seriouslystoffel

 

 

Icing makes the ears & nose stick!

 

 

Wrenly just needs to touch...

Harper's being motherly...

My mom's face about this conversation...

 

 

Pig Wrestling

 

 

 

Some of these balloons are still up there.

And because I love you so much, girls, here's a quote selection for each of you from Gilmore Girls:

Rory: How am I supposed to get into Harvard if I have no wilderness skills?

Lorelai: I don’t know, honey. Maybe you’ll have to give up your dream of majoring in Logging.

NOTE: This post was originally written for, and published on, Madison City Moms Blog available here.

A friend of mine recently asked how we survive with twins.

This is a raw look at my emotional journal, and humorous outlook, on life with twins and a tween.
None of this is in any order... like my life.






Actual journal entry from February 2014 - 21 days. 
Its said that it takes 21 days to form a habit.  Tomorrow makes 21 days you will be in the NICU since your birth.  Each morning I wake up to pump milk, shower, start a load of laundry, grab breakfast, pack up and head out to spend precious time with you.  The general routine has formed, but there are details too.  I fill out the same labels (times 2) for each snap bottle of milk no less than 5 times a day, usually more.  I have figured out what foods I can eat walking across the skywalk of the hospital from the parking garage in order to save time so I can get to you faster.  Some mornings I drag though, and I usually feel guilty on those days.  On the drive to you I use the time to call people back that I have ignored the day before.  But, some days, I just don't have it in me to talk.  Instead, I marvel at the height of the snow banks pushed to the sides of the road by over worked plows this never-ending winter.  Funny that it still seems long even though I spent 37 days of December in the warmth of a hospital room.  Perhaps counting hours, days, weeks, and praying for another is long no matter the warmth.









Now that I'm in the room with you, I count minutes that you have gone without a breathing spell, hours 'til your next feeding.  But days and weeks escape me as a measure of time.  I remember the date only because of those milk labels and the NICU sign in sheet.



























I'm forced to think ahead for Kaylie; to know what the next day holds for her - where to go after school, Valentines party, field trip.  I want to think I have given her enough- enough time, attention, praise; but I always know there could be more.  She's done so well at understanding.  We all just want to bring you home so our time can be spent together.

I know you will be in the NICU another 21 days, and maybe more.  I am grateful for each of those days with you, wherever they are spent.  I know I will form many other little habits to get through those days with you, and for you.
Most of all, I know it doesn't take 21 days to form the habit of loving you.  I loved you always.




About .5 % of the time I can do this:








The other 95.5 % of the time looks like this:









There is no time that I can just pick my kid up and run do something.  I pull up in the grocery store parking lot and start honing in on the double carts (IF they exist) like a buzzard circling a carcass.
If you are by yourself, may the force be with you if you have to push the double stroller and the cart.

There are times I have a plate of food in front of me, one twin reaching for it, the other reaching for my nose to pinch so I can't actually breathe if I managed to get food to my mouth.  In that moment, logically I know I won't, but emotionally, I feel I might starve before they go to bed.






Actual journal entry from June 2015: Tonight I got Wrenly out of the tub and sat her on the floor to get Harper out of the tub.  Wrenly pees in floor.  I sit Harper down to put Wrenly back in tub.  Harper hammer palms the pool of pee.  I have pee IN my eyes.  Everyone back in the tub.

Actual journal entries
January 2, 2015: sick, ear infections for twins.
January 3, 2015: Still sick.  Still exhausted.
January 4, 2015: Still sick.  Still exhausted.
January 5, 2015: Still sick.  Still exhausted.
January 6, 2015: Still sick.  Still exhausted.
Twin tip: Always take both in to doctor when one is going. 
They probably both have an ear infection.
Or they both have their 9th ear infection (true story).



When a nurse made a mistake, or did something different from my preferences, I became internally enraged.  When Wrenly wasn't hitting milestones Harper was, I was asking the doctors why and whether she needed more food or oxygen.  I am not a doctor, so I read up on what I could just to have a basic understanding.  I knew I couldn't just stay angry, so I tried to advocate instead.  It really, really helped to have an amazing neighbor who was one of our NICU nurses.  After 109 total hospital days, we brought Wrenly home.  Harper had been released a few weeks earlier and coming to visit Wrenly daily with me. 


Tonight's [sometime in 2015] journal entry: Harper and Wrenly figured out how to turn the radio on.  We all had an impromptu dance party in the living room.  I'd say we are doing more than surviving; we are thriving in this life with twins and a tween.  And for the days we aren't, my journal suggests there is wine or antibiotics.

UPDATE 2017: We moved to Waco, Texas, and bought a modern farmhouse (that gets dirty like any other house of three kids). I visit Magnolia Silos at least twice a month, eat cupcakes, constantly feel like I'm behind at work, still adore my husband, still ponder daily if I'm doing anything right and what I could give the world more of, and what I could do less of.  Life is still full, like my wine glass.

All of the images in this post are by Kortnee of Tumbling Sparrow Photography.