Entertaining

I am sure every parent is caught doing strange and stupid things to make their kids smile.  Christian pulls his face in every direction and runs around the house with our girls in each arm like airplanes.  My dad used to scream 'touchdown!' accompanied by arm gestures and everything, for no reason, whenever Nathan was around.  It is also common to see parents down on their hands and knees imitating a dog or horse for their kids.  But I find myself doing especially desperate and stupid things sometimes.

Ashley (in the picture above) loves to smile and will smile for virtually no reason.  She isn't due to be laughing for two months, but she already started laughing a few weeks ago.  Why?  She was in her swing and the toy attached to it was swinging around.  I was doing something else and I just hear her giggling and laughing away.  She is just easily pleased.  

But her reaction is irresistible when I sing and dance for her, especially to male vocals.  So this morning I turned on Johnny Cash and mouthed the words at her while dancing around.  She cracked up laughing.  So I flipped to some smooth Jazz (Nat King Cole) followed by some "Whip it".  But the cutest was Phantom of the Opera.  She raised her eyebrows, stuck out her tongue, and then looked determined as she stared at me and started opening and closing her mouth, laughing, then doing it again.  Of course, Elysha was holding her hand and deliberately ignoring me, every now and then letting out a little scream.  Then she fell asleep.

(Elysha)

Elysha smiles from ear to ear when we cuddle with her, she is very sweet and loves to be rocked and cuddled with.  But she doesn't think our desperate attempts are quite as amusing, and usually doesn't encourage me.  That's probably a good thing.   I wouldn't be responsible for my actions if I had two babies to impress with my dancing.  

Chances

My friend and I (who both have twin girls) were talking about how many sets of twins there are just where we live.  It seems like someone new is getting pregnant with twins every month or so.  It is rumored that something is in the water...  But we couldn't decide if it was just that we just paid more attention to twins now, or if twins really have become more common.  So I found this:

In 2000 there were 118,916 twins born in the U.S., which is a 78% increase from 1980.  That also means that  3% (1 in 33) of all babies in 2000 were born as twins.  So it is more common than I thought!

The chance of identical twins specifically is .4% or 1 in 250.

It could have increased because of the increase in health, age women are getting pregnant, and fertility pills.

Things that increase your chances of having twins:

• Being over the age of 30
• Having fraternal twins on your mothers side of the family (identical twins are not genetic)
• Fertility drugs
• Being African American 
• Having a large family

Of course, I am 20, don't have fraternal twins in my mothers side of the family (unless you count my great great grandma), didn't take fertility drugs, am Caucasian, and this is my first pregnancy.  Go figure.  

Babies that Don't Sleep

Yesterday, Ashley and Elysha both only took a few fifteen minute naps from 11:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night.  Now, I have never had babies before, but I don't think that being awake for 11 hours straight is normal for a two month old 8 lb baby.  Of course, I didn't really complain.  They are easy babies even when they are awake.  I put them on my bed while I folded laundry and they just sat and follow me with their eyes while I walked across the room to put the clothes away.  This can be distracting, but not anything close to stressful.  It hit 10:00 and they both fell asleep.  Bliss!  They would probably sleep for at least three hours, they hadn't slept all day, right?  

12:00 Ashley wakes up

1:00 I put her back down

1:15 she wants her Binky

1:30 she wants her Binky

1:45 she wants her Binky

2:00 she is hungry again

.... continues

4:00 she falls asleep

4:05 Elysha wakes up

4:45 I put her back down

5:00 she cries again

5:00 I take her to my bed and fall asleep

6:00 Christian wakes up wondering why there is a baby in our bed...

Christian would be more than happy to help me during the night, he is just a deep sleeper and the only way to wake him up is to pour water on him.  All joking aside, the first thing he said to me when he woke up is:  "So did you get to sleep all night?"  

The thing that is really unfair: they are cute.  I would get in bed and five minutes later, Ashley would be crying again.  I felt resentful, of course, as I threw myself out of bed and dragged my feet to their room.  But as soon as Ashley saw me, she would stop crying and give me a full out smile.  How can I be annoyed with that??  Even when I took Elysha to my bed so I could sleep, she cuddled up to me and was so content that, again, I couldn't be even close to resentful.  I need to toughen up.

The Hospital

My dad and his family came to visit while I was still "recovering".   (My recovery consisted of me staring at my once-beach-ball-sized stomach that now looked like it had popped).  While they were in meeting Ashley, the nurses came to take her to the NICU.  I wasn't there for this, but I was told that she would just be there for a few hours because her red blood cell count was high.  Apparently, when Elysha was born, Ashley suddenly got all the blood that she would have normally recieved plus all the blood Elysha normally recieved as well.  The nurses said she just needed to thin out her blood and everything else was how it should be.

They gave her a transfusion through her umbilical cord so it wouldn't hurt her.  The first time didn't work, so they needed to do it again.  The second time worked!  We were excited for Ashley to be able to join our family down in the nursery.  While Ashley got transfusions, we were with Elysha.  She was so alert and would sit and stare at us each in turn.  Our families all came to visit and meet her.  Everyone commented on how beautiful she was and how she looked like she had "pencil legs" because she was so skinny and long.

Elysha fell asleep, so we got a chance to go visit Ashley.  The NICU was on the next floor up, so Christian wheeled me to the elevator.  Christian's idea of wheel chair rides consists of popping wheelies and pretending to push me into the wall.  I have to say, the hospital would have been a lot more boring without those rides.  

I hated seeing Ashley in the NICU.  She was strapped to all these tubes and monitors that made it look like she wasn't going to make it another hour.  The nurses said she was fine, but it still scared me to see her like that.  They said that as soon as she ate a good meal they would take her to the nursery because nothing was wrong with her.  When we first came to visit her, I felt like the nurse was 'monitoring' us to make sure we weren't going to break her or something.  I would touch her foot and she would laugh and say "Oh, don't do that, it will overstimulate her."  I would hold her and she would laugh again and say "You need to hold her higher up".  Once she dropped a bottle that was still in the plastic onto the floor and she threw it away.  When Christian asked why she laughed again and said "You never give babies things off the floor".  And the plastic wrapping is good for what... ?  Talk about a confidence boost for new parents, eh?

 

Our goal in life those few days was to get Ashley to learn how to nurse.  She was 4 1/2 lbs and just didn't really have the strength to do it.  The nurses, however, refused to let her come down to the nursery until she learned (even though nothing was wrong with her).  She would cry, they would call me, I would waddle as fast as my sore little body would take me to her, and by the time I got there she was asleep again.  They saw she wasn't eating and tube fed her.  I was SO mad that they didn't even ask me if that was ok with me.  They were so against bottle feeding that they were willing to tube feed until the baby learned to nurse.  At this point, I realized that if we didn't bottle feed her and teach her how to eat that way, she would be in the hospital for a long time.  

I was also trying to feed Elysha at the same time.  They got hungry at the same time, so it really wasn't possible since they were on different floors of the hospital.  Elysha went to bottle feeding with her dad.  We liked watching how much she ate on the lines of the bottle.  Again, we thought she was probably the smartest and hungriest 4 lb baby around.  I thought that since Elysha was bottle feeding, Ashley might be able to as well.  Of course, the nurses disagreed, (laugh) "If she is too tired to breast feed, she will be too tired to bottle feed".  (laugh again) Bah, I could spit.  She then said "We decided to tube feed her every few hours instead".  Some nerve split in me as my new mama bear (ah!) qualities came in.  I told the nurse that I was the mother of Ashley, not her, and that we were going to bottle feed her, just for the hospital stay.  She said that if we started on bottle feeding, we would never be able to get her to nurse, but in the end she let us bottle feed her.  

These two days in the hospital were the worst days of their lives so far.  I'm not trying to be pessimistic, it was just how it was.  I had two babies to take care of on different floors of the hospital.  I would walk myself up and down the halls after I had just given birth, which hurt a little bit.  I couldn't feed them both when they needed to be fed, I couldn't rock them both to sleep.  I felt like I was neglecting Ashley when I was down with Elysha and that I was neglecting Elysha when I was up with Ashley.  I never would wish anyone to have a baby in the NICU, not even my worst enemy.  And this only lasted two nights!!

Alas, we left the hospital with both our healthy babies in tote.  Christian was happier than I had seen him in weeks and I almost cried with relief at being able to leave the grounds after almost a month of staying there.  I was so excited to start our new life with these girls.  We drove home smiling the whole way.  And this was while I was sore and squished between two carseats in the backseat.  Oh and guess who I proved wrong??  My babies both breast feed now.  That'll show her!  Ha! 

The Olsen Beginning

WE MET



The last year has been by far the most eventful year of my life. Last May I met a cute boy. Now- the following year - I have a family of four! Christian and I met in our LDS college ward. He asked me out after we had met there and we went hiking for our first date. Little did he know I am allergic to bug bites and got bit by a tic - I ended up very swollen in the hospital getting it removed. Despite the painful (for me) beginning, I was just taken with him. He proposed to me after a month dating. My dad had been in Mexico for the majority of that month, so this was a huge surprise to him as you can imagine! Everyone thought we were crazy. It was also rumored that we were only getting married because I had gotten pregnant. Oh, if we only knew what was coming!



I loved being engaged and we had a lot of fun that summer. I felt very comfortable with his family and we spent a lot of time with them. Finally, after 6 LONG weeks of engagement :) we were married in the LDS temple.



THE SIGNS



One month later....



I was crying every day. Now, Christian rarely does anything worthy of crying over, so this was a little frightening to him - I would guess. I could see that he was half wondering if I had turned out to be a different person after all! One night he came in from mowing the lawn and I had set up our dinner on our living room floor, thinking I was being romantic. When he didn't jump for joy at how great of an idea I had had, I began to cry... again. He thought I was acting a little strange and told me to take a pregnancy test. I didn't really think it would be positive, but oh it was.



I didn't cry again for a long time! I was so excited, it would be so fun to have a baby! I just KNEW that we were having a boy. However, I became distracted, for the crying had been replaced with severe morning sickness. I could not keep anything down. If people talked about food, smelled like food, or -heaven forbid- were eating food, I would gag and run to the bathroom for my life. I lost fifteen pounds. I thought this was semi normal. A few weeks later, I started feeling little movements - WAY earlier than normal. I figured my baby was already a genius and could simply learn how to move faster than all the other average babies that weren't even close to as smart as mine. Once I even felt a kick by my hip and a punch by my opposite rib at the same time! I was thoroughly impressed with the determination and smarts that required.



THE ULTRASOUND



Our doctor said everything in our pregnancy was going as planned, so we scheduled an ultrasound two weeks after we needed to, at 20 weeks. We both thought we were having a boy. Christian thought we were having twins. I laughed at him, I knew there was no way. Before we went into the ultrasound, in our nightly prayer, Christian blessed "the babies". I laughed again. The next day we had our ultrasound. They said to drink a lot of water. So I did. I was drinking the whole hour and a half drive there and all through the half hour we waited to be called back. As we walked in, I felt pain as I had never felt before and could care only about how nice it would feel to be done with the ultrasound and be able to visit the bathroom every twenty minutes again. We sat down in the waiting room, anxious and quiet. I tried to distract myself by looking around the office. There were two other women waiting for their 18 week ultrasounds besides myself. Neither of them looked pregnant. I looked down at my too-big-for-my-body-stomach and swore off ice cream.



Finally it was our turn. I went back into a dark room and lay on the table. When I had pictured the ultrasound in my mind before, I thought of myself comfortable and relaxed, excited to see my baby for the first time and weak with anticipation of what we were having. Instead I just wanted the pain in my stomach to go away. I told myself I could study the video later when I had an empty bladder and could concentrate on something else. The doctor pulled the video up. I saw indistinct shapes on the screen that I figured was the placenta. He was quiet for several minutes. He asked us if we were ready for a surprise. My heart leaped to my throat, suddenly I was unaware of my full bladder. I was dreading his next words, that there must be something wrong with the baby. But he said "You are having twins". Tears burst from my eyes, I had never before been so surprised, proud, excited and overjoyed at once.



REACTIONS



We were so excited we were having twin girls. We went to Ihop and called our family. Christians mom cried and my mom literally did not believe me. My step mom is a twin so she was really excited. In the conversations that followed we heard all of the reactions possible:

• "You'll definitely have a C-section"


• "You don't know what you are getting yourselves into"


• "I knew someone who had twins that died after they were born"


• "I knew someone who had twins that had heart problems their whole lives"


• "I knew some twins that had real bad identity issues"


• "Watch out for conjoined twins, they might not have caught that in the ultrasound"


• "Why did you get pregnant with twins for your first baby?"


• "Count their movements every day to make sure they are both still alive"


• "I would never trade places with you"


• "I'm sorry"

Of course, we had plenty of positive reactions as well. I have wonderful friends and family that only hope the best for me. I think sometimes it just took people by surprise and they would say the first thing they thought of. Probably the best reaction I got was from a friend who is also a mother of twins. She said "You have never heard anyone who has had twins say anything negative about it. They all love being twin moms". Though I had a few moments I doubted my ability to raise these girls, for the most part I knew I was ready for them. I know we wouldn't have had twins if we couldn't handle them.

COMPLICATIONS

I don't want to dwell too much on the complications because they depress me and are boring to everyone else. But I will give the general story.

So my doctor had me drop all of my school classes because I was to be put on house rest (I called house arrest) at 28 weeks. I was two classes away from graduating, but I dropped anyway. I stayed in work until 26 weeks when I started having braxton hicks contractions so badly that I wouldn't be able to walk to work anymore. I would get them every two minutes sometimes. I knew they were braxton hicks because they would start really fast, then go away after about an hour.

At 28 weeks we went to the hospital in pre-term labor. I stayed for three nights I think. I was dilated to a 2 and 80%. My doctor put me on strict bed rest and sent me home. My amazing in-laws took care of me while Christian would work. I was no fun to be around, but they faked enthusiasm at having me around anyway. I started getting depressed because I have a very active personality and have never been able to sit around before. At 33 1/2 weeks I went into the hospital again for preterm labor. Now I was 5 cm dilated and 95% effaced. They gave me some medicine that stopped the contractions. I felt like I was on speed. I was shaking and could only think about how bad I wanted to get out of bed. After a few days, they switched the medicine, which was wonderful. I was back to being only mildly restless, and I could handle that.

I couldn't cheat and walk around at the hospital because they were smart and strapped me to monitors to track the heartbeats. They would know every time I got out of bed or unstrapped myself. Christian stayed with me and we played games, watched TV, and he talked to me all day. He, being a hard labor farming man, almost went crazy, which was the best thing he has ever done for me.

My goal was to make it to May 7 (35 weeks) so I wouldn't be a teenage mother when they were born. My twentieth birthday came and went, still in the hospital. Finally, at 36 1/2 weeks we got an amniocentesis. If you don't know what it is, they stuck a really long and big needle in me and took some of the amniotic fluid to test their lung development. They were mature! I was induced on May 17 at exactly 37 weeks.

THE LABOR

Everyone says having babies is hard work. I will have to wait until my next pregnancy to really know how I feel about that. My twins wanted to come, and when I was induced, they had no objections! I was in labor for five and a half hours. The contractions were a lot less painful than they had been in Preterm labor. After about two hours of not-so-painful contractions, they decided to give me an epidural.

Looking back, I am glad they didn't ask me if I wanted an epidural. They didn't ask me if I needed an epidural. They just sent the doctor in. I have a fear of needles, so naturally, I was much more afraid of the epidural than the delivery itself. The doctor, with a look of amusement and glee at my pained expression, came and sat behind me. He told me to roll over to my side, rubbed gel stuff on me, poked me with his fingers, gave me a shot, and then gave me the epidural. Anti-climatic truth: while tears streamed down my face in fear, I realized I didn't feel anything.

They broke my water right after the epidural. After that everything went very quickly. My doctor left the hospital, thinking it would be a few hours. An hour later, I was completely ready to have the babies. Again, I felt nothing. I looked over at the chart next to me that indicated I was having very strong contractions, and wondered how I could be physically oblivious to them. They called my doctor and rolled me into the delivery room. They could tell Elysha was stressed and she needed to be born soon. Her heartrate was going all over the place. This scared me half to death. They said that it was to the point that if I didn't push, she was going to come anyway. Finally, my doctor came in and... fifteen minutes later, Elysha was born. She was 4 lbs 7 oz and 18" long. My pain scale = 0. Two minutes later, Ashley came at 4 lbs 12 oz and 18".

They were beautiful! I wasn't allowed to hold them for about fifteen minutes while the NICU nurses checked their vitals. I was starting to get dizzy. They brought Ashely and Elysha to me, and they were just beautiful and had the sweetest spirits. I loved them instantly. They both stared at me with big eyes like they knew who I was. I started to feel more dizzy. I was scared I was going to drop them. The nurses came and took them and I started to feel like I was going to pass out. This was when I realized something might have gone wrong. I noticed my doctor was ordering all sorts of medicine for my drip and they were trying to stop the bleeding. Long story short, I lost three times as much blood as I should have. The nurse told me afterwards that if my doctor hadn't have been there I probably would have died. Crazy!

Ashley spent two nights in the NICU which I will write about later. I have already written a novel. The girls are two months old now, healthy and so much fun! I still think they are the smartest babies around for miles.