Most people seem to think that you gain an arsenal of funny stories involving various bodily fluids around the time you give birth, accumulating on through at least the first couple of years of your child’s life. Although childless until recently, I’ve been accumulating these stories for many years, as a result of parents who took me camping and backpacking with regularity throughout my childhood, combined with the fact that I live with several pets that we refer to as the “animal pack.”

I could share fantastically true tales such as a certain family member of mine, who, while on a deep woods backpacking trip in the mountains of West Virginia, chose to take his morning coffee and hike up the steep mountain to find a nicely sized stump to perch with his backside over the end to do his business. He got settled and was just beginning to enjoy the coffee and take in the crisp, sunny morning in the woods when the stump broke and he went careening down the mountain, somersault style, with his pants at his ankles. He stumbled back to the campsite, bleeding, with dirt, leaves, and coffee all over him. Thankfully, everyone in my family knows how to enjoy a good laugh at their own expense.

As of Sunday morning, I could also share the most fantastic of poop stories so far in our new experience of parenthood. On Friday night, with a most arrogant sense of command, I announced to my husband and twins that, on Saturday morning we would begin using cloth diapers on Andrew, by God! Saturday morning arrived and we pulled out the brand spanking new cloth diapers and snapped and velcroed our hearts out, exclaiming over the cuteness of the diapers. At each feeding to follow on Saturday afternoon, we took turns holding our breath with fear, while slowly unsnapping the diaper, expecting the worst mess. It never came. We uneventfully accumulated about five dirty diapers in the laundry pail before going back to disposables for the night. Having called Saturday a relative success, Sunday morning diapering came with all the cockiness of new parents 24 hours into trying something different and having it work out ok. Dave and I got up and got the kids started on feeding. Andrew finished first and wanted to lie in his crib and stare at his mobile. Dave was still working on feeding Audrey when we heard the most fantastic of farts bursting forth from Andrew’s crib. I was the unlucky empty-handed one, so I sidled toward his crib with trepidation. I was not wrong to be frightened. Poop was everywhere! It was on the crib sheet, the crib, and the kid. I picked him up to fix it, and it then proceeded to be on the carpet, the changing table, the diaper pail, my shirt, pants, his shirt, pants, legs, feet, and face. As I turned around to share a laugh with Dave over our child bred of apparent colonic exuberance, Audrey began vomiting all over him, the nursing pillow, her clothes, blanket, and chair. The twins, who must have been in cahoots, managed to ruin four outfits and create an entire load of laundry in ten seconds flat. We joke that we have not yet found a diaper that can contain Andrew’s colonic exuberance. It took us a good twenty minutes to change our clothes and theirs and clean up the mess. We went back to disposable diapers for the rest of the day.

For this round, it is twins 1, parents 0. Well played, twins, well played.

This week has been an incredibly challenging week for us.  Our daughter, Audrey, developed issues with reflux about 3 weeks after birth.  We have spent the past several weeks working with the doctor on different solutions such as medicine, feeding techniques and positioning, and feeding frequencies, as well as attending weekly doctors appointments to check her weight and well-being.  Things were mostly going well enough until her two month checkup on Monday.  Our pediatrician discovered that she had not gained any weight in the past week, so she ordered lab tests.  On Tuesday morning, she called me and requested that I check Audrey into the hospital to treat dehydration and work with a nutritionist and gastroenterologist team.  I took her straight to Texas Children’s Hospital, where she remains.

Audrey sleeping in her bed at the hospital

Audrey’s condition is known as “failure to thrive”.   As a new mother, it’s like taking a punch in the gut every time the doctors and nurses say it, which is fairly often.  While I know that Dave and I have done everything possible to help her thrive and have been working diligently with a medical team for many weeks to make sure she does, neither of us are used to hearing the word failure at anything we undertake.  Feeding your child is something that is so important and so basic that it feels terrible when it goes wrong.  In our case, Audrey is simply not interested in eating very much.  After eating a small amount, she purses her lips shut and she’s done.  I recognize that stubbornness and it would make me smile if it wasn’t so problematic.

My sweet friends continue to ask me almost every day how I am doing and how I am feeling.  The truth is, I’m doing fine.  Everything that is supposed to be getting done is getting done.  How I’m feeling is a question that I can’t answer because I don’t know.  I know that I feel anxious.  Beyond that, I’m not open to introspection right now because I can’t afford it.  There will be time later to process emotions and think about feelings.  That time is not right now, while we are in crisis mode.

Audrey, on the other hand, appears to be feeling great mentally!  She has taken it upon herself to win over every member of the medical staff at the hospital with a gigantic smile for each of them.  They come by to ask me if they can hold her because she’s so cute and smiley.  Sometimes she wiggles and coos for them too.  This week, she has undergone multiple catheter and IV insertions and blood draws, gross drinks, and people holding her down to check everything under the sun.  She endures with some tears, but always smiles about it afterwards.  It is a strange picture to see such a happy child in a hospital bed.  I’m so proud of her strength and amazed that she has shown it to us at only ten weeks old.

Audrey smiling in the hospital

While Audrey has recently struggled to grow, Andrew is growing like a big fat weed!  He is a very healthy, chubby kiddo who loves his food.  He is making some great strides this week in sleeping ten hours at night.  Also, his digestive system is quite impressive in it’s elimination of waste!  He has been visiting his sister in the hospital daily.  We are all looking forward to her coming home to go back to life as normal.

Andrew

I once again want to say thank you to our incredible support system of family, friends, and coworkers near and far, who have yet again quite impressively jumped through hoops to help with prayers, food, company, and love.  It is truly touching and we appreciate every bit of it.

One of the great things about living in Houston is that we have beautiful weather all year round.   However, our summers are intensely hot.  I grew up in western Pennsylvania, where winter was long, snowy, and cold.  On those first beautiful days of spring, everyone wanted to be outside, enjoying the great weather.  In Houston, this happens in the fall after a long, hot summer.  After 4-5 months of high heat and humidity, a cold front will come through, usually in October, and bring with it beautiful, crisp, clear days that bring everyone outdoors to enjoy.  This cold front came through on Sunday morning with rain showers.  By early afternoon, it had cleared up to about 80 degrees, dry and sunny.

The perfect weather made me excited to get outside to try out our new jogging stroller for the first time.  Dave strapped Audrey and Andrew into their seats and off we went through the neighborhood.  I planned to walk for about 15 minutes to see how they did, but it went so well that we ended up staying out for over an hour and walking about 2.5 miles.  They both seemed to really enjoy it, as did I, and we will do it again very soon now that we should have perfect weather for the next several months.  Also, I would like to try running with the stroller, as it is very smooth and easy to push. 

The highlight of my week last week was that both Andrew and Audrey started smiling at us.  Andrew has a slow, shy smile and it takes some coaxing to get him to show it to you.  Audrey has a big wide happy grin and shows it pretty freely.  It is so much fun to watch both of them developing side by side but doing it at their own individual paces and in their own ways.  Both of them are fairly easygoing and happy babies who are relaxed about most things we throw at them. 

This week I am looking forward to going back to work.  I have been so thankful for the opportunity to have paid time off to care for Audrey and Andrew and get them through the early infant stage with loving parents and grandparents around them.  However, now that they have smoothly transitioned to attending day care, I am mentally ready to get back to my job.   I look forward to putting my brain back to work on technical and commercial topics, and, when the time is right, to begin traveling again.  It will be a challenge to learn how to successfully balance a family and a career and it is a challenge that I look forward to undertaking, as both are important to me. 

Here are some pictures from this week:

Dave and Andrew catching some zzz’s

Starting to enjoy their activity mat

Andrew is thinking about smiling

Audrey showing a tiny little bit of smile

Have a great week!