Tiny swimmer.

If you pay attention to JT's Facebook page you may know that Audrey has moved up to swimming lessons without a parent in the water. You may also know she cried so hard she puked at her first lesson. Yep. That happened.

We swallowed our embarrassment the day this happened and asked the deck supervisor what we should do. Should we go back to parent and child lessons? Should we try again?

She said, and I quote, "Yes, definitely try again next week! She did great until she threw up. Next week we will just be more mindful so she doesn't puke in the pool."

Umm, OK if THAT was great, what does it look like when things do not go well?!? She may have just been humoring us, but either way we decided to keep trying. We also decided to sit at the opposite end of the pool so Audrey could not see us during her lesson.

Fast forward four weeks to this week. JT dropped Audrey at the side of the pool and she shed approximately two tears. Then she jumped in and participated with gusto. She even wore he goggles the whole class, which up until this week were never on her head for more than 10 seconds and she got a ribbon that said she conquered her fears and had no more tears.

The parents get to come in for the last 5 minutes so the kids can show off what they learned. I was astounded to see that she has actually started to try to swim! Don't get me wrong, she still has a long way to go, but she has started to kick and pull like she is actually trying to get somewhere. Eons better than she was doing in the parent/child class.

This video does not actually capture her kicking and pulling very well but my phone was being a jerk and would not record when she was kicking and pulling. You get the idea.

Way to go tiny swimmer.

The thing about twins...

OK so here's the thing about having twins, they make you into a spectacle. Add a toddler to that pot and you will never again walk through Target without talking to a stranger. Never. Again.

I get it. Look, twins! It is novel. I know. But here is the thing, it is novel to every person we encounter. Every person is thinking the exact same thing as you. It seems at least 1 in 4 will start a conversation.

You may be thinking, jeez is talking to strangers that bad. No, not really. Though if you know JT and me you know we are pretty introverted so talking to strangers is pretty low on our list on things we'd like to do. But it isn't just the talking to them it is the conversation.

For example:

Random shopper: "Oh, my two babies. Are they twins?"

Me: "Yes" (of course they are!)

Random shopper: "Oh I always wanted twins! What are their names?"

Me: "Soren and Kai"

Random shopper: "Oh how cute, where did you get those names?"

Me: "They are Scandinavian like me" (I don't even know you)

Random shopper: "How many weeks were they when they were born? How big were they? Were they in the NICU? Are they identical?"

Me: Answers questions with smile because I am polite. But seriously I don't even KNOW you! I just met you 5 minutes ago. Are you going to ask me if I had a vaginal birth too?

Random shopper: "Are they your first?"

Me: "No, we have a two year old as well."

Random shopper: "Boy or girl?"

Me: "Girl."

Random shopper: "Oh, how perfect. They must keep you very busy!"

Me: "Yes, they do." (So leave me alone so I can finish my shopping)

Somehow I/we escape. Five minutes later random shopper number two. Start from the top...

Right now you are thinking most people cannot possibly ask that many questions. Yes. They can. Yes. They do. The only way we get away with just answering the are they twins questions is if we just keep walking. Seriously.

I totally understand that people are just interested and trying to be nice. But here is the thing, we just want to go somewhere, anywhere without having to have six million conversations with strangers. We refuse to be trapped in our home. We just want to get out and do things as a family. We do not want to be a spectacle. We just want to go about our lives with a normal amount of contact with strangers.

The guy we saw on the patio at Noodles and Company with a giant blue parrot - he wants to be a spectacle. Go ask him 856 questions. Please for the love of all things holy leave the parents with twins alone. Remember how busy we must be...

I can also go without the looks of pity. Yep, I have a kid strapped to my body, a kid in a carseat, and one holding my hand. This is my life. I'm good. I don't need any pity. Help with the door may be nice, pity I can do without.

Pro tip, wearing your babies significantly reduces the amount of attention. Since we have figured this out we only use the stroller if we have to.

The brothers: 2 months.

Well the brothers were two months on the 13th. That means I missed their one month post. Sorry brothers, I am certain this will not be the last time this happens. Twin life.

It's OK though month one is pretty boring. Mostly just eating, sleeping, crying, and pooping. Not a lot to report. They were cute at one month though.

They are a bit more interesting at two months.

 These guys have had personality from day one. Although they look pretty much exactly the same, their personalities could not be more different. This has been true since day one. Soren is very laid back and content. Kai likes to be comfortable and lets you know if he is not. He is a bit more high strung, you may say. That being said, they both are relatively easy babies. JT complains about Kai being so needy on occasion and I remind him that if the baby stops crying when you pick it up, it is not really all that needy. Which brings me to an unfortunate reality of twin life, at least in our house - there is more crying. There just is. We only have so many hands for all of these children. It is just not possible to pick everyone up as soon as they start to get upset. We do the best we can, buddies.

The brothers do seem to know our voices and find them comforting. Sometimes just being able to see or hear JT or me will calm them. This is perhaps due to the lack of hands problem mentioned above, but it is nice to sometimes be able to calm them while tending to another child. 

Sleep. Do I dare discuss this? These guys are good little sleepers so far, at least in my opinion. They typically go to bed right after Audrey at about 8 and eat at about 2 or 3 and then not again until about 5:30 or 6 so I guess that is only once during the night. I go back to bed after 6 am because Audrey doesn't get up until about 8:30 and usually they will go back to sleep until about 9, but 6 is morning for most. The cherry on top is that we pretty much have them consistently napping from about 2-4, which is also when Audrey naps. The holy grail of parenting, all kids sleeping at the same time! I realize I will now eat all of these words and will sleep zero winks tonight, but at leas they get documented credit for good sleep.

Other notable developments include smiling, cooing, growing, and generally interacting with the world. Both brothers have outgrown their newborn clothes and are over 8 pounds. They are also really good at holding up their heads and looking around. Good work little dudes, keep it up!

Oh, and getting sick. Kai has officially had is first ear infection and Soren is also fighting the same cold. They are on the mend. There is no keeping babies healthy with a toddler in the house.

Speaking of the toddler, she still loves her brothers. If she hears them make any noise she says "oh no! Brothers are crying. It's OK brothers." She is pretty sweet. This morning before daycare she was watching Mickey while I nursed Soren. Kai started fussing in the rock and play and she reflexively starting rocking him so he would calm. Didn't even take her eyes off Mickey, she is that good.

We still have a toddler too.

Audrey hasn't gotten much blog love lately. Well, frankly no one has because, twins! But, I am starting to get some consistent naps from the boys so back to the blog, and house work, we go.

Little miss has changed and grown a lot since I last talked about her. In general, she is a ton of fun right now. Of course there are toddler moments, but for the most part she is really fun to play with.

Right now Audrey's favorite things are Doc McStuffins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, her doctor box, blocks, cars, and babies/stuffed animals. Her absolute favorite thing to do, other than watch Doc McStuffins, is to give check ups to everyone and thing in our house. Then she says I have a diagnosis just like the TV show. She even sings the songs from the show. I must say I Doc McStuffins is not one of my favorite kids shows to watch, but watching Audrey pretend she is Doc is pretty fun. Even the brothers get check ups.

Speaking of the brothers Audrey loves her brothers and hates it when they are sad. If one or both are crying she says "Oh, no! I make brothers feel better." Then she runs to them and says "It's OK, settle down, don't be sad" sometimes she even sings to them. It is the sweetest, though she also tried to stomp on one the other day. Toddlers.

That doots is getting real big real fast. She sings the A,B,Cs, though she doesn't understand what they mean but still she memorized the song. Her version goes A, B, C, D, E, F, jeep. She is also into problem solving, thank you Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. After her bath the other day she dropped her towel and said "Oh, dear my cold toodles will help." So we called toodles and asked what would help get her warm a comb, a blanket, or Elmo. She said "A blanket!" Clever lady. For those of you who don't know who toddles is, I envy you.

One of my favorite developments is Audrey acknowledging her feelings. She will say mama my feel sad or mama my sleepy. It is sweet. When she is sad (or mad because she didn't get her way) she puts her head down, frowns, and goes and sits in her room until she feels better. I approve of your method of dealing with these feeling doots, please continue this behavior. 

Little lady is getting real big. She even starts swimming lessons with no parents in the water this week. Here's hoping she thinks it is fun. My money is on scared, but we shall see.

I will leave you with this gem of a conversation her and I had at dinner tonight. JT was at basketball so it was just me, doots, and the brothers.

Audrey: Daddy's downstairs?
Me: No, daddy is at basketball.
Audrey: Mama you go to yoga.
Me: Not tonight sweetie.
Audrey: Why?
Me: Because I can't leave you and brothers here alone, it is illegal.
Audrey: It's OK mama, my be OK at my house.

Did you hear that, she is ready to babysit her brothers. So advanced.

The birth of the brothers.

I did a post about Audrey's birth in case she is interested when she gets older, so I feel like I should do one for the brothers too. Here it is.

Other than the timing of the brothers birth, it was perfect. And even the timing wasn't so bad, but it sure would have been nice if they could have waited two more days to come out.

I woke up to roll over at about 3 am on January 13 and felt a little tug and some wetness. My first thought was crap please don't be my water breaking, I really want to make it to 37 weeks. I was 36 weeks 5 days. I got up and turned on a light to see a big enough wet spot to confirm that my water had indeed broken. Well shoot.

Now we had to decide if we wanted to wait a little bit before going to the hospital. I called our doula and we talked a bit and I decided my gut was saying head to the hospital now. I am a pretty big believer in following my instincts when it comes to birth so we had our plan. We were not even a little bit ready to go though. We had not packed anything or installed the car seats. We hadn't even gotten the car seats out. So, before we left we took our time packing a bag and getting ready to go. We stopped on the way for breakfast, best decision ever. I think we got to the hospital sometime around 5 am or so. By that time regular contractions had started, woo hoo.

Our doula met us at the hospital and we got set to labor. An ultrasound confirmed both babies were still head down, so we were still good to go with our plans for a vaginal birth. We talked with the on call doctor and all got on the same page about our preferences for labor and delivery. I would get an epidural, though I would wait until labor was well established (they really, really, really wanted me to get one just in case) in exchange for immediate skin to skin with both babies and delayed cord clamping. Everything in life is a compromise, birth included.

It just so happened that it was the day that the resident doctors had a lecture in the morning, which means the on call doctor for our practice needed to call the office to send an additional doctor because they always have two doctors at twin births. She said she would try to get our primary doctor who was very familiar with and supportive of our birth plans. Woo hoo again.

By about 2 pm I was starting to feel pretty ready to push some babies out. Turns out I probably should have indicated this sooner, because with twins there is a lot of crap they have to do before you get to actually push the babies out. In large part because the babies are born in the operating room just in case. So by the time everyone was suited up and I got moved to the OR baby A was really ready to come out. And he did come out after a minimal amount of pushing. He was born right onto my chest and I got to spend some good time with him skin to skin before we cut his cord and got ready for baby B.

Both my labors have been the same in that I have contractions 2 to 3 minutes apart the whole time. There is no rest. Well, of course after baby A came out everything slowed way down. So, they broke baby B's water and things started moving again. Everyone said "OK baby B should come real quick now." Well, he should have but he had his arm up by his head so it was hard to push him out. And it hurt a lot. But he did come out 40 minutes after his brother. He was born straight to my stomach because he had a super short cord, he couldn't reach my chest.

Baby A, Kai Vincent.

Baby A, Kai Vincent.

Baby A, Kai Vincent.

Kai and Dad.

Baby B, Soren Edward.

Baby B, Soren Edward.

We achieved our goal brothers, vaginal twin birth!

I got to spend some time with both babies before Kai was taken away to the nursery because he was born before 37 weeks. Apparently policy is that babies born before 37 weeks have to be taken to the nursery an hour after they are born to have some tests done. It sure would have been nice if someone had mentioned that before they were whisking them away, but it all ended up OK.

Their birth truly was everything I wanted. It could not have gone better. We got to have our doctor and she was absolutely wonderful. She even kept some of the extra people out of the delivery room so that is was as calm and peaceful as possible. I am not sure I could have been happier with how the actual birth experience went. I think credit for that goes to JT, our doula, our doctor, and I suppose me. So thank you to all of those people for helping us to have the best birth possible.

Dr. Halvorson actually delivered Audrey as well. And as you may recall her birth also went pretty much exactly as we hoped. Thank you Dr. Halvorson for helping us have wonderful birth experiences for all of our children!

The brothers are here!

Well, the brothers actually got here 3 and a half weeks ago but I have been a bit busy since then. So, here is their introductory post.

Kai Vincent and Soren Edward were born on January, 13th. Their names are Scandinavian like their mama.

Kai is the oldest and was 5 pounds 1 ounce. Soren was born 40 minutes later and was 6 pounds. We will talk more about how far apart they were born when I write a post about their birth.
 

The little stinkers were born at 36 weeks 5 days. 37 weeks is considered full term. I was really, really hoping to make it to that 37 week mark. But alas Kai had different plans. But it was OK both boys were/are healthy and happy.

Life is finally beginning to settle down a bit at this point. But it has been a crazy blur of sleep deprivation and babies.  I apparently am incapable of making babies who come out working, so when we left the hospital we were on a feeding regime that involved nursing, feeding pumped milk, and pumping for each feeding. Which is normal for later pre-term guys like these, but still. So. Much. Work. To top it off Soren did not want to eat as much as the Dr thought he should and was slow to gain weight. So on top of the other stress we had to go to weight checks at the doctor's office several times a week.

Soren, I want you to know this was a hard, HARD time. Mom was a bit of a wreck and dad was equally stressed as he was tasked with trying to get you to eat. Seriously, pretty awful buddy. But mom has some great friends in the breastfeeding community and we were able to get some really good advice and just when the doctor gave us a "he must gain weight by Monday or..." you gained 3 ounces and have not slowed down since. Thanks dude, I'm not sure how much more we could have taken. We know they are still gaining weight well because I weigh them in a pie pan on the kitchen scale a couple times a week. Mom life.

Other than that hiccup the boys are doing great. They both already nurse better than Audrey did at this point so good work there little men.

Audrey is starting to adjust to her brothers. She really likes to help and make them feel better if they are crying, but she also misses being the center of attention. She is adjusting more each day and it is so sweet to see her with them. My sweetest girl.

Doots: the second year.

Audrey turned two about a month and a half ago so I am now, finally getting around to a post about her second year. I did year one as a letter to her so that will be the plan for year two as well.

Dear Audrey,

Your second year has been a great one. You continue to be a happy, healthy child. In fact, most of the time you are easy. This makes me think year three will be a bit more of a challenge, but that is OK. We love you to pieces and know growing up is tough on little girls.

This year was filled with all sorts of fun things. You discovered a love for going to the gym with mom and dad, love your rocking chair, enjoyed lots of time in the snow, decided where you will go to college, had a sick day here and there, found your love for cousins and babas, got a new kitten, continued loving playgrounds, water, and bubbles, rode a camel, went on your first bike ride, and found out you will be a big sister to not one but two brothers. Whew, that is quite a year little lady.

Right now you are a daddy's girl to the extreme. If daddy is around you rarely want anything to do with mom. All things considered, this is probably a good time for you to feel this way as the brothers will be coming very soon. It just makes mommy savor every cuddle and hug that much more!

You amaze your dad and I every single day. You are incredibly verbal and have quite an expansive vocabulary, in fact you pretty much never stop talking. Ever. You can do chunky puzzles and you also are really starting to get into pretend play.

You love to play with your dollhouse and play pretend with your stuffed animals. Giraffe is your favorite "baby." You love to change his diaper, put him down for naps, take him for rides in the stroller, and cuddle him. It. Is. Adorable. My favorite examples are you taking Giraffe to your room putting him down for a nap on the diaper bed, covering him with a blanket, kissing him, and saying "goodnight, I love you." And then closing the door, just like when we put you down for a nap. You also have appeared from your room with Giraffe in your stroller, covered with a blanket saying you are going for a walk and Giraffe needs to stay warm. I just can't even, you melt mommy.

You my dear are a little lady of varied interests. You love to play pretend and care for things but you also are wild for diggers, trains, trucks, and buses. One of your favorite games is "superman" which is you counting to three and jumping off the couch. You also love "fixing" your bike and helping with anything and everything, which includes dishes, painting, and cleaning up. Your favorite shows right now are Doc McStuffins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Sesame Street.

Of course you are not perfect and do have some challenging quirks. You are two so sometimes listening is a challenge. You always want a phone or pod pod which leads to a lot of meltdowns. Sometimes you refuse to get in your car seat without a lot of negotiation, and you never want help until you are ready to ask, and frankly we don't always have time to wait until you are ready to ask because you are also persistent. Sometimes we just need to zip your coat and leave the house now, my darling daughter. Food, of course, is sometimes a battle as well. No two year old understands you have to eat your dinner to get a cookie, but oh my goodness have we had some meltdowns over eating two more bites. You will figure it out someday little lady. Really, what is starting to show up in your personality is a bit of a stubborn streak, unfortunately for you my dear, you get that from mom which means I am just as stubborn. Sorry about your luck.

I cannot wait to see how you are with your little brothers. I know there will be some challenges in adjusting to new siblings, but I think you will be great with them overall. I am so excited to continue to watch you develop and grow miss Audrey. You amaze your dad and me on a weekly basis and we love you to the moon and back.

Happy second year sweet angel baby.