Hey Kid, You Owe Me a Quarter...

As we all know it's a mother and father's job to saddle their children with plenty guilt, and to remind them of all the expense and heartache their poor parents suffered for their benefit. With that in mind, I've taken to running a mental tally of all the wasted diapers that the wonder twins have cost us. By "wasted," I'm referring to the all times I've placed a fresh diaper under the babies during a change only to have them hose the thing before it's even completely on -- along with me and the changing table cover too. Each time it happens, I mumble aloud that they owe me a quarter. I'm not good with numbers, but I think the running tally is something like $5,842.75 at this point -- but I could be off slightly.

Mom in the middle of a three-diaper blowout courtesy of our lovely little girl. This one nuked her outfit and the changing table cover too.

But as Elaine and I well know, that's all part of the adventure, and it just makes more room for milk. (Better out than in, right?) And besides, they're cute little buggers even if their dirty diapers are something straight out of Hell. Luckily, solid foods are a ways off.

Mom cradles the babies on her legs during a tummy time break.

This week brought some more good news on growth. The babies are both over 9 lbs now and Maddy has again regained the lead. Madeline weighed in at 9 lbs 5 ozs and Milo weighed in at 9 lbs 4 ozs. Who will be the first to make it to 10 lbs? Now that they're not being weighed each day it will be tough to tell. Both babies are eating very well these days and have already outgrown most of their newborn clothes.

Grandpa holds Madeline for the first time. Milo lies behind in the crib.

The kids got a nice treat this week when they met grandpa Stiles for the first time. The babies sent their regards by farting continuously throughout his visit. They clearly know their audience. Grandpa will be staying throughout the week. We've been trying to get the babies and the old man out for walks and some sightseeing. Look for more pics to come.

A bigger, chubbier Milo.

Milo got his referral for hernia surgery this week, and it looks like he'll head to Children's Hospital in Oakland in mid-December to fix the hernia once and for all. That'll be nice.

Milo hangs out with Dad at dinner.

There's really no elegant way to eat with a baby attached to you. You can either put a napkin on the kid's head, or hold the plate under your mouth (see above). Otherwise, you risk dropping food on his head -- which just seems kinda' shabby.

First Halloween

Milo the cow and Maddy the frog with Halloween-appropriate pumpkin hats.

It was low-key Halloween for M&M. The duo was hoping to make it to the party in the Castro, but they settled for hanging out with Mom and Dad at home in their sleepers. Then, in a fit of jealousy over not getting to wear the cow outfit, Maddy soiled herself and we were forced to change her back in to regular attire.

In other news, Elaine and I have nearly been driven to the drink to cope with life with twins. Just kidding of course, but as I've already mentioned (repeatedly) it's definitely a challenge! I finally broke down and bought a dishwasher today to try and spare us some time, and we've even decided to hire someone to come in and help. I won't make any of my standard jokes about saving a few bucks by hiring one of those guys out in front of the Home Depot.

Above: Elaine rests with the twins. They are both pushing 9 pounds these days, and Milo may be a few ounces over. Imagine if they had gone to term and been born in September? This picture gives an idea of how large Elaine might have been.

In other news, Maddy's reflux seems to have improved a lot over the last week thanks to the miracle of pediatric Zantac. She still gets fussy, but that's probably more personality than pain. Unfortunately, Milo seems to be showing some of the same symptoms lately. Frequently, reflux problems resolve within the first four months of a baby's corrected age, but it can linger up to a year or more. Here's hoping that doesn't happen. Milo was also referred for hernia surgery yesterday, and he'll likely get that out of the way in the next couple weeks.

Worth Every Penny

Milo

Maddy

The babies went for their check-up on Tuesday and we were delighted to find out that the kids made great weight gains. Milo really surprised us both. The boy wasn't eating particularly well his first week home, and we were just hoping he hadn't lost any weight since his discharge. Turns out he was just tucking it all away somewhere because he weighed in at a robust 8 lbs 10.5 ozs. In fact, turns out he's heavier than Maddy who's been swilling down the milk like she's got a hollow leg. Of late, Milo's been eating like a champ, so we expect he'll make even bigger gains soon.

Maddy also plumped up nicely. She's now 8 lbs 9 ozs and eating impressive amounts. Her reflux is another story. The poor kid gets pretty frantic after feeds, and it's not uncommon for it to take a solid two hours to calm her down and get her to sleep. She's taking some medicine for the reflux -- basically the same stuff that's in Zantac. She's only been on it for a day, and we haven't seen a major break through yet. Hopefully she'll turn a corner soon. If Maddy can mellow out a little after feedings, life will instantly become 30% easier.

Milo also had a follow-up eye exam on Tuesday, which made for a very busy day. After their pediatric visit, I had to drive Milo to San Ramon (about 40 minutes away) for the appointment. That's when the fun started. Infant eye exams are pretty painful to watch. The doc used those crazy spreaders on the little guy's eyes -- it was like something out of A Clock Work Orange. To add to the whole adventure, a pipe burst in the men's room while I was changing Milo. I was about two-thirds of the way through his diaper change when water started pouring in from the ceiling. Quite an adventure. The good news is that Milo's eyes continue to improve. His retinopathy has resolved in his right eye, and it's now just mild in the left. With any luck, he'll only need one more exam.

Finally, we received the invoice for Milo's hospital stay. (Drum roll.) As predicted it exceeded $2 million ($2.1 million to be exact), and that doesn't include the billing for the doctors or several other items. All in all, I think we may hit the $5 million mark for both kids. We love you Tricare! We'll be providing the NICU staff with a giant novelty check sometime in the near future. We'll just post-date that til next pay day.

The First Big Week Home

The family Stiles celebrated one week together at home yesterday. One terrific, sleep-deprived, week. And what can we say about parenting twin infants? It's pretty much summed up by the cliche we hear whenever we're out strolling around with the kids. "Are those twins? Boy, you really got your hands full." Yes, yes we do. This week (and last) we discovered the necessity of baby carriers. These handy inventions allow us to do all kinds of fun things while the babies are attached to us, like wash bottles and feed the other baby, or maybe even allow one of us to shower while the other watches over both sprouts. The bonus is that Milo typically falls asleep within seconds of being in placed in the carrier -- Madeline not so much.

Far more important to our sanity the last couple weeks, we were very fortunate to have Elaine's sister Antina come to help out when Maddy came home, and this week my sister Heather was here to help us get used to managing the duo. Heather has lots of experience in this area since she has a 5 and 2 year-old at home. Heather is also a very good photographer, so you'll notice a marked improvement in the quality of several of the pictures this week.

So what did we do with the week?

We bathed Milo and Maddy too. Turns out that baby-fresh smell lasts only so long before giving way to the odor of sour milk or worse(!). Above: Aunt Heath gets a nice picture of Milo in the tub. You'll have to keep guessing about the circumcision ;)

We visited Muir Woods along with Aunt Heather.

Mom swings into action to resolve a 3-diaper blowout in the Muir Woods parking area -- surely violating several EPA regulations. Maddy decided to see just how prepared we were to deal with the mess. Luckily, we had a couple spare changes of clothes, several extra diapers, wet wipes, a changing pad, ointment, etc. on hand. All were put to use.

On that note, I used to think that parents took far too long getting their kids ready to go out. Come on! How hard could it be? Now I understand. I'm also starting to understand why the minivan exists. No, we have no plans to buy one, but their virtue is more and more clear each time we decide to go some where in the Subaru family truckster.

We took walks around the neighborhood. Heath gets a nice shot of Dad and Milo.

We hung out around the house. Actually, that's pretty much what we did most of the time. Maddy enjoys hanging out in with Momma in her baby carrier above. Thanks again Heath!

Maddy enjoys some comfort time at home with mommy. Notice that Maddy is wearing a bib here. She generally needs to be held this way (i.e., at an incline) for at least 20 minutes after eating or else she'll get terrible reflux and spit up a lot. She usually spits up anyway, but the incline takes a lot of the edge off the resulting mess. Reflux is pretty common to preemies, and her reflux should decrease in time.

Milo doesn't have the same reflux issues that Maddy has, but he does enjoy snuggling and this is his preferred position of rest.

Mommy and Maddy during a tummy time session. We need to be sure to have the kids do several push-up/head-turns every morning to help build their muscle tone. All the time on their back in their NICU crib takes its toll on shoulder development. The babies have a surprising amount of head control though. Both can lift up their noggins and turn them to both sides.

Dad and Aunt Heather hanging out with the babies.

Milo at rest. Check out the shine on that forehead! Definitely Daddy's boy.

Stay tuned to see whether Mom and Dad can make it through next week unassisted.