Waking up from general anesthesia is no fun. Your throat hurts, you are groggy, and you keep slipping in and out of consciousness. Or at least, that is how I reacted. The first words out of my mouth were: "What did we have?" I remember hearing Tim say: "Two beautiful little girls." I smiled, and put my head back on the pillow. The next thing I knew, I was in the room where we would stay for two days.
According to Tim (who probably should be telling this part of the story), some medical personnel had come out of the operating room and told him that the epidural hadn't worked. Due to that, he would not be allowed in the room to witness the extraction. He was furious, but also helpless. The OB, knowing that Tim was a scientist-in-training and very much involved in his wife's pregnancy and well-being, allowed Tim to come into the operating room shortly after he delivered the little ladies: Baby A made her debut at 10:19 am, and Baby B followed shortly thereafter at 10:20 am, January 31, 2002. At that point, the babies were fine. The nurses and fetal specialists had checked them out and took their stats. Baby A needed a bit of oxygen, so Tim made the executive decision to name her Zoe Annabelle, since Zoe means life. By default then, Baby B was Talia Clarice.
Dr. N proceeded to show Tim my uterus, let him look at my ovaries, and pointed out the part of the placenta that had started to deteriorate (with twins, this starts to happen earlier than with a singleton, hence the doctor's call to schedule the C-section at week 38). Even though Tim is not a biologist, he was fascinated and extremely grateful. He still likes to tell this part of the story!
The kids were small, but perfectly fine. Zoe weighed 5 lbs, 8 oz, and Talia weighed 5 lbs, 9 oz. I would have sworn they weighed more than that, but that was good enough! They latched on just fine, and we all went home 2 days after they were born. I had some issues with pain from the C-section, I was a bit overwhelmed with trying to nurse two babies at one time (many a visitor caught a glimpse of my boobs, let me tell you!), and the little amount of sleep I got was very difficult to get used to.
Tim was a trooper and helped out immensely. Thank goodness he was in school: his schedule was so flexible, it really allowed him to cater to the kids' schedule. Tim's mom came out for 3 weeks, which gave me time to sleep when the girls did, and not have to worry about laundry or cooking. My parents (especially my mom) came over quite often to help or babysit. My friend Laura set up meals for us, and since we had two babies, some of the people cooked twice. Between our friends and family, we got through 8 weeks of colic, but we don't remember how. We figured out how to get them to nap well, and together. We put them both on a schedule and helped them to go from breast to bottle and back again without balking.
We put nail polish on one finger nail (red for Zoe, purple for Talia) so we wouldn't mix them up, but when I look back at pictures, it is obvious who is who. These kids were born in the middle of winter, so getting out to Sam's club at 5 weeks was about the highlight of my day. I remember going with Tara that day, dragging two car seats into the store, and thinking that I was in heaven because I had just put some variety in my day! After my six week checkup, I tried running. That was a funny day! I tried again at 8 weeks, but the jelly that was my belly protested. I decided to start out walking, and we'd go from there.
There is so much to tell about bringing up twins, I could probably write a book. Perhaps I will someday. Next time, I'll actually write about the similarities and differences between the girls. Some things are just downright frightening.
According to Tim (who probably should be telling this part of the story), some medical personnel had come out of the operating room and told him that the epidural hadn't worked. Due to that, he would not be allowed in the room to witness the extraction. He was furious, but also helpless. The OB, knowing that Tim was a scientist-in-training and very much involved in his wife's pregnancy and well-being, allowed Tim to come into the operating room shortly after he delivered the little ladies: Baby A made her debut at 10:19 am, and Baby B followed shortly thereafter at 10:20 am, January 31, 2002. At that point, the babies were fine. The nurses and fetal specialists had checked them out and took their stats. Baby A needed a bit of oxygen, so Tim made the executive decision to name her Zoe Annabelle, since Zoe means life. By default then, Baby B was Talia Clarice.
Dr. N proceeded to show Tim my uterus, let him look at my ovaries, and pointed out the part of the placenta that had started to deteriorate (with twins, this starts to happen earlier than with a singleton, hence the doctor's call to schedule the C-section at week 38). Even though Tim is not a biologist, he was fascinated and extremely grateful. He still likes to tell this part of the story!
The kids were small, but perfectly fine. Zoe weighed 5 lbs, 8 oz, and Talia weighed 5 lbs, 9 oz. I would have sworn they weighed more than that, but that was good enough! They latched on just fine, and we all went home 2 days after they were born. I had some issues with pain from the C-section, I was a bit overwhelmed with trying to nurse two babies at one time (many a visitor caught a glimpse of my boobs, let me tell you!), and the little amount of sleep I got was very difficult to get used to.
Tim was a trooper and helped out immensely. Thank goodness he was in school: his schedule was so flexible, it really allowed him to cater to the kids' schedule. Tim's mom came out for 3 weeks, which gave me time to sleep when the girls did, and not have to worry about laundry or cooking. My parents (especially my mom) came over quite often to help or babysit. My friend Laura set up meals for us, and since we had two babies, some of the people cooked twice. Between our friends and family, we got through 8 weeks of colic, but we don't remember how. We figured out how to get them to nap well, and together. We put them both on a schedule and helped them to go from breast to bottle and back again without balking.
We put nail polish on one finger nail (red for Zoe, purple for Talia) so we wouldn't mix them up, but when I look back at pictures, it is obvious who is who. These kids were born in the middle of winter, so getting out to Sam's club at 5 weeks was about the highlight of my day. I remember going with Tara that day, dragging two car seats into the store, and thinking that I was in heaven because I had just put some variety in my day! After my six week checkup, I tried running. That was a funny day! I tried again at 8 weeks, but the jelly that was my belly protested. I decided to start out walking, and we'd go from there.
There is so much to tell about bringing up twins, I could probably write a book. Perhaps I will someday. Next time, I'll actually write about the similarities and differences between the girls. Some things are just downright frightening.
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