Relief…(and a photo)

Ahh, it’s amazing how quickly things change. The girls are 3 weeks old now and all the stuff that seemed terrifying and impossible in the first 2 weeks, is now very familiar and tolerable.

During the first 2 weeks we experienced many scares with the girls’ choking issues and times of difficulty with having to wake and feed both of them every 2 hours to help them gain weight. It wasn’t only hard to get a good nights sleep in, but it seemed that every sound that the girls would make would send me in a tizzy. I would get up and have to check on them repeatedly to make sure they were okay. I became so paranoid about Summer’s choking issue that I felt the need to see her every second I could. Which meant MAJOR monitoring.

We do not own baby monitors, instead we installed high tech security camera’s over the girls’ cribs. With these cams we aren’t limited in functionality. First off, 2 of them cost less than some of the 1 cam baby monitors out there. Secondly, they are so cool. We even have a phone app to view the cam. You can move the camera around using the phone app or any computer if you have access to the camera. It is a live streaming video that you can view on phone or comp. It also has audio. So you can hear sound while watching or you can talk back through the cam which has a speaker in it too!! Oh yeah, it also has night vision — infrared. w00t!! The only tricky side to these cams is that you have to be somewhat technologically savvy to install them on your network.  Good thing I married a geek.

We have a small netbook which I can carry around with me throughout the house to keep an eye on the girls, and at night — we plug the netbook into our flat screen tv in the bedroom and watch the monitor on there.

Writing this makes me feel like I’m a little over board, but hell, this is what works for me — We moved one of the cribs into our bedroom, right next to our bed. Now we do not have to go to another room to tend to them. B/c seriously, when you are sleep deprived and have to get up and handle a baby, walking an extra 10 feet can be dangerous.

Even with the crib in our bedroom (both babes share a crib right now) — we have a camera on them and watch it on our tv screen. It’s easier to wake up in the middle of the night when you hear strange noises coming from the crib, and just look up at your tv — check on the girls to see if they are okay and then plop your head back down on your pillow and go to sleep. Instead of getting out of bed just to see that they are fine and dandy and just like to squeak and make other strange noises. And I’m not joking about the weird noises. Summer has been known to *meow* every now and then.

Here is a snapshot I took a few days ago, when I heard the girls making a fuss …

I don’t know how she does it, but Summer (left) always finds a way to kick her sister … Kara, obviously, hates it. Is it bad that I LOOOOVE this photo and it makes me crack up everytime I see it??

I know some people will see this picture and have other comments for us, like … why do we have blankets in the crib and why do we let them share one … with all the risks of SIDs and things like that.

The thing is, the girls cannot sleep WITHOUT a blanket on. They just can’t. Do they like to be swaddled? Not really — I have swaddled them and keep their arms free, b/c they roll onto their sides and sometimes their stomachs (Summer mainly) and need their arms to help push them back over. We now tuck the blankets in to the bottom of the crib by their feet and do not put them up past their chest, also, we leave their arms free and above the covers. We also use sleepsacks instead of blankets sometimes … but the girls are still too small for newborn sizes (and too big for preemie) that I find the sleepsacks more dangerous. I do what works for us, b/c it works … to each their own.

moving on…

We opted out of having their photos taken at the hospital. It really is a rip off, and we could take plenty of pics with our digicam and camera phones that it’s not like we missed out on their ‘first photos’ … Instead, I thought I’d try taking their photos myself, at home.

It was quite an ordeal… let me tell you!!! Oh my. I probably should’ve waited to take them since they both still had their umbilical cords attached and couldn’t hold their heads up for long when on their bellies… oh not to mention since diapers don’t look so great in photos, putting 2 newborns naked on a white blanket … does not make for easy clean up

But I did get some pretty good photos. I’ll post a mediocre one for now, since I want to send out others for their birth announcements.

So here we are now, at 3 weeks of age, and they are amazing. We’ve learned so much about each other and OMGosh… it’s so true what people say. It DOES get easier. We are learning to adjust, and you do what you have to do for your kids, no matter what. You make it happen.

Am I tired? Yes … wait… HELL YES, but I’m surviving. Mostly due to the support of TH. He has been AMAZING … I really can’t ask for more from him since I have been so pleasantly surprised by how much help he’s been. I did not expect it … and well, that’s my bad.

On that note. It’s time for a feeding. Peace out.