The end of my parent's tether

The terrible twosome have made sure that lack of sleep is foremost on our minds. My memory, bad under the best of circumstances, is almost gone. But, despite this, they are adorable.

There are moments when both Claudia and I have looked down at them with a mixture of tiredness, irritation and supreme discontent. When James has refused to settle for two hours, and is threatening to wake his brother with every breath, it is difficult to stop yourself shaking him with frustration. But even at these times (like last night for instance) it is impossible to not fall in love with them.

Claudia needed to go see the doctor yesterday, so the twins got to see their deliverer. They behaved beautifully, just to prove that they can. We even stopped off at Melrose Arch to get a coffee and allow my work colleagues to come and check the little tykes out. Next stop - Vodacom.

Okay, enough with the verbal barrage. You just look here for the update albums anyway ... Cheers.

Week 6

Thomas is home at last

I know, I know - I've been lax in posting photos. Sorry about that. But we have news to report. Young Thomas has joined his younger brother at the home of goodness that is 31 Equity. He marked his appearance with some synchronized screaming from 6 to 10 that same night.

As the saying goes, when he's good, he's very good; but when he's screaming loudly, he's very very loud. Nevertheless we have some good photos to share, and they stretch back to before Thomas came home.

The twins are keeping us awake at night, and we'll need to hire a nurse soon to help out. in the meantime - here you go ...

Visitors, Last few days in hospital, One Month Old & Thomas coming home

Updates, Updates, wherefore art thou Updates?

Sorry to all two of you who read this blog. I haven't been updating it, mainly because I haven't uploaded photos from the camera yet (soon I promise). Also because I haven't slept in a while. James has developed colic, and last night screamed for 3 hours straight between feeds while his stomach was twisting and turning inside him. Poor little boy.

Apart from the night antics, we have done little to warrant an update. Thomas continues to improve slightly each time we see him, but the rate is very slow. He's demand feeding now, and continues to take most of his feed via sucking at the bottle. They have had to tube progressively less and less. When he is taking all his feed consistently, then we can bring him home.

James has blossomed at home, picking up weight at a good pace. When he went for his first inoculations we weighed him, and he is a healthy 2.7 kgs (we were discharged with him at 2.26 kgs). Thomas, by contrast, has slowed. When James was discharged, Thomas read a pleasing (from a purely mathematical symmetry point of view) 2.62. He's now 2.78 kgs. A gain is a gain; but 440 grams (by James) is much more than 160 grams (by Thomas).

We have read that this is common for twins, as they will catch each other up early on, before growing at the same rate. Nature makes up for the differences at birth, bringing them back to the "identical" part of their existence. Ain't it beautiful?

Speaking of which they are still lady killers, and continue (when not screaming blue murder) to make our lives complete. Poor Claudia is dead on her feet, and her mood spirals down at night when Thomas isn't there, and she's acutely aware of it, but it picks up again. We're handling it, and that, at the end of the day, is all that matters.

Rise and Shine Sleepyhead!

James is lucky he's so damn cute. This morning, after a feed at 2 am, and only half way towards his scheduled feed at 6, he decided he was hungry. We're trying to keep it dim during these feeds to instill the idea that night time is sleep time. So I stumbled up and groped my way to the kitchen to boil a kettle.

Having yawned myself to some form of wakefulness, I plopped the bottle of breast milk into a cup of boiling water, and groped my way in the gloom to the bedroom.

It had been suggested that we start a feed, and then do a nappy change, if needed, part way through. So having got him settled, and partially fed, I opened the wrapped blanket to see what was what. This is the point at which sensitive viewers may want to switch channels ...

All down his left leg, through the white baby grow, and glistening like an oil slick in the near black, was a steak of something unmentionable. Guess he needs that change then ...

Since it is winter, changes are something to be done in haste, and are impossible to do quietly. This is an issue because Claudia was passed out in the bed, and in desperate need of sleep. I swore softly but violently, and holding the poor child up on my shoulder to help burp him, I awkwardly laid out the changing mat, and collected the paraphernalia needed, one handed. The yelling has to be heard to be believed. You'd think we were skinning the child, not stripping him. And I'm trying to do it at pace in near pitch black. In the immortal words of Peter Sellers: "That felt good!" (Pink Panther Strikes Again, just after the Inspector has fallen down a stair well)

Well, the story ends with me washing baby clothes at 5, and walking up and down with the little tyke until I had to get ready for work at 7 because he wouldn't go down. Tough work - but I wouldn't change it for the world.

Oh, thankfully I have no pictures of this episode.

Visitors!

Sally phoned me a while ago and berated me for not organizing a visit sooner. To be honest, we had, but with the pregnancy and then the sudden arrival, it somehow fell through the cracks. So we arranged for Sally to visit with Matthew and my mom. The day finally arrived, and yesterday I phoned to make sure of arrangements.

Of course the plans had changed. So, expecting my mom at 9, and the rest at around 11, it was a bit of a shock to get the call this morning saying the whole gang was coming over. This was 8.15 and we were catching up on sleep. A few brilliantly quick showers, some frantic tidying up, and some rapid preparation of bottles later, we were ready to greet our guests. This was handy, as the car had just pulled up outside the gate.

It was a wonderful visit, and really good to see them. Matthew is huge, and looking like a real mix of Driver and Walland. His size is clearly Walland at the moment, and seeing Matthew next to James was unreal - as in I didn't believe it to be real. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the two together to show you all the size difference. But there are some pics nonetheless.

Sally, John, Granny and Matthew

Thomas' first bath

Well, a few days ago we were asked to come in to the neo-natal ICU to give young Thomas his first bath. Thomas took some time to be ready for this big step because of all the tubes, drips and other assorted paraphernalia. It is difficult to immerse a child in water if his head, arms and legs are sprouting tubes and wires. It was a big moment. This was a real sign of how much better he is, and quite a moment. We missed James' first bath, and we were not going to miss Thomas', come hell, high water or eskom load shedding.

It was every bit a special as you might have thought, and was made even more so because they removed the feeding tube for the duration. It is incredible how much difference that makes. Dad got to do the bathing, whilst mom gave encouragement, and took some truly awful pictures. The best of the 50 she took (and almost the only ones that are not blurred beyond imagining) are posted here for you to enjoy. Look at that handsome devil. He did look better with hair, but they shaved it off to put drips in his head. When it grows back - watch out ladies!

First bath for Thomas

Welcome all and sundry

Hi,

Being the internet savvy type I've decided I'm tired of sending out links to new picassa albums every time some new dodgy photos of the twins appear. So instead I'm going to try and keep this up to date with news, views and interviews of the terrible twosome.

Welcome to the wonderful world my boys - your life is being blogged about already ...