Cry me a river

It’s a nice Justin Timberlake song. Incase you wanted my opinion.

I think we started the day on a funny note…at 6 AM they were having a grunting contest. They were each taking turns, going for the loudest & longest grunt. Nope, no messy diapers. Just grunting!!

Today, my better half had a tough day. The childrens decided to exercise their first amendment rights to protest. And they did by screaming. Too bad we don’t know what they were protesting.

So, when I got home, me, Unter & Uber went for a walk to a local park. On the way there it was a bit bouncy, poor little Unter was getting jostled a bit since she was in the front. Uber had the more stable back seat, and he’s heavier, so it takes more to jostle him around. When we got to the park it was smooth riding. Until silly papa stopped the stroller to talk to someone (who told him twins is more difficult than ten children, her mom told her), but all was good when papa was rollin’ again.

They slept for most of the ride. Pro’lly ‘cuz they were all tuckered out from protesting all day.

But, on way home, going down the hill, little Unter seemed to have lots of fun. It was like a roller coaster! She’s just like her mommy.

They have different crying styles, my little girl goes for power, does the high pitch screach, and sometimes, it makes the eardrums reverberate. Very powerful.

My son, will sometimes go for distance, will scream until he’s red in the face. It used to seem that he would forget to inhale, but know, he just knows how to exhale for a long time.

So, my daughter has learned a new cry. Three short loud screams.

They cry when they need a diaper change. Which is good, helps keep their little butts clean.

They cry when hungry. Our girl will usually give us warning signs. She’ll fuss for 20 secons. Then root around for food for 15 more seconds. Then a low cry for 5 seconds, then the full on scream.

They cry when they want to be held and walked around. Or sometimes waltzed around. One good thing, I’m getting more opportunities to sing. So hopefully my vocal chops are improving. Still I’m not very good at making up lyrics. And I don’t know if Concrete Blonde songs are age appropriate.

In-laws outlaws

It started off as a wonderful Saturday afternoon; I was taking a little a nice nap with Unter & Uber. Then suddenly, we were woken from our slumber by banging on the front door. I was not happy, rushed to the door and opened to find my niece (K), my nephew (D), and brother-in-law (R) were the culprits of pounding, laughing away. “Babies sleeping!” I hissed, “What are you thinking?!” They turned sullen.

Some things from their visit….

Circumcision

Dear Uber, soon you will be circumcised. Later in life you may wonder why we did this for you. I hope this will prove to be explanation, and also show that we did put some bit of thought into this.

Save the planet

In an effort to help save the planet, and a way to get more exercise into my day, I bought a push mower the other day. And I did this even before watching AlGore’s international SaveThePlanetpalooza. I do find it funner than the electric mower. I really enjoy the sound of it, and it just feels more natural. I have been warned though, by Bitterkat’s better half that if the lawn gets to tall, the push mower won’t work. I witnessed that with the tall weeds in the front yard. So, need to mow the yard on a routine basis. Watching the propaganda from AlGore’s event, I wonder, what more can I do? I recycle, I take the bus to work, my woman is in a vanpool, I don’t water my lawn, I recycle & compost, I even have a push mower now.

I wonder how much AlGore is going to shift the presidential debate dynamic. Currently it seems the debate will be on Iraq and what to do with that cluster mess that we the American people are responsible for. Yes, all of us are responsible for it. Even if we didn’t vote for those that voted/supported/managed the Iraq 2 – the Sadam Smackdown. Why are we culpable you may ask? Well, it’s our government, they work for us. And just as if you are liable if your gardner cuts down your niehbor’s tree, or you are responsible if your teenager crashes your car….we don’t like it, but we gotta pay for the mess.

I have to say, from AlGore’s mega-gig-awareness-raiser,…learned something, Madonna can play guitar! It seems every year she has a new trick up her sleave. Once again, I’m impressed. I really enjoyed the live rocking version of “Ray of Light”…I’m sure you can find a copy of it online to watch. And, I gotta say, Madonna, in a black dress, playing a Gibson Les Paul is sexy.

The other night, I got my niece and nephew to help with yardwork. They did awesome. It started with a “who can pick more dandelions” contest.

it’s been fantastic

…so, the babies were due a few days ago….

Luckily they showed early so we get to spend more time with them
(And thank the good Lord that they are doing well and are healthy, even though they were a month premature.)

I am a bit busy with them. Y’all probably noticed fewer than normal posts.
I am a bit tired, but I don’t mind. It’s the best reason for being tired that I have ever had.

They are doing what they are suppossed to do, poo, pee, sleep, eat, cry, burp.
It’s funny, at this stage in their lives their “wants” and their “needs” are exactly the same. That is saint-like, or zen-like if ya think about it.

Unfortunately, their ability to communicate is not that good. Reminds me of when our good friend TS Eliot said

Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it

I love watching them when they make faces, just going through facial expressions, a new expression every second, that someday they will need…sleepy, angry, curious, BillyIdol,…

I am very happy to be a papa. This has been the best one month and six days of my life.

Part 3 of Birthstory – Post Op

Part 3

Yes…I know I am quickly forgetting this as time marches on.

In the post-op room we got our first note for the family from our good friend IR. (Remember her? She helped transfer all of our stuff.)

Hope everything went great! Can’t wait to meet the “little” ones, and finally find out their names! J Feel free to give me a call any time if you want to share, but it’s OK to enjoy the time by yourselves too. Good luck new parents!

A nurse put both Unter & Uber in my arms and took the first photo of them with their papa. I was still in my scrubs, and smiling big. We got a photo of MBH with the babies on either side of her, and she giving the “thumbs up.”

The nursing staff asked if we had names yet for our little ones. No, we replied, we where waiting for the babies to decide what the wanted. After a bit, we would take a baby, hold them close, and ask them which of the names that they preferred. Either by rolling the eyes, or yawning (if the name was boring),…and what do you know, Unter chose “Unter” and Uber chose “Uber”!

The childrens were given their first baths.

OK, scary stuff. After things had calmed down, everyone checked, photos taken, babies poked, prodded and bathed, most of the nursing staff left. We were left with a single nurse. She was working with little Uber, who still had low blood sugar. This was demonstrated by lifting up his little arm, and it just flopped down when let go. Shit, I thought, because I know someone who works with “floppy babies” of a type of Muscular Dystrophy. They were saying low blood sugar, so that calmed me a bit. And also he was a bit jaundiced (which, I have to admit, I need to look up, because I don’t know enough about it to be concerned), couldn’t maintain a good body temperature, and he was wheezing (the nurses called it “singing”) when he breathed, because he still had fluid in his little lungs. I was holding Unter, watching the nurse work on my boy.

She then took a check on MyBetterHalf. I caught from the corner of my eye, there was a lot of blood on the bed sheets. The nurse called for help, which quickly came, she couldn’t work on a mother and a son at the same time. The cavalry were old pros and set us at ease. They had to press on MBH tummy to help with clots and uterus shrinking, and my wife was moaning in agony.

There was the helplessness feeling. Nothing I could do. Well, I guess I was holding our daughter, and that was important.

(One strange thing, they had a catheter bag for MBH. And she was filling it by the liter.)

By 4am we were in our post-partum room, where we would live from 4am Tuesday morning through about noonish on Friday. I say, it’s funny, but it seems that the babies got out of their mommy a lot quicker than they got out of the hospital. I swear, we told people at 9am we wanted to leave, and I think once we said that, they were like “not my patient anymore” and concentrated their energies on actual patients.

MBH has asked, how come I can swaddle them so well. It is because watched about a dozen nurses swaddle, each one using a different technique, and also, back in the day, I made a lot of burritos and egg rolls.