Twins - Day 4 update

Thanks to everyone for their best wishes. Alison is doing very well and will be discharged tomorrow. She will be staying at the hospital in another room until Friday to facilitate breast feeding.
Charlotte is also doing well and has gained some weight and is breast feeding. We are unsure exactly when she will be discharged but this weekend is a possibility.
Claire has had a harder day today, with both her breathing rate and blood oxygen levels falling below the recommended limits for several 30 second "episodes". A baby is allowed one episode but if it has a second one then it has to stay for a further 7 days in hospital. So Claire will not be discharged until next Tuesday at the earliest. She is in no danger and staying longer is a precautionary step. She is also being treated for jaundice. Louise likes the big blue lamp which is used to help eliminate the jaundice - saying that Claire must be cold because it is blue!

Thanks also to everyone who voted in the names poll. We had decided upon Charlotte's name for a while but we had a short list for twin B. So on the drive into the hospital we chose from the short list of Jennifer, Claire and Alice.

Twins - Day 2 update

Everyone had a good nights sleep and felt the better for it. Charlotte is having some trouble keeping down the milk given to her. Claire is much more like her big sister, Louise, by drinking all the milk given and wanting more!
The two photos below are of Claire and the video is of Charlotte. Both of them are in heated controlled cribs since they cannot yet fully regulated their own temperatures. Their estimated check-out date is unknown at the moment because it depends on their weight gain.

Safe ARRIVAL!!!

The twins have arrived and both are doing well. They are due to stay in hospital for at least a week due to them being born prematurely at 34 weeks. Alison is recovering well, having started to walk again. She has the expected stomach pain from the C-section. Alison is likely to stay in hospital at least 4 days, with the option of spending a couple of extra nights if she wishes since there is spare space in the ward and it will help with the feeding the twins.

Twin A is Charlotte Christine and she was born at 1:49am on Saturday 28th March. She weighed 4lb 10oz. Below are a couple of photos pre and post bath!
and Twin B is Claire Alice and she was born at 1:50am on Saturday. She weighed 4lb 7oz and below are pre and post bath photos.

Alison and I also want to thank everyone for their kind wishes.

Louise enjoys the North Carolina spring

Spring finally arrived, after all the rain. We had a great weekend, enjoying the nice sunny weather. On Saturday we visited Katie and her parents and also enjoyed seeing Louise's old daycare teacher, Jennifer. The girls had a great time playing together and Louise fell asleep on the drive home after all the hard playing.
Louise today started her transition to the Two's class at daycare. She spent two hours there today and will build up to spending the whole day there by Friday. She is moving with Katie into this class which has ten other two to three year olds.

Week 32 ultrasound

Alison today had her 32 week high resolution ultrasound. All is developing well with each twin having an estimated weight of 4lb. Unfortunately there are no photos because both twins were facing inwards so we could not see the faces. Both are in the breech position and have identical poses.

Louise is doing well with a playdate at Katie's planned for Saturday. She has become a bit less of an eating machine than she used to be. She now sits in an adult chair and sometimes gets up and walks around during a meal before resuming eating. We were spoilt in the past, when Louise with no prompting would eat whatever was placed in front of her.

Minivan travails

This week has been mixed - on Thursday Louise fell at daycare and cut under her eye. She now has a big bruise coming out. TLC was applied and she is doing well now.
Our Toyota minivan came back from the garage after being repaired for a fuel leak and the next day it got rear-ended by some teenagers in a Jeep, whilst Alison was driving. Alison and the twins are fine since it was a relatively low speed accident, with just some damage to the bumper.

One a good note, Louise has progressed with her potty training and she is now regularly using the potty at home. She is getting increasingly confident and full of pride when everything goes to plan!

Better news!

Louise is now fully recovered from her bout of stomach illness. No lasting effects.
Today she had her first professional haircut at "Snip-its" in Raleigh, and she overcame her dislike of hair-dryers. Being bribed with a reward (little toy) and lolly-pop probably had something to do with it!!

The minivan went back for its repair yesterday and a vent hose was reattached. Unfortunately the gas smell is back today :-( .

In other news we went from freezing, snowy conditions on Monday to the mid 70's today. Louise got out her new shorts. Two photos below - one from the start of the week where two neighbouring children, Kayla and Karissa, playe with Louise in the snow for a while. The second is from today - Louise is practising her cycling.

Not so good news

Louise stayed home today with a stomach virus. She had a reduced appetite and that is a sure fire way to know that something is wrong. She was also lethargic, but still was in a happy mood.
Also our new minivan is going in for repairs on Friday due to a strong gasoline smell coming into the cabin. Hopefully easily fixable since it is a very useful and flexible vehicle.

The Mommy wagon arrives and it snows!

After much deliberation, this past weekend we succumbed to buying a minivan (people carrier in UK English) in preparation for the expanding family. It is certainly useful with sliding doors and the ability to walk through the cabin from the front seats. Photos will follow later because as soon as we picked it up on Friday it has rained non-stop to the end of Sunday.

Today we woke up to 3 inches of snow and Louise has enjoyed having a walk around outside and splashing.