Monthly Archives: September 2007

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Parenting in your dreams

Wow, it’s already been 4 weeks since our beautiful little chitlins were born! I had a pretty reasonable idea coming into this what sorts of changes would take place in the Olson household: You know, spending less time asleep, spending most of our “free” time with Zach and Marissa, and spending all of our income on diapers and baby clothes. These are the things you can attempt to mentally prepare for.

What you can’t prepare for are the changes that take place inside yourself and your spouse. How would I handle being a daddy? What does Jaime as a mommy look like? How do we work together as parents? How am I gonna feel towards these tiny little babies? Well, let me just say that overall, it’s been such a joy to be a dad (which I kinda saw coming), but it’s been a huge joy to see Jaime as a mommy (which I hadn’t honestly thought about beforehand). It’s been so cool to see all the changes that have taken place in her throughout the pregnancy and now during these last 4 weeks of mothering outside the womb! And it’s so adorable to see her with our children 🙂

One of the changes I’ve enjoyed the most and expected the least was just how vigilant Mommy Jaime can be! Zach and Marissa both still have heart/breathing monitors that screech the most obnoxious, smoke-detector-on-steroids beeping that they legally allow. Day or night, sleeping or not, Jaime has become tuned in to the monitor so closely that I swear she’s sometimes in the room a full half-second before it starts beeping. Zach and Marissa are in excellent hands with Mommy.

But the greatest indication of how vigilant Mommy Jaime can be is her reaction to lesser stimuli while she’s sleeping. For several nights in a row, Jaime has snapped upright in bed at the slightest noise or movement, ready to care for the babies. Of course, she’s still asleep at this point, and that’s where the fun begins. For several nights in a row, sometimes 3 or 4 times during the night, Jaime will “wake up”, turn to me, and starting scooping around me to grab the “tiny baby”. Once she manages to find the “tiny baby”, she proceeds to get up from the bed and carry the baby back to the crib. I’ve never followed her into the baby’s room, but she always comes back looking a little bit confused and defeated before she plops back into bed and falls immediately to sleep. I can only assume she noticed that there were already two babies in the crib…

On one occasion, I was startled to wake up to Jaime pushing on me to keep me from rolling over and squishing “tiny baby”. Obviously, I complied! I mean, you just don’t argue with that kind of display of protection for our babies! That’d be like snatching a baby bear from the protective arms of the mama bear, and then attempting to sit on it!  Thankfully it all turned out just fine, once Jaime managed to rectify that horribly unsafe situation and brought “tiny baby” back to the crib where she belonged 🙂

I love that Jaime is so protective and loving towards our babies that she’s taking care of them even in her sleep! I guess when your life is filled with babies, you can’t help but dream about babies, but I like to think this is just another indication of what an amazing mommy Jaime is! And it certainly makes parenting that much more fun 🙂

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Deliciosity

After the 7am feeding, Hoochie and I took a much-needed walk this morning so that we could go to the Amish Country Bakery stand at the Farmer’s Market. Matt swung by while I was in the hospital to try and score me the best cinnamon rolls ever to aid my recovery, but they were sold out. Basically, if you go after 9am, good luck finding any at all! I volunteered to do the 7am feeding this morning even though I usually take that one as my break so that I could hook us up.

I bought the cinnamon rolls as well as the sticky pecan rolls and some rhubarb bread while Hoochie schmoozed with the crowds of adoring fans. I like to try new recipes and make delicious food as much as anyone, but there is no reason to compete with perfection. The Amish community in Arthur, IL has the art of cinnamon roll making perfected and I’m happy to support them. Matt calls the Amish the original hippies because they stand up against the man and have stuck to their causes instead of turning to drugs or materialism. I have respect for anyone who did not support the 1980’s. 🙂 Matt is also threatening Marissa that we will become Amish to keep her away from plunging neckline onesies and revealing baby clothes. Of course, I’m not sure little boys could resist her in a tiny frock and lacy bonnet either. We also have to keep Zach’s top snap closed so he doesn’t entice any girls with his manly chest hairs. Both babies do a very cute stretch and pucker routine when they wake up. We need to curb this puckering early on or someone will take them up on a kiss!

Anyway, here are some pictures. The babies have been home for exactly 2 weeks of their 25 days of life! That means they have been here 3 days longer than they spent in the NICU! Yay!! Matt and I went out to dessert with a Biaggi’s gift card while Grammy babysat our cuties. I found the babies adorably pointed toward each other this morning. They definitely miss snuggling in their sleep during Zach’s eye infection! And here is the beautiful work of the Arthur, IL Amish. Enjoy!

Dessert Date sweet babies

cinnamon rolls sticky pecan rolls

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These pictures speak for themselves…

JUST as Grammy was saying, “Marissa, I’m concerned that you haven’t pooped for several feedings…” Marissa came through to calm our fears! She hit her new diaper, the changing pad, the diaper ointments, the Diaper Champ, her brother’s pacifier, the wall, the outlet, the curtains, the bouncy seat, the carpet, and the trim. She missed her own outfit and Grammy, but just narrowly. I can see her working through the hydraulics problem in her head… “If I have this much liquid poop and I squirt it at this pressure level through this small of an opening, and we know that high pressure moves to low pressure… carry the 3… yes, I should be able to hit the curtains Mommy made! Here goes…”
wall of poop the carnage finally able to relax

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A day of firsts

Well! Yesterday was quite an exciting day here at the Olsons! Biter, Crusty, Milk-lips, Houdini, Kung-Fu Turtle… these babies have earned quite a few nicknames over the past 12 days at home. I’ll expound only on one of them… Zach is a BITER! As convenient as it would be to feed them directly rather than going through all the extra steps of pumping and storing and bottling breast milk for their consumption, we may keep him on bottles 🙂 He can bite those all he wants!

First the bad news. After 8 days of 2 kinds of treatment, Zach still has his eye infection in both eyes.

washcloth head

We went back to the pediatrician and got medication #3. I’m really hoping that this one works and we haven’t made him immune to the effects of every antibiotic already just for nothing! While at the pediatrician, they weighed Zach. I’d been wondering what he weighed because he has filled in quite a bit… his size preemies are too short, his size newborns fit very nicely, his little face has filled in and he’s a bit easier to hold onto because he feels more solid. Brace yourselves, people. A whole pound!!! He gained exactly one pound in 10 days. I’m glad to know I can spot a growth spurt when I see one… I just didn’t know it was so extensive! He’s still only 6.5 pounds, but he gained almost 20% of his weight in one week. No wonder he’s sucking down milk and sleeping and that’s it! These are pictures of him in his carseat on Sept. 7, the day before he came home, and Sept. 19, his 6.5 pound day!

Zach’s carseat 6.5 pound Zach!

Not to be outdone, Marissa is eating like a champion as well! She has taken MORE than Zach at several feedings and is consistently asking for more after she finishes her bottle. Maybe she wants to gain 2 pounds! And, the little angel, she is NOT a biter. A personal thank you from your mommy, sweet girl! This is one of my favorite pictures of her… she is so short when she sits up to burp and she has the cutest little head.

Marissa’s burp

They both had a personal best yesterday for a feeding and for filling a diaper. (No, we don’t measure the diapers in cc’s like we do the food. But Matt showed me a particularly full diaper so that we could agree it was the nastiest and most full diaper we’ve ever seen and how on earth did our child fit in there as well?) We’re also seeing burping improvement now that they are holding up their heads so well! It’s good that they beat their personal records on the same day as one another so that no one feels badly about not improving as fast as the other twin. We are seeing improvements all around!

The next first from yesterday that I need to announce is possibly my favorite so far. Zach hugged me! I’ve got a picture here so you can check it out. I held him up to my shoulder to cuddle and maybe get one last burp squeezed out, and he put his arms around my neck and arm and gently patted my shoulder with his little hand. It was a beautiful moment. I thought he had fallen asleep, but he was wide awake and very relaxed. I love both my little cuddlers!

First hug!

Finally, Hooch has been hilarious and had his own new record. As petrified of the babies and their monitors as he is (he runs for the nearest lap when the high-pitched squealing begins), Hooch can’t tear himself away for long. He loves to come up during feedings and sit on Grammy’s foot or arrange himself across all the wires on the floor so that no one can move a baby until he has okayed it. Yesterday, he got the closest to one of them that he has so far. It was Marissa and he sniffed her all over. To reward him, she passed a little gas and he got excited about the diapered end of her 🙂

Hooch and Marissa

Someone is howling so I better run!

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pictures

We had another round of baths 2 nights ago.  Marissa rather enjoyed hers but Zach was upset because this was time for him to be eating and he knew it! Where is the food???  Never mind that mommy, daddy, and grammy haven’t gotten any dinner yet either… he knows what is supposed to be coming to him!  We think he is having a growth spurt because he is so hungry all the time and then just conks out, sometimes during his meal.  Growing and fighting his eye infection takes all his effort right now!

Marissa’s bath Zach’s bath

And here are the pictures taken specifically for Grandpa-O’s benefit of Zach in his little preemie train jogging suit. Just in case he grows out of it before Grandpa sees him in person, we had to document how cute he looks!  I left these pictures full-sized in case you want to print them out, Grandpa!

Zach and Marissa

Family portrait