Second Dr's Visit

In the clear!!

We had a very successful second doctors visit this afternoon. Heidi has regained her birth weight (plus an ounce) and now weighs in at 5 lbs, 13 ozs. This is very exciting because it means we no longer have to top her up with bottles if she doesn't seem to want to eat anymore. With Heidi this is always a distinct possibility. She seems quite happy to eat at a slow, sedate, ladylike pace, much to the chagrin of her parents at 3 in the morning.

Harrison (also known as the chow-hound) on the other hand has put on a whopping 8 ounces in one week, and now weighs 6 lbs 9 ozs. No worries about feeding him. The main challenge with him (night or day) is burping him enough times in his 15 minute feeding to make sure he doesn't spend the next 3 hours slowly spitting it up. Generally he belches twice at the 3 minute mark, then again around the 10 minute mark. These are details I have to remember at his wedding for a good speech!

A very quiet feeling day (our first without family). Rob let me sleep in until 11 (it was an extremely long night, with the 2 am feeding rolling right into the 5 am feeding, thanks Heidi). Then we had lunch, Rob cut half the lawn and we went to the doctors. That's a whole day. Depressing, rather. Someday I'll be productive again...

We have decided to try to sneak up to the cottage for a few days. It's not as crazy as it sounds, Bob and Gail will be up there for back up as we need them. I haven't been up since my "house arrest" started in April and am desperate for a little deck time. Hopefully Hurricane Irene doesn't affect us weather wise.

Thanks to everyone for all your comments and congratulations, we're having a great time reading them!

Pictures above are my nephew holding Harrison for the first time (he was a wonderful big cousin, and put in lots of babysitting time while he was here), and one of Heidi saying "Hey!"

Trying to burp 2

A quick shot of me attempting to burp 2 twins at once.  It did not turn out to be terribly effective!

Our new normal

John, Betty, Wyatt and Rowan headed home this morning and I think we're getting a glimpse of what the new normal is for our family ; Brendan plays trains while Heidi sleeps and Harrison ( not pictured ) is being held. It's hard to complain about consistancy!

Heidi goes back to the doctor for another weigh in tomorrow afternoon. If she's over 5 lbs 12 ozs we won't have to top her up with a bottle after every feed. That would be great timing because Harrison seems to be gearing up for his 3 week growth spurt. Last might and this morning he's been hungry every 2.5 hours instead of 3. I'd swear he has a hollow leg.

First walk!

We've been having a great visit with John, Betty, Wyatt and Rowan. We ventured out for our first walk with the whole family. A bit scattered of an experience trying to wrangle Brendan, blaze and the double stroller but Betty drove the stroller, blaze behaved fairly well and we distracted Brendan by getting him to pick flowers along the way. I can barely remember the last time I was able to walk comfortably. It felt wonderful!

First long night

Well, after 12 days of bliss Harrison was a little fussy last night. He wanted to be held at 1 am and we didn't see eye to eye on what a great idea that was.. Heidi slept on.

In other news I think our little man may be starting to chubb up a little in the face. See what you think...

Celebrating the twins due date

Success!  We went out to dinner as a family tonight to celebrate the twins due date at the same restaurant we celebrated Brendans due date 4 short years ago. Heidi slept happily under the table the whole time, Harrison was content as long as we held him and Brendan only needed 3 trips outside to discuss his behaviour.  Not bad for our new litttle family, and dinner was delicious!

The twins continued to entertain today, meeting Mike and Tara and neighbor Laurie. Tomorrow my brother John and his family arrive to help out for a couple of days.

Anyways, must run; feeding time at the zoo...

Doctor's Visit

We had our first doctor's visit on Friday (I'm posting on a time delay, here). Harrison has regained all his weight, and has passed his birthweight. He's now up to 6 lbs 1 oz!! What a big boy! Heidi is regaining her weight steadily, she's up to 5 lbs 9.6 ozs. Because she's not yet up to her birth weight (not unusual, it usually happens around days 10-14, the twins were 10 days at the doctor's appointment)we do need to keep supplementing her with a bottle after most feeds, but we're off the hook for Mr. Harrison. Every moment saved in the "feeding routine" is a gift!

Sleeping continues to go well, although they are each starting to fuss (just a little bit) when they're falling off to sleep. The honeymoon may be starting to wear off, but we're enjoying it while it lasts.

Brendan still seems amazingly well adjusted when it comes to his kid sister and brother, no jealousy yet. That being said, after 2 straight weeks of grandparents, we did have an uphill battle yesterday reminding him that he DID have parents, and rules. Poor guy. I think his honeymoon is over too!

She'll grow into it!

Oops,  I think I just reposted a bunch of old notes in an attempt to tidy up the blog.

Put Heidi in the swing this morning for the first time. She's a touch small for it yet!

Real life begins

Just realized the last post hadn't gone through, sorry for the delay.

Well, we're fending for ourselves today for the first time; my mom and dad headed home this morning. We seem to be doing ok so far; e everyone is fed, out of their pyjamas AND have teeth brushed. We likely wont get anything else done though.  Rob is trying to read but Harrison is making this a little difficult.  We thought we would have to actually cook dinner for ourselves tonight (gasp,  choke) but luckily a neighbour dropped off a casserole.  Thank goodness for friends and family!

Photo explanations

I just realized that since I wasn't able to add captions to the photos I may want too explain a few things. My dad tripped and fell down the stairs our first night home. Heidi looks aghast in the photo.

The very early photo of the twins on the examination table in the OR is actually an action shot of Harrison peeing on his sister when they are only moments old!

The thumbs up photo of me and the twins is in the recovery room right after surgery and a testament to how great I think planned sections are.

Starting to feel on the mend today, a lovely feeling indeed!

...phew! The final installment of The Great Photo Post

The Great Photo Post continued

This will seem out of order, but here are more photos, this time from our big camera. The sunset is the view from our room! We had half the room initially, the tiny interior half, for 2 cramped days. After our roomate left we asked to move over to the window side of the room; a huge upgrade, both in space and view. After one more night with a very entertaining roomate (socially inappropriate to tell the story online, but will be happy to in conversation...), we ended up with the whole room to ourselves for the remainder of our stay. After the first nights, it felt like the Ritz!

Photo Post - Part 2

Having a few technical difficulties with the posts today, sorry for the lack of captions. Here are a few more pics.

The Great Photo Post

At last! I was able to transfer the photos from our camera to our computer and finally have a look at them today. Here are a selection of the best from Heidi and Harrison's first week...

No more action to report today. Another day of feeding the kids, followed by feeding the kids, lunch and then feeding the kids. All joking aside, they had a stretch last night where they slept for 5 hours. Sweet!!

Early conditioning

Spent a quiet day at home resting, trying to get a few minor things organised (like mat leave) and of course feeding children. Rob took the kids down to the track for a few minutes tonight. Important to get them conditioned to the sound of revving engines early!

Big Brother on duty

Brendan has been doing a great job helping us ...getting diapers and bottles and playing Heidi's wind up music box for both them to help them sleep.

And we thought we'd never go out for lunch again....

Well, the kids are doing great and it's great to be back in our own space.  Unfortunately my body seems to have given all it had to give. In addition to the cellulitis infection across my tummy , I've developed the worst outbreak of cold sores I've ever had (72 if you count them all) and last night spiked a fever and unpleasant affinity for the bathroom that sent me back to hospital.

Which brings us to our first lunch out! As we are waiting for my newest prescription of antibiotics to be filled at the Walmart we splurged on Macdonalds. Who says you can't eat out with kids!

Home At Last

We've been home for almost 24 hours now and settling in very well. The kids are eating great; after 5 days of bottle feeding, Harrison has taken to nursing with no difficulty. He is totally our champ eater. We've even managed several sessions of nursing both at once, although when I say "we" I really do mean it's a 2 person job. Still, it's encouraging that we may someday be able to do this feeding 2 babies in a half efficent way.

We were sad to say goodbye to Mimi and Papa this morning, they have been such a huge help while we were in hospital. My Mom and Dad arrived yesterday afternoon as we came home from hospital and are helping us try to figure out life at home and some sort of routine.

Not going to lie, we are totally exhausted, but glad to be home and start on the process of getting used to our lives. At this point we can't even remember which drawer we put the bibs in, etc., etc. I can't wait to look at all the photos we've taken on the camera over the last 5 days, and will be keen to post the best ones when we do. Who am I kidding, I can't wait to get organized enough that I'm not having lunch at 2 in the afternoon.

The babies are sleeping, I'm off to bed...

Shut your mouth

Were a little worried about Heidi, she just doesn't want to listen to anything Harrison has to say.

Headed Home!

Yaaay!

Discharge?

It looks like today's the day, likely. Harrison scored great on his jaundice and hearing tests, my cellulitis isn't progressing and all that remains is for the pediatrician to come in and give us the all clear...

Next post may be from home!

Harrison

Together at last!

Wow. A fantastic but very long day. Sorry to update so late. We are all together! Harrison was released from the NICU at 1, just in time for daddy's birthday party.

Brendan came with cake and presents for daddy to celebrate a birthday I bet he'll never forget. 

Harrison passed his final blood sugar test early this evening and is now given the all clear!!! His jaundice was ruled as minimal mid morning and willl be double checked tomorrow morning but hopefully won't be an issue.

My tummy developed a stinging, hot pink area of skin this morning which they are treating as cellulitis with 10 days of antibiotics. This freaked me out a lot initially but they assure me that most infections like this settle in 7 to 10 days and as long as it's not spreading it won't affect our discharge date

Which is when?? If this delivery process has taught me anything it is how to get used to not having a plan. If we're lucky it will be tomorrow. If not it will likely be Sunday. I know I can't wait to get home to a keyboard to post from!

This post should have a picture of Heidi and I'll put up another with Harrison ...

Happy birthday rob!!

The NICU nurses made rob a special surprise for this morning. Harrison needs just one more good feed and then he can come out to our room!

Just to keep things exciting, now that Harrisons sugars are almost in the clear they are now watching him for jaundice and me for a cellulitis infection. Sigh!

We may never get out of here at this rate.

Now it feels like we've got twins...

Finally twin life has begun! We bottle feed Harrison every 2 hrs then nurse Heidi every 3 hrs folllowed by bottle feeding her too, come back to the room to feed me and then we start all over!

We had a wonderful day of company too. Brendan came for his daily lunch visit with Mimi and Papa. Heather and baby Reid came, we visited with neighbors John, Tiff, Mikey :), and Kristen and Heather, Blaine, Owen and Will had a great visit. We've also been spoiled with lots of attention from all my coworkers.

Harrison has mastered 1 and 2 hour feeding intervals and will try 2.5 hour intervals in the NICU overnight. Baby steps...

Chow time

After an amazing feeding and a score of 4.1 our next sugar score was low again so... more waiting and hoping.

Together again!

So to try and settle our active little Guy down they've actually decided to take him out of the incubator and swaddled him up tight with his sister instead! So wonderful to see them together!  The room now feels very quiet with both kids in the NICU.

Update on Harrison

So Harrison still had low sugar all night despite tube feedings and the incubator, mostly because he spends all his time thrashing around actively and trying to find a bottle. So we were able to feed him a bottle this morning which he chugged!

Heidi gets the all clear!

A great day, I was able to get all my tubes and lines out and was able to walk down the hall...granted very slowly. Harrison spent last night and all day today in the NICU trying to get his blood sugar up. We were hoping to have him in our room tonight but he does better in the heat of the incubator and feeding by NG tube so he'll be staying there tonight as well. Heidi did great today and has been given the official all clear so no more foot pricking or potential for the NICU for her.
Big brother Brendan has been in to visit everyday, called his sister beautiful and was keen to show her movies of trains.

Sleep Over

This is were Harrison is hanging out tonight. The incubator is set at a toasty 31 c.

Hopefully this works!

Here is a 5 minute old photo of them.

Introducing!

Introducing Heidi Lynnell Lock and Harrison William Lock who arrived at approx 9:11am and 9:15am this morning. Heidi was the first one to join us at 5lb 12oz and then her bigger brother Harrison at 5lb15oz. Everyone is doing fine, mom is a little tired and sore but doing well. Battling glucose levels in both kids, but nothing serious. Will try and attach picture but I will do a better job when we get to a computer.

Quick Update About The Potential Lack Of Updates

Found out today while getting the final bloodwork done that there are no public Wi-fi hotspots at the hospital, so no chance to update the blog from our cell phone as planned! So sorry!  Next plan will be to try and talk one of my coworkers at the hospital into updating it for us from a computer in the office. We'll update as soon as possible!

Nancy

It's The End Of The World As We Know It...

So, one last day...

Had my worst night on record last night, so I am ready to get on with this! Called the hospital to confirm that we were booked for tomorrow and got updated times; be at the hospital at 4:45am for 6:45am surgery.

Have mercy!

Thought I'd post my last profile picture, having officially hit 38 weeks yesterday. Not too shabby!

We'll be sure to post tomorrow as soon as we can, but we're not exactly sure where the wi-fi spots in the hospital are, so don't be alarmed if it's not until later in the day.

I guess that's it, we'll talk to you when we have two more kids!

Nancy

Behaving Myself

I have been read the riot act by several people for not posting all last week (there was nothing happening!), so just to assure people that we are not in labour, I am posting about our quiet uneventful last few pre-twin days. We had a wonderful Neighbourhood August Birthday Party on Friday night (John's birthday is the 9th, 3 days later is Rob's birthday, 3 days later is Pat's birthday, 3 days later is Laurie's birthday). I had hoped for pure symmetry to have the children on Saturday (3 days prior to the beginning of the current cycle), but decided an weekend C-section was not worth the coolness of fitting into the pattern. As it is, our twins will share John's birthday, so they're still part of the tradition! As a matter of extra coolness, John himself is a twin and is now suggesting we should name them John and Joan as an homage. 

Playing "Lasso Golf"

The Birthday Group

Wheelbarrow "Races" at a slack pace

Leap Frog with Captain Awesome and the Asthma Kid

Pat and Rob take time out for a hand soak

There is nothing I can add to this photo...

Every 30 minutes, the guests of honour had to draw "tasks". I don't know how John drew so many dress up options!

Yesterday we went to the Kingston Sheep Dog Trials, something I've always wanted to go to (but we don't tend to hang around at home on summer weekends much, usually). It was a great day, and a great reminder of all the things we should be doing with our brilliant border collie.

Connie (from the farm Rob grew up working on) and her Border Collie getting ready for Flyball

Brendan LOVED watching agility

Watching the sheepdog trials. Brendan was less interested than agility, but seemed to enjoy climbing and leaning all over his 55 pounds of sibling. I enjoyed that less.

Today is truly a quiet day at home, a last time for Brendan and I to hang out just the two of us (Rob is off racing). I've already watched his trains crash several times in various dramatic ways, and fought an epic battle over brushing his teeth. Ah, times to treasure!