Lost weekend

I don’t know how people do it.

To make up for lost time, I’m going out with a vengeance. Correction, I was going out. Now I’m just trying to catch up at home. Last Friday I met up with 2 gals I met on the internet. That sounds dubious. These were really nice people and I felt like I knew them already. I met them through the twin message boards on babycenter.com. Tonya drove up from San Diego and Heather lives in Orange County. We met at Fashion Island in Newport Beach (very shee-shee upscale mall). That was my first social outing and I did surprisingly well. We even got a photo of the babies with the Easter Bunny. I don’t know what I’d do without the internet. These ladies on the message board have been so helpful. Previously I had mentioned how other websites like the PROM (premature rupture of the membrane) site helped me with the loss of Matty & Issy as well as prepare for the next pregnancy. The twin boards are also extremely helpful from getting advice to what items/gears I must have (that part is dangerous). It’s a tight-knit board even though people are located all across the states. I was fortunate that there are a couple of people that live in So Cal.

Luke & Bree are to the far right of the pic


The babes with the Easter Bunny. Too bad they were passed out.

Saturday, we checked out the Mark Ryden show at a gallery in Hollywood. Mike and I are huge fans of his work. Chris, my sister, turned us onto him. How cool are our kids that they’re already going to galleries?

Afterwards we went to see our new nephew. He’s already changed a lot in a week. He’s less swollen now and looked adorable. I got some pics of Sean with his cousins. They’re all about the same height, but Luke & Bree are chunkier. When placed next to Sean, the babies really looked like twins.

Then on Sunday, we went to an outlet mall. Mike needed new shoes and I have a lot of retail therapy to catch up on. Nothing for me, I’m not sure what size my body is yet. So I focused on things for the babes. What’s cool is that Mike has fun picking out stuff for them too. In fact, he did all the choosing at Gymboree.

Sounds like we’re pros getting out and about with the babies. Far from it! It takes us about 2 hours to get ready and leave the house. When we get home, there are tons of bottles to wash and sterilize, babies to feed and bathe, a dog to take care of and then we try to feed ourselves. We went to bed between 2am-3.30am over the weekend. Not to mention the house is a mess. I’ve got baskets of laundry that have been waiting days to be folded. I really don’t know how I’m supposed to manage house work with everything else.

As it is, it’s Wednesday night/Thursday morning and I’m just now able to write about the weekend. I’ll have to save the 2 mos appointment stats for another post.

One last pic, another example of twinning. Notice how their binkies are in identical positions to one another.

Hey Coz!

I’m not really caught up. You probably didn’t notice the fact that I wrote yesterday’s entry last week. The babies are actually 7 weeks today. It took me awhile to actually post the entry and add the photos. And now it’s taken me only 3 days to mention I have a new nephew. My sister, Grace, gave birth to Sean Gabriel on March 17th, St Patty’s day. He was 8lbs and 5oz and a whopping 22” long! Big and tall boy. He has a full head of hair just like his sister. Visiting Sean was the twins’ first all day outing and their first time leaving OC. They did pretty well, so well we hope to do it again this weekend. Bree and Luke now have 4 cousins. Maggie & Ryan and now Audrey & Sean. I can’t wait for the holidays. It’s going to be wonderfully chaotic!


Proud Aunty moment


Look at all that hair! Bree wants some of it.


Rhew sisters (Roosters) with Sean.

I'm back, for now

Sorry dear friends to have kept you in the dark, but now I’m back (or so I think). Luke & Bree are now 6 ½ weeks old. The past month and a half have gone by so quickly, it’s a blur to me.

Well, as mentioned in my last post I had some unexpected complications during delivery. The news was devastating and I’ve spent some time coming to terms with the outcome. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to go into any further than that. What happened was very personal, I don’t mind talking about it in person, over the phone or even email but I don’t want to post it for any random person to read.

So I’m dealing with that and I’m at home with 2 tiny pea pods. They were great weights to begin with, but soon lost quite a bit of weight. It’s normal for babies to lose some of the water weight, but they lost more than that. With the c section and the fact they were 4 weeks early, my milk was slow to come in. The babies weren’t getting enough to eat and the lactation consultants wanted me to supplement very little with formula. As it turns out, Bree ended up losing 15% of her birth weight which was too much according to the pediatrician. So I’m having problems breastfeeding which hurt like you would not believe and I’m failing to adequately provide for my baby. After 2 weeks, I developed a breast infection (mastitis). It was horrible. It’s like the flu except ten times worse. I had a 103 temperature, achy all over and so weak. I was afraid to hold the babies; I thought I would drop them. I finally got in to see the doctor and got some antibiotics. I felt better almost immediately. After not holding the babes for a couple days, I missed them a lot.

A couple weeks later my breasts became engorged. In other words, they became backed up with milk and were rock hard which is very painful. I almost went to the ER, but with many hot showers and heating compresses it finally became undone. Unfortunately, it was also a gateway for another infection and this time it was worse! My temperature rose to almost 104 and this time included vomiting and diarrhea. Let’s just say, I’ve had no trouble losing the pregnancy weight. To top it off, I developed an allergic reaction to the same antibiotics I used the first time. What kind of reaction? Well, my entire body from the palm of my hands to the top of my feet to my entire torso and back, arms and legs were itching like crazy. I was absolutely miserable.

Lastly, my wonderful, supportive and loving mother ended her stay last week. She’s taken care of me for several months while I was on bed rest and then helped with the babies for 6 weeks. It was time for her to get back to her own life which she put on hold for us. Plus she was tired, she was doing so much. My mom is pretty awesome and Mike agrees, we couldn’t have done it without her (well, we might have but definitely not as well).

So I’m a little freaked out having to do this on my own. Having one baby seems like a breeze, it’s having two that’s challenging, especially if one of them is fussy like ‘drama queen Bree’. ‘Laid back Luke’ is so chill, he’s so easy! And here I was nervous to have a boy since I never had a brother.

I don’t know if I’ll have more time or less with my mom gone now. We’ll see. Lucky for us, she missed the little ones so much she and my dad came by the other day. She stocked up our fridge, prepared future meals for Mike and me and bathed both babies (which I’m afraid to do by myself). Oh and mom and dad fed and changed the babies the entire day. It was pretty awesome, I finally had time to vacuum and do some laundry.

So that’s the past 6 weeks in a nutshell. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep up with the blog (I know I said that last time), but the babies should be settling down and becoming less needy. Here are some pics to hold you over til my next post.

xoxo


Sabrina fast asleep on her boppy. This seems to help with her reflux.


Luke wide awake, too much caffeine? (j/k of course, I'm not drinking any!)


I really think my boy is incredibly handsome.


Love the pursed lips and chubby cheeks.



Bree waking up slowly.


Bed hog


Bree posing as Trinity from the Matrix (right before she kicks butt).


This is adorable. Their sleeping positions are mirror images of each other. They really are twins!


They're not as sweet as you think.