Babies babies babies

A month old already! We can't even begin to list all the ways Grandma helped us. We truly believe, though, that she's the reason the twins had a healthy start. We were all fed, clothed, and as well-rested as we could have hoped for a full month thanks to you, Grandma! Our sincerest gratitude.

Here are a few pictures from the twins' weeks two and three.

Ruth: Hey Grandma -- you make this look easy! You truly are a woman of many talents.
Sam: I could get used to this one-on-one attention....do you think they know I have Woofie?
Ruth is a woman of many faces, and we're convinced that some of them point to where she's headed in life.

the Illusionist
the Dramatistthe Diva
the Comic
the Model (how's my hair?)
the Ballerina

the Tease (she pinched me!)
the Gossip (how shocking!)
The world is her oyster. Obviously the little princess is favored in this post. Here's some more Ruth (a Sam-devoted post coming up!):








Back to snuggling close...
Aunt Katie came for a fabulous 5 days. Priceless in so many ways. She stayed up a whole -- very rough -- night with me while Jeremy went on a quick trip out of town. (Service only true love can give!) She made all sorts of yummies for us. She brought gifts for the boys. And she held babies. Often. Just last night at dinner James put on his most pathetic pouty face and said "Miss An Kayee." Thanks so much for coming!
(For the record, that's actually Jer's "baby," the richest ever chocolate cheesecake, but Katie did make the ganache and put the finishing touches on it. And yes, you might actually gain weight merely by looking at the picture too long.)

An eventful 2 weeks

Our last 2 weeks have been memorable to say the least. They started with the threat of Hurricane Irene bringing Grandma Corky safely here from Vegas a little early (hooray!) and Scotty's first day of kindergarten. He was so much fun to watch in the classroom -- completely in his element surrounded by hyper kids and tons of activities. I'm glad the babies held off a bit so I could be there with him and Grandma on his first day!

I don't think he or James had any clue what was about to happen in our family.

Ruth Mary Jane and Samuel Clem were born on September 1 at 2:52 and 2:53. Sam, the gentleman that he is, let the lady go first, and weighed in a manly 2 oz heavier than Ruth (6 lbs 9 oz) at 6 lbs 11 oz. Here's Ruthie, sad that she hasn't yet had her bath:

Much better now

And Sam

I'm a total sucker for this little profile

Reunited

Thankfully, Scotty and James seem to have weathered the change very well. Here are the first pictures of our four (!!!!) children together:

The hospital was a mix of nightmares and miracles. What a strange 4 days! We learned time and time again that there are two sides to every coin. Here are a few of our dramas turned tender mercies:

1. In the recovery room after the c-section, my heartrate dropped into the 30's (!). Long story short, I was given medication that spiked my blood pressure, had an EKG and echocardiogram, and found out I have a heart defect, unrelated to anything that happened delivery day, that I may never have known I have. It's called mitral valve prolapse. Apparently mine isn't too serious, but I'm glad to know it's there, and will definitely be following up with a cardiologist to see what this may mean for me.

2. Because of my gestational diabetes and insulin taken during pregnancy, the babies' blood glucose dropped dangerously low immediately after birth. A nurse recommended I supplement breastfeeding with an SNS device, a tiny little tube that feeds the baby small amounts of formula while nursing, to keep their sugars level. I hated having to figure out one more thing on top of nursing twins, but in the end, I think it helped them learn to nurse much quicker than they might have otherwise. They both latched on and nursed like champs for nearly every feeding, my milk came in exactly on schedule, and we've had very few bumps along the way in those terms where it could have potentially been the hardest part of our hospital stay!

3. I gave Ruth a pacifier to settle her between feedings on day 2 and she took it so deeply she turned a little blue. When the same thing happened in the nursery, they sent her to the NICU for 2 days for observation. Having her across the hospital in the NICU meant that after we fed Sam, we trekked over to the NICU to feed Ruth, and came back to the room for an hour-ish of rest before the next round of feeding began. The "happy" side of this coin involved some of the darkest hours of my life at the time: they say the quickest way to recover from a c section is to move, and as miserable as I was, I HAD to move, a lot, every 3 hours. I thought those first 4 days in the hospital would kill me, but by my 5th day post op, I was feeling very little pain and could move [almost] like a normal person around the house.

4. Jer announced to me at the end of August that the chief resident would be out of town and that he was designated chief for the entire month of September. I just about fainted. It doesn't mean too much more in terms of his time commitment, but I need every minute he can spare at this point! Turns out that being chief also has its perks: he can schedule his own surgeries. haha. So he actually has ended up having a bit more flexibility than normal, which has already meant the world for my sanity. Hooray!

On to more pictures! We were delighted to be able to come home all together last Sunday. In a few hours it will be officially one week since we crossed the threshold as a "6 family" as Scotty calls us. I don't feel like these pictures need much explanation aside from YES, this is exactly how the week has gone! Lots of crying, usually not both at once, some calm, and gobs of cuteness.

You smell *awesome*... how do you taste?

My turn

No, my turn

MY turn!

Maybe we'll try something different

I'm hungry again:

that was tiring...

We're having fun and getting enough sleep to get along. We'll see how things go once Jeremy's mom leaves. We may very well just fall apart (she's been wonderful!) but eventually I guess we'll have to figure it out. Here's to lots of moments like these: