoned, we hadn't been to the Lake yet this year and the Renaissance Festival runs through Columbus Day.

We spent Saturday working around the yard. I'm still trying to clear out a summer's worth of overgrowth, but I can now see the walkout side of the basement. The plan was to wake up Sunday whenever we woke and head out.

The way things worked, Callie stayed up most of the night taking care of Saxon and Ella. Then when I got up in the morning, I took over and she slept. By the time everyone was awake and the babies were fed, it was just after 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

But the trip was still a go! We loaded up Nick, Amanda, Saxon and Ella and off we went! I must say the van is a comfortable vehicle for travel the kids once again made use of the built-in television and DVD player. I believe the movie choice for the trip down was Starsky and Hutch.


(Callie, Sara, Amanda and now Ella, are all at home in the saddle.)

Driving down in the middle of the weekend meant there wasn't much traffic until we got to Camdenton and we hit the Dam about 3:30 in the afternoon. The babies made the entire trip with hardly a peep and we stopped just before the Dam at a McDonald's. Everyone got a quick bite while Saxon and Ella enjoyed a bottled lunch.

And then we became celebrities. Or at least it certainly felt that way. Going out in Marshall, I expect to be stopped by people. We know most of them. But when I'm on vacation, I'm used to a certain amount of anonymity. Well, not anymore.

As soon as that jumbo dual stroller hit the ground, it was off to the races. Frequently asked (and totally real) questions of the day:
What are their names?
How much do they weigh?
Are those real babies? (An alarming number of people think we have given Amanda a $160 stroller to push her dolls around in.)
And my favorite question: Are they twins? No, we work quick and had them 15 days apart.


(10-cent skee ball is at the end of the strip. Saxon had given up by then.)

But it was a good time despite the unwashed masses who wanted to touch my babies. We didn't do everything, but we hit the favorites including the bumper boats and the 10 cent skee ball. What's funny is I recently got my old cell phone back from Eric and discovered pictures from a Bagnell Dam trip about three years ago in its memory.


(Nick, Tyler and Amanda do a little Lake shopping. This is from two or three years ago)


(Tyler had to work this year, leaving Nick and Amanda to pose without him.)

We finally called it a day as the sun was setting over the lake. As we were preparing to leave, the babies each got one last bottle and a fresh diaper and they slept all the way home while Nick and Amanda kicked back and watched "Look Who's Talking." I'm not sure who picked the DVDs that are currently in the van, but it certainly is an eclectic collection.