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True Appreciation

I have had the second most difficult week of my life since becoming a dad. Melissa woke up on Friday, 8/17/07, morning with a pulled back muscle and pinched nerve right before I left for work. I had to come to work because I was the only one schedule to be there that day and let the operators and laborers sign in. So I got Melissa to the couch with the babies to eat and off to work I went. I came back as soon as I could to help. I ended up having to take the whole next week off of work to take care of Melissa and the kids. The first 4 days were pretty tiring. All Melissa could do was feed them and she was able to hold them when she was lying on her back if for some reason they both got upset. I knew that being home with two 12 week old babies was difficult, but I didn't realize how much. And we didn't even cook that much for dinner. We ordered out a few nights and had quick stuff for lunch. By Wednesday, it became much easier. I think I just got used to doing all those things and Melissa was getting better. She was able to get around by herself. On Friday, we finally went somewhere other than the chiropractor. I'm back to work now and I miss them. Matt is such a happy baby when he wakes up in the morning. He's always full of smiles. Emma takes a little longer to wake up. She is a huge stretcher, like me. I'll wake her up and put her on the changing table and just watch her do her thing. Arms straight up above her head while she tucks and straightens her legs and arches her back.

We are putting our house up for sale. We've seen a couple of other bigger houses for sale that are affordable, if we can get enough for our house. We really need the room. When I was young, people could get away with living in such a small house with two or more kids. I know I did. But kids have so much stuff now a days. I could probably get rid of 25% of it and still be able to keep them occupied but this is just the way it is now a days. And besides, most of it came from shower gifts.

MnEm's East Coast Tour Continues

We got back from a 4 day weekend in RI last night. The drive up was no problem. We stayed the night in Scranton on Thursday and got to RI at 1pm on Friday. The ride home was quite different. It took 12 hours to get home last night. I can't blame it all on the babies. We hit traffic in NYC coming up to the GW bridge. We had to stop at work to get my truck and we stopped 3 times to feed them. I am thinking twice about going to PA in 3 weeks. Beside the car rides, the weekend was a good one. They were very good at the party, even though it was 90 degrees out. Two things big things started happening this weekend. They started sleeping throught the night and they started smiling a lot more. Matt more than Emma, but both are smiling quite a bit. It is nice to be able to make them smile when they want to cry. Matt was firing his warning shots this morning before I left for work so I rubbed his cheeks and made a noise and he smiled. All in all they are very pleasant babies to be around. I love them more than I thought possible.

Their first shots. August 2, 2007

MnEm got their first shots on Tuesday. Matt is a bleeder like mom. He took about 15-20 minutes to settle down. Emma was fine as soon as I held her and she actually almost had a smile a couple minutes later when I was getting her dressed. I think mom took it the hardest of anyone. She'll get used to it. There are more shots to come at their 4 month check up. He finally passed her by in the weight and height category. I think he is going to be tall like Melissa's family. If he can dunk by the time he is in 10th grade, I'll be happy. I'll work on his Carl Malone fade away jumper and college is free! We are getting some smiles from them both finally. It's hard work, but it's worth it. Matt likes it when I whistle for him. I haven't found anything special that Emma likes. She is such a stretcher after her naps like me. She can stretch for over a minute when you take her out of her swing and onto the changing pad. It's really cute. Matt is finally getting out of his ugly duckling phase. He had lots of wrinkles and never seemed to look his cutest in pictures. Now that his body is filling out, he is one good looking baby.
Posted: 12:35 PM, Thursday, August 2, 2007

Mommy's good to go. July 10, 2007

Her 6 week check up went well. No problems. Doc says we need to wait at least 6 months before trying to have anymore kids. That's good news, but it probably doesn't matter. It's a slim chance while she is breastfeeding. Hopefully her body remembers what it took to get pregnant and we don't have to do IVF again. Not sure we would do that if we couldn't get pregnant on our own, but I would like to have ONE more. So far I'm being as supportive as I can. It's my job to keep her sane during these first few months until MnEm get on a schedule, especially a sleeping schedule. She is doing great so far. I couldn't be any prouder of her. I kind of regret being on the every other Friday off schedule, but it is helping with all the travel we have to do this year.
Posted: 3:27 PM, Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Successful test

Last night we had a successful test of giving them formula from a bottle and going right back to breastfeeding the next turn. They both did surprisingly well. Neither sucked to hard or too fast and drowned themself in formula. The goal is to give Melissa an opportunity to pump enough so she can bottle feed them with breast milk when she is pressed for time. They both got done with 4 oz of formula in 15 minutes. Matt took a little longer because he took a break. It knocked Emma out cold. Matt was awake, but he was content for over an hour. Melissa was able to pump almost 4 oz and they both took the boob back without a problem. It was a nice evening. Today is Melissa's 6 month check up at the doctor. All should be good. Wondering what the doctor will say about how soon we can try for another. Melissa said they usually want C-section patients to wait a year until getting pregnant again. We wanted to pop another out ASAP, but oh well.
Posted: 12:22 PM, Monday, July 9, 2007

The 4th of July

So yesterday was MnEm's first 4th of July and it was pretty successful. Luckily, the weather cooperated. It was in the mid 80's and cloudy and breezy. It would have been pretty miserable for the MnEm if the sun was out. They slept in the stroller almost the whole time. Melissa used the Snugli backpack carrier for the first time. Matt was a huge fan. We took a tour of the old State Theatre in town, watched the parade, ate and watched the fireworks. They didn't get fussy until right before the fireworks started. It was time to eat. The loud noises and booms from the fireworks actually quieted Emma down. We met two couples and one of the guys was from Darlington and graduated from Northwestern in 1959. He didn't know Uncle David or George, but he threw out a couple of last names I knew. Things got a little testy when we started packing up the car and up to the time we went to bed. MnEm were crying and we were trying to get out of there as quickly as possible so Melissa could feed them. We got a little impatient with each other and it peaked when I banged the wall with my hand. Those are the times when we need to just pause for a second and calm down. The babies will be fine. They are just hungry. And it doesn't help our cause when we argue in front of them. They can hear the tone of our voice and it just makes them more upset. I think that has been the most upset we have been with each other since they were born, so I'm going to take that as a positive. I really have all the respect in the world for Melissa. I know it's not easy taking care of both of them at the same time. Every day, I want to buy her something to show her how much I appreciate what is doing and what she gone through to get us this far. It's not that we can't afford it, but I think my appreciation shows more when if offer to let her go somewhere by herself while I watch MnEm. I think I'm going to tell her tonight.
Posted: 1:49 PM, Thursday, July 5, 2007

A good morning so far. July 3, 2007

So far it's been one of the best mornings I've had so far since the birth. We went to bed at 9pm last night and I only woke up twice for a couple minutes each when the kids woke up. Melissa handled them both like a champ. She has her system down so she can get them out of their basinet, change them and feed them in bed. She is doing really great. I'm very proud of her. She is also losing lots of weight and looking great! I think I need to start getting serious about losing weight. I lost 6 pounds the week they were born, but I know I gained some of it back. We'll find out in about 15 minutes.
I was driving into work this morning listening to my MP3 player. My cousin's song, "I Will Be Here", was playing. I was thinking about mne (Matt & Emma) and my eyes were leaking a little when the next song that started playing what Snoop Dog's, "Gin and Juice". If you aren't familiar, the track starts off with a sound bite of some black guy peeing in a toilet and making that relieving sound. I started busting out laughing. Here I am getting all weepy from this great song my cousin sings and all of a sudden I'm listening to some guy empty his tank. It's going to be a good day.
Unbelieveable! I lost over a pound from 3 weeks ago. And I thought my pants felt a little tighter.
Posted: 7:36 AM, Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Tolerance & Patience. June 26, 2007

I've always been proud of my tolerance & patience for people in public. In private is different. I'll cuss them up and down behind their back like a truck driver. Babies & children were some things I lacked T&P with. I'm a little shocked at how well I am handling the crying and baby stuff that usually drives people crazy. The first night in the hospital with them was tough. Emma was crying and I wanted to fix whatever was making her cry. It almost brought me to tears that there was nothing I could do to help her. It was after that night I realized there are going to be times where I can't help them. All I can do is hold and comfort them. That was T&P lesson #1. T&P lesson #2 is new. It is so frustrating for me when I finally get one of them quited down and you think it's over only to have them wake right up and cry again. So now my attitude is expect them to cry again even if they look asleep. Hopefully it works.
Posted: 7:18 AM, Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The start of something great. June 19, 2007

What's up? Since everything has changed in the last 20 days, I figured why not my blog website. I hope you like it. I don't care if you do, just hope you do. You probably think that the title of this one has to do with the birth of our twins on May 30th. Well, you would be wrong. It has to do with the fact that for the past two nights, they slept at least 6 hours straight. Both nights I woke up around 4am and couldn't believe it. Now if we could only get Emma to calm down during the day, it would be perfect. She has been crying while she is awake during the day. Usually taking either of them outside and walking around would quiet them, but not last night. So I went to WebMD.com to look up colic and it is the most general all encompassing medical diagnosis I have ever heard. Since she is sleeping through the night, you can't call it colic. Matt on the other hand enjoys to take in the scenery. He was awake for a couple hours when I got home and didn't cry at all. I think giving them baths at night is helping them sleep through the night. I held them in the shower with me last night for a quick rinse off. They both liked it. Matt was only happy if I held him against me while the water hit his back. He didn't like the front shot. I'm just happy neither of them had to drop a chalupa. So we are going to try rotating the bath and shower with daddy to keep them sleeping. I think the next challenge will be getting them to sleep in the pack n play in our bedroom without the vibrator. That will start this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.
Posted: 11:27 AM, Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Let's try this again

Now I need to move my past three blogs onto this one.