We Survived Disneyland

This is what happens when I haven't blogged in awhile. Events build up, I try blogging about it and soon realize there is just way too much to stuff crammed into one blog posting, so I give up altogether and read other people's blogs instead.

Well here is a blog I started back in October..........

We are back from our first "vacation" with the babies. I say vacation with quotations because it was NOT a vacation.....I repeat, not a vacation. I'm almost caught up in laundry. In the last week, I have run probably around 12 loads of laundry, one that included all the clothing Daniel and Alex pooped in during the trip. Yuck!

The babies are 7 months now, they both have two crooked little central incisors, eating solids (well mostly purees and whatever mommy lets them chew), and are in the process of learning to crawl. A handful on a good day.

We went to California for one week. The first four night in Anaheim aka Disneyland and the rest of the week was spent in San Diego where Michael's anaesthesia conference was taking place. We reasoned that staying at the Disney Grand California Hotel was necessary since we have young children and it was just steps away from both the Magic Kingdom and California Adventure. Actually one of the hotel entrances leads right into the California Adventure park!! It was well worth the money for that convenience.

Well I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me backtrack a little first. The trip started off with a very early morning flight out of Vancouver to LAX. With us, we brought 9 checked-in bags, that included playpens, stroller, carseats, and TONS of luggage. The babies did pretty good considering we sat in economy (just kidding....economy was fine). The flight was just over two hours and the babies slept most of the time after eating breakfast. Things seemed to be going well, until we landed in LAX. Alex had pooped his diaper and it leaked all the way up his back. Thank goodness he's been eating solids so the poop wasn't as watery as it could have been. Our first adventure in California involved peeling off a onesie with dried on poop and changing a screaming Alex. I guess it could have been worse?

After the poo fiacsco, which was only a preview of more poo incidents to come, we went to pick up our rental car. After much debating, aka Michael insisitng he would not drive a minivan, we decided on renting a Suburban for the week. Now that is a tank that commands respect. Even with Michael's driving, no one dared to honk him! The babies had to have their lunch meal on the go, meaning taking a bottle and their solids in the car. No worries though, I bought these really cool spoons that has a bulb attached on the handle side that can hold purees. All I needed to do was squeeze the bulb and food would dispense onto the spoon! Yup, just that easy. Daniel loved it because he thinks we feed him too slowly anyway.

Most of our time was spent in the Magic Kingdom, we rode on It's A Small World, Dumbo, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pooh's Adventure, and Mr. Toad's Crazy Drive. I thought that the boys would be scared or completely overwhelmed with the rides but surprisingly, at least one baby would fall asleep.

We bought a ton of souvenirs of course. Our first purchase though, had to be hats for the boys as it was quite sunny and hot AND of course the hats that I bought in the summer did not fit. Let me explain. When I bought their travel clothes in July, I had estimated they would be in the 6-12 month range in October. Boy, was I wrong about their head size. My two 7 month old boys wear toddler sized hats, around the 2T range. Michael always reminds me that it was a good thing that I had a scheduled c-section when I lament over the fact that I never went through labour because of their large head circumferences. If Daniel had not ripped me a new one you-know-where, Alex would have. *shudder*

Back to happier thoughts!! We also went to two hockey games while in California. The Canucks were on a road trip and played the Anaheim Ducks first and then the LA Kings. Michael had two Canuck jerseys customized for the boys and so the whole family would get to wear their jerseys for the games. Unfortunately, the Canucks lost both games but we ended up on the jumbotron at the Staple Center. The boys were just too cute, especially with their matching earmuffs. After the games, I wish I had a pair of earmuffs. My ears rang for days afterwards.

We finally made it back to Vancouver, a little worse for wear, but I'd do it all again............a year from now. That being said, I think we're done for "vacations" this year. As much as I love Hawaii, I love having little boys who sleep well much more.

Upcoming Vacations

This innocently started with Michael making a comment about how he hasn't been on a decent vacation in a long time and suggested we take a holiday with just the two of us to Hawaii. The next thing you know, that comment has snowballed in to me going nuts at Gap Kids, buying swimming gear and summer clothing for the boys to wear when we travel to Hawaii in December.

Honolulu is one of our favourite places to go as we've never been to any other places in Hawaii. It is the perfect combination of the busy city life with the laid-back island beats: Moana Surfrider, Cheesecake Factory, North Shore waves, shrimp trucks, Ala Moana shopping center, MacDonalds that gives out pineapple, sunbathing turtles, Dole Plantation, ABC stores, Icees, Cold Stone Creamery etc......I could go on forever.

I am so very excited to take the boys on their first vacation! I have surprised myself in the research that I've conducted in seeing if a Hawaiian getaway was possible with 9 month olds twins. I'm sure there will be many "firsts" for them on this trip.

Not too long after our Hawaiian getaway, we'll be travelling to Las Vegas in January for an anaesthesia conference that Michael is attending. I'm not too fond of Las Vegas as it comes off more as a smoke-laden party hub, but I still would like to go, since Michael will be going. Let's see how much more I can win on this trip.

Then in March, I'm planning on taking the boys (minus Michael who has to work) to Hong Kong right after their 1st birthday. This all started because Meghan is part of the wedding party of a friend who wants to get married in HK. It works out perfectly as we can each take a kid with us on business class. We'll be staying with my aunt and uncle. I haven't convinced my mom to come with us yet, but she'll probably go since she says I'm very good at persuasion.

That's gonna be a lot of travelling in those few months!! Can't wait!!!

Update: Rather than attending the Las Vegas conference, it looks like Michael really has his heart set on the larger conference taking place in San Diego in October. It also happens to correspond with the away games the Canucks have in LA and Anaheim. It looks like Michael will get his wish to stalk the Canucks while they're on the road. Disneyland here we come!!

Strangers Who Have No Boundaries

It happened again.

A few days ago, my sister and I were in line at Costco when a man approached the massive stroller (with the babies in it of course) to point out something about its turning mechanism to his wife. Seconds later, he actually had the audacity to approach again and this time, take hold of the steering wheel, while my sister had her hands on it, to turn it and show his wife how the wheels works. Of course, this triggered the effect of his wife walking over to comment about how cute the babies are........wtf.

It takes a lot to make me angry and this was one of those moments. Where in his right mind is it ok to touch other people's things, let alone invaid their personal space like that!??!?! Would you ever poke your head in someone's car to do that???? I really regret not actually yelling at him for doing that.

As a first-time mother, especially to twins, I understand there is a fascination about them and they are kinda cute, but some strangers are so clueless and don't realize that it is absolutely inappropriate to try and touch them. A similar situation happened at Walmart, where a fairly scruffy-looking mom and her very dirty daughter (no joke, they looked like the hill-billy people from the Simpsons) came up to oogle and try to paw at the babies. Again, I had to pull the stroller away to hint that they were not to be touched. I'm so leering of people approaching the stroller now. Chinese people are the worst. I can live with the pointing and the "AIYAH!! TWINS AHHH!!!" but no way in hell am I going to let some stranger who is coming from a ethnic group that has one of the dirtiest hygiene practices and manners (again, I can say that because I am Chinese) to paw at my kids. FORGET IT!

I'm not a germaphobe. I know that some exposure to germs and foreign bodies are good for the babies and helps to build their immune systems. Heck, I'll even offer some people the chance to hold the babies (hehe, but once they get home, I will wash their hands) but that doesn't mean that I'm going to let every Tom, Dick, and Harry touch my children. OH and another thing, just because you're old doesn't give you the right to carry them either. It makes it even more of a no-no. What happens if their feeble arms give out and drop one of my babies?

They weigh a good 15lbs now. If you can't carry a sack of potatoes, don't expect me to let you carry my kids.

This is becoming more than just a pet peeve.....am I just being too sensitive?

100 Day Celebration

The boys recently celebrated their 100 days of life.

For the party, we had a dinner at Kirin in Richmond. Rather than the set menu, Michael and I got to design our own menu that included a lot of our favourite Chinese dishes. I know that for the set menu, there is thought put into the meaning of each dish and the esthetics of serving and consuming it, we couldn't be bothered. The dinner was meant to be relaxed, delicious, and did I mention delicious?

The theme of the party was "Two Peas in a Pod". I tried going along with theme as much as possible without going too over the top. Green was the theme colour, we had cupcakes with fondant pea pods, peas in a pod salt and pepper shakers as favours, the seating chart had a green vegetation feel........it was all about the theme. I really had fun planning this. It reminded me of wedding planning which I do enjoy. So for anyone reading this blog and is getting married in the near future. I would love to be your wedding planner for free. I live for it.

The boys were showered with lots of neat gifts and many, many red envelopes (which will help finance their hockey career). They wore their cute Ralph Lauren terry cloth polo outfits and dad wore his polo to match. They also had to wear their lucky gold jewellery. Each had a gold bracelet from Poh Poh and a gold necklace with a tiger symbol (from her friends).

Their great uncle and auntie flew all the way from HK to celebrate with them. I think they enjoyed seeing the babies for the first time. I believe we now have to go to HK and visit them with the boys in March. I haven't been to HK in 21 years. It's due time.

We had a feeling going into the party that both DNA (get it Daniel and Alex = D and A= DNA??? hahaha!!) would be cranky as it would be right around the time of their bedtime routine. And rightly so, they had one melt down after another. Way too much stimulation for one day. That night, after returning home and having a bath, they slept right through until 7am the next day. Two very tired but very much loved babies.

Two days after their celebration, we celebrated Michael's first Father's Day. He got a mug with a picture on it of Daniel and Alex wearing their "My Daddy is #1" onesies and a coupon book with great things like diaper changing exemptions etc.

Different As Day and Night

Although the boys are identical twins, their personalities are are very different. But this isn't what I'm writing about. Their moods are different as well depending on the time of day.

When they returned from the grandparent's house yesterday, they were so cranky and just didn't want to play. All they did was cry, cry, bathe, feed, eat, cry, feed, and finally sleep. I'm still struggling to have them sleep all night, but doesn't matter where now, as long as they sleep. So, last night the boys slept in their swing............and they slept for 7 hours!!!! I had to wake them up to feed them because I was getting a little worried about how long they have been sleeping. I know, what the heck right!??!

This morning after their feed, they were just the sweetest little babies. You would have no idea how crabby they were yesterday night had you seen them this morning. Cooing, smiling, just being these charming babies. Although Daniel had his first projectile spit up all over Meghan. Freaked us both out. We have never seen spit up like that before but he wasn't phased by it. Just spat up and continued to suck on his fist.

Will They Ever Sleep Through The Night?????

Oh my 3 month old boys are exhausting. I'm trying to train them to sleep in their cribs and it is not going well. Not only are they sleeping just a few hours at a time before waking up for a bottle, I am constantly getting up to put the binky that Daniel spat out when he started to doze off back in his mouth. To top it off, I have caught a cold. Last night was rough and I'm ragged tired. The worst part, at their 3am feeds they try to engage you in conversation. It is the freaking cutest thing every and hard to ignore. Getting the babies on a consistent schedule has been so difficult. With different people looking after them during different times of the day, it's hard to know what has been done, how much sleeping or feeding they've been regularly doing. All I can ask is that during the day, they don't take long naps because it will mean Meghan and I will pay for it in the middle of the night if they sleep all day.

So with twins, you get a lot of stares. Most of the time, people are quite courteous. Strangers will make comment about how cute they are, ask if they're twins, and then go about their business. Yesterday was a whole different story. Chinese people are freaks and have no manners (I can say that because I'm Chinese and it's true. Ha!). We went to Yaohan to do a quick grocery run. While I went around gathering provisions, Meghan parked the double stroller in a corner until I finished. Ok, so we did see some people I know, and that's ok if they look at the babies and touch them. But we also attracted some really creepers. One man actually stopped what he was doing to stare and I purposely moved the stroller slightly to say "hey, close your mouth, stop staring, yes they're twins, aka MOVE ON" and what does he do??? He moves with the stroller to continue staring......umm is this the first time he's seen twins!?!? Then he finally asks if they're twins after loooonnnnggg while. If he tried to touch them, I think I would have thrown the strawberries in my hand at his face and asked if he likes complete strangers walking up to him and stroking him with their dirty hands. A sick mother bear is very irritable.

Thank goodness for grandparents who have taken them out of my hands for the day. I'm waiting now for the Actifed to kick in and give me a few hours of solid sleep. FYI, I like blogging. It allows me to vent.

Hair

Did I mention that the babies have already had their first haircut? Yes, they have that much hair. Their great aunt Donna cut their hair in May, just before their first professional photography session. It was getting so long that it was starting to cover their ears. I think they take after me since I was also born with a whole head of thick black hair. Yes! Finally something that resembles moi! Meghan loves to brush and style their hair after their bath. I should remember to document all the different hairstyles she gives them. And she has a name for most of the styles. It's so cute!

We had Laura from Magnolia Photography come and take photos of them so we could display them at their 100 day celebration in two weeks. I can't believe they will be 100 days old soon. Almost time for another round of vaccinations. Yikes!

A Precious Moment

In order for me to survive the overnights, my mom comes over to help. We have a system where each one of us takes a baby and is responsible for that baby throughout the night. My mom sleeps in the nursery with her charge either in the crib or with her in the bed. While I sleep with my baby on the couch. This spoiled baby gets to sleep on top of a soft cushy mass of pillows and blankets.

I just put Daniel back into his cushy bed. Tonight he completely floored me. Usually when they wake in the middle of the night, it involves crying and wailing until a bottle is placed in their mouth. After I got up to heat milk for Daniel, I leaned over to look and see just how awake he was. To my surprise, he was just lying there with his eyes open, trying to look around in the dim light, and had the silliest little smile I had ever seen. No crying, just waiting patiently for his 3am bottle. I almost died of cuteness overload.

How can you not spoil such a sweet baby! Michael and I were discussing how we always wanted one of those Power Wheels cars when we were kids. They are so getting one......maybe two. I can just see them when they're older, driving around the big back yard at their grandma's house. If they're really cute, they may just get the Escalade model that has the built-in boom box! Hehe!!

Babies' First Immunization Shots

I am continually amazed at how quickly my babies are growing. They are now over 2.5 months old and they look so different from when they were newborns. All newborns have a little bit a water retention so they all seem to look the same. They have doubled their birth weights in no time and you can really see what they will look like as little people now. Everyone comments on it and I can see it too, they look like Michael. It's undeniable that they are their father's sons.

Two days ago, we took the boys to the family doctor for their first round of vaccinations. In total each baby got three shots. OUCHIE!! In order to reduce their pain perception, I made grape juice/sugar soothers (like what they had during their circumcision) for them to suck on while they got their shots. Nothing compares to numbing cream.....the soothers did not help at all. When that needle went in, boy, did they ever cry. They cried so hard that at some points they couldn't even vocalize the pain and so they had their mouths open in this painful expression but no sound would came out. Poor lil' babes.

We had the first appointment in the morning to see the family doctor, but for some reason she was 45 mins late coming to work. Not impressed. We'll continue to take the kids to see the pediatrician except for when they need their vaccinations (our pediatrician doesn't give immunizations for some reason).

Alex had a noticeable fever after receiving the shots but we gave both babies Tylenol to help comfort them and to bring down their temperature. They are such good tempered babies. No really fussiness. In general, they don't really cry unless they're hungry or really, really uncomfortable. With babies like these, how can I not have mommy amnesia. The pain from the c-section and recovery is all a distant memory now. I want a baby girl........Michael predicted this would happen even when I was adamant that I would never have another baby and gave him the vasectomy pamphlet.

The day after, they had their first professional photo session with Magnolia Photographics. I think they did pretty well for a 1.5hr photo shoot. I specifically bought the cutest matching RL terry cloth polo onesies for the session. They got to take pictures with their daddy also in his RL polo. Ah, he would have us all in polos if he had his way.

The babies are now with their grandparents, Michael is on-call at Children's Hospital, and I'm gonna take a nap before they come home.

A Trip To The Obstetrician's Office

Normally after 6 weeks after a woman has delivered her baby, she is supposed to visit her Ob to make sure all her lady parts are functioning as they should, especially after a caesarian section.

I finally went in for my check-up....almost 8 weeks after the delivery. For the most part, everything is returning to normal. Then, my Ob says this to me, "I normally don't remember much about the deliveries, but for yours, I remember very well......" What is that supposed to mean?!!?? It is because I had twins? I'm sure she's delivered twins before. Well, it turns out that my ovaries are quite as normal as they should be. When she took a look at them during the delivery, my Ob noticed they were larger and had a lot of cysts on them. She then tells me there is a very good chance that I have polycystic ovarian syndrome. This is an issue with a lot of women who struggle with infertility. Now I ask myself.......how did we conceive so quickly after deciding on having a baby and how on earth did I end up with twins?!!?

Again, God has blessed me tremendously with my two little miracles. When God has a certain direction He wishes for me to take, it's very obvious. I may fight it sometimes but He opens and closes doors that I know are not coincidences. My life could have been very different had God not brought Michael into my life as He did. I remember praying very hard for and wanting something very different from what I have now. In the end, I couldn't be more content than I am now and He knew it all along. Praise God.

My First Mothers Day

This Sunday will be my first Mothers Day as a mother. Every year we go to the UBC golf course Mothers Day brunch with my mom to celebrate and every year my mom gets a potted plant. Now this year will be my turn to also receive recognition for being a mom. Except this year I'm so tired that I'm willing to give up a brunch that I look forward to EVERY year for sleep. Oh sweet, sweet sleep!!

Raising twins, especially 2 month old twins, takes a whole village to do. I have help from my family and Michael's as well. Without them, we'd probably be investigated by family services for the poor quality of care we'd be giving them. I cannot even begin to express how thankful I am that we have all this help. God truly never tasks us with anything that we cannot handle.

What Happens When You're Lacking Sleep

I just put a huge load of baby laundry in the dryer. This load has received the special treatment because it required washing......twice. Why you ask?

Somehow, a diaper (not sure if it was clean or used.....yum) mysteriously made its way into the load. You can imagine my surprise when I pulled out a soggy diaper, swollen to three times its original size and leaking some jelly substance, after the wash was done. This required me to sort through each piece of laundry, shaking off the jelly, before I could wash them again.

Apparently, diapers these days have an absorbent powder under the meshy part that pulls the liquid into the core of the diaper, leaving the baby feeling dryer and helping prevent diaper rash. Well, when this powder gets wet, it also expands into a gelatinous/grainy mass. And when there is a rip in the diaper, like what happened to the fated one in the wash, this gelatinous mass will spill all over the place, clogging washers etc.

All the while, both babies are sleeping soundly, unaware of the chaos around them.

Almost Two Months Old

Wow, time is so precious these days especially when you're sleep deprived. In a few days, the babies will be two months old. Meghan has taken two weeks off work to help us out while Michael is trying to get his sleep schedule back to normal. He is currently sleeping very well after taking half a sleeping pill. I think this is what he would be like if he were drunk. As you may not know, Michael has NEVER been drunk before as he HATES alcohol. Hmm.....I still don't quite understand how we mesh so well together.

Anyway, the babies are almost 10lbs now. They are so heavy! They are entering that age where lots of interesting GI issues may arise. They already have some issues, such as flatulence........and I mean TONS OF STINKY AND LOUD FARTS! Everyone first says how cute they are, until they start tooting away, and that's when the comments about how gassy they are escapes. They also have some very impressive burps that rival their dad's monstrous burps. Spit-up is a common occurrence and they don't seem fazed by it at all. I think they will soon be able to hold their heads up on their own. Both babies are trying very hard to lift up their heads, during tummy time or even when they're being burped.

We recently purchased a swing for them for when they get fussy. It is a lifesaver!! Alex especially likes it and can sit in there for a long period of time just enjoying himself until he falls asleep. Daniel is a little more fussy when he needs comforting. He usually likes to be carried but most of the time he'll feed and then promptly fall asleep without much trouble.

They have both also graduated to being bathed in the sink rather than sitting in the little basin in the sink while the faucet runs. We fill up the whole bathroom sink and let them play in the water. For now, they just seem more interested in peeing in their bath rather than splashing around.

Michael will be returning to work after next week. He will no longer be a house husband. It has been so much fun having him around. I think he will miss staying home tremendously but one of us has to go out bring home the bacon. Plus, he's needs to finish off his residency program.

We had our first fire drill yesterday. Good thing we had just seen the pediatrician a few hours before, so their diaper bag was already packed. I think we got of the building quite quickly. The only problem was the elevator automatically de-activates when the alarm goes off. Meaning, we had to hike it back up to the 9th floor with the babies in their car seats. Fortunately, a very nice neighbour offered to help carry one of the babies up for us since he was going to workout anyways. Let me tell ya......it was exhausting.

Coming Upon One Month

The babies will be one month in a couple of days. It's now almost 5am and Michael and I have again pulled an all-nighter. I'm on the computer blogging, finally, Michael is watching Star Ship Troopers (don't know why he likes that movie so much), and both babies are sleeping on the couch next to him. We have been watching a lot of movies and TV shows (like GLEE!!) to keep us up and out of boredom while we are up all night with the babies. Usually at 8am, Michael's parents come over to take care of the babies while we catch up on some sleep and then my family will take over the afternoon/evening shift. Then the cycle repeats itself all over again the next night/day. Even with all this help, I still feel tired and with the pumping going on at all times of the day, I'm just pooped.

The babies are gaining weight and don't seem like such fragile little things anymore. They are both around 7lbs now. They are starting to show a little personality. Before, when they were awake, all they wanted to do was eat, but now they will eat and actually look around and seem to be curious about their surroundings. Alex has had his first bought of diarrhea, which has his mom acting like a paranoid crazy lady and driving her husband crazy as well. Michael says not to worry and we are monitoring him. We see the pediatrician tomorrow and then off they go on Friday to have their little wieners circumcised. Ouch!

Bath time seems to be more enjoyable for them as well. We have devised a way of bathing them in the bathroom sink with the faucet running which tends to calms them. The shower's usually going full blast with hot water as well to create a sauna-like atmosphere in the bathroom. It's like a baby spa!!

Michael loves taking pictures and videos of them. Doesn't really matter what they're doing, he's usually got the camera ready.

Ok.........finished feeding the babies and I'm now too tired to blog. Signing off for now.

Life As Parents

When other parents say the first few weeks of your baby's life will be a blur, they really mean it. Especially with twins, I find it even harder to keep up and remember all the funny little things that have happened over the last 10 days.

Meghan bought us two Pooh Bear calendars that allow us to keep track of all the "firsts" that the twins will have. That has helped a lot but there are also other moments that I want to remember as well. For example, their "mah mah", grandmother on father's side, just informed me that while changing Daniel's diaper, he peed on his head............twice. Hehe!! Daniel also likes to sleep with both arms behind his head while Alexander will sleep on his side. We don't know how that happens but that's how we usually find them when it's time to wake them up for a feeding.

The hospital stay was not as pleasant as I would have thought it would be. Adjusting to the pain after a c-section and being a first time parent provides a very steep learning curve. Michael has taken up a lot of the responsibilities though. He is the best baby feeder and burper and he's the one who deals with bath time. In those areas, I'm only his assistant. Trying to breastfeed has also been quite a challenge. I'm resolved to pumping as much as I can and that sometimes leaves me feeling like a dairy cow more than a mother.

I do remember laughing a lot during our hospital stay. As new parents, there are a lot of things we tried figuring out as we went along and that usually resulted in some hilarious moments........and then me clutching my incision site, telling Michael to stop making me laugh. I wish I could remember what some of those moments were but they are now just a distant memory, replaced with exhaustion.

I think one of the moments that I will forever cherish the most is sleeping with both babies in my arms while in the hospital. Our room would get quite chilly at night and the babies could not keep themselves warm in their drafty little corner. So usually when they awoke, Michael would feed them and place one baby on each side of me in the crook of my arm. Then we would all get tucked in and snuggly under the blanket. With all the pillows propped up under my arms, there would be no way the babies could roll off or get smooshed in the side of the bed and they would be nice and warm next to me. And if one of the babies woke and started to cry, I could easily rock them back to sleep. Oh they're so precious! I'm so in love with them! =)

My So Called Birthing Experience

We arrived at the hospital a little past 9:00am on March 10, 2010, after getting the call that my C-section could be moved up. We were admitted and brought into the prep area for surgery. That is where they place the IV in you and the anaesthesiologist discusses with you about the spinal. I also saw my attending OB, who had just arrived at the hospital, and we chatted for a bit before she left to find out who would be assisting her on the surgery since there were no residents that day (academic day).

So first off, the IV.......I did freak out again because of the 16 gauge needle, but the nurse did give me a little local anaesthesia before inserting that IV. I also decided it was a great time to curse at Michael for all the pain I was about to be in, because I had missed the chance having not gone into labour. Once the IV was in, I was brought into the OR suite where the anaesthesiologist prepped my back for the spinal. Unfortunately, Michael was not allowed to accompany me into the room for the spinal. The doctor said it was standard procedure. The spinal itself is wasn't very painful. It did brush some nerves as it was getting to that sweet spot and that caused a sharp twang in my spine but it was all good once the numbness started to spread. The best way I can describe the feeling is like when you get freezing for a filling. You can feel movement/pressure etc. but no pain. I didn't even know they had started the procedure once the spinal kicked in. I did have some nausea and a terrible time with the shakes which is common.

Once I was all ready and the curtain was raised, they invite the husband to come in and sit by my head. The pediatrician who is on-call that day introduces himself. He was Michael's PBL tutor once upon a time. Everyone is chatting as the procedure occurs and Michael is talking with his fellow colleagues as it goes quite well. At this time, I'm told they are close to retrieving the first baby. Then all of sudden I heard the first cry and all I could do is cry myself. They quickly rush Daniel to his own observation area and move on to pull out the second baby. My OB did have a chance to lift the second baby over the curtain to show me once he was out........all I remember was seeing a head and then a little face covered in some grey gunk. He did not cry right away like his brother but eventually he did once they got him going.

Once the babies are all cleaned and swaddled they brought them over so I could kiss them and coo. At this point they had stopped crying and were just eagerly looking around at the world. Don't know how much they could see though.

Baby A is Daniel Wong and was born at 10:27am weighing 6 lbs 2oz

Baby B is Alexander Wong and was born at 10:28am weighing 5lbs 6oz.

Michael would go back and forth taking pictures, holding them, and wait for the OB to finish closing me up. The babies are given a clean bill of health and do not require any time in the nursery. Once they finished, I was wheeled into the recovery room with a twin in each arm. At that point, I could finally have something to drink since I was not allowed to drink anything since 3am the night before. They encourage you to try and breast feed quite soon after the delivery, and are actually quite militant about it. The also trumpet this "skin-to-skin" bullcrap a little excessively. Unfortunately, breastfeeding was not happening for me. The babies just would not latch. I think it's because they were so small.

After a little while, I was moved into our own small private room in the Dogwood ward and family was welcome to come and see the babies for the first time.

No labour but the babies are here and most importantly are healthy.

Today's the Big "C" Day!!

I've made it to 37.5 weeks!!! We got a call at 7:30am from the hospital to come in a little earlier because the previous patient had already delivered. So here I am sitting, waiting for Meghan and my mom to arrive at the apartment so we can head off for the c-section.

I have heartburn but I can't have any rootbeer. I can't eat but I'm craving a hit of sugar. The babies are already up and moving around. Maybe they're excited for today.

I won't lie, I'm kinda scared, even though Michael has tried to calm my nerves. The last time I was in the hospital for a procedure was when I was 4 years old so that doesn't really count. I had a meltdown a couple days ago about the IV already. I will try to be brave and keep reminding myself that this is all for the health and safety of my two unborn children. I'm not afraid to meet my maker should anything go wrong. Morbid, I know but it's the truth.

Oh my, I'm gonna be a mom!!

P.S.- Michael discovered our babies will share the same birthday and Chuck Norris and Osama Bin Laden. That's what he gets for cracking all of those jihad jokes.

Adventures In Pregnancy

Today is the first day of my 36th week. I have made it thus far and there seems to be no signs that the babies are considering coming any time soon.

We have had a few minor trips to the hospital for high blood pressure (no pre-eclampsia) and decreased fetal movement (Baby B was just taking an extended nap but apparently at the hospital, they both were "moving around like truckers") but no labour yet. I do have mild, non-painful contractions that are fairly regular but the nurses just call them "tightenings" and are not considered signs of actual labour.

In terms of labour preparations though, my body is changing fairly rapidly for that. The babies have "dropped", meaning they're snuggling closer into my pelvic bone, which also means I have to use the bathroom even more now. My pubic bone is also stretching in preparation for labour and that is probably the most painful of these changes. I don't think my uterus has gotten any bigger though. The space inside the uterus is rapidly getting smaller and when the babies move you can see these great big stretches across my stomach. When I'm sitting and it's very quite, you can actually hear my back crack when the babies kick. It sounds like knuckles being cracked but in my back. And if I thought my feet were swollen before, they are REALLY swollen now. It took me literally almost five minutes to put on my boots by myself a couple of days back.

We have experienced another event that almost rivals the fiasco on Valentine's Day last year. If you don't know what happened, just read my note on Facebook. It involved poo, a clogged toilet, and Michael running away to his call shift. Anyway, so my back was really achy yesterday and I asked Michael to please take me out of misery and give me a back massage to relieve the pain and pressure. Michael does NOT give good massages and he makes no qualms about hiding that fact. He just decided to massage me in a way that he thought would feel good on himself.........big mistake. After awhile, my groans of pain turned to silence because for some reason every time he pushed on this one spot it would trigger a fairly large gag response. I was trying my darn hardest not to gag. Too late, I don't think I've every had to run to the bathroom that quickly, while pregnant, as I did yesterday. His massage sent me to the toilet with projectile vomiting. Everything I had in the last two hours came gushing back up. As you can imagine, Michael is off the hook forever when it comes to giving me back massages.

Michael is officially on his LOA for 6 weeks. He is going around cleaning the house right now since he doesn't want to watch the the Olympic skating exhibition gala on TV right now. I'm going to say that he's doing it to make up for the barfing episode he caused yesterday. Hehe!!

Only two more days before the 2010 Olympics wraps up in Vancouver. I'm going to miss watching the firework display every night on our balcony from LiveCity Yaletown. These Olympic games have been pretty impressive. Unfortunately in my state, I haven't been able to take in any events in person or visit the different houses and sites but Michael has driven me around to look at some of the buildings and he himself has gone out with the camera to capture some of these places for my viewing pleasure. What a good husband!!

Any Day Now......Please???

I've surpassed my mini goal of making it to 32 weeks and having these babies in the year of the Tiger rather than the Ox. Tomorrow will be my 35th week and I'm ready for them to be born. Most singletons will make it to their 40 weeks but for twins, they are usually delivered before the 38th week to avoid health complications due to space restrictions etc. My scheduled c-section is on March 10th (37.5 weeks) but I just cannot wait that long.

I had my bi-weekly ultrasound on Monday and the tech calculated the weights of the babies for me. Are you ready? Baby A is 5lbs 7oz while Baby B is 5lbs 3oz. These are big babies considering that they are only in their 34th week and that they have to share the same placenta. If it were one baby, it would almost be 11lbs!! As you can imagine, I'm ready for them to come out!! My body aches like it never before. I've never really had back pain till now and it's to the point where I'll allow Michael to try and massaging out the pain. If you ever had a Michael massage, you'll know it is not pleasant. Surgical hands, yes, massaging hands, definitely not. Sometimes when Baby B kicks, you can hear my ligaments pop because he's that big. *sigh*

The locum Ob says my mantra should be to keep the buns in the oven till 37 weeks. Clearly she's never had twins before. I don't even know if she has kids. All I can remember is that my regular Ob said if I made it to 34 weeks then that's great for the babies in terms of development.

Michael is also very desperate for them to arrive now also, but for different reasons. He is doing a two week rotation at BC Children's Hospital before the start of his 6 week LOA and it's really taking a toll on him. I think having to see an 8 month old go through open heart surgery is tough enough but knowing that he has two little ones on the way makes it just that much harder. Every night before he sleeps, he'll tell (it's more like beg) the babies to start labour and every morning he drags his feet to work.

For the most part, everything is pretty much ready for the twins to make their debut......oh, except Chinese middle names, but I don't think we're in any hurry for that. The nursery is done. I have most of the essentials like diapers, clothing, etc.

It's time.......any day now.......PLEASE!

Blessed Be Your Name

Blessed be your Name

In the land that is plentiful

Where Your streams of abundance flow

Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name

When I'm found in the desert place

Though I walk through the wilderness

Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name

When the sun's shining down on me

When the world's all as it should be

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name

On the road marked with suffering

Though there's pain in the offering

Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away

You give and take away

My heart will choose to say

Lord, blessed be Your name

- Matt Redman

Funny Feelings

On Saturday, Michael and I attended SPH's Christmas party at the Lawn and Tennis Club. Yes, I'm aware it is January but apparently that's they way it has always gone done. That and a traditional salute to Robbie Burns Day with a bagpipe entrance and some single malt scotch. We missed last year's where someone actually brought in haggis. Can't say that I'm too disappointed.

The club looks much older from the outside, but it's quite nice once you're there. They had an open bar (which I fully took advantage of by ordering my share of Shirley Temples), appetizers while everyone mingled, and a delicious three course dinner that ended with a really nice dessert buffet. I'm impressed that the staff at SPH were so thoughtful to their residences. Michael brought home a mug from Birks. We're gonna see how many he can collect by the end of his residency. But of course, a good party cannot be complete without dancing or a bit of drama. After we were all seated, the MC of the night began with the usual greetings. After a little while, someone from our table noticed one of the guests from the party slumped over in a couch just outside the dinning room. Of course, it didn't take long for the doctors to respond. Apparently he was just very tired, maybe had a little too much to drink, and wanted to go home. This set of a discussion about who you'd rather have around in an emergency, an ER doctor or an anesthesiologist. I had never thought about it and from what I've seen on TV, I assumed an ER doctor would likely be able to handle an uncontrolled situation much more efficiently than an anesthesiologist. But good points were brought up about how an anesthesiologist is trained to secure airways and would likely be able to handle any hemodynamic issues that would arise much better than any ER doctor could......interesting.

I wonder if all the talk about twins, babies, and birthing at the Christmas party has me a little spooked, but lately I've been feeling some uterine tightening. Could these be those Braxton-Hickes contractions that I have read about? They don't last very long and it doesn't happen that often but they are not comfortable. My mini goal is to make it to next week (32 weeks).

I think I'm finally nesting. I want to make sure the house all ready and clean for when the babies arrive. I'm hoping I have about 3 weeks to get everything on my list done. If not, then Michael will have to pick up the slack.

Onto another topic, lately I've had to increase my Diclectin intake as it seems my nausea is returning with a vengeance, especially in the mornings. I could spend a good 15 minutes standing over the toilet trying to control my gag reflex and not vomit because I simply coughed. The Diclectin does leave me quite tired in the afternoons, hence the wonderful nap I had today.

Sorry the grammar has been atrocious lately. Too lazy to proof-read.

Our Growing Babies

I had my 7th ultrasound yesterday and although it was a limited ultrasound, meaning it was ONLY a 1 hour appointment, I learned a lot about how the babies are doing thus far. The ultrasound tech had a hard time getting the measurements today as the babies are bigger and everything seems to be squishing together. For example, one baby is practically sitting on his brother's head. According to all the measurements, both babies are relatively the same size and weigh about 1400g (3.08lbs) each. I'm shocked!! I actually though they would be much smaller but it's so encouraging to know that they are so big already!! Twin A aka Daniel is still breeched, meaning he is still head up, while Twin B aka Henrik has his perfect little head down.

Also, I just received shipment of the cribs. They are here!!! Michael is going to have such fun setting up all the furniture this weekend. Hehe!! We're still waiting on our change table and stroller to arrive from TJ Kids but there's no real hurry for that just yet. Hopefully I can purchase the rest of the necessities this weekend and we'll be more than ready for their arrival.

An Update

Of course, as I'm almost 30 weeks along in the pregnancy, it has been a while since I've seen my feet while standing up. So normally I don't really notice them unless I accidentally run into something that is on the floor, but blocked from my vision because of my gigantic stomach (you'd be surprised how many times that has happened). Yesterday while sitting at the computer, I made a startling discovery about my feet....they are REALLY swollen, to the point where I can leave behind a finger imprint if I push on them. That's how bad the edema is. It's so sad that I know I'll never fit into a size 5.5 shoes again. Meghan has inherited my beautiful collection of designer shoes while I now struggle to fit my feet into a over-sized pair of Uggs.

On a happier note, I believe I had my last visit to the diabetic clinic at BC Womens on Monday. I basically told the endocrinologist that I refuse to take insulin to bring my blood sugar down 0.5mM of what they expect is "ideal". AND I kid you not............he assumed the Mr. Burns hand position and said that there would be "dire consequences to your baby" if I were not to use insulin. At that point, I just had to roll my eyes and remind him AGAIN that I'm having twins and explain to him that I know of the risks involved, and my Ob and I have also discussed the implications of not having tightly controlled blood sugars in length, and we feel comfortable with those risks to myself and the babies. So he said there wasn't any point of my return to the clinic if I don't believe in their beliefs. Yippeee!!!!

The nursery is coming along quite nicely. It's going to be painted on Friday with a very expensive but equally eco-friendly paint. The theme for the nursery has been chosen We're going with the Lambs and Ivy "Jake" motif. Most of the essential furniture like the cribs, change table, car seats etc. have been ordered and will be arriving soon or is already here.

My hospital bag is packed for the most part. It's a little scary to think how soon these babies will be here. I can't wait to meet them!

What Does It Mean?

Another friend, who is around the same time along in her pregnancy, was describing to me one of the vivid dreams that she had and I remember laughing out loud at how funny it was because it seems so silly for that to happen in real life and it was also a little random........but here I am, at 4am, woken up by one of my vivid dreams, and it got me thinking what was probably so funny to me, was actually was pretty scary for her.

Now it has me wondering, what did my dream mean? Why did it upset and scare me to the point where I had to get up and blog about it? Why would I even dream about this subject?

The dream felt so real and it does have to do with real events that have unfolded in this person's life but it's all about her situation. It doesn't have anything to do with me (I'm not even pregnant in my dream) and yet I always get this feeling of helplessness and utter despair when I allow my mind to dwell on it. Maybe because I feel like I have failed her as a friend? Maybe what has happened caught me completely off-guard? Maybe because there seems to be no closure? Maybe I'm still in shock? I'm not sure. All I know is that whenever I dream about this, I usually wake up quite upset, usually to the point where I'll have cried in my sleep and find I have to turn over my now soggy pillow.

The main character for the last two Sunday School classes that I taught have been about Joseph. He too was also a dreamer, who had fantastical and strange dreams, but it got him into trouble early on when he told his brothers about them and they in turn sold him into slavery. Yet throughout his hardships, working as a slave in Egypt, being thrown in jail for a crime he didn't commit, God never forgot about him. He had a plan so great for this young kid that Joseph himself never expected it to come true, although he did dream about it. God also gave Joseph a very special talent to interpret dreams which would be so handy to have at this moment for me.

I'm glad that yesterday was my last time teaching Sunday School for good while. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching those little young ones , challenging myself to help them learn hard concepts like jealousy or temptation, and they are just so cute and too much fun. But being 29 weeks along with two active little boys kicking around in my tummy is hard enough by itself. After the usual Sunday lunch with Meghan and my mom, I was never more glad than to just crawl into bed and take of one of those epic naps where you fall asleep for hours out of pure exhaustion and just sleep. No dreams, just sweet undisturbed rest. It's contagious, I think Michael had every intention of just getting a quick power nap out of it but ended up falling into a deep coma too.

Michael probably assumed right, he thinks I'm anemic because of the pregnancy. I would explain why I'm always so tired, out of breath, and feels like my heart it gonna pound out of my chest. I haven't been able to hold down my iron supplements till the last couple of tries when my Ob suggested I take it with dinner rather than before bed. Let's hope this gives me a little more energy and help supply my little ones with the nutrients they need from mommy.