Twins at Home

Sleeping was a luxury after the twins came home. We each had a baby in a basinet beside the bed. They would only sleep a little at a time and I found more and more that I had to just bring my baby into bed with me to get them to stay asleep. Trouble is I can’t sleep great with a baby right against me since I’m so careful about rolling, etc. After ten days Lucy went home and my parents came back up for a week. My dad didn’t know it yet, but he was in the middle of a lot of his health problems at the time. He had a lot of trouble breathing and we all thought it was elevation sickness at first. It was kind of scary when they went home and we were all alone with six kids and I was going back to work. Our friends in the ward at church helped out again quite a bit. Rhys got rides to preschool and we had dinners brought over. Women would come over most mornings and help Ann out for an hour or so.

I watched out for the babies’ weight pretty carefully for the first couple of months. They gained steadily, but Tara always seemed so much further ahead. It was a crazy time. Little sleep and the house was always a mess. The kids would forget to get their homework turned in or were otherwise neglected. The schedule for me was to get up and help the girls get off to school, go to work, come home and help out with the kids, and then go to bed. On Saturdays we would try to catch up on house work and on Sundays we would go to church which was the most exhausting activity of all. Within a month of coming home, Brigid had gained almost two and a half pounds—but Tara was still a couple pounds ahead.

The other kids were very happy to have the babies home. I was the most surprised at Teague, who loved them right away. He was never jealous or mean, but wanted to hold them and hug them as much as anyone else. Here’s a post Ann made about Rhys’s reaction:

Rhys: Mom, we're rich.

Me: We are?

Rhys: Yes, because we have these babies, they are so cute. That makes us rich.

I love this boy.

The girls have been a big help to us although the complaining started after just a couple of days. When they were at first super keen to bottle feed the twins, it soon became old hat. They pleaded to be able to dress the babies and then it became too hard. They wanted to feed them solids and soon after complained about the mess. It’s kind of hilarious. We kept venturing more and more with the twins. Ann finally let the helping visits and the meals lapse. We went to a bounce house place for Teague’s birthday. She took both boys and the twins out shopping. She even took all the kids to the splash pool. Having the twins at home finally became normal.

In mid June, Ann’s Grandfather passed away somewhat unexpectedly. I had known him for over twelve years and we were very friendly so it hit me pretty hard too. We agonized about going down for the funeral, but since we were to see everyone for the babies’ blessings and at a family reunion soon after we sat it out. On the weekend of July 4^th we went down and spent time with family and blessed the twins in Gary and Lucy’s ward. It all went pretty well and I felt while blessing them that the pair was certainly sent and preserved to fulfill an important mission for the Lord. During this visit my entire family including spouses and kids managed to make it over to my parents’ house in Prescott. It was the first time in a while and the last time probably for quite some time. Later that month I had my marathon work day. An important system went down and it baffled everyone for a while. My counterpart was on vacation in Europe, so he couldn’t help. I was working for 38 hours straight. It was a great time. Poor Ann had to ask friends for help to get everyone to bed two nights in a row.

Meagan wanted a makeover party for her birthday so while all the party goers and Ann’s friends made over, Kevin and I took the twins and our boys to the movies. It was an experience. We went to Zookeeper thinking it was a kids’ movie, but it’s not. The boys ran all over the place, the babies wouldn’t sleep. I think I lost ten pounds during it, but at least Meagan had a nice party. The next day she got a horseback riding lesson.

The babies’ room was finally painted/decorated in late May and we started using for them to actually sleep in August. It was scary, but it worked out pretty well and they got in a better sleeping scheduling within a couple of weeks. Teague was no help during this phase; he kept opening things and spreading them all over (like baby power, pink nail polish, and baby oil). In September we took the babies with us for an overnight in Park City for Ann’s birthday. They did pretty well, even at the expensive restaurant we went to with Delani and Steve.

A lot for drama and stress came in September and October over our renters who took over after Rich and his family moved to Alpharetta. They never paid any rent after they moved in and the vibe we got of how the house was being treated was a big worry. In the end we finally got them out, but we felt like we had to get down there to oversee the cleanup. The house was in a pretty awful state and the yard was hideous. We went back to AZ for a visit and I worked like 14 hour days trying to get things back in shape. I had a lot of help from family for which I’m grateful. Even after all that work, there were still more things I had to outsource to my dad and brother Jim to finish it off. Even after that, the agency we hired still had to do a few more things. What kind of a sick person takes the silverware tray out of a dishwasher?

Tara and Brigid have had a developmental specialist coming a couple times a month to measure and help their progress. They struggled at first, but have now caught up. At ten months old they are ahead of their developmental age. Still small, though. They crawl and cruise and sit and babble a lot. Brigid even growls sometimes. I’d like to go through and list what all we’re interested in and doing with our lives, but we pretty much all have the same interests right now. We like to do house work, stay at home, and take care of babies. This very trying year is coming to a close and we’re all healthy, happy, and together. With everything that has gone on in the last year I’ve got to say I’m pretty grateful.