It Began with a BBFT

I am on NICU night float (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and I can't sleep. I WAS sleeping but then was woken up to to to a delivery and now I'm just surfing around and decided to blog. It is my last shift of the month--yea! but the excitement is short lived because I go to PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) night float. The NICU is sick little people and the PICU is sick kids. With the NICU we get to go to deliveries which is fun especially when it's a healthy baby. I look at deliveries differently now. When I first saw a delivery I just thought "gross, but a little cool" and then when I was pregnant I thought "I want to get off this rollercoster and never do what SHE is doing" and now I think "o.k. still gross, but isn't this great guys, you are parents, aren't you just SO excited--you're going to love it (o.k. most of it)?!?!" I have to hold myself back from being straight up annoying. I love handing the baby to the dad with the shaking hands that can't find his camera even though it is dangling around his wrist. O.k., that is my rambling for now. I'll attach a picture for good measure because a post without a picture is really kind of boring. I'll save the "ab update" post and the "how many times have I been asked if I am pregnant" posts for another time :).

We don't know what happened, but all of our photos are kaput. Perhaps Picasa will do something in the meantime to fix the problem, but one day they were just gone.

Ryan has updated the site, and there is now a link to our main Photo album at the top of this page, which will usually be updated with our latest downloads from our camera.

Here is a few new ones to get started with repopulating the blog:

We enjoyed a non-traditional valentines day today. Background: we aren't big into valentines day--we usually just do small things for eachother. Ryan thinks it is made up and would be fine doing nothing (he is not anti-romance, he just chooses to do nice things on regular days), but I succomb to societal peer pressure and like the small things. These two ideas about valentines day caused some problems on our first V-day because I told Ryan it wasn't a big deal and he interpreted it as "do nothing at all". I think there may have been tears even, so now we discuss valentines "expectations" so that scenario isn't repeated :). Anyhow, I worked overnight last night and I had just enough steam left to go out for a valentines breakfast. So, we put the girls in their matching outfits (see below), compliments of their Uncle Eric and Aunt Amy and went out ot our usual breakfast place for our first valentines day as a family. Then I spent the bulk of the afternoon sleeping in preparation for another night shift (I'm at work typing this) and then the whole family got baths (including the dogs) --not all at once though :). I hope you all enjoyed the day in your own unique ways as well.

The girls and I are having a cozy winter morning. The snow has been lazily falling all morning and I don't have to be at work until 1 today. Ryan decided to venture out to starbucks but I love being homebound. Lydia and Grace had their 4 month visit. Grace now weighs 12 lbs 2 oz and Lydia weighs 11 lbs 13 oz. They both have sizeable heads--not pathologically but more genetically. They took their shots like champs--much better than Ryan does--they didn't pass out :). They still don't have a lot of tricks, but at 4 months I don't have high expectations. They're smiling and reaching for things pretty well. Another update on the job front, I am now have a job for next year. I will be working at several pediatric urgent care sites here in Columbus that Nationwide Children's hospital (the one I am currently at) runs. It has nice hours and no overnights so it will allow me to spend more time with Ryan and the twins. Two other residents/friends will be starting there the same time I do so that is an additional bonus. Ryan will continue to take care of the girls when I'm working and will hopefully have time to build up his web business as well. We're excited about the job and the fact that we don't have to work on selling our house this spring!

it's 4:45 and I am up and pumping for my 6 am shift. have i mentioned that pumping is getting old? I go back and forth about whether I want to continue or not so for now I've come to a compromise. I am only pumping 3 times a day which ends up making a world of difference. I was going crazy trying to work/pump/eat/enjoy and care for babies etc. It's been interesting adjusting to working full time again. I'm on ER this month which is shift work and the shifts are sporadically scheduled. so that means that I can have a run of shifts in a row which invariably means I'll get grumpier and grumpier about the state of things in my life and the world in general (too much time in the ER and not much time at home = a jaded grumpy individual) then I'll have a few days off and everything is rosy. Ryan becomes the real saint in all of this of course. He puts up with the ranting and is ready to clear his schedule for some time together whenever my schedule lets up.

On a lighter note, Lyida and Grace are doing well. They are both all smiles recently and seem to converse with us in coos and squeals. No rolling yet but lydia did take a spill off of a low ottoman recently when her carseat tipped--she's o.k. and her parents are too ( I think it's more traumatizing for the parents anyhow). They are having their 4 month visit with the pediatrician next week and I'm looking forward to the great weigh in (why do we perseverate on their weight? I think it's because it's a reflection of our nurturing skills--our ability to feed and care for them so that they grow).

We enjoyed the inauguration and especially the historic significance of it all. I love getting a glimpse into the life of the president and his family. It's so intriguing. I kept trying to tell the girls all about why this year's inauguration was unique, but they didn't seem to grasp it :). I think they might be a better audience at the next one when they are four and they'll probably be in their "why" stage about every little thing.

So, that's a mini-all-over-the-place update for now.

Tonight after my shift I snuck into the girls room and just looked at them and listened to them breathe (after I made sure they were breathing). Usually I don't go into their room when I get home at crazy hours (the time of this post is nearly 5am) but driving home from my ER shift tonight I was thinking about how thankful I am that they are healthy. It sounds very cliche I guess, but that has been my theme lately, especially after 10 hours with sick kids. I'm happy for health.

The twins and I spent 5 days in Chagrin Falls at my mom's over Christmas. My sister Laura also flew in from St.Louis and my other two sisters ( Megan and Amy) both live in town so I was able to spend lots of time with my sisters and their kids. My mom's house is kid friendly so we all settled in with the babies for a cozy 5 days. We had to practically take numbers for pack-n-play usage with 5 kids needing naps. The swing was a hot commodity as was the exersaucer (the twins don't use it yet but Charlie [6 mos] and Bailey [15 mos] traded off). My sisters decided we'd be brave and planned a photo shoot with the cousins at the local photography place. So, we lined up the kids and spent the next 30 minutes trying to get 6 kids to smile: Jordan, 18 (she cooperated of course), Hudson--3, Bailey, Charlie, Lydia and Grace. We were missing Troy who lives in North Carolina :(. It was hilarious to watch. The twins pretty much just sat there and soaked it all up. Bailey and Hudson wanted to be up and about playing with the cool toys there. We actually managed to get a few good ones as you can see above. I like the one where Grace is giving Lydia the 'stink eye'--I think because she's still mad that Lydia got to be the baby Jesus.