The Adventures of the Tader Tot's

Monday, January 29, 2007

Marvelous Multiples

Sunday morning we got up to go to our child class. It was called Marvelous Multiples and was held at OSU. The class was great. I think was a better than going to a regular class because they focused just on twins and the nurse leading the class was also a mother of twins. I think it was great that M got to hear from others who had the same fears that she was having. Some of the information was repeated as I have actually been keeping pretty close to the timeline in my Expectant Father book.

We had some good discussion and saw some pretty good videos. It was good to hear exactly what to expect. It always makes me feel good when I have a general understanding of what is supposed to happen. We took a tour of the Hospital, even though we are not delivering at OSU. I would love to but M’s OB delivers at Riverside. We can give the tots the tour someday of all the places that M and I shared in OSU history. You cool bars, parties and hangouts...ok maybe we'll mention classes, libraries, study groups also. They probably won’t care or think we are lame but I will still force them to do it anyway.

We got to tour the NICU, another place I hope to visit and not return. Everyone was very friendly and all the babies were cute. It was reassuring that most of the babies that go there were just to gain weight and develop their lungs. Since M had the steroid shot for the babies they seemed to indicate that was only going to benefit them if they come early. I don’t think they will be coming that early. I am currently predicting between 34 and 36 weeks, in the back of my mind. I would love to see 38 but will settle for healthy and home with us. We then toured the nursery and everyone enjoyed seeing the babies. Everyone said don’t feel bad about them being in the nursery because when you take them home you will have them all the time. Someone please remind me of this when they come because I know I will want them in our room with us. Ultimately it will be up to M and how she is feeling. She is the most important part of this whole thing.

The final part of the class was a panel discussion. It brought back two sets of parents who took the class. They were the best resources as to what to expect and what you need. They had a few questions about their daily routines but I felt that was something your own kids would determine. I do know that I will have to make some time for M and her friends to go out and get out of the house. That seemed to be something they wanted to point out as being important. I know it’s hard to be in the house, let alone with the behbies everyday. So maybe we will have some man days with the tots to give M some free time.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Operation Lockdown

So M’s on bed rest now after meeting with the doctors again. I thought it would be fun for a few days but has managed to get old for me really quickly. I thought she would enjoy it a little as well, but it managed to get old really really quickly. I would be no good with a cabin in the woods because I would have cabin fever in about 48 hours. I need to be active. The first weekend I thought I was going to go insane. I get this restless feeling like I got to get out of here and just to do anything. It’s making me cranky and I can’t figure out why.

The behbies are doing fine. I have been calling them the behbies for a while but not sure I can spell it like it sounds. They have been kicking up a storm lately and the really seem to love it when I rub lotion on M’s belly. Actually any touches on her belly seem to elicit a kick or punch who knows which it actually is.

We worked a little in nursery, on Saturday. We hung the quilt M wanted and got the mattress on the cribs with the new bedding. Starting to come together and everyone was happy to see it taking shape. Well not everyone, some don’t care enough to get up and look. In the words of Forrest Gump,” and that’s all I have to say about that…”

Thursday, January 18, 2007

You guys are nice but I don’t want to be here….

So Tuesday came and went without any troubles. I actually was able to go to a cooking class M had gotten me into at Williams and Sonoma. I was pretty good, some stuff was pretty easy and I really wished the girl leading the demos was not reading the recipe. I would have hoped she would have prepared that a little more. Also, she was using almost triple the amount of oil that the recipes called for. Plus I scored a couple of cook books for $4.99 which are always good in my book.

Wednesday, work, work, work and another trip to the hospital. At least it got me out of work a few minutes early, even though work doesn’t end early. Raced home grabbed M and headed back to the Hospital and it was a false alarm. They hooked up the babies and M again and monitored them for while, ran few tests gave us a parking pass and on the way home we went. At one point the lady asked me how I was holding up and I told her that I thought, “everyone was really nice but I don’t want to be here…”

The nurse was telling how good the babies looked and how well they were staying on the monitor. Previously the nurse had advised us that babies at the age of ours don’t do well on the monitors and they are hard to monitor. Our little guys again loved it. Again treating it like a microphone sound check and beating the crap out of them to make the most noise possible. Now, I am pretty good at spotting when someone is blowing smoke up my rear so I was skeptical. (Not so much of the previous nurse because she was giving more detail about the central nervous system and twin development. If she was lying she was either really full of it or trying to show.) This nurse had the sound a feel of someone who was trying to make M feel better.

So we were in the triage room that has a curtain and no door. It was literally right behind the check in window we had signed in about an hour previously. While waiting on the doctor to come back we could hear her as she called M’s OB. She was telling her how good the babies looked and how well they were doing for their age. That was cool to hear your kids are doing good instead of having them give you that fluff story that drives me nuts. So we went and made another round of phone calls followed by a round of follow up phone calls and hopefully this will be the last scare.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Good News Gets Better

So we had the scare over the weekend. We got home Sunday and we were totally exhausted. I got M situated and resting and I was finally able to lay down for a few minutes and maybe catch some sleep. Well, the downside of being at the Hospitals is notifying everyone that you’re out of the Hospital. So an hour or so after my head hit the pillow the phone rings and people are headed over. I was so pissed, I just wanted to sleep. I just wanted to get rested because Monday was so important to M and the babies. Not to mention 24 season premier and In the Womb: Multiples was on and we were both struggling to keep our eyes open. So the M’s mom left, ok I wasn’t going to say who it was but not that I care now. I just wanted to go to sleep.

Monday, Caitlin and Mike stopped by and was nice visit. They brought us a meal of shells and cheese and some soup. I can’t remember what day we had it but I think it was Wednesday and it was hella good. I don’t normally care for Ricotta cheese but I liked this. I usually avoid it because it doesn’t have any flavor, not in this case. I may have to steal that recipe.

OK, back to M, we headed out to the OB for a scheduled visit. They got the update on M and we had a discussion about the boys. They checked her over and wanted to see what the Peranatalogist had to say before they decided what they wanted to do with M. So off to the other side of the Hospital, me wheeling M the whole way. I think we stopped off for some more Pudding sundaes in the cafeteria. It was hella good also for hospital food.

We got into the see the peranatalogist and filled in the nurse who was going to do the scan on the tots. She was concerned and asked a lot of questions. She checked out M’s cervix and it looked good and the measurement was good as well. She did a few tests and we determined that the resident we saw was not doing anything remotely productive at the hospital over the weekend. I should know I watch ER and Grey’s Anatomy and that should at least qualify me a s a junior doctor or something. Maybe they can give me a merit badge. So she scanned the babies and she even got a face shot of Baby B. If you have been following along, you will know that B is our shy guy.

So she went and gave the doctor our results and he was with another high risk patient. He took a look at the number and said everything looked good and M was free woman, but he wanted us to go back to the OB and let them know. So back across the hospital we went and saw the OB again, she put M on bed rest for the rest of the week until Monday to run more tests. So she was bummed but she got to go to school on Tuesday to tie up loose ends as it was a work day a now students were in the building.

Still doing ok, worried about M a lot and I don’t want her to freak out so much. I am really getting tired of advice. I know everyone is trying to be helpful but I am pretty stubborn. I really work best when I can try something and if it doesn’t work, then I will ask for help. Plus I really hate talking on the phone and lately it has been ringing non stop. I think M’s ear is permanently shaped like a phone because she hasn’t had a break. Hopefully the bed rest passes and her tests all go well and we are back to easy sailing for what the doctor say will be no more than 10 weeks. 10 weeks….holy poop! I got a lot to do…

Monday, January 15, 2007

The leak is fixed….

Man that has to be the under statement of the century. I know I was doing a lot of home improvement projects and had a leak in the connection. So I put on silicon and more and then more and then more and it still leaked a drip of water. I know one drip wasn’t going to be a problem, but man I did everything right and that connection is brand new and should not leak. So back to Lowes for me. I got a mixed lot of washers and went to work. I finally got it fixed and the leak was fixed on Friday night. I told M that I wasn’t doing any home improvements project any time soon and certainly not plumbing. But the leak was fixed…

So we went to bed and woke up Saturday morning at around 3:00 to a different kind of leak. M woke me up and was bleeding. I called the doctor and they called and off to the hospital for the two of us. I was freaking out but so was she and I had to drive. So I really didn’t have time to freak out. I think I even snapped at M that she couldn’t freak out because I had drive.

So we get to the Hospital around 3:30 in the morning and they hook M and babies up to the monitors. I have never been so excited to hear the babies’ heartbeats. I am starting to understand and grasp just how much a parent loves their child. It’s really unbelievable. I sometimes feel like I am a very selfish and want things done mine way, but I would have given anything to these boys without blinking an eye just to know they were ok.

To know that they are ok and M is in a place where even if she wasn’t ok, she would have help. So they monitor the babies for a while and come in to examine M. We get a ultrasound and the boys are kicking like crazy. The heartbeat monitors were turned up so loud that when they kicked or bumped them they sounded like someone was tapping on a microphone. Well that just got them going, our active by A was doing a number on that monitor. It was almost funny.

So after the exam the nurse and resident were asking us some simple questions like do you have names picked out, how’s the nursery, blah blah blah. Telling us we would be there for monitoring for few hours and then they started. They said we would give M the RH shot because of the bleeding and then she would get two steroid shots to help develop the babies lungs, how did you want to deliver and do you want to talk to a Neo-Natalogist about babies born at 28 weeks. At that point M asked them to leave. We were officially freaked out.

So we were up 20 straight hours and M was released on Sunday and put on partial bed rest. Good thing because I don’t know if I can deal with bed pans. Maybe we could get M diapers so I could get some early practice. Either way the leak was fixed. We had several appointments scheduled for Monday and we were hoping for better news…

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

2 Months Late

I have not been really focused on updating this blog and I feel like I should get better. I am sure I have said that in the past but I think with us entering the third trimester things will happen quickly. Work has passed its busy time of the year and I am starting to think a lot about having two babies running around.

So what has happened …well we have been to a lot of Doctor Appointments. The highlight was definitely the 3D scan. It was neat to be able to see the boys in a 3D form. It was the coolest. M and her mom both said bay A looked like me. Not sure I believe that and maybe both of them were on some cold medicine or something. It’s a blurry 3D ultrasound picture, and it could be the mailman’s kid for all we know. Well, if he happened to be at the clinic the same day we did and since the mail doesn’t run on Sunday’s chances are good it’s not.

It’s really been great to feel the babies moving around. It really kind makes every thing feel that much more real. I like that they have times were the rest and then before bed time the get pretty wound up. I try to talk to them and I know now they can hear my voice. I have played some songs for them from my IPOD and so far the bands of choice are Dave Matthews, Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Mayer, Kayne West and Yo-Yo Ma. I know they probably hear the base more than anything, but if they can learn to love Blues guitar I think we are on our way.

M’s been doing good health wise. Recently we she has gotten support hose and a belly brace to keep her going. I really wish her principal and vice principal would be more accommodating. I think they fail to remember sometimes that she carries two babies in there. I know she just got moved from morning bus duty to afternoon and I couldn’t be happier. She had to help the MD unit kids off the bus. I was so worried that one of them would have a bad day and she would get hit in the stomach. I would really like to give them both a piece of my mind but I think it’s probably because I am biased and being extremely protective of M.

Well that’s all I have for now. I will try to fill you in on all the stuff I have been working on, if I can get the damn leak in the kitchen to stop. It’s not a leak as much as it is a drop or two here and there, but it still makes me mad that I can get it to stop. Maybe duct tape…