Coming Home

All I can really say above my recovery is that is was a million times easier than recovering after having Clark.  I've never been so pleased with my body and its ability to do hard things and heal itself so quickly. And while there were a few moments of fear and anxiety, it was nothing like the panic I felt when I first became a mom. There have been way too many miracles in the last 9 months for me to have much doubt that God is looking out for me.

And I mean...

So after two days at the hospital, I was feeling almost completely back to normal and so excited to get home and be with Clark and Jacob (they had been sick so spent very little time in the hospital). On Friday morning the hospital pediatrician came in to check vitals and everything before discharging them. I was on the phone waiting to order my breakfast as he checked them. He told me that Maggie had lost too much weight, so he didn't think it was a good idea to discharge them today. Right as he started to go into more detail, the person on the phone asked me to place my order... "I umm.. hold on". I should've just hung up, but I froze and wasn't thinking clearly. The pediatrician stormed off as if I'd offended him (I'm sure he was just busy) so I finished placing my order, not feeling at all hungry anymore.

Just then my mom came back from getting her breakfast, and I just burst into tears. I felt so guilty that we hadn't gotten the babies to eat more and that I'd offended the pediatrician and that I couldn't be home taking care of the rest of my family. Then of course my nurses for the day walked in and I was embarrassed to be such a wreck, but surely they see lots of crazy hormonal women. Everyone reassured me and made me feel a little better. And we dedicated all day to getting those babies fattened up which meant waking them up every 3 hours, day and night, and forcing them to eat. Considering it took about an hour to get them both fed, burped, and changed, I could never sleep more than two hours at a time--it was exhausting! We were thrilled when we took them to their midnight weigh-in, and they'd both gained weight.

So imagine my shock and frustration when the pediatrician came in the next morning and said we would have to stay at least one more day since Wendy was still losing weight. Whaaa? I told him that I was pretty sure the nurse said they had both gained last night, but didn't want to argue with him. But after he left my mom affirmed that she had definitely said that and went to ask the nurse about it. Pretty much the lady working that night had entered the WRONG weight in the computer. I was really annoyed and so sick of being in the dang hospital, especially since I wasn't getting free meals anymore and knew we were just racking up the bills because of someone's mistake. Oh well. We kept working hard to get the girls to eat and finally got to go home on Sunday morning.

So far, things have been going better than I expected. This is probably because the babies just sleep most of the time still, but I'll take it. I'm also really pleased with how great Clark has been. No jealousy or clinginess or resentment toward the babies. He just plays happily on his own most of the day and occasionally wants to touch one of his sisters, but is pretty much over the novelty now and lets them be. When one of them cries, he gets really concerned and says "Happened?!" (as in "what happened?"). I could not have asked for a better kid to throw into such a crazy situation. Breastfeeding both girls has gone way better than I had hoped, too. I had pretty low expectations from the beginning since I had a hard enough time with just one baby, and I didn't know if I'd produce enough to feed them both or have the patience or if they'd struggle more since they were a little premature. But so far, they're doing great! It's a little tricky to feed and burp them both at the same time but I got world's most obnoxiously huge nursing pillow, and we're starting to get the hang of it.

Ok, I feel like this is all a big brag about how great my life is, but I really feel so blessed. And it can be really hard and overwhelming sometimes, but thank goodness for all the family nearby!


Bethany came over to get some photos of our family which was next to impossible (have you met Clark?). Somehow she managed to catch a few gems though!

He kills me

"Here, Maggie. Have a cookie"