No Sleep for You!!

So yesterday was a super fussy day for the boys.  The slept like hell the night before then I schlepped them to my parents because my dad is retiring tomorrow. 
And no, the husband is not with me so don't rob our house. 

Anyway, I was hoping to get a good night's sleep last night because its been far too long.  One would think that would have been possible considering the boys slept until 7am.  No such luck. 

The storms that reeked havoc over the mid west came our way.  The weather man told us to take cover immediately.  Neat.  There's no sleeping involved in tornado cover. 

I finally make it to bed at around 11.  Then around 1am I am awoken by another storm system.  It was raining so hard it looked like a thick fog.  I could barely see the houses behind my parents'.  That storm passes through and I go back to sleep.  And I'm sleeping mighty well until I randomly wake up at 5:30. 

Remember that monitor I wrote about before?  Well, my mom found one on her local craigslist for $10 and the deal was a success.  But, as I found out last night, if you are using the receiver while it is plugged in, it creates lots and lots of static.  So, since there was nothing but static coming my way, I grab my glasses of the nightstand only to knock them to the floor.  Then in my rush to check on the babies, I reach down to the floor to get my glasses when BAM, I slam my head into the nightstand.  Now I have a nice purple welt about an inch in diameter in the middle of my forehead.  I always knew I was supposed to have horns. 

Four dollars is serious business

Craigslist is a great place to buy used (sometimes new) baby gear. 

I wanted to get a monitor to keep at my parents house instead of paying full price for something that will be used sparingly.  I found an ad on craigslist, contacted the seller, agreed on a time to meet, and do the exchange.  Fabulous. 

The list price was $10.  I went to Starbucks this morning and paid in cash with one of my 2 10 dollar bills.  I got to the lady's house, opened my wallet, found that one of my supposed $10s was actually a $20 bill.  Oops.  So, now I have a $20 and $6.  I tell her as much, she checks to see if she has change.  Nope, sure doesn't.  Ok, I offer her the $6.  She refused it. 

Lady, your lame monitor has been on craigslist for over 2 months.  You weren't prepared with change, and now you're going to blow the sale over $4?  Your loss crazycakes. 

New, fun comment today

Usually when I'm out with my husband people ignore the babies.  I guess he is intimidating or something.  Who knows.  But, we went into Garden Ridge today to see what the fuss was about.  Its like a Big Lots but the stuff was slightly less junky. 
Anyway, on to my story. 
We were walking through the store and this lady stops to stare.   Her husband says to her, "they're not for sale.  Keep moving."  Awesome.  Thank you random man at the store for saying something that I could appreciate for once. 
Then the wife replied with "well, I bet they would be at 2AM."  My husband appreciated that one. 

Now its on to bigger and better things.  Like watching the Va Tech game.

I think I have little psychics on my hands

These two seem to know certain things. 

For instance, they must sense when I'm about to strangle their father so they give me one night of much needed sleep.  Or they know that I'm about to commit myself to the nuthouse, so they stop crying constantly. 

They must have sensed what would happen today.  They slept great last night.  It was amazing.  This morning went about as any other day.  Then on our way to Kroger we almost got in a car crash.  I think they knew I needed that sleep so I could be as alert as possible today.  If I had reacted just a little slower we would have been T-boned and Cole could have been crushed. 

Some dumb woman sped right through a red light and I was so lucky to have noticed she wasn't stopping.  I followed her down the road for a bit and nearly followed her into the cemetery she went into but decided against it.  If she had gone to the same shopping center as me should would have gotten a mouth full from me.  If she had hurt either of my babies, she would be headless.

Sh*t stupid people say

The world has its fair share of morons, but when you're a mom of multiples you come across far too many far too often. It astounds me the moronic comments I get every time I go into public. There hasn't been a single outing where I wasn't asked if my boys were twins. I would think this would be obvious, but apparently people are too dumb to even figure that one out. I should have started a tally of the things people say to me. I could have written a book by the end of the first year. Instead I'll settle for trying to remember some of the best ones for you.

• Are they twins? Nope, I stole a baby that's identical to mine.
• How do you do it? Most of the time I sit back and let the dogs watch them.
• Better you than me. Well, with that attitude, I'd say you're correct.
  
• I'd die if I had twins.
  
• But they can't be yours. You're too small. For those of you who don't know, I'm 4'11" and pretty thin. I have had people start full on arguments with me over whether or not I had the babies.
  
• You're what? 15? Well, I can be judgemental too, but I usually keep it to myself.
  
• The latest gem happened at Wally world the other day. I was leaving and this lady started running, full speed, yelling "Miss. Oh Miss." My attempt to ignore crazy was a huge failure. First, she asked if they're twins. (Shocker). Then she proceeded to tell me that Dion Celine was having twins. Awesome, but if you're going to tell me a story at least have the name right. And could you please visit a dentist before trying to frighten all the neighborhood children.
  

Walmart is like a mecca for the crazies. I get the best comments there. Since I go there on a weekly basis I'm sure I'll have more fun stories for you all in the future.
So, the moral of today's story is: Yes, twins are fascinating, but please don't treat them like circus freaks. We have lives and things to do and talking to you about how we conceived and what our day to day lives are like are not on our list of priorities.

The first 6 months. The abridged version

The first three months are already a blur. It was round the clock feeding, changing, pumping, feeding, changing, pumping. At night we had to set the alarm for every three hours to make sure these little buggers ate enough b/c they were so small at birth.
I remember lots of poop. Loooooootttttssssssssss of poop. That breastmilk goes right through them. I often would open a diaper and be offered a present of poo on my hand. Gee, thanks child.
Lots of urine showers as well.
Then I was in my best friends wedding and it killed my milk supply. I was a bit bummed at first, but once we switched to formula, everyone was much happier. Suddenly, the babies weren't crying constantly.

After three months they started sleeping through the night. Ah, glorious sleep. I would often have to wake them in the morning to feed them. Well, that little present only lasted about a month and a half. Oh, how I miss sleep.

These babies. They grow like weeds I tell ya. They've more than tripled their birth weight. (Not too difficult when you weigh roughly 4lbs at birth.) And watching the milestones is a great experience. The both rolled for the first time on the same day. Shocking! Now, they're both working on crawling. Cole rocks on his knees for a good portion of the day. It usually leaves him terribly frustrated and in tears b/c he just can't seem to get to whatever toy it is he's after. Grant usually scoots himself backwards and ends up with his legs stuck under the couch. I've started baby proofing, but I've still got a way to go.
We're also working on teeth. This teething thing. Yeah, not so fun. Its considered a good night if we're up less than 5 times at night. Remember those days of me waking them at 7:30? Haven't seen one of those in quite a while.

Well, here I am

Doing something I always said I wouldn't. Start a blog. I never had any interest, but after many requests I decided to cave. I say random crap often enough on facebook so I figure I can type the same stuff here.

I suppose I'll start with the title of the blog. Twice the...
I'm sure you can figure out what that means. It's pretty self explanatory. Twice the smiles, twice the love, twice the poop, twice the amount of night wakings, etc.

Now to the story. I guess I should start from the beginning.
Nick and I decided one drunken, lazy Sunday afternoon that we were ready to start trying for a family. That was the last day I took my pill. We got pregnant that first month, only to lose that baby (or babies, who knows). A couple months later we got pregnant again. I went to my first Dr. appointment around 8 weeks. Did the run of the mill bloodwork, then got an ultrasound. We saw the little turd(no lie, thats what it looked like) and its heart beat and all was well. Fast forward to the NT scan around 12 weeks. The ultrasound tech puts the gooey wand on my belly, says to me "uh, what did the last ultrasound tech say to you?" which of course puts me in a panic. Thats when I look up at the screen and notice something that didn't appear to be there last time. Another baby. Holy shock! Nick just grabbed my hand and I could feel his pulse in his palm.

The pregnancy was relatively smooth, as far as multiples pregnancies go. But, at 14 weeks I started having pretty constant Braxton Hicks contractions and was put on partial bedrest at 17 weeks. It was mighty boring. But, well worth it.

Towards the end of my pregnancy we noticed that the boys weren't really growing. The doctors weren't sure why this was, so I was induced at 37 weeks. Pitocin is the devil. I went into the hospital Easter Sunday and started with Cervadil. The next morning they started the Pitocin drip. The contractions were painful but nothing worth writing home about. Then my water broke, but of course at the time I thought I had lost all bladder control. After that the contractions were like fire. I was only dilated 2cm at this point so they wouldn't let me get an epidural. Instead I got some other drug through the IV which did nothing to ease the pain, but it did make me nice and dizzy. That did not make for a happy Kristine.

Once I finally got the epidural I was a different woman. Finally around 5:15am that Tuesday I was wheeled into the OR to deliver our boys. Grant came first after an hour of pushing, followed by his brother, Cole.

I was discharged from the hospital the next day, but the boys spent a week in the NICU. After that our lives would never be the same.