Hospital Living

Today I'm writing to you from my back porch, drinking sweet tea and listening to Pandora.  Daniel is napping on the hammock.  The weather is perfect and I have two almost-six-week-old girls hanging out in a laundry basket next to me.  This is my new version of bliss :)

We stayed in the hospital for four days.  During that time it was pretty typical of newborn life - we learned how to feed, change, and swaddle them.  I tried hard to recover from surgery - lots of resting, getting up and walking around some, took my fair share of Percocet, and tried to learn to nurse.  We received lots of visitors, met with several doctors and nurses, and grinned from ear to ear.

To say that I learned to feed, change, and swaddle is kind of an over-statement.  Let me rephrase that - Daniel did.  Since I was down for the count from my C-section and overdose of medication, Daniel began his role as the best dad in the world.  He effortlessly fed and changed them - helped teach others to do the same.  He allowed me to rest and focus on nursing/pumping, even though that wasn't a success.  In the hospital, I changed maybe a diaper or two and fed them once.  He was, and still is, incredible.  He slept in the room with me, walked me to and from the bathroom (dealing with stuff most guys would pass out over), and made me feel beautiful despite the IVs, swollen gut, and vomit.  When the nurses would come in for information on the babies, he knew all the answers.  How much did they eat, what was in their diapers, and what our schedule was.  The girls required a little bit extra care & tests since they were considered preemies, and he stayed up on all of the additional information.  He is incredible.  I didn't know it was possible to love him anymore than I already did, but somehow every day since the girls have been born, I fall more and more in love with him.  He loves those girls with every ounce of energy in his body, plus some.  Hands down, he is the very best dad.  Ella & Sydney are so, so lucky.

Here is a picture journey of our hospital life:

our precious Ella

Sydney trying hard to see what's going on.  The struggle is real

Katherine & Sally

Daniel, Grandma Stella, & Ella

Grandma Stella holding the beautiful great-grand who was named after her

Bobby & Ella

Pretty Kristen & Ella

 The girls were borderline jaundice while they were in the hospital.  Sydney was just a little bit too jaundice, so she had to spend about 18 hours under the lights to get her levels back to normal.  The nurses were great and let her do her "tanning" in our room with us

Sydney tanning... can't forget the sunglasses

Katie & Ella

Darryl & Ella

the best neighbor in the world!

Sorry, Abby, the girls aren't eating goldfish yet

Big Cousin, Abby, loving on her cousin

Finally!  A daddy-daughter picture.  Look at him being awesome :)

Momma and her two girls

Ella's first selfie

Momma & Ella doing some skin-to-skin.  I finally got out of bed and made it to the chair

 At this point you are probably thinking, why is Ella the only one in pictures?  We don't have a favorite twin, Sydney was just being a diva in the tanning bed...

Barely squeezing into our preemie onesies :)  We were thrilled they were such good sizes that they didn't really need any preemie clothes

Daniel snapped a few pictures while the hospital photographer was in the room doing her thing.  We obviously don't want to sell our first born to pay for those pictures, but these are perfect!

And finally after four days, the hospital trusted us enough to care for two newborns all on our own!  It's such an overwhelming thought that you no longer have nurses and doctors telling you what to do and leaning on their expertise.  Daniel nervously drove us home.  We listened to American Authors on the way home and I cried :)

Breaking out of this joint