Milestones

2/20/14: Babies are born! Alexis weighs 2 pounds 4 ounces, Amelia weighs 2 pounds 3 ounces.
2/23/14: Amelia moves from CPAP to nasal cannula
3/2/14: Alexis's IV is removed
3/2/14: Alexis moves from CPAP to nasal cannula
3/3/14: Amelia's IV is removed
3/4/14: Twins meet for the first time when mom gets to hold them both together
3/5/14: Alexis graduates to intermediate care nursery
3/9/14: Amelia moves to intermediate care nursery
3/11/14: Alexis's oxygen is removed
3/17/14: Alexis weighs 3 pounds
3/19/14: Amelia weighs 3 pounds
3/20/14: Amelia's oxygen is removed
3/23/14: Alexis moves out of isolette into open crib
3/24/14: Amelia moves out of isolate into open crib
3/30/14: Both babies weigh 4 pounds
4/8/14: Both babies weaned off caffeine and prolacta (calorie supplement). Both are eating plain breast milk now.
4/10/14: Alexis weighs 5 pounds
4/13/14: Amelia weighs 5 pounds
4/19/14: Alexis's feeding tube is removed
4/21/14: Alexis comes home!
4/25/14: Amelia's feeding tube is removed
4/29/14: Alexis weighs 6 pounds
5/2/14: Amelia weighs 6 pounds
5/2/14: Amelia comes home!

How to tell the twins apart

People always ask us how we tell the girls apart. For the most part, we can easily tell them apart. Amelia is a little smaller, Alexis has a little spot on her eye, Amelia has some distinguishing baby acne, and their hair patterns are a little different.  Plus sometimes they just "look" different, for reasons I haven't really figured out.  But what all of these things have in common is that they are not reliable! Amelia isn't THAT much smaller than Alexis, and both are growing every day. Amelia could catch up any day, and sometimes she might just look fatter. The spot on Alexis's eye (which is from an eye exam) will heal. Amelia's baby acne is already almost gone. In the end, sometimes it's just hard to tell them apart.  We always intended to have them fingerprinted at the hospital, but their birth was not exactly what we planned, so that never happened.

Instead, we have their toenails painted. Just as a backup. If you really aren't sure which baby is which (something that definitely happens at about 2am when you aren't wearing your contact lenses), you can always check the feet. Amelia is pink, Alexis is green.

Amelia's pedicure:

Mikayla meets the twins

Most people that know me know how much I love my little niece Mikayla. If it's possible, I love her as much as my own little ones.  She is so adorable! As much as I love her, Mikayla loves babies. She has for as long as I can remember. That was actually one of her first recognizable words - "beebee!" She has about a million baby dolls and she takes really good care of them.  When I was pregnant, my sister Laura explained to Mikayla that I had babies in my belly. Mikayla calls me "T" (she couldn't pronounce Christina or even Tina, so we settled on T and it stuck). For months, every time I saw Mikayla, she would scream "T! Babies!" and pull up my shirt to point at my belly button.

When the twins were born, we tried to explain that the babies weren't in T's belly anymore, but she wasn't quite getting it and still tried to find them in my belly.  I knew that once she saw the babies she would get it, but the NICU doesn't allow children inside unless they are siblings.  One day though, we brought the babies out to Mikayla in the family room for a proper meeting. She was starstruck and didn't say much.

When we got home, Mikayla was obsessed with holding the babies. She would point at the babies and say "T's babies! Hold!" and then make a rocking motion with her arms. When we finally let her hold Alexis, she was in heaven!

Here's the video and some photos of Mikayla's first time holding baby Alexis:

 

First acting job

Apparently identical twins make great actors. Something about how you can sub in one for the other when they are misbehaving, etc.  Anyway, we have joked around a lot about how we should have the babies act when they are older.  Turns out that first acting job came before they were even due to be born! One of the doctors at Stanford did an educational video about "how to do a proper neurological exam," and used both of our girls as cute baby models.  Since the neurological exam isn't traumatic (just involves things like clapping to make sure they respond to the sound appropriately, etc.), it was super fun to watch. The best part was that they chose our girls because they were "model preemies." At the point they were selected (around 34 weeks), that was music to my ears, because we were still facing some scary problems. Hearing that they are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing was just great. During the actual video, the doctor kept referring to them as "former premature babies now approaching their full gestational age," which was also awesome to hear because they still had weeks and weeks before their due date. Yay babies!

I'll update this post when I get the video that they filmed - they promised me a copy!

Substitute mommy

One of the hardest things about having Alexis home was not having Amelia home.  Before Alexis came home, I was at the hospital basically all day. I woke up around 6, drove to the hospital, and left after boris got there after work around 7pm. Sometimes when I was particularly sleep deprived I didn't leave until more like 10am, but I didn't like doing that because my stupid pump schedule made it really hard to get out the door if you don't do it fast.

Once Alexis was home, I didn't want to take her in the car every day for an hour each way, and also didn't really want to have her in a germ-filled hospital all day, since I would have to take her to the cafeteria, etc. My compromise was to take Alexis every other day, and to take my mom with me so that she could help take care of Alexis while I was there. That obviously was really hard, because it meant I didn't get to see my sweet Amelia every day. It really killed me that I didn't get to see her, and I felt really guilty that she wasn't getting mommy's attention.  Plus the nurses always told me that the reason Alexis was coming home so early was because I was there helping her all day and speeding up her growth, etc. Knowing that, it was hard to leave Amelia behind when it meant she potentially would not do as well without me.  Luckily I have awesome family. My aunt Jean, who lives near Stanford, volunteered to come to Stanford on the days that I couldn't come, to hold baby Amelia.  It was an amazing gift because I didn't feel quite as bad for not visiting. My very pregnant cousin Becca also helped to hold Amelia. When I did come to visit, the nurses told me that Amelia was getting spoiled by all her special visitors.

 

Alexis comes home

A few days before Easter, Alexis got her feeding tube out. So much cuter without that thing on her face! We were obviously super excited, although we were warned that if she doesn't gain weight they might have to stick it back in.  I had been grilling the doctors and nurses about when we might expect to come home, and it seemed like it was going to happen the following week if she behaved herself (although the doctor was still saying we should expect them to come home 1-2 weeks before their due date, which would be way way later…).

Then on Easter Sunday, Boris and I were on our way from Pleasanton to the hospital so that we could see the babies for a few minutes before heading over to Easter brunch with my family.  I got a call from a number I didn't recognize, and it was the weekend nurse at Stanford. The conversation went a little like this:

Nurse: Hi! Alexis is ready to come home!

Me: Cool, really? When?

Nurse: How soon can you get here?

Me: What? You mean today?

Nurse: Yes. Come get her. Now.

Me: What?! But we haven't even done the carseat test yet!

Nurse: Oh, yea. Bring the carseat, we'll do it right before she leaves.

Me: But we didn't even bring the carseat! And it's Easter! And we are already in Palo Alto and we live an hour away! Ack - we aren't ready! 

NP: Hmm. I guess you could pick her up tomorrow.

Me: Okay. Holy shit. Omg.

So we took her home the next day. It was super scary. I sat in the back with her and stared at her the whole way home. Needless to say she never stopped breathing.  Turns out she really likes the car actually (THANK GOD). 

Carseat test right before we left (just to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid when she's sitting at that angle, etc.)

 

Leaving the hospital. No wires!

Home!

 

Bath Time!

The babies got bi-weekly baths at the NICU, but they started out as unpleasant sponge baths. The babies were NOT fans (nor was I). But eventually they were allowed to take REAL baths in real water.  And I got to help! That was probably one of my first really good memory during our time at the NICU. Turns out our babies love the water. It's sooooo cute. No matter how agitated they are before the bath (although usually they are pretty happy), they instantly calm down as soon as they feel the warm water.

The other really fun thing about the baths is that it's the best way to really see how much bigger they get each week. Sometimes it's hard to see their growth when you see them all day every day, but when you strip them down and put them in the tub, you really see a difference in just a few days!

Here are some photos of the first real bath, when the babies were about a month old:

Amelia:

 

Alexis:

Eye Exams

One of the worst parts of the babies' NICU stay was the dreaded eye exam.  Alexis and Amelia started getting weekly eye exams when they were one month old. I had been warned that babies don't really like them, but everyone said it was really the eye drops that they didn't like, and that it didn't hurt them at all. I call bullshit.  There is no way it doesn't hurt! It's such a horrible thing to watch as a parent. For the first eye exam, I was nearby when Amelia was examined, but didn't actually get to see it. Then they moved on to Alexis and I unfortunately did watch. It's like they are torturing your child right in front of you. After it was over, Alexis was crying, and so was I. I think I cried for longer than she did.

During the exam they pry the baby's eye open with a metal spreader (don't know the proper name), then stick a metal rod in the corner of the baby's eye to turn it around. It looks horrible (think Clockwork Orange).  But in the end it's worthwhile. When babies are born prematurely and require oxygen, sometimes the oxygen can cause problems in how the eyes develop.  It's called retinopothy of prematurity (ROP). If it develops it can cause blindness, but it can be corrected if it's caught. So obviously it's worthwhile. But it's hard to remember that when they are making your baby cry :(

Both babies are now in zone 3 - meaning their eyes are almost fully developed, and it's very unlikely they will need surgery. But until they are fully mature, we have to keep doing these damn exams. Ugh.

So that you understand my pain, here are sad and super adorable pictures of the babies post-exam.

Amelia comes home! Twins reunited!

After 71 days at Stanford hospital, Amelia made her great escape today! She joined her "little" (bigger) sister Alexis at home in Pleasanton.  They are now 37 weeks, 5 days adjusted age.  Today also is the 112th day since I was first admitted to the hospital.  Let's just say I'm pretty excited to be rid of the LPCH/Stanford scenery. It really didn't seem so bad when I was basically living in the PICN (intermediate intensive care nursery) for 8-10 hours per day, but now that we are home the thought of going back is horrifying.  Fingers crossed that these babies behave themselves at home!

 

Old home: 

New home: