ready

I can actually say I am ready to bring our girls home. I am ready to be at our house with no monitors, no vital checks, no beeps, no missing charlie, etc. I have really cherished my time with just the girls, but I am missing my adorable toddler. I can’t wait to be around him more often and give him the consistency he needs. it has been hard watching him miss me, but not know how to express it. when charlie sees me he starts whining almost like he is sick, but my mom will say that he will talk about how he misses me when I am not there. he doesn’t tell me that, but lately I have been encouraging him to tell me that he misses me and I tell him that I miss him. I am sure he will continue to be a bit whiny once we are home, but I so look forward to putting him to sleep and getting him up in the morning, etc.

 

the girls are champs. they eat great and nursed all day yesterday and did fantastic. they gained weight today, which is actually unexpected when they start going to all breastfeedings versus bottles or tubes. eleanore gained 50 grams and is now at a crazy 2070 grams or 4 lbs 9 ounces (birth weight!). claire gained 10 grams and is at a whopping 2105 grams or 4 lbs 10.3 ounces (almost birth weight!).

 

our sleepover last night went great. bill stayed with me and it took us about 1 hour to feed, burp, change, do vitals, etc (nurse stuff) on both of them. then I would pump and we would crash for about 2 hours. the girls slept well so that wasn’t an issue, but tonight their feedings are a bit more spread out so that could really mess with the timing. after nursing for 24 hours they got their feeding tubes removed and I love seeing them without something sticking to their face!

pete and margit came to visit last night. here is uncle pete meeting claire.

I hesitate putting this picture up because it will give away my secret, but I will. this is the way I have been able to do so many posts, keep up on email, etc…the hands free pumping bra. my lifesaver! I am pumping 8-10 times per day so I have LOTS of time to get stuff done. the even better thing is at the hospital the pump is on wheels so I can wheel it over and take care of the girls. it is quite the sight. if you are a soon to be pumping mom – go get one!

can’t wait to get some pictures of claire and ellie arriving home and in their new room. hopefully when I am home I will have as much time to keep up on our happenings, but only time will tell.

big brother

charlie is a fantastic big brother already. he came to visit after dinner last night. he was so gentle and sweet. he likes to sing “away in a manger” and “twinkle twinkle little star” to the girls.

hugging ellie.

so proud to be “hold hold holding” ellie. we are working on his smile.

a quick picture with claire before he kissed her head and said “all done baby sisters”.

room 3.522

here is where we have been spending our days…

we have had to deal with these monitors…the beeps, the cords. I cannot wait to have them unhooked.

claire’s monitor

ellie’s monitor

me and the girls.

almost there!

the girls are doing awesome. yesterday they each did 5 nursing sessions, which was great. today I am nursing them all day and then staying tonight to get a dose of what a real night at home is going to be like. depending on how they do we could be bringing them home friday! I am both excited and scared. I know they will do fine, but I feel like the transition is happening faster than I thought. after the girls’ last feeding they had to be moved into separate bassinets because at home they are not supposed to be sleeping together. it is sad to not see them wrapped up together. they are napping peacefully and I am off to an OB appointment for my post partum high blood pressure…how annoying!

 

bill kangarooing with the girls a few days ago.

me kangarooing claire.

my schedule

my new normal looks something like this…

pump around the clock. every 2 hours with one 4 hour stretch at night. I am basically trying to make myself into a milk machine. so far it is working and the girls are loving the product. but it is extremely time consuming and every time I look at the clock I think “oh man – I need to pump again!”.  I am sooo glad I bought the hands free pumping bra. it allows me to do emails, posts, etc and move around. when I am at the hospital the pump is on wheels so I will stand by the girls crib and calm them down or talk to them or just stare at them and try to figure out how to tell them apart.

the beginning of my stash in the girls room. so proud!

I spend the majority of my day at the hospital with the girls. I/we (if bill is off) arrive early. then I try to figure out the time that they will be doing some serious sleeping in the crib so I can jet home for to spend some quality time with charlie. then I usually come back to the hospital for the afternoons and go home for dinner and then back to the hospital until late at night. while at the hospital I am holding the girls, working on nursing them when the conditions are perfect, pumping and doing “cares” (ie: diaper changes, baths, etc). at night, bill and I usually each kangaroo one of the girls and enjoy some light naps.

today they each nursed twice and did a great job. I don’t want to push them to switch over their feedings to nursing too quickly because they still get so tired from little things. if we overdo it one day we will backtrack the next. they are great eaters – probably better than charlie when he was born so we are just waiting for them to build up their energy to nurse for every feeding. I could write more and more, but I am done pumping and am off to bed. this time we are getting to just soak up the girls is a special time and while I would love for them to be home I am truly enjoying have such quiet, protected time with just them. I feel like I am really getting to know them and will be much more prepared to bring them home when they are.

 

here is a sweet picture of the girls. eleanore has her arm over claire. ellie likes to sleep with one arm out like this while claire likes to grab hold of her ear.

c little

so with all this talk of the girls I wanted to put up some pictures to show how much fun charlie is having. he has been well taken care of by both tom and laura and my parents (debbie and joel). today, charlie came down to visit the girls and while they were burning time waiting for the right time to visit them he had a full tour of the mayo clinic. complete with time spent checking out a fire truck, police car, ambulance,  riding an escalator and more. here are some pictures of what he has been up to.

building serious duplo houses with g pops.

riding the escalator with nana and then pops.

running around the gonda building. have I mentioned how big I think charlie is since we had ellie and claire?? I swear I thought he grew overnight because I don’t remember his legs feeling so big! he also seems so grown up to me. he has such a gentle spirit and I am trying to soak up little bits of him as I run back and forth from the hospital and home.

a fire truck!!!

can you tell he is having a blast?

I love these girls

so, I don’t make many guest appearances on the blog, but steph asked me to write a post regarding some of our observations on the twinkies.  many readers may be surprised to learn that telling identical twin neonates apart isn’t an easy task.  despite asking each of them to raise a hand when called by name, all I’ve gotten is the occasional grunt/poop – and even then – I’m not sure that the movement came from the girl I was addressing.

 

we’re therefore left to our own powers of discernment when it comes to distinguishing ellie from claire.  although it’s helpful to know that, when bedded, ellie is ALWAYS on the left and claire is ALWAYS on the right, I’d prefer to know my daughters better than that.  steph and I delight in studying each girl closely.  here are some of the features that make claire claire and eleanore eleanore.

 

CLAIRE…

1.  likes to crawl.  I put her on my stomach while kangarooing the other day and she crawled herself up my chest until her head was tucked against my neck.  she then started stroking my chin with her tiny fingers – it was the sweetest thing ever.  and to show that it wasn’t an isolated event, she was fussing last night and wouldn’t calm down until I snuggled her into the same position.  (granted, she started re-fussing after a few minutes and then desatted into the mid 80s for 10 minutes, but I’ll take what I can get!)

2.  has a little extra blubber.  2 ounces may not seem like a lot, but to a micro-preemie, it’s like the difference between walking the runway during parisian fashion week and sporting a merona plus-size skort on page 8 of the sears sunday newspaper insert.  now, let me qualify that a little bit.  my girls are both gorgeous.  if modeling is what they want to do, I’m sure both will end up as supermodel astrophysicists.  claire, however, did benefit from the generous birthweight of 4 lbs 11 oz (when compared to ellie’s trim 4 lbs 9 oz).  she had no problem maintaining her temperature and came out of the isolette quickly.  in fact, claire had enough heat to keep her sister warm as well.  when it looked like ellie wasn’t going to maintain her temperatures out of the isolette, we decided to swaddle her skin-to-skin with claire and she has been over 36.6 C (lower limit of normal) ever since.

 

ELLIE…

1.  got her dad’s narcolepsy.  just like me (and my dad too), ellie has a hard time keeping her eyes open.  when she gets tired and her lids get heavy, she’ll fight tooth and nail to keep her eyes open.  never does she succeed, though, and ends up sporting the same eyebrows-up-wrinkled-forehead-eyes-closed look that I get when I’m “awake” at 2 am reading up on the operation I have scheduled for the following morning.

2.  isn’t bothered by borborygmi.  from about 25 weeks (the time that the hearing apparatus completes development) onward, ellie was vertex and claire was breech.  consequently, ellie’s head was in steph’s pelvis and her little ears were privy to ALL of steph’s bowel movements.  I’m not saying that my wife farts (or even poops, for that matter), but she does have bowels and they do move occasionally.  alternatively, claire’s head was positioned right under steph’s liver/diaphragm and probably didn’t have the same exposure to those rumblings.  because voice resonates in the chest, though, she heard lots of steph’s ramblings.  and believe me, I’m not delusional enough to think that my wife doesn’t talk – she talks a lot… and fast.  anyway, the girls have spent considerable time since birth on our chests (being “kangarooed”) and can hear both growling stomachs and quiet conversation.  while claire isn’t fazed by talking, she jumps whenever my stomach growls.  and ellie startles at even a whisper, but could care less if I rip a loud one.

 

with that, I’ll sign off.  we’ll see if steph lets me blog more in the future.

first bath

on thursday we bathed the girls for the first time. in the level 2 nursery they use a method called “swaddle bathing”. I don’t know why on the post partum floor they don’t teach you to bathe your newborn like this…it is so much better! charlie screamed and screamed for his first baths because he was freezing and wet. the girls basically fell asleep and were relaxed the whole time.

the swaddle bath

me and eleanore kangarooing after bath.

our family of 5

bill and i could not wait until we could get a picture of our entire family together. the level 2 nursery where the girls are staying do have twin rooms, but they were full on wednesday so we had to wait until a room emptied to get to hold our girls together or see them in the same room (talk about emotional!). we were delighted when thursday a room opened up. the girls were moved over to their new room midday and charlie came for a visit. i won't go into the nurse drama that ensued throughout that day, but thanks to one nurse who was willing to pick the girls up together for a quick picture.

ellie and claire together again. it was so sweet to see them checking each other out.

charlie loved meeting his baby sisters.

so excited to be all together!

meet the newest schmitts...

Eleanore Joy & Claire Delores arrived yesterday morning, March 23rd at 9:17 & 9:19, respectively. Ellie weighed 4 lbs 9 ounces and was 17 inches long. Claire weighed 4 lbs 11 ounces and was 17.5 inches long. on the APGAR scale the girls both scored 8 at 1 minute and 9 at 5 minutes.

overall the c-section was pretty smooth. i showed up at 7:30 and the fun started. a million different teams came in to poke, prod, and prep me. i was also convinced by all the warnings that i would probably not survive. my most annoying part was the IV. i am the worst patient when it comes to being connected to IVs, pulse ox, monitors, etc. the cords drive me crazy! my biggest frustration yesterday was my laryngitis. i could not drink any water from midnight on and i was so raspy and coughing non-stop. thankfully, i am married to an ENT doctor so he recommended to the other drs that i be put on a cool mist oxygen mask during the surgery to minimize the cough and it worked perfectly.

they wheeled me into the OR and prepped me for surgery while bill waited. i got my spinal and other drugs and before i knew it the OR was full of people ready to greet our girls. once the surgery started the girls were out really fast. at this point i started to lose a lot of blood (which is totally normal) and got vasodilated after a slug of pitocin, then started to feel like i was going to pass out. i still remember the whole thing, but felt like i was fighting to stay awake and engaged throughout the second half of the surgery (where they put me back together literally). while the girls were coming out the table shakes and moves all over from them pushing and yanking the girls out. it was the weirdest feeling, but i wasn't uncomfortable at all. after they came out i could hear them scream and the OR staff and bill were really wonderful at giving me play by play info about what they were doing (kicking their legs, screaming, etc). i can still remember my surprise when they said "baby a has dark black hair!". i was excited that they might have gotten bill's hair.

right before the surgery started.

eleanore right after coming out. talk about an angry baby!

claire after coming out. both girls were covered in vernix.

meeting ellie for the first time.

meeting claire for the first time.

it was so sweet to see them swaddled up together.

i got to hold the girls together for about 2 seconds before they whisked them away to the level 2 nursery to get their blood sugars up.

missing charlie in this picture.

36 weeks and my new expectations

well – we made it! 36 weeks and counting. I will have the girls tomorrow morning  so they will be 36 and a half weeks! I still can’t believe it. sadly, charlie and I came down with another respiratory illness. we put charlie on antibiotics right away on saturday (the benefit of being married to a MD), but I am not sure it has helped much.  I am hoping I can recover enough to not be coughing non-stop with an incision and over my new little girls, but seeing as how I am still coughing every few minutes I am not too hopeful I will wake up tomorrow back to normal.

 

I had another ob and ultrasound this afternoon and the girls looked great. they are getting so tight inside that the measurements are not that accurate. they estimate them to be around 5 lbs 4+ ozs. bill and I think they will be about 5.5 lbs tomorrow. I can’t wait to hold them tomorrow and while 5+ lbs seems big now (while I have 2 crammed inside of me) I know tomorrow they will seem so small!

here is a picture of me and the girls tonight at 36.5 weeks.

charlie checking out his baby sisters.

I have been thinking that I need to set new expectations for myself now that I will have 3 kids under 2. here are a few that I have been thinking about:

• my kitchen and house will not be constantly clean. there will be dishes in the sink and sticky countertops. you will probably leave with yellow dog hair if you come over.
• I will not write thank you notes within the day that I receive the gift. I am just going to make a list and not look at it or think it is a “to do” of mine. they will get done when I have time.
• when I am able to workout again, I am going to adjust my expectations that a good week of working out is 3 times a week instead of 6-7 days.

these boots were made for walking

lily has a new spring accessory – red boots!

she is an atopic dog (tendency to be allergic to a ton of stuff) and is always licking her paws raw and causing sores, etc. bill and I had enough so we ordered her these boots so if she starts licking a lot we can put them on. once we received them I put them on her and she didn’t move the rest of the night. we had to force her to walk in them and she was acting like such a baby.

here is a clip of us forcing her to walk. I love the high stepping.

yesterday was beautiful outside so when bill got home from work early we decided to take lily on a walk to make her realize she can actually function in her new boots. with all the warm weather a ton of snow had melted and charlie loved jumping in the puddles. it was so cute to see him splash around.

charlie also has learned what fire hydrants are. we have one outside our house and when he started talking about it I told him that we can look at fire hydrants, but we don’t touch them because dogs pee on them and that is gross. since then he has been repeating “fire hydrant dog pee gross!” when looking out the window at them. here is a video clip of charlie telling us about it. I crack up at his hand motion when he talks about dogs peeing.

To Him who is able…

to do immeasurable more than we can ask or imagine…(eph 3:20). as I am nearing the end of this pregnancy, I wanted to reflect on God’s faithfulness to us over this past year.

when bill and I started talking about having kids I always thought it would be fun, exciting, and a bit chaotic to have them close together. I loved having siblings close to me in age and wanted that for our family. after we recovered from the sleepless nights charlie brought, we were delighted to find out we were expecting another baby due in december when charlie would be about 20 months old. perfect – I thought. a month later when we found out we lost the baby we were sad and I was disappointed “our family plans” would be changed. I knew God had a plan for our family, but I was saddened that my vision of having kids really close in age was disappearing (little did I know even having kids 2-4 years apart would be busy, but that is a whole different point).  we were overjoyed when we found out we were expecting again in august and were so grateful to see a little heartbeat at 6 weeks. I had to go back in at 8 weeks to verify my due date and at that appointment we discovered there were TWO little heartbeats. I was in shock – never when imagining our family or thinking about God’s plan for our family did twins enter my mind. we rejoiced with the news. after that appointment, I would lay in bed with my mind racing trying to logistically figure out how our lives were going to function with 2 babies joining us at the same time. I was in awe of how my Lord was giving me the desires of my heart in a way I never expected. at our 10 week ultrasound we learned our girls were at a high risk of developing twin to twin transfusion. it was devastating. we prayed constantly and asked our loving friends and family to pray for a miracle. we knew God had a plan for these girls, but were not sure if it would be the same as we desired. I remember feeling covered in prayer and at peace throughout such a fearful time. at our 12 week ultrasound we learned that the fluid indifference between baby a and baby b was gone. we fell to our knees in prayer amazed at God’s protection over our girls. as the pregnancy ticked by we continued to watch our Lord faithfully answer prayer. the girls have remained transfusion free and have grown shockingly equal this entire time. we prayed for a “full term” (or what a doctors deemed was the best time) pregnancy and I am nearing the 36 week mark on sunday. we prayed for my ability to carry the girls and care for charlie over the pregnancy and I have been able to stay active and keep up with my super active toddler throughout this pregnancy (the hardest weeks were the first 14!). while I do still get nervous about our upcoming delivery of the girls, I continue to reflect on God’s faithfulness and provision for us all. He has these girls in the palm of his hands and has a perfect plan for their lives. we rest in the fact that he has all of our days written in His book of life.

we want to thank our friends and family for praying for our family. our desire is that our family will bring Glory to our Lord and Savior. as I write this the girls are rolling and moving all around and in just 6 days (or less) we get to hold and love on them (I go in wed am for a scheduled c-section). our household will be crazy and my type A personality will have to chill out, but I am more than amazed that we have a God who loves us so much that he cares about the details of our lives. that He is able to do immeasurably more than I could have ever asked or imagined by blessing us with these 2 girls.

charlie happenings

charlie is a busy busy boy. mostly playing cars and demanding those around him to join in the fun. a typical line coming from charlie these days is: “HEY MOM!!!! COME!!!!” even if I am right next to him. the best is when someone besides me is over (like pappy, bill, laura, etc) he sometimes forgets that they are playing with him and will say “HEY MOM!!!” then look up and realize it is pappy and say/scream “HEY PAPPY!!! COME PLAY CARS!!!”. or after he puts the cars or trains in a row or line he will scream “HEY MOM! COME SEE! RIGHT DERE (there)!!!”

we really need to work on his smile. this is the face we get when we ask him to smile.

he is talking up a storm and is putting a ton of words together. he regularly uses 5-7 words in a string and occasionally goes up to 10. tonight when bill was putting him to bed and they were going through his Jesus storybook Bible charlie pointed to Jesus and said “Jesus…God’s own son”. bill was stunned. it is sweet to see him soaking up God’s word and really learning what we are reading and talking to him about.

charlie also loves beesball (baseball). he loves to hit baseballs off his tee - most conveniently after his bath before bedtime to delay bedtime. he makes contact with the ball only about 30% of the time.

action shots.

here is charlie in action.

we broke down

and upgraded to iphone 4s. I was originally going to stick with a basic phone because I didn’t think I really wanted to deal with an iphone, but my friend convinced me that facetime is a great feature for her kids to see their dad every day even when he works late. after thinking about it, I realized I would love to be able to call bill and have him say hi to charlie and have charlie see bill even for just a minute or two. it is heartbreaking to hear charlie say dada home? or miss dada? or hold dada? every night around when bill should be home. so we decided to go for it. why not? we have been spending up the waz lately anyway.

thanks to laura we were able to go to the AT&T store before it closed one night and go out to Pescara, a restaurant we have been wanting to try for awhile.

here we are being lame during our coffee and dessert time taking pictures on our iphones.

I was pretty skeptical that I would even like my iphone. well – I love it. I am going to try to keep my all my calendar and to do list stuff on it and hopefully with the girls coming it will make my life easier. only time will tell.

34 weeks

I can’t believe I am posting about my 34 week appointment! the girls were adorable today. baby a was practicing breathing constantly and sucking all of her fingers really hard. she looked hungry already! baby b was practicing breathing too. it is so sweet to see them preparing for the next step of entering this world. both girls weighed 4 lbs 12 oz! I feel so proud that they both put on about 1 lb from my appointment 2 weeks ago.

baby a sucking her fingers (her face is on the right).

baby b’s profile.

my wonderful friend rachel took some maternity pictures of me this past weekend. thanks for documenting the belly rach!