Settling In

From the Twin-Daddy:

The Move and the Coveted Super-Dan

Have a Tesla Roadster? Need a friend?

Life is calming down at our house with Mary having sent off her grades, our stuff migrating out of boxes, and generally settling into the new home.  This transition was made possible by Mary’s dad as well as an army of friends showing up with trucks and shovels and rakes and implements of destruction.

After seeing the move go off without a hitch one of my friends accused me of befriending people based on how convenient their vehicles are to my needs.  This is clearly untrue, however I am still looking for that special Tesla Roadster friend.

Mary’s dad, Dan, was exceptional and I can’t imagine how the move would have happened without him.  He was a non-stop dynamo, and it was everything we could do to slow him down.

In about two weeks, he:

• Helped us pack and move
• Cleaned the old house
• Stripped the paint off a table and set of chairs
• Repaired them
• Repainted them
• Installed a washer and dryer
• Remounted the doors on the laundry
• Built wall-to-wall shelves in the new garage
• Fixed the drawers in the kitchen
• Fixed the closet doors
• Replaced the doorbell
• Rehung three gates so they wouldn’t scrape when they closed
• Bought and assembled new patio furniture
• Built Mary a new wonder-desk
• Purchased a new bench and shop-vac
• Organized and stored all the various baby gear
• Picked a full tub of cherries

The much admired Super-Dan

The neighbors began to notice he was building things and at least one woman got a dreamy look on her face and asked if he was ‘available‘.  I did my best to communicate that he was taken but that he might be up for rent.  My advice to Mary’s mom, Myrtle, is that she escort him next time he visits so that she can protect her own interests from an interested population of California women.

Women love him, cherries fear him.

How are the Boyos?

If you look closely, you can see two distinct lumps - one on the upper right and another underneath Mary's hand.

The boys have started pushing Mary’s tummy out at odd angles and while still lovely and beautiful she is rarely symmetrical in the tummy region.  On any given night you can expect to feel kicks, pushes, and wiggles from Alex, Dom, or both.

Thursday we hit another big milestone with 28 weeks.  That is Homefree Day and our trip into the third trimester.  Homefree means that children born after 28 weeks have a roughly 90% survival rate and it only gets better from there.  It also means we are about 8 weeks away from our goal of 36 weeks gestation.  They OB-GYN has told us she doesn’t want Mary carrying beyond 39 weeks so we should be parents in 79 days or less.

Mood

Mary enjoys the new patio furniture on a cool morning. The chairs both rock...the better to enjoy the outdoors with our boys.

With her movement largely restricted, the pregnant lady is still working, and she has been pouring over the old Spanish books as she works on the next chapter of her dissertation.  It is a nice fit for her new low-impact life for the next few weeks, and people are already whispering about how good the work is.  A publisher has already grabbed a revised copy of her dissertation’s introduction for publication because of the extensive biography of the father of Spanish fencing.  (The same publisher has expressed an interest in publishing the entire dissertation if possible.)

On the relaxation side, we watched The Lovely Bones last week, and Mary got more than her fair share of weepy-face watching it.  It’s a terribly tragic movie, and the pregnant lady is still at the whim of her hormones.   It isn’t so much that she is weepy as she feels things more intensely, and the Twin-Daddy should have his head examined for thinking to rent a sad movie.

Watching a movie at home is also taking on new dimensions for us.  Normally, we lay on the sofa together to watch a show, and this has been made more difficult with two little boys jostling for space in the Mary-middle.  We have solved this by excommunicating the sofa cushions to the floor which expands the width of our sofa enough to accommodate a mommy, two babies, and a daddy if he doesn’t mind hanging one leg on the floor.  (It’s only a matter of time until Twin-Daddy is sharing a cushion on the floor with the dog.)

Food

Heading into the third trimester, Mary’s appetite is getting smaller as we expected with shrinking stomach space, but she tends to graze more often.   Staying home, she is on her own for lunch so we have stocked the fridge with easy lunches.

We got a higher than expected blood sugar reading at her last blood test, and she is headed into the doctor tomorrow for a more extensive gestational diabetes exam.  She can expect a long fast followed by nasty-flavored syrup drink and blood sugar tests for about 3 hours.  I will try to ensure that she gets a reward-type lunch afterwards.

Sleep

With Mary living la vida rotunda, it is more difficult for the pregnant lady to get up, and I have coerced her into switching sides of the bed with me so that I can let the dog out at night.  The strategy has been to make myself a large obstacle to her exiting the bed so that she eventually gives up and kicks and punches me until I wake up.  Having been kicked, I wander off with the Great Dane and relieved dog urination ensues.  It is entirely possible in this sleep-addled state that I will wake up on the patio in my pajamas one morning.  If this is the weirdest thing we get out of our pregnancy/parenting experience, I’ll be very surprised.

Babies Countdown – The Double Header

79 days until September 2

• Tuesday, June 15 is Mary’s blood sugar test.
• Wednesday, June 16, Mary visits the OB-GYN for a routine check up.
• Thursday, June 17 is Homefree Day. 90% of children born at 28 weeks survive, and the odds only improve.
• Wednesday, June 23 is our next appointment with the Perinators.
• Sometime in mid-July Mary gets fitted for her nursing bra and takes the super-sucker in for cleaning.
• Thursday, August 12 and we hit our goal of 36 weeks minimum. From here on the twins could come at any time.
• Thursday, September 2 and we reach 39 weeks.  The OB-GYN has said she doesn’t want Mary to carry beyond this date.
• Thursday, September 9 and we hit 40 weeks. This is our due date even if we know the twins will be here sooner.
• 2 weeks Post Delivery – Schedule a follow-up appointment with the Lactation Lady.
• 4 Weeks Post Delivery – Look for baby smiles.
• After the Delivery – 4.5 months of the Twinsanity Interval.