Retrospective (1 month)

So it has been a month, that is 30 days. It is amazing how quickly the little people become a part of your life. I honestly could not imagine life without them. My entire house smells like baby shit now, most of my cloths have been spit-up on and there is baby stuff every where, isn't that nice?

I was able to take three weeks off, which was great, so as I write this I am starting my second week back at work. So far my mother has been out to help for two weeks (she was great - so much help) and my father came out for a couple of days to meet the kids. Tracy's folks will be out next week, so we are in the beginning of our first week alone while I am back at work - gulp.

So what have I learned so far?
- Taking care of kids is the hardest job I could imagine. So to anyone who does this full time and if I have ever dismissed the effort, please accept my sincerest apologies, it was pure ignorance on my part. To my beautiful wife who is going to stay home and do this, I am truly amazed. Prior to this experience, I had said numerous times that I could be stay at home dad, I had the visions of hours for training, working on my wood working, doing countless projects around the house, working in the garden, etc... OH MY GOD I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG.
- I had no idea that you could stare at a babies face for hours. I have found myself staring at both Owen and Ava and watching them make faces countless times. It is rather fun.
- Sleeping with a baby on you, this is great. I really really love this.
- As people told me, but of course once can not understand, it one of the most rewarding and exhausting experiences ever.
- How much I miss Tracy, this might seem odd and I am not sure if this is a twin thing, a baby thing or and Ian and Tracy thing, but it seems that we don't see each other anymore. Now that I am back at work everything is shifted, so we see each other for 30 min in the morning while I am getting ready and maybe an hour in the evening - we really miss each other - which I guess is nice, but it is hard.

We think that both of the kids are getting bigger. Of course the only empircal evidence that we have is from their two week Dr Apt (same nice Dr. man from the last one) where Owen weighed 6 1/2 lbs and measured 19 inches which adjusting for their young gestational age put him in the 50th percentile for head circumfrance and height, but only in the 20th percentile to weight. Ava weighed 6.0 lbs and measured 17 1/2 inches which again ajusting put her in the 20th percentile for hieght and the single digits for weight and head cicumfrance. I guess if you are going to have a boy and a girl you would want the percentages to be in this order.

One month pictures:
1 Month 5 days






(It is amazing how quickly they grow! I guess they are finally fitting into those onies now.)

(Mom and Dad trying to work a couple of things out.)

Diapers (and what goes along with that!)

As you all know, I am a pretty big fan of the environment and all that goes along with that. I hug trees, rummage through the garbage to make sure that the last shred of recyclable material has been put into the appropriate tub, we drive a hybrid car, I bike to work, I save worms, and now that we can put food scraps in our yard waste the rummaging can go on for days. On my to do list prior to having the little people was to build a compost heap, still on the list, just below some other stuff. But I digress....

So diapers, these are somewhat the bane of the environmentalists existence, lets just face it there is nothing good about them. By their very nature they are designed to withstand degrading, which is pretty much the anti environment. Me being me, I have done research on this and basically came down with the following conclusion, there is no good answer. I found this interesting site while trying to figure out what to do. (http://www.perc.ca/waste-line/articles/diaper.html). Honestly I don't know how influence I would have over this decision anyway, Tracy was pretty insistent that we were using disposable, so there you go.

As a complete aside, I also came across this http://www.ilea.org/lcas/hocking1994.html - which basically calculated how many times you have to reuse a reusable cup to make it better for the environment. Honestly, what did people do before the internet?

So back to diapers. At the end of the day I have come to the decision that you have to use something. This obvious conclusion came into very clear focus one day when I was trying to sooth a crying Owen. Let me set the stage:

It was about two weeks into being a dad and about two days into being back in our recently renovated house, the nursery is newly painted, the changing table is nicely set-up, the carpet is new, I think that you get the picture. So I am there changing Owen and he is having a massive sense of humor failure. I have this vague recollection of some telling me that 'babies like to be close to your skin', so I think this sounds like a good idea, Owen has just peed and pooed, this is going to be great bonding time. So I proceed to hold Owen's naked body against me and in no more then 30 secs he power shits all over me, somehow managing to shit all over of my stomach, on my shirt and down onto my pants, the impressive thing is not that he got it all over me, but he also managed to hit the changing table, all down the front of the dresser (of course drawers were open) and the floor, please keep in mind that at this point the kid only weighs about 6lbs, he must have shat about 20% of his body weight. Ironically, Tracy then walked into the nursery to change Ava and seemed to take tremendous pleasure that I was covered in baby poo. As she was changing Ava, somehow Ava managed to pee all over Tracy :-) So after this experience I have decided that diapers are a good idea.

There are really not very many baby pix that one can post relating to this topic, but I am obligated by our families to post some pictures on every entry:

Coming Home (for real)

We are back in the house. I can not express (hardy har har) how happy we are to be back. We officially moved back in Tuesday (Oct 9th) and have spent the last 5 days unpacking and moving stuff back into the house.

Prior to this (post babies, but pre moving back in), we had moved all of the heavy stuff back into the house. Thanks so much to all of our friends who helped during this time. The construction is still actually not complete and it definitely was not complete two weeks ago when we moved most of the heavy stuff back up into the house, but we had to do something, maybe we didn't, but we had to convince the contractors that we were moving in no matter what. At this point the house is still not fully complete, but it is close enough so we could move back in and we can begin our work.

It is quite disappointing, but Owen and Ava really don't seem to care that we are back in the house, they seem to perfectly happy in Anna's folks apartment, it is a very nice place :-)

All of my friends have told me how time consuming it is having kids, but of course I did not believe it. It is amazing how long it take to do ANYTHING. I don't mean the expected stuff like - actually leaving the house, that does take a long time, but actually doing stuff around the house. It has taken me three days to install a shower rail, two towel holders and robe hook. Now I know that I get distracted, but that is CRAZY, three days is 72 hours, I am guessing that the actual work involved was about 2 hours so my effective work ratio is 2/72 = 2.8%, that is not very good. Hopefully it will get better over time.

Here are a couple of pix of the kids coming home:

Feeding

Let me start by saying, intellectually I knew that infants had to eat, this is pretty obvious. I am sure that someone told me prior to having kids that when they are really little they have to eat something like 8 times a day and I am sure that I thought something like, I eat 8 times a day, that ain't no thing. And maybe even with one baby that would be doable, the issue is with twins it is 16 times per day (at a minimum - look out for when they go through a growth-spirt), so lets say best case each feeding currently take about 30 mins (actually baby holding time, between convincing them that it is time to eat, doing the pre-burp, feeding them some, burping them (this is REALLY important we found out today, much to Ava's outrage :-( ). Doing the math that is 8 feedings per day, times 2 kids, oh! that is the aforementioned 16 feedings, now at 30 min per that is 8 hours! WOW that is a lot of time feeding something (s). I guess that is also bonding time - right?

Now all of this is well and good if the other baby is sleeping or the other 'adult' is around; however if both of these conditions are not meet it is all about triage and for Tracy and I this is happening sometime between 8pm and 1am (for me) and 1am and 7am for her (looks like I should either get-up earlier or stay up later). Which you can imagine is not when we are at our best. Last night I tried to write down what happened during a feed, needless to say that I am now doing this off of memory:

9:35 Start feeding Owen - 2 oz formula
9:36 Owen decides he is not hungry
9:36/ 15 sec some how he has manged to pee out of his diaper
9:37 Change daiaper
9:38 Put owen on bed to put on new onesy
9:39 Owen desides to spit-up on bed, of course i put his head off the protective water super cloth, luckily tracy thought ahead and put an washable blankrt on the bed, over the dry clean only
9:58 Just over 1 oz in owen gets the hick-up poor kid
9:59 Try 'normal' ways to get rid of hick-ups: scare the baby - (that was not a good idea - please don't tell Tracy); drinking upside from a glass (would that work with a bottle? - no is the answer); honey on spoon (I had this vague recollection of honey being fatel to infants so we are going to skip this one. I am out of ideas
10:00 Ian does research on hick-ups:
First off I realized that hicks-ups are actually spelled hiccup (huh)
If you are interested in what I found check it out (http://www.burpingbaby.net/baby_hiccups.htm)
Basically it is normal and they don't mind
10:14 Start again
10:15 Finish 2 oz still hungry, but his sis is fussing now

That is the last thing that I wrote. I have this vague recollection of sitting on the floor with one half burped Owen (who can not hold his head-up) propped up against my leg while I am holding Ava trying to feed her and wanting to ensure that her brother's head does not snap-off. I think that I got everything 'back under control' around midnight.

As bad as I have it Tracy has it worse, she has the added pressure of trying to express (this is such an odd word for this) her milk on top of dealing with the same stuff I have been doing. She is so great - I love her so much!

Feeding Pictures (mostly)
(Just because they are so stinkin' cute)












(Feeding infastructure)












(awe!!)












(Photos courtesy of Conrad who was helping move stuff back into the house, but we needed to feed the kids and the rugby world cup happen to be on)


























































(Talking to Auntie Lisa)

A day in the life (at day 5)

So, what is a day in the life having twins like? I am by no means an expert, but I gotta think that it is more challenging then having one, but it is really great, they are so stinkin' cute. I guess because I have not had the simomelt down, maybe once that happens it will not be that great - who knows.

We have this thing call an activity log, which sounds more interesting then it is. It does not track stuff like went to the park, they smiled at 1:35, they cooed at 1:50, etc... It tracks three very basic things when and how much they eat, when they poo and when they pee. I am writing this at around 8pm, so this is what the past 24 hours have looked like:

9:30pm: Feed Ava 40 mls, change diaper (pee and poo)
9:45pm: Feed Owen 40 mls, change diaper (pee and poo)
midnight: Feed Owen 50 mls, change diaper (pee and poo)
12:15am: Feed Ava 60 mls, change diaper (poo only)
2:00am: Feed Owen 50 mls, change diaper (pee and poo)
4:00am: Feed Ava 40 mls, change diaper (pee and poo)
5:30am: Feed Owen 60 mls, change diaper (pee and poo)
6:30am: Feed Ava 60 mls, change diaper (pee and poo)
9:00am: Feed Owen 20 mls, change diaper (pee only)
9:15am: Feed Ava 20 mls, change diaper (pee only)
11:00am: Feed Ava 40 mls, no diaper change!
11:30am: Feed Owen 60 mls, change diaper (poo only)
2:00pm: Feed Ava 30 mls, change diaper (pee only)
2:30pm: Feed Owen 60 mls, change diaper (poo only)
5:00pm: Feed Owen 60 mls, change diaper (pee and poo)
5:00pm: Feed Ava 60 mls, change diaper (poo only)
7:30pm: Feed Owen 60 mls, change diaper (pee and poo)
8:00pm: Feed Ava 35 mls, no diaper change!

For those who don't know, those time are start times and each one of the them takes about 30 min, on a good go, so you do the math.

Intermingled in there are such glamorous parental activities such as taking a shower, sleeping, eating, etc... There is not a lot of time for getting stuff done. I gotta figure out how to get more time!

So there you go, that is what we are doing now. Sounds pretty great - right?

Today was a pretty big day though, we went to the Pediatrician. I was able to ask him all kinds of great questions like: is it normal for them to poo this much? Is it normal for them not to straighten their arms? Can you tell their IQ my measuring anything? Have you ever seen such cute babies? I noticed that Owen's spine did not feel straight, does he have scoliosis? Ah, don't have to worry about that until they are 9 OK got it, that is good to know.

The appointment was fine, everything seems to check out. They are both gaining weight. She was back up to 4lbs 12 oz and he was back to 5lbs 1oz. I am not actually sure what happened in the Dr. Office, but we were there a long time.

I have to say that Tracy has been such a trooper, after having major surgery she is totally willing to pitch in and do her share. She is an incredible person and clearly lovers these little buggers with everything in her. I think that it causes her physical pain when the babies are crying.

A day in the life (photo's):
(Ian's shift started around 5:30am, this is the sunrise - god I hate mornings)











(although it is the morning, it is pretty)











(Time to find the kids - awe an't they cute?!)











(Time to go to the Dr. this was great, it only took an hour to pack them up!)











(Nice Dr. humoring me - he actually asked if I wanted an action shot, nice guy)












(Tracy doing what Tracy does! Two kids, laundry, paying the bills, you would never know she just had them! Isn't she great and beautiful? OK that is not a question)
















(Ian doing what Ian does :-))











(I am guessing that it will be OK for them to share a crib for a while)

Coming Home

On Oct 4th Tracy's blood pressure was deemed to be under control enough that the Drs were willing to let us go home from the hospital. It is quite amazing really, after 4 days in the hospital the new Clarkson family was going to be left to their devises, success or failure rests solo on Tracy and I - gulp! I in no way mean to diminish the contribution that Owen and Ava are going to make, but they really don't seem to be helping out too much at this point. :) I do find it amazing, there is no instructional manual, no test, no one judging if we are fit or qualified to care for these little people and we are supposed to know what do?!?!

(Tracy making those final arrangements)











(Ava trying to figure out what is going on)











(maybe those preemie cloths would have been a good idea)











(an hour and a half later, we get the family safe in the car)