Who am I kidding? It has actually been 7 weeks since our
wonderful twin boys entered this world. Before they were born I had these
grandiose plans that I would be able to blog when they were born, be on the
money each moth that went by, and keep a great running record of the early
days. Clearly I had never been a M.O.M. (mother of multiples) before. The last 7
weeks have been the most crazy, exhausting, exciting, joyful, hardest, and most
blessed times in our lives. Getting to sit down in front of my laptop and not
be feeding, changing, holding, snuggling, or playing with a baby is pretty unlikely these days, but I wouldn't change it for anything. So this is my catching up blog. The story of their
birth, and what the ‘Feuling 5’ has been up to in the last month and a half.
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| First Family Picture |
Carter Michael and Braxton Dean joined our lives on Wednesday
February 27th at 10:58 and 10:59 in the morning. I was 36 weeks and
6 days along, a feat none of us thought I would make it to. I absolutely loved
being pregnant and when we passed the “Safe Zone” at week 34 we all were able to
let out a big sigh of relief. The pregnancy went along wonderfully with all
positive results, wonderful ultrasounds, and the boys grew even better than
expected. Then the week before they were born I started swelling pretty bad and
my blood pressure had gone up a bit. I wanted so badly to make it to Chandler
and Ashley’s wedding, but the doctor wasn't comfortable with me going all the
way up there. We did attend the wedding, via iPad, which was second best to
being there live. Now looking back at how huge I was, I realize even though I
cried a few times, it was probably for the best.
The day after the wedding my swelling had gotten so bad that
we decided I needed to get my blood pressure checked. Because we live in such a
small town and nothing is open on a Sunday, we went to the local fire station.
After readings of 144/102 we headed right into the hospital. Later that night I
was admitted and told my test results weren't good enough to send me home, but not
bad enough to take the babies. “Well isn't that great” I thought and that began
a 3 day hospital stay for a huge prego lady that was beyond stir crazy. I hung
in there for the first few days, even though they made me wait 14 hours to eat
one day and I thought I was going to die! It should be illegal to make a
pregnant lady, especially one with twins, wait that long to eat! But I made it
out alive and from then on made sure to take advantage of the pretty decent
hospital room service.
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| Carter & Braxton |
At 3:00am Wednesday morning I woke up feeling really weird.
I was antsy, irritated, and thought if I had to look at those four walls of the
hospital room for one more day I might kill someone. The nurse was sweet enough
to tell me she would try to get an order signed from the doctor to allow
Michael to push me around the hospital in a wheelchair just so I could at least
have something different to look at. “Whoo hoo” I thought! You know it is
pretty bad when I was looking forward to a few hospital laps! J Thank the lord I never
made it to that wheelchair ride. At 4:20am my water broke and the whole process
started. I had eaten a snack when I had been up earlier so they scheduled my
c-section (both boys were breech) for 12:00pm, giving my body 8 hours to digest
the food. The boys decided 8 hours was way too long. My labor had gone really
fast and within 5 hours I was getting close enough that the doctors had to move
it up to 10:30.
Just before 11:00am our little men were here. The delivery
was extra special because my OB, who was NOT on call, surprised me and arranged
her schedule so she could come over and deliver the boys. While I was getting
my spinal, and in some pretty serious pain because I hadn’t had any medicine
and was having crazy contractions, a hand appeared in front of me and a voice
that said “Don’t worry, I’m here for you.” I looked up to see Dr. Card standing
there in scrubs and I immediately felt a sense of calm and relief. The on-call
doctor would have done a terrific job, but it meant so much to have my doctor
who had supported me through the whole pre-pregnancy and pregnancy journey
deliver them.
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| They always sleep better together. |
From the moment they were born, both boys began to amaze us.
When they said Carter was 7lbs 1oz everyone’s jaw hit the floor. And then when
Braxton came in at 7lbs 4oz we were all in shock. How in the world did I have
almost 15lbs of baby in there? I’ll tell you how- I WAS HUGE! And proceeded to
loose 21lbs the day they were born. Both boys were healthy, with 10 fingers and
10 toes, and promptly began to pee all of the doctors as soon as they hit the
air.
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| "Brother Time" |
Even though they are twins, Braxton and Carter couldn’t be
any more different from each other. Carter is my cool as a cucumber, laid back,
“Ice Man” as Michael calls him, little dude. He has been smiling since he was 2
days old (and no, it wasn’t just gas) and is pretty content as long as someone
is cuddling him. Because he was breech for so long in my belly he always wants
to pull his legs up into a little squatting position, or like a little tree
frog as we say when he is laying on your shoulder. He was smaller than Braxton
at birth but is a much better eater and passed his brother in weight in no
time. Carter also makes the best faces. He scrunches his face making weird
grunting noises all the time, and Michael and I can’t help but laugh. He has
the most adorable pouting face when he cries and his lower lip sticks out like
the world is ending, and when he is awake, he is really awake. Every day that
goes by he looks more and more like his dad, and I am keeping my fingers
crossed that his eyes stay blue.
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| Best Snugglers |
Braxton is my much more boisterous and demanding baby. We
have about 12 seconds between the time he “warns” us that his is hungry before
all hell breaks loose. When he wants something, he wants it now. Michael calls
him “Diva”, I say he just knows what he wants. He definitely inherited my
patience. B-Boy is also a great snuggler. From the day he was born he has hated
being cold, so he loves to be curled up in a blanket in your arms looking up at
you with his big eyes. We also call him “The Shark”. Whether he is nursing,
taking a bottle, or sucking on his beloved binkie, when he takes it he thrashes
his head back and forth before he starts to suck. It sort of looks like a Shark
who is trying to eat a seal- thus the name. Braxton’s body type is definitely a
Martello and he looks just like his Uncle Chan did when he was a baby. It’s
pretty cool that we have one Martello baby, and one Feuling baby. He, like
Carter, also has some signature faces. He often has his forehead wrinkled,
eyebrows furrowed, and makes this lip pucker face like he is whistling. He
definitely doesn’t lack personality.
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| Proud Daddy |
In the last 7 weeks sleep has been sporadic. We still have
them sleeping in our room (I’m really going to struggle when we transition them
to the nursery) which helps a little, but they are usually up every 3 hours.
They are hungry little boys for sure. Michael helps me in the middle of the
night, even though he has to go to work, and we have a pretty great system.
Sleep deprived or not, we have learned work together as a well oiled machine. I
tandem nurse the boys to save time, Michael takes the first one done to get his
diaper changed, then brings him back to me taking the second twin, while I put
the first one to sleep, and then the second when he returns. Our record time for a feeding/diaper
change/back to sleep attempt is 46 minutes! But not every night or feeding are
we so lucky. When we go for our 2 month appointment I will definitely be asking
the doctor if there is anything we can do to have them sleep for longer chunks
of time.
As parents of multiples we have also learned it would be
super handy to have 4 arms, 4 eyes, and diaper tree growing the back yard. When
both of them cry and you are the only person home it is quite the adventure
trying to get them both comforted, but you do what you gotta do. We survive
with swings, bouncy chairs, and the fact that they are comforted by each other.
If they are crying and you cannot get them to settle, if you put them together
they usually calm down. We change somewhere between 16-22 diapers a day and
have double the chance for a blowout! Crazy! We have also found great comfort
in the peepee-teepee, which is a little piece of fabric that keeps little boys
covered and us away from a golden shower. Twins are not as hard as we thought
they would be, but they are a lot of work. And that is work that is totally
worth every second because these little boys are the most precious things on
the planet.
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| Dudley has made himself the boys' watch dog. |
Poor Dudley has had a little bit of a hard time adjusting to the babies. He loves them, protects them, gives them millions of kisses (that we have to monitor and stop), but doesn't like how much attention they get. Before the boys arrived he was the center of attention and he knew it. Now when people come to visit, and we've had LOTS of visitors in the last 7 weeks, they don't just pay attention to him. He is not a fan. Nor is he a fan of being woken up at 3am by screaming babies. He lays on his bed letting out huge sighs like "Guys really? It's the middle of the night?!?!?" Fortunately the only bad behavior we've had to really deal with is he steals blankets, burp rags, and binkies. Mostly he does it for attention, even if its getting in trouble. We've worked really hard to show him that just because the boys arrived doesn't mean he is any less important. I am working double time to show him that because he is a real mama's boy, and when the twins are nursing or I am changing their diapers or something I can't just drop everything and love on Dud. I have to say I used to do that. Regardless, he is a great big brother and I know as the boys grow up they will love having him as their dog.
Both boys now are making more noises, smiling all the time,
and spend a lot more time alert than they did in the beginning. At 5 weeks we
were fine, but it seemed like over night when we hit 6 weeks none of the
newborn clothes fit anymore. This made their mama really sad. Time is going way
way too fast. But I am documenting them with pictures every single week so we
don’t forget how little they were, and can appreciate the changes so much more.
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