Catherine and Lela's Grand Entrance

Catherine Rae




Lela Grace




Did I just give birth to an Eskimo and a miniature Mother Theresa?



March of Dimes

Sure, I know of the March of Dimes, but I seriously never had any idea what they did. Now I know.

What they do is they send their Family Support Specialist to work with NICU families at no cost. At St. Als in Boise, that person is Kristi. As I returned to our wee ones' bedsides today, I found Kristi talking with John about her role as the "Rest Police" to make sure we are taking care of ourselves. She gave suggestions as she emphasized how important it is that we don't get sick (at which point, we wouldn't be allowed to visit), how we can use the nurses as resources for feeding, developing a home schedule when we're able to take Catherine (and finally Lela) home, etc. She told us about the professional photographer that would be coming in tomorrow afternoon offering a free photo shoot for our family, she brought us two books to read to the girls and scent squares for us to wear for the next two days to leave in the girls cribs. She also talked with our nurse about using our blankets to swaddle the girls so that we can bring their scent home to begin to prepare Kai-dog for their arrival. In short, she is amazing and left us feeling all warm and fuzzy. We're glad she's on our team! And we're humbled knowing we won't be seeing fees related to her services on our "hired help" bill.

Now we know about the March of Dimes... they will certainly recieve our support in the future.

Upsides and Downs of the NICU

During our pregnancy, we had many people tell us to stay away from all the baby books that make you over think everything. Maybe we should have taken that advice more seriously. All of the books about having multiples continuously emphasized the importance of having help either in the form of family members or hired professionals. The message was very clear... you won't be able to do this alone. Well we've gone and done it, we opted for the hired professionals; a team of about 12 of them as a matter of fact (plus nurses). Maybe we over did it a bit.

The benefit of having this "hired help" is that we know our girls are well taken care of (and we don't have to change diapers in the middle of the night). The downside is that even a small set back such as an upset tummy becomes grounds for stopped feedings, x-rays, and enemas. Their placement in the NICU necessitates very thorough investigations and interventions but it is very difficult to see them have to go through all these unpleasantries. It's heartbreaking, really.

In part, it's those unpleasantries that keep us going though. It's all we can do to be there to change diapers, feed them, and love on them in the spaces in between.

Loving on them is the greatest thing I've ever known.

Post-Pregnancy "Pooch"

So, you thought I was joking when I said I was still carrying most of my pregnancy belly...

A woman who just had two babies walks into the NICU and a nurse (who sees new moms every day) says... "Oh, you're going to have a baby."
The new mom looks tired, dazed, and confused.
The nurse realizes her mistake, "Or maybe you just had a baby," and then adds "You have a good pooch there."
That nurse wasn't talking about our Kai-dog.

A Lot of Baby in My Belly....

It took a couple days for us to convince a nurse to allow Cate and Lela to spend a few minutes together as it required disconnecting one of them from their monitors for a few minutes. While they didn't seem to notice, we really enjoyed it.

Most notable about the experience was the realization that I'd been carrying all of that baby in my belly just days earlier. They're heavy!!

Also shocking when they are together is the size difference between them. Cate is a lunker compared to her more petite sister. In the world of neonatal medicine, one might hear the terms "intrauterine growth restriction" or "discordance" to refer to Lela's slowed growth and the size difference between them. In the delivery room the evidence was clear in the dramatic difference in their umbilical cords (John describes them as a garden hose vs. the old school spiral phone cord) and placenta sizes. Poor Lela just wasn't getting her fair share.

Rest assured though, all prenatal ultrasounds showed that she had adequate blood profusion where it mattered and the doctors didn't see any signs of fetal distress. Now that we've met her we can see why she was just fine.... she may be little but she's scrappy, an obvious fighter.

It may take a bit longer for her to pass the tests of the NICU, but we're confident that she'll continue to thrive and catch up with her sister throughout their first year together.

And again.... we are thankful to our doctors who kept our babies safe, healthy, and stress-free!

Recap of the Last Two Weeks

... by way of John's Facebook updates.

January 26, 2011 - "Angel has two weeks to go, plus or minus two weeks."

January 27, 2011 - "is thinking this may be the last quiet weekend for some time..." (I assured him he was wrong.)

January 31, 2011 - "The twins' heartbeats sound like the coconuts from Monty Python and the Holy Grail." (Written during monitoring at the hospital. They really did!)

January 21, 2011 - "We need radio collars to keep track of our kids. And they haven't even been born yet." (Monitoring required the constant attention of a helicopter nurse (or two.))

February 1, 2011 - "Question: If the kiddos come out tomorrow and see their shadows, will they go back in for another couple weeks?"

February 2, 2011 - "(John) and Angel are proud parents. Baby A weighs 6 lbs 10.5 oz (after pooping!) and Baby B weighs 4 lbs. 1 oz. Both keepers. Both girls! Angel is recovering from c-section and is doing well."

February 3, 2011 - "Baby B looks like a canyon tree frog - with a shock of black hair on her head."

February 5, 2011 - "I decided to skip Dr. Seuss for now and to fast forward straight to "Treasure Island" for this afternoon's reading."

February 5, 2011 - "Although we had picked these names over a month ago, it took three days of discussions, negotiations and nurse-on-the-street spelling surveys to confirm they matched the kiddos. Baby A is officially Catherine Rae Robison and Baby B is Lela Grace Robison. (Lela is pronounced "Lee-la")."

February 5, 2011 - "Is getting ready for BANFF (Babies Are Needing Food and Family). It's another extreme sport, but without the pro deals." (We were about to miss the Banff Film Festival... an annual tradition.)

February 6, 2011 - "Angel and I checked the Fish and Game regs and you can't take home any babies less than 20" long. So we put them back and will keep returning until we can take them home. Until then, it's a bit like catch and release parenting."

This brings us to today... our first day of waking at home, visting the girls in the morning, taking a brief afternoon siesta and returning for the evening. Personally, I think this is also proof that a Facebook intervention is in order, but we'll revisit that later.

Hatched!! For Real This Time

Catherine Rae (6lbs, 10oz) and Lela Grace (4lbs, 1oz) hatched for real on the afternoon of 2/2/10 at 35 weeks/3 days much to our shock even though the doctors had been priming us for the possibility of their early arrival.

I had a plan for dealing with their early arrival, but the doctors all agreed that even though I'd successfully carried them in my self-made incubator for quite some time, it probably wasn't a good idea to let me take them home and sit on them in the nursery until they were fully baked. John assured them that he would keep me on the nest and feed us well, but they were a bit worried about the squish factor since I'm still carrying much of my pregnancy belly. Their smarty-pants solution was to send them to the bright, sterile, plastic incubators of the NICU for further warming and feeding. Seems a bit unnatural to me, but I guess they know best.

After spending a few days visiting our girls for feedings every three hours and meeting other families who are doing the same, one thing is certain... we are incredibly fortunate to have made it to 35 weeks and to have two beautiful girls who are healthy and doing very well. The only two criteria they each have to meet before being released to our inexperienced care is to eat everything they need by mouth and to maintain their body temperature. Every day they get closer to reaching these goals.

I'll be sitting on them in the nursery at home in no time....