2015 February

whoop whoop

This post is long. The last couple days have been long.

Evie and Liv got their first real cold two Fridays ago. Runny noses, low fevers, lethargic, fussy babies. They just started daycare so I was pretty prepared for them to have colds. It was a rough week. We decided to head to the pediatrician last Friday because they didn’t seem to be getting any better. It sounded like the cold was starting to settle in their chests. I thought I was just being an overly cautious new mom, but the pediatrician surprised me by telling me she suspected whooping cough. Great. The girls were swabbed to find out if it was actually whooping cough or just a bad cold.

Saturday and Sunday the girls stayed pretty much the same but on Sunday night they started to sound a bit wheezy. I called the on-call pediatrician and guess what? She had just gotten the results. Positive for whooping cough. wtf. Since the girls were wheezing she wanted us to take them to the ER.

The ER on a Sunday night of a three day weekend is exactly what you would expect. It was insanely full of coughing kids and vomiting adults. And, for some reason, a lot of people weren’t wearing shoes. On top of this, the measles is going around southern California. Needless to say, the ER was really the last place I wanted to be. Luckily the intake nurse was understanding and let us wait in a little side room. I think this was mainly so we didn’t give people whooping cough, but I was still grateful. We were taken back pretty quickly but things went downhill from there. Though the girls seemed to have relatively minor symptoms, because of the positive test, they were going to be admitted. But there were no beds available in the pediatric wing. We sat in the ER for 14 hours.

I can safely say it was the worst experience of my life . Evie and Liv were sick and uncomfortable and had no real place to sleep. They decided to start IVs on both girls. It took four tries and a NICU nurse to find a vein on Olivia. I thought she was going to burst a blood vessel from screaming so much. The emergency room staff as helpful as they could be, but babies just don’t do well in that kind of environment.

At 10:30, Monday morning, we finally were admitted to the pediatric wing. We were able to feed the girls and they passed out in their little hospital cribs. Eventually we met with the pediatrician on duty and he told us, based on the girls’ symptoms, he doubted they had whooping cough. To say I was frustrated would be an understatement. The main reason we were there was that positive whooping cough test. Rob and I finally decided we needed to get home and get some sleep and take showers. We had been up for 36 hours. We slept for 3, showered, went back.

No change in Evie and Liv, but they were going to keep them overnight for observation. So Rob and I decided to.. just do it. We went home and slept for nine hours. A huge part of me felt guilty for leaving the girls, but a huge part of me felt like.. OMG I JUST SLEPT FOR NINE HOURS. Each of the girls had their own nurse over night so really, they wanted for nothing. It was only mom guilt that had me worried.

This morning we went back and the girls looked great. They had received breathing treatments throughout the night and were breathing well. All of the nurses kept commenting on how healthy and chunky they were. I was like, I know. 13 lbs each, thankyouverymuch. After a few hours of hanging out the new pediatrician arrived and declared them free to go.

So. What now? We are still waiting on the secondary test to determine whether or not they actually had whooping cough. However, since there was a documented positive, everyone in the house has to do a round of antibiotics even though we have all been vaccinated. In itself, that isn’t bad, but getting 6 adults into the doctor during flu season is going to be fun. The girls have now completed a full round of antibiotics and are no longer contagious. We have to follow up with our pediatrician to ensure they continue to get better.

I declare whooping cough weekend over.

Evie, headed to the hospital.

Finally in the pediatric ward, passed out.

Look at that little bruise she got when they were putting her IV in! Grrrr…

This face says, sleep? I don’t even remember what that is like.

13 lbs of solid baby belly.

Hi guys!

Dad needs some sleep too.

Liv is happy! Even with an IV.

Evie learned to roll over on Friday and has declared sleeping on her back to be the worst.

On the way home!

Evelyn & Olivia, Four Months

Man oh man, our babies are four months old. In some ways it seems like it has gone by in the blink of an eye, in other ways it seems time has crawled by ever so slowly.

First, let’s remember this..

Two weeks old, not even five pounds. I thought they were cute then. But looking at them now.. they are cute. But more in a starved sort of way.

So, where are we? They are on either side of 12 lbs. Evie is 11 lbs 13 oz and Liv 12 lbs 6 oz. They smile like crazy and are both just starting to laugh. Sometimes they try to laugh and start choking. It’s adorable and terrifying. They have just started picking up toys and attempting to put them in their mouths. They chew on their hands constantly which means I bathe them constantly. Liv is seriously starting to drool which makes me think teething and then, Dear God no. Evie is very close to rolling over, she gets halfway there and then just stares at me like, how did this happen?

Even though the girls are getting closer in weight, I don’t have any trouble telling them apart. Evie’s head continues to be rounder. She also has a higher pitched cry and laugh. Liv has wider eyes and has a deeper cry. She sounds like she is yelling at you. She’s also more willing to smile at everyone. Evie smiles plenty but she is easily distracted by shiny objects and clocks.

About a week after my last post, we turned the corner and it just.. got easier. Don’t get me wrong, some days it still feels like I am running a marathon in quicksand, but some days are okay, some days are good. Some days I end up covered in poop and I forget to brush my teeth and I don’t eat breakfast. Other days the girls are in great moods and just want to play and see the world. We go to the park and Starbucks and have a damn good time.

Sleep is about what you would expect. Most nights they want to be fed every three hours on the dot. When does that stop? Please stop. Just sleep girls. Sleep. My parents still do the first feed of the morning, without which Rob and I might actually be dead. I am hoping that when we start adding food into their diet they will start sleeping for longer stretches. Pray for me. There is much debate in Momland about when to add in food. Some pediatricians say 4 months is fine but I don’t think they are ready yet. We sit them at the dinner table with us and they watch us eat like we are weirdos. I think I am going to hold off until they show interest or are 6 months… That may change when we have their next checkup at the end of the month. Stay tuned.

Everyone tells you motherhood fundamentally changes you. So far, not the case. Yes, I love Evie and Liv fiercely and they are mine. I miss them when I am not around them and their smiles make me melt. But, I am still me. I still listen to my music too loud and swear too much. I still like pictures of cats and I still like surfing the internet for hours on end, I just have less time to do it.

Rob is still Rob. He still likes video games and going to Target with me. Seeing an engineer be a parent is a truly amazing and hilarious thing. Their brains just work differently. I will never have to worry about building a bicycle or a Barbie Dream House. Amen.

We are still us. Except now we have two tiny humans that complete our family.

And now, what you have all been waiting for…

Bath time is a huge hit in our house. They still take baths with me most of the time. I get peed on regularly. Whatever. (Liv | Evie)

Liv is very sleepy. Look at those cheeks.

Evie rolls and gets stuck here.

Evie is out..

Happy Liv.

Smiley Evie.

Working on tummy time. Look at those blue eyes. I assumed that the girls would have brown eyes because I have brown eyes, but they are still blue as blue.