Queen Bee

Yesterday Molly Maids came to clean our house — a baby-welcoming gift from the Jellyman’s parents (thank you!).  My mother was there when they came.  She took all last week off of work, and half-days this week so that she could help me out.  We ate a dinner I made and froze months ago, but we wouldn’t have needed to.  A church member dropped by with some jambalaya — if we’d known for sure she was coming I wouldn’t have even needed to turn on the oven.

In other words, I’m starting to wonder what it is I do around here.  I make a darn fine milk machine.  Oh, and I folded a couple of pieces of clothing.  And I microwaved some mac and cheese for Raisin’s lunch.  Industry, thy name is Grape.

So, I am starting to wean myself off some of the extra help.  Wish me luck.

Taj Mahal Test Picture

I connected our Flickr account to the Fruit Salad blog. This is a test post to see if it worked.This is a picture of the Taj Mahal from an angle you don’t normally see in pictures. I took it at about 4:30 in the afternoon and I love how the haze and the setting sun give the Taj the radiant look.

The vantage point is from the Agra Fort, a couple of miles away, looking over the mostly dry Yamunna River. Shah Jahan — who built the Taj as a masoleum for his wife — was imprisoned in the fort by his son after a coup. This is the view from the room in which he was held for the remainder of his life.

Sleeping

For those of you that have offered suggestions and support on Raisin’s sleeping issues, thank you.  The day after I put up the original post about Raisin’s sleeping issues, Grape realized for herself that we could not continue as we have been.  Time is short in the Fruit Salad household as it is and there just isn’t the time to be spent waiting for Raisin to go to sleep.

With that in mind, we decided to try again to get her to go to sleep on her own.  Pajamas, teeth brushing, a couple stories, prayer and lights off.  So far, she’s only gotten out of bed once (it was a reasonable request for a warmer blanket) and has fallen off to sleep herself with a minimum of fuss.  No yelling, limited crying, little angst on anyone’s  part.

So far, so good.  I think we may have turned the corner on the sleeping issues.  Even naps in her own bed are going better than they have in the past.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Achilles Heel

I think I have found my Achilles Heel. My internal stress level always goes up when more than two people are talking at once. This is especially true when both speakers expect my attention.

Yesterday evening, I was trying to say something to Grape and I could barely hear myself think (let alone speak) with two crying newborns, a whining sad toddler, a ringing phone and a timer on the oven going off.

STOP THE MADNESS!

I know this about myself, so I know that I need to just relax and take a deep breath. But it’s hard — much harder — now when you’ve got three children who expect their needs to be met sooner, rather than later.

I don’t mind reading bedtime stories to Raisin. I look forward to reading to her when she’s older and can handle a longer story. But it’s the time after I turn her light off, before she drifts to sleep that tries my patience more than anything. The routine generally involves Grape or me sitting in the rocking chair in the dark while Raisin settles herself down. There can be no distractions — so reading to yourself with a flashlight doesn’t work.

If you leave before she is completely asleep, she gets so upset that you just about have to start over with the routine from the beginning. It often takes 30-40 minutes of this every night before it’s safe to leave. Now, with the twins, if one of them cries out from the other room, Raisin asks “What happened?” and gets distracted from the task at hand.

We’ve tried just closing her door and letting her try to go to sleep by herself, but that makes her mad and she doesn’t stay in bed. We would put her back into bed and leave again, repeatedly. But it took the same amount of time and just put everyone on edge.

I don’t want to have to fight with Raisin, but I also don’t want to have to sit with her in silence for 40 minutes every night pleading with her to go to sleep.

Things Are Good

I am completely out of touch in the blogging world, and I miss you all. Someday I hope to at least check in with all my blog obsessions, but today is not that day.

I did want to take a minute to thank you all for your kind comments and good wishes, and to say that we are all doing well.

Apple and Orange, though slightly jaundiced the first week, are now eating like champs and hopefully growing accordingly. Raisin is adjusting better than I expected. So am I, when it comes down to it.

I sense the possibility in myself to lose it if I look too far ahead, but so far I have managed not to do that. We are taking things one day at a time, and it’s working. I can’t ask for more than that.

Oh, and also? Having twins is SOOOOO much better than being pregnant with twins. Who knew?

Awkward Blessings

Background: Grape’s sister-in-law has a friend from high school who had twins that were born at the same hospital ours were.  Except that they were born in July — three months early.

As we’re loading our twins into the van, the nurse that’s “helping” us, is yelling to all her co-workers to look at our beautiful twins and generally carrying on to make us the center of attention.  At that point, a woman came up to Grape and asked if she was Dan’s sister.  Grape replied that she was and the woman said wistfully, “Oh, I had twins too, but they’re still in the hospital.  Congratulations, I hope mine can go home someday too.”  This was the friend of Grape’s SIL.  Grape and I talked about it afterward and we both felt so sad for her.

She is not from our community, so she has no family in town, she is staying at the local Ronald McDonald House while her husband is at home (2 to 2-1/2 hours away) working.  He’s only able to come up on weekends.

At the same time, we’re in our own home after spending less than 72 hours in the hospital.  We haven’t fixed a meal for ourselves yet and probably won’t have to for another week.  The volunteer coordinator at church is going like gangbusters lining stuff up for us. We have offers coming out of the woodwork to help us or take the kids so we can get out or something.

I don’t think I can count all the ways we’ve been blessed. We’re grateful for all of it, even when we’re too tired or distracted to acknowledge it properly.

All things Twins

The Minnesota Twins are 1 game behind Detroit for the AL Central title. The Twins are 26-5 when Johan Santana pitches. Oh, that’s not what you’re really here for?

Our twins are home, we got home on Tuesday afternoon and have spent the time sleeping, eating or ferrying back and forth from the clinic. We’re adjusting to the sleep deprivation; although Apple and Orange seem to sleep on roughly the same schedule and for about 2-1/2 to 3 hours at a time. We’ve been back to the clinic twice now because their bilirubin levels were slightly elevated when they came home, went up a point on Wednesday and went up again on Thursday. On Thursday, the doctor thought the looked ok and wasn’t too concerned. Their levels are just over 14. Wednesday’s doctor said they don’t actually get too worried unless the levels get to 17. They’ll be checked again today by the home health nurse that the hospital arranged for us.

They both seem to have innate personalities. Apple (the boy) seems to be low-key… his needs generally consist of food, a clean diaper and clothes. Orange needs those plus extra cuddling.

We’ve had to start supplementing with formula because there just doesn’t seem to be enough milk to go around. Apple seems to actually prefer the bottle, seems more successful at getting food from it than his other source.

Raisin seems to be taking all of this in stride. She wants to be helpful and has parlayed that into a new ability to fetch various items on command from around the house. She gets very concerned when the babies cry and wants to know what mommy plans to do about that.

I go back to work on Monday and Grape’s mom will be around to help throughout the day. I’m not super thrilled about going back to work, there’s much more interesting stuff going on around here. Not to mention stuff that needs to be done.

EXTRA! EXTRA! They’re Here!

Orange and Apple arrived yesterday in good form.  Mom and babies are doing well.

Orange
Born: Sunday, September 10, 2006 at 3:35pm
Weight: 5 lbs, 10 oz
Length: 18.75 inches

Apple
Born: Sunday, September 10, 2006 at 3:42pm
Weight: 5 lbs, 6 oz
Length: 19 inches

Despite all the doctors on-hand from the NICU, so far we have not needed their services for anything other than the initial delivery.

Check out Flickr for some early pictures.  Orange is in pictures 1-4 and Apple is 5-16

A Mother’s Love

Raisin, I hope you never have reason to doubt how much I love you.  In case you ever are uncertain, however, I offer the following as proof of my devotion.

Today is laundry day, and I have very few clothes left that adequately cover The Belly.  So I am clad in an oversized t-shirt that once suffered an unfortunate encounter with some bathroom cleanser containing bleach.  The only pants I could find are a pair of your dad’s old pajama pants.  In my non-pregnant state, these are extremely comfy lounging pants.  Today, I keep hiking them up because the waist where they usually ride is currently non-existent.

I managed to shower and (sort of) style my hair, but I never quite got around to makeup or to putting in my contacts.  Also, my feet are so swollen that only my pseudo-Birkenstocks from college still fit.  But it’s cold out, so I have committed the cardinal socks-and-sandals sin.

Despite all this, you and I dared to go out in public.  We both needed haircuts.  In and out, I thought — no extra stops.  The second we pull into the minimall parking lot, though, you speak up, “Firefighters!  Firefighters!”

Sure enough, parked near the children’s store was a fire rig.  With two young, hottie firemen, just like Beth’s.  And even though it meant that I had to waddle across the parking lot, feeling about the least attractive I have ever felt, I took you to see the firefighters.

And you, my darling, clammed up completely and acted as though seeing firefighters was the last thing you had ever wanted to do in your life.  So I had to make small talk with the hottie firemen, turn around, and hobble back to our sexy minivan.  I’m sure they didn’t believe me at all when I said you had begged to come see them.

The second we were out of their earshot, you regained your tongue and started being all cute again, “I a firefighter!  My firefighter hat!” (they gave you a plastic helmet).

Anyway, I just want to go on on the record and say that I did it all for you, and I would do it again.  Also, if there’s ever a fire in our house, I’m hiding at the neighbors.

Simple Request

You know what it is?  They’re waiting for Monday.  I said, “Any day but September 11.” 

I’m sure I don’t know where they get such defiant attitudes.  Must be their dad.