The Twins' 1st Birthday

The day before the twins' first birthday was their 12 month "well check" visit with their doctor. After finding out that James's head is in the 93rd percentile (go James?!), they both got their booster shots. FIVE pokes each. Then we stopped by to visit the first person to ever see them - their birth doctor, Dr. Crites (not to be confused with zombie gynecologist) who was great through the last hard months of my pregnancy. Unfortunately the twins were still pretty cranky from the shots. (Note to self: what was I thinking getting their vaccinations the day before their birthday?)


Julia recognizes her birth doctor.


James making the same face as the last time he saw this doctor.

The next morning James had a slight fever when he woke up. I slept in and when I entered the family room a few hours later, my mom started telling me that James felt really hot. And then before I could even cross the room to him she said, "He's not focusing!" James's eyes stared straight ahead, totally blankly, his mouth was pursed together, sort of making fish lips that opened and closed very slightly. He was totally non-responsive. Thankfully I had looked up fevers in What to Expect: The First Year when James first woke up that morning, and I had read the section on febrile seizures. This was a classic febrile seizure, which don't always involve convulsions (neither did James's), and the book said as long as the seizure didn't last more than 5 minutes it was basically harmless. We took off his clothes and put a cold wet washcloth on him (a cold wet washcloth is actually what NOT to do when someone has a fever because their shivering can increase the temperature). After about 3 minutes, with the seizure continuing, I called 9-1-1. An ambulance and fire truck arrived a few minutes later, and James seemed to snap out of the seizure when the EMTs got to him, which meant the seizure lasted about 6 minutes.

The EMTs wanted to take James to the hospital, so I rode up front in the ambulance. I felt guilty taking pictures but I didn't take any last time (yes, James rode in an ambulance in July) and I knew by this point he was okay. The driver gave him a stuffed spider monkey, which technically was his first birthday gift. I'm guessing they keep a supply of stuffed animals for little ones. However, someone should educate them that they shouldn't be giving ones with choking-hazard bead eyes to babies under three. Or maybe it's their way of drumming up more business?...


New Year's resolution: No more trips to the emergency room for my babies.

By the way, we live three long blocks from the hospital and the ambulance trip came to $1399 before our insurance covered the whole shebang. (The two hour hospital stay came to $6131, and we only chipped in a $50 co-pay.)

James's temperature was 105.3 when we arrived at the hospital. The febrile seizure was due to his fever rising too fast, not the actual high temperature number. Febrile seizures are genetic and his Uncle Michael had one when he was three. James had an x-ray and some blood tests to rule out a viral infection, and with medication his temperature significantly decreased so we were discharged. In the meantime, we overheard the nurses at the nurses' station chatting about how cute James was, and Mark delighted James by throwing him into the air.

That night James's temperature rose to 103.6, but came down again. Most of the doctors thought that James's fever was due to the vaccinations but they changed their minds when Julia and I both came down with fevers five days later. We probably caught whatever it was that Uncle Michael gave to Grandma who infected James who passed it on to Julia and me who gave it to Mark. Thanks, Uncle Michael! (And Michael thought what he had was allergies...)


"Fever, schmever. Throw me in the air again, Daddy!"

The original plan for the twins' birthday was for them to open presents, go to the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo, and destroy some cupcakes. We only had time to have them open some gifts just before dinner. They were much less into ripping open wrapping paper than we expected.


Julia is thoroughly unimpressed by her gift of Busy Balls.


"This box is definitely better than the Busy Balls."



The next day the babies got to eat smash the snowman cupcakes that we had purchased at Whole Foods. Julia didn't really want to eat hers or smash it, and seemed uninterested in the whole thing. James on the other hand, took some time to warm up to it, but took to smashing his like a fish to water. (Or like The Hulk to smashing stuff.)

"Hulk just want opportunity to smash cupcake."

The birthday cupcakes




At first James doesn't seem interested but then he gets the hang of it...


...some might say too much so.


"If you think I'm a slob you should see Julia. Oh you did? Okay, yeah I'm a slob."


But he's a cute slob!


Before the cake smashing began, Mark smartly chose Julia's cupcake as the one he would finish eating.


Meanwhile, I got left with this.

James's Big Adventure

Let me start by saying that I'm a terrible mother. I'm not trying to get you to make me feel better or convince me otherwise, I just feel horrible for what happened to James - even if it was two months ago now. When we lived in the apartment I often let the twins play on the bed in the extra bedroom. I know it already sounds like a bad idea but it was sunny in there and it was a different place than the living room that they well, lived in, so it improved their moods. I always made sure to check on them every few minutes. I knew James was getting more mobile - not crawling, just flipping over and rotating - though I still didn't think he'd be able to reach the edge of the bed without a lot of time on his hands. Well, on this particular day I was in the other room getting ready to pick up my mother-in-law at the airport when all of a sudden I heard a loud thud. I immediately knew what it was and went running. (Mark: REALLY? YOU WENT FOR A RUN INSTEAD OF CHECKING ON THE BABY?)


My heart melted when I saw him in the hospital with his bruise and those electrode things. The shirt he was wearing with the dog with the black eye was ironic.

James was at the foot of the bed, lying next to an office chair. He immediately started screaming. I comforted him and was surprised (and later, concerned) that he only cried for about a minute. I saw a bruise start to appear on his cheek below his left eye- I think from hitting the base of the office chair - so I put ice on it. I wasn't quite sure what to do. I started to call Kaiser but realized that it would take an advice nurse forever to get on the line with me, so I called 911. I said I wasn't sure if I needed assistance and asked if they provided medical advice. Stupid, I know, but what do you know - they do have an advice specialist on hand! The specialist said they could send an ambulance for James but I thought it sounded unnecessary since he seemed okay. And then as soon as I got off the phone James started to fall asleep in my arms. If you know James you know this is not typical behavior. This is a boy that fights every nap. So to see his eyes watch me and then roll back I was worried something was seriously wrong. I called 911 back as I yelled, "James! James!" and shook him gently to wake him. He woke up but did the same thing over and over again. I was terrified but tried to stay calm. The 911 operator stayed on the line with me until the EMTs arrived about 7 minutes later.


"See what you did to our son?"

Once the EMTs arrived James seemed to be back to normal - maybe it was because all these new things were happening around him. He passed their alertness tests, and I think they put a mask over his nose and mouth to test his oxygen levels. Since it was a two foot fall onto carpeting (they surveyed the scene of the crime) they thought he was fine, but I could have an ambulance take him to the hospital if I wanted. I did want because of James's unusual sleepy behavior which I described to them. They asked if he usually acts like his sister. I looked over at Julia who's usually all smiley trying to get attention but instead her big eyes silently surveyed the three EMTs. I told them not even his sister is acting like his sister. The EMTs (all male) essentially told the ambulance drivers (all women) that James was fine, but I added that he had tried to fall asleep in an odd manner. Because of his abnomal behavior they wanted to take him to Valley Medical Center instead of Kaiser (possibly because it was slightly closer). They put James in his car seat, his head protected by rolled up receiving blankets, and strapped the car seat to a gurney. I would have liked to have seen that part or taken a picture but at the time I had other concerns, like getting ready to get to the hospital as soon as possible, and hoping my little boy was okay.

Note the smiley faces the nurses put on his electrodes.

To our surprise, James's identification tag listed his name as "YYTwentyfive, Yankee." Apparently when babies are admitted without parents (even though the ambulance had his health insurance information) they admit them with pre-made identification bracelets.

The ambulance could only take one baby and of course I had Julia with me, too, so I prepared to take her with me to the hospital. At the same time my mother-n-law arrived from the airport in a taxi (and saw James being loaded into the ambulance) so she watched Julia while I met Mark at the hospital.

My heart melted when I saw James at the hospital. He was sitting up on a gurney with little electrodes all over his body, and of course a very visible bruise. He was surrounded by three attentive nurses he had charmed. They told me that they thought an MRI was unnecessary and that all their tests showed he was perfectly fine. He got a perfect score on the Pediatric Glasgow Coma Scale. (I never want to have another child have to be measured on a coma scale.) However, they still wanted him to stick around another 4-6 hours for observation. They told us they needed the bed he was in so we'd have to wait on the gurney in the hallway. It felt pretty ghetto not having a room in the hospital. We played games with James on the gurney. I sang songs he knew to make sure he reacted as normal. (And no, that reaction was not, "Crap, mom's singing again?") Mark reached into the diaper bag looking for formula and asked, "Is it all toys in here?" Indeed, I filled the bag with all of James's favorites... as well as formula and diapers.


James hangs out in his hospital room - oh wait, it's just a bed in the hallway.

The doctors thought James was fine and released him after only two hours. I still worried about him. Mark still tells me, "No droppies" when I'm with the babies. On a side note, I've been teaching the babies sign language since they were about three months old and when I make a sign I repeat the word for it three times. As a joke, Mark tried to teach the babies a new sign - he'd point to about the area below the eye on himself where James's bruise was and say, "Neglect." "Neglect." "Neglect."


You know James is feeling better when he wants to put his foot in his mouth


"Don't you know? A foot in the mouth is the best medicine, Mommy!"


Here's Mark's Buzz post about the ordeal:

Jul 24: Yesterday's "minor baby issue" turned out to be a 3 hour trip to the ER as well as Baby's First Ambulance Ride (TM). I wasn't at home to see it, but I'm told the EMTs put him in his car seat and then strapped that to a gurney before loading him in. Missed photo opportunity!

As Kathy discovered yesterday, one day babies stay where you put them and the next day they don't, and sometimes that means they unexpectedly make their way from "on the bed" to "off the bed." But I’ll skip over all the worrisome bits in the middle and jump to the end: James seems to be fine except for a rapidly vanishing bruise near his eye (possible photo caption: “You should see the other baby!”) and he left a wake of charmed nurses at the hospital.

Of course Kathy felt awful about what happened but everything turned out okay, and I’m pretty sure James already has no recollection of any of this, so I think we’re lucky. Fall’s well that ends well...

Post-Preggers Health Fun

After all I'd heard about complications with C-sections, I was very very grateful this part of the delivery went as smoothly as it did. Since the babies were on the small side the incision was smaller, too, and all in all the delivery was very easy. That said...

The twins were delivered on a Monday, I checked out on a Friday night, but then we were back at the hospital 12 hours later. I was suffering from severe constipation, which sounds funny but was seriously the worst pain I've ever experienced. Since I didn't have any contractions after my water broke on the day of the twins' birth, it was like the constipation was my way of experiencing childbirth pain... except at the end I gave birth to a multitude of little brown babies.

My septuplets

I'm sure everyone wants to know how constipation is treated in the ER and the answer is the physician first removes impacted poo with her fingers, and if that doesn't work, administers an enema. Both are no fun. (In other news, I can't BELIEVE people pay to receive enemas.)

My doctor?

Then three days later I was back in the ER, this time because of high blood pressure. I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia (which can cause very high blood pressure) after having given birth, so I probably came down with it in the last week of my pregnancy. (For those of you keeping score at home, this pregnancy had 4 pre term labor scares - 2 of which landed me in the hospital for over a week, 2 months of bed rest, gestational diabetes, severe constipation, and finally pre-eclampsia. Such are the joys of a multiple pregnancy, especially when you're "older".) In case you watch 19 Kids and Counting (don't get me started on how having 19 kids is child abuse), the Duggars' 19th child weighed 1 pound, 6 ounces when she was delivered in her 26th week (which is when I had my first pre-term labor scare), because the mother was diagnosed with pre-clampsia. There is a risk of seizure to continue with a pregnancy so the babies are often delivered early. I also found out that I have a 30% chance of pre-eclampsia if I'm pregnant with a singleton in the future.


Here I am with my parents while wearing my dad's hat. My feet and legs were super swollen because of high blood pressure related to pre-eclampsia. Those flip flops are the only shoes that would fit.


Check out my scary cankles on my last day in the hospital.

I ended up in the ER after I saw my perinatologist (Asian female Doogie) and she sent me to the ER to have my blood pressure monitored. There's nothing more reassuring than lying on a gurney while being checked into the ER, and hearing two nurses discuss how I need to be given a room right away because I am a seizure risk. I was also told that having blood pressure rise above 150 puts you at a high risk of stroke. (This made me worry that a stroke was imminent though I think they just meant "higher risk of stroke.") Nothing can play with your mind more than being hooked up to blood pressure machines and trying to relax to keep the numbers down while told you're at risk of grand mal seizure and stroke.


Scary puffy feet close-up! It was worse than last time when my cankle doppleganger was Miss Piggy!

I had to monitor my blood pressure at home for several weeks with a blood pressure gauge. A few times when my numbers were too high, I had to call the perinatology center and they instructed me to lie down for an hour in a dark room with no outside stimulation - not even TV (the horror!) - to bring down my blood pressure. I was really sad for a few days because I finally was off bed rest only to be told not to move unless absolutely necessary. I wanted to finally spend time with my new babies, and be able to do simple things like walk around the house and set up their nursery. Thankfully my numbers were back to normal about a week after my ER visit.

The Hospital Stay

After the twins were born Mark and I got our own little room. The twins joined us and hung out in lucite bassinets while nurses tended to them for the first hour. James only got to stay for a very short time before being sent to the NICU for his grunting problem. Julia stayed with us and we learned to feed her 1 cc of formula at a time by syringe (in increments of 0.1 cc). She was very tiny!


Feeding tiny Julia by syringe

I called my parents ("Hi, Grandma!") and Mark called his to let them know the good news. My parents had hoped to arrive that night but they were driving from San Diego through the worst storm of the year so they didn't get there until the next day, and then I had to shoo them out when they arrived because I was working with a lactation consultant. Their faces lit up when they saw and held Julia. Then we went on a field trip to the NICU to see James. Because I couldn't move for 24 hours after the C-section I had only just seen James that morning for the first time since giving birth. (Mark had been able to visit earlier.) It had been my first time seeing James without his little white knit cap and I was struck by how blond his hair was! What a cutie!


Heartbreaker James in the NICU

When we announced the births the first day, I explicitly did not tell my parents the babies' names because I am a mean, mean daughter. After my parents arrived and they met each baby I introduced them. "Meet Julia." "Meet James." The NICU only allows two guests inside at a time per baby so James met his grandma and grandpa one at a time.


Grandma meets Julia


Grandpa meets Julia


Grandpa meets James in the NICU

The night the twins were born the hospital sent over a congratulatory bottle of sparkling apple juice with two plastic flutes. Unfortunately, I was suffering from bad nausea from the anesthesia so we couldn't have that until later (for the twins' one month birthday it turns out). Because I'd had gestational diabetes (which usually ends as soon as the placenta is removed) I had been looking forward to eating chocolate cake for months and hoped to that night. Instead I had a not very filling IV.


Mark and his little girl


Me and my little girl

The hospital stay was kind of a blur since I was really drowsy the whole stay from a combination of C-section meds, constantly being woken up to take drugs, and forcing myself to pump every 3 hours - even in the middle of the night. I didn't even have time to go online for over a week! I still have 464 unread e-mail messages from that week. (I also didn't have time to shower until my last day there, four days later.) Mark slept in the fold-out bed/chair in my room the first two nights. My parents visited each day, and my mom and Mark made our apartment into a nursery since I had been unable to having been on bed rest. And most importantly Mark and I learned how to care for tiny babies. Neither of us had really spent any time around babies before so there was a lot to learn - diapering, swaddling, and burping. We didn't even know to keep burping until there was a burp so a few times one of the babies would spit up and start coughing, and we'd be worried they were choking. They seemed so fragile and we were so inexperienced.


Me and my 4 pound, 9 ouncer, Julia


Mark feeds our amazing glow-in-the-dark baby. (James required a biliblanket one day to treat his jaundice.)


How is it we look both tall and short in the same photo?

The twins' birthdate was a Monday and I checked out on Friday night. We got to try out the new car seats on the ride home. They looked like their heads were way too tiny for the head support. (Note: this is no longer a problem with James' giganto cranium but more on that in another post.)


Julia, dressed for her trip home, in her wizard robe.


Checking out of the hospital. (Would you believe Mark forgot to bring me a change of clothing so I left in the same exact outfit I was wearing when my water broke?)


Julia in her car seat for the ride home


James (on the left) and his giant head and multiple chins no longer have problems filling the headrest of his car seat.

A Day That Will Live in Twinfamy!

I've been away for awhile, but with good reason - the twins are here! Over two months ago they were born healthy at 35 weeks and 5 days. Here's the birth story:

But first...

I know everyone wants to know how big I was in the end. The answer? Huge. This was taken two days before the births.

Less than 12 hours before my water broke I enjoyed my gut shelf for the last time.

At 1:30 a.m. on December 7th (Pearl Harbor Day), I posted as my Facebook status message: "If the twins are born today it will be a day that will live in TWINFAMY!" Little did I know my water would break six hours later... (On one hand I would have liked for them to cook a little longer even though nearly 36 weeks for twins is pretty good; on the other hand I get to use "Day that will live in twinfamy" for the rest of their lives...)

I woke up at 7:45 a.m. feeling water gushing out of me.
"Mark, I think my water broke."
"Are you sure?"
[I sit up and water REALLY gushes out.]
"Yes."

Run! It's an amniotic fluid-nami!

I called the hospital and they said to come in within two hours and confirmed that I would be imminently giving birth.
"Mark, it looks like we're having some babies today."

Despite what you may think from watching TV, only 1/5 of births involve water breaking. Incidentally there were a lot of births that day at the hospital and a nurse said there are theories that it often happens on cold rainy days - like this one - because of the change in barometric pressure. Between the cold weather and the twins' most active kicking session ever the night before, it's no surprise my water broke.

After calling the hospital, I called my parents so they could start driving up from San Diego. By the way, when you call your parents at 8 a.m. when you're as pregnant as I was, they have a pretty good guess why you're calling. I then took a shower (while shaking from a combination of happy excitement and fear) and put on make-up. Some people find it weird that I put on make-up but I did have two hours to get to the hospital. All the while I was afraid I was leaving a trail of water breakage throughout the apartment, reminiscent of the dotted line in Family Circus.

Replace Kittycat with Kathy and her leaking bag of waters.

I already knew I'd be having a C-section since Twin A (the boy) flipped to the breach position a few weeks earlier. When we arrived at the hospital we were told a set of triplets was going to be delivered before our twins, but then our doctor came in a few minutes later and told us she had changed her mind. We were next! Suck it, triplets!

An hour and a half later I was wheeled into the operating room and given a spinal block. A curtain was stretched across my lower half and Mark sat next to my head. I could feel some pressure as the doctors cut me open, but no pain. Twin A (the boy) was taken out and a minute later Twin B (the girl) joined him. The doctors held each one up for us to see for an instant before weighing them and getting them ready (a.k.a. wiping off the placenta goo). Twin B was laid across my chest and that's when we met our baby girl. She was tiny and red and already in a little white cap and it was hard to believe I was finally meeting her.

James (I think) is born!

Here I am holding Julia moments after birth.

I was surprised we met the second-to-arrive twin first, but Twin A was grunting (a respiratory issue) so he joined us about 15 minutes later. (I later found out their Apgar scores for the first minute were a 4 for Twin A and a 9 for Twin B; both scored a 9 after five minutes.) Twin A stayed in the NICU the first two days until he stopped grunting, but I was generally very fortunate that neither baby was in the NICU longer, especially Twin B who was born so little and managed to escape the NICU altogether.


Mark with Julia and James just outside the delivery room.


I'm holding the twins with what appears to be a ridiculously oversized left hand.

Without further ado, meet...

James Benjamin Pilloff
5 lbs., 9 oz.
17.8 in. (45.1 cm)


James!

Julia Elizabeth Pilloff
4 lbs., 9 oz.
18.1 in. (46 cm)

(She's a pound lighter but a centimeter longer!)

Julia!

I think the previous picture of Julia resembles the Mother Teresa "Nun Bun."

My precious Julia and James and their giant diapers.