Vacation Day 6

Today we went riding in the Buffalo Creek Recreation Area in Colorado. It was a great trail. A hours plus climb, then a hour and a half of rolling singletrack at the top and then a blazing downhill to the parking area.

Above is the view from atop Buck Gulch Trail.

Here’s Nanc and I with Ethan and Emma in a Pagoda at the Pine Valley Ranch Park. It is one of the only original historic buildings on the park. It was quite popular in the days before air-conditioning as it was near Pine Creek and in a shady area.

Here's Mom and Carl with Ethan and Emma in the strollers we had to buy to fit al the stuff in for vacaction. It was so nice of them to watch Ethan and Emma on vacation while we were able to get some mountainbike rides in.

Ethan and Emma visit Grandma and Grandpa Wiese

    

Ethan and Emma finally got to meet Grandma and Grandpa Wiese. We took a vacation to Denver so Ethan and Emma could meet them. Mom Wiese was the only baby sitter I ever had and took care of me from the time I was 6 weeks old while my Mom worked. She, Dad Wiese and their children Ed and Shiela were like a second family to me growing up and we have managed to stay in touch even after they moved to Denver. I have such great memories of being at their house growing up.

Everyone has something especially wonderful in their life that they have no right to have and Mom and Dad Wiese and their family are mine. I always tell people how incredibly lucky I am to have them and their family in my life. I just hope I can do as well taking care of Emma and Ethan as they took care of me.

It was so great for Ethan and Emma to meet you all. Shiela made a great dinner and Ed, his wife Peggy and their daughter Amanda were nice enough to drop by as well. It was great to see all of you again and to meet Amanda.

Here's my Mom Wiese holding Emma. Can you tell she is a natural?

  

Here's Mom and Dad Wiese holding Ethan and Emma.

Here's Ethan, and left to right; Amanda, Shiela and Peggy.

Here's Peggy holding Ethan while Ed entertains Emma. They loved the voices and hand motions Ed would make.

Here Mom and Carl catch up on things with Mom Wiese.

Carl and Dad Wiese when we first arrived.

We are on vacation ! -Day 3

Here we are at the highest paved part of Rocky Mountain National Park just outside Estes Park, CO. It is over 12 thousand feet high and one of the few Alpine areas in the lower 48 states. The views were unreal. A nice person volunteered to take all our pictures together

Here's Ethan practicing his running to get rid of the fussies that sitting in a car seat for hours can cause. I love the pic Nanc took because it looks like he is running off the rock and that I am trying to catch him.

We got a mountain bike ride in today - hooray!

Got up to kettle with the kids today for a mountain bike ride. The weather was perfect Emma and Ethan really seemed to like being in the shade under the trees while one of us at a time took a ride. We are looking for a sitter to go on trips with us, so we can both ride so if you are interested let us know,

Here's Nanc and the kids as I am preparing to leave for my first ten mile loop at Kettle. Nanc will go out later herself. Miss riding the trails with her, as it is much more fun together, but compromises must be made and the twins are certainly worth it.

Here’s a cool area they just made with recent re-routes. You have easy, moderate or more technical line choices as you move from left to right. I did the technical line over the stone and logs this time for the first time. Pretty easy if you keep your speed up.

Emma and Ethan go to Marinel's 3rd birthday party

Emma and Ethan got invited to our good friends Tahra and Keith's daughters 3rd birthday party. Mike, Marta and their 20 month old son Jordan were there also. Tahra, Mike and I all opened the Lincolnwood Kohls' store together and also all worked at Kmart but at different times. It was great to see everyone again. Hopefully we can see each other more now that I am a stay at home dad and have more flexibility in my schedule.

Here's the birthday girl getting ready for cake. She loves Dorie from finding Nemo, so Tahra had a really neat Dorie cake made for Marinel

Here Marinel is getting ready to blow out the candle.

Keith serves up the cake while the family supervises.

Marinel posing for her picture. She is quite the little actress. Tahra had this neat backdrop with Finding Nemo characters that could be placed and replaced in different spots so the kids could pcik whi they wanted their picture taken with. It was pretty cool.

Here's Mike and Marta's son Jordan. I LOVE his backpack. It's a Dale Earnheart Jr. car backpack and Dale Sr. is my all time favorite Nascar driver. Jordan is such a cute boy.

Here's Mike, Marta and Jordan posing by Nemo

Here we are. Can you tell we woke them for the picture and to put them in their car seats. They were not happy at the moment but qickly got over it.

Here's Tahra, Keith and the birthday girl Marinel. Happy birthday Marinel!!

Welcome Home Mommy

Emma and Ethan made Mommy a sign to let her know we missed her on her first day back to work

Emma and Ethan go on their first walk

It was so nice out we had to take Emma and Ethan out for their first walk. It was 80 degrees, but we still covered them up because it was windy. Probably not needed but being the over cautious new parents.....

All 3 of my sweeties crashed out

You can just barely see Ethan in his striped blanket in the bassinet with Emma and Nanc is taking a well deserved nap before we head upstairs. Can't believe this is the 1st day of week 3. Time just fly's (except when they don't want to eat at 3am ☺),

Uncle Dave, Aunt Jan and cousin Kelley come to visit Ethan and Emma

Jan, Dave and Kelley came to visit Emma and Ethan for the first time. Thanks for coming up after a long day at work. Ethan and Emma were thrilled to have their first at home visitors. Sorry they were a little out of it at first. We had fed them just before your arrival.

Ethan and Emma are gaining back their weight

Good news, after losing 5 lbs each both have gained weight over the past 2 days. Since Tuesdays weigh in at the pediatrician Emma has gained 2 ounces and Ethan has gained 4 ounces. This means Emma still needs to gain 3 ounces to get back to her birth weight and Ethan needs to gain only 1 ounce to regain his.

We were relieved they are back on track. Emma was starving tonight, and ate so fast she started howling and 15 seconds later gave me back a large portion of what she had gobbled. All down my arm, into my leather watchband and down my leg, and I was only upset because she did not keep it down after I was so excited how she was eating. Earlier I had her on the bed and was changing her poopy diaper when I reached for a wipe I heard a noise and she was squirting out poopies several inches out straight a my face, luckily I was out of range. I laughed my butt off. Then twice today Ethan did the little boy pee as I am changed. Nothing like a diaper and outfit lasting 60 secongs. Who would have thought I would not care about being "annointed" repeatedly all day. They fill us with such love we don't care.

Nanc is having some discomfort with the incision and now has to start feeding more like 2 hours than every 3 since the babies are really starting to nurse and want to be fed more often than the 3 hours feedings with formula. As usual she is super-woman and never complains. We go to her Dr. for week after delivery check-up tomorrow.

Got to go, it's only 15 minutes till the midnight feeding.

Nanc needs to learn to feed herself like Emma and Ethan

Who would have thought Nanc would have been the messy eater!

Really I had brought the toothbrush to brush her teeth before going to bed so she would not have to get up, since she was exhausted after her first walk around the mother-baby unit. She had not rinsed off yet, and me being my ever considerate self took the opportunity to snap this.

Grandma and Grandpa Samson and Aunt Linda visit

Emma and Ethan get their first visitors. We weren't sure they would be up for visitors, but by afternoon they were doing so well, we decided to change our minds and let them have some visitors

Grandma and Grandpa Samson came to visit Emma and Ethan today around 3:00 and were the first official visitors. Both showed their expertise at feeding and burping.

Aunt Linda got done with her re-certification test and came over for a visit as well. She helped Nanc practice the latch on with the babies.

It was great to see everyone, Thanks for coming

Day 2 of Parenthood

It was a big day for Ethan and Emma. Both were released from the incubators, but Emma had to go back in because of her needing to be in just a diaper while on the ultraviolet bed. We hope she can be off the light bed tomorrow and regulating her temp on her own as well. She has started her bm's that will help get rid of the billyrubin so she should be off the light treatment soon. This will mean she can be swaddled and probably stay out of the incubator.

Mom is progressing well also and is on to solid food. She is off the morphine drip and walking around. As always she is being a trooper.

Felt so bad for poor Ethan today, they did his circumcision. They take them as far away from the parents as possible to do this, and then they gave him tylenol which made him very sleepy. His poor little guy part was bright red and bleeding. We know it was the right decision for us to do for him, but it still hurts us to do anything that hurts him.

On a person note, I HATE it when people call Emma tiny. She is NOT TINY. Precious yes, like a porcelain miniature yes, exquisitely detailed yes, like a doll baby yes, TINY NO!!!

I also love how people assume the dad is not a helper at home. The nurse ask are we getting help at home, it will be very hard without it for twins. When I state I will be home to help. She acts like I never said it. This is after I have done almost all the feedings every 3 hours and stayed overnight in the room doing them also. Got to love the prejudice. Many of us men are great help I am sure, but many assume we are not.

That's all for now.

Nanc and the twins

Nanc gets to hold Ethan and Emma for the first time. Nanc finally gets to hold her babies. They had to stay in the incubators till feeding time, so this is the first time that NAnc has been able to hold them. She was in recovery when I got to be with them in the nursery. They are doing great though. Both ate over 20cc's of formula and Emma is catching on to the breastfeeding, I think she wants to catch up to Ethan's size. Ethan meanwhile wanted nothing to do with breastfeeding, which was ok with me since I got to feed him.

  

We are off to the Hospital!!!

Dr Szela just called at 8:05 and we are off to the hospital to have Ethan and Emma. We only have 45 minutes to get there so that's all for now.

I am so excited, I can hardly type.

More later...

-John

Twins update - Thursday night Feb 22nd.

We had a Dr appt tonight and they took a amnio to make sure Ethan and Emma are ready for their big debut. To our suprise they wil have the results by tomorrow (Fri the 27th) morning. It appears right now that Nanc will be having a c-section on Friday if all goes as planned. At last weeks appointment they were 4 lbs 11 ounces and 5 lbs 2 ounces. Ethan was the larger as usual.

I cannot wait to get them in my arms. It has been over 5 years of constant attempts to get to this day. I am not a patient person with suprises to start with and the last few weeks have been especially tough as the date gets so close. Yet I am incredibly thankful that the pregnancy has gone well so far and they have waited so long to have time to grow. We are very hopeful they will be large enough to be allowed to stay in the room with us after birth rather than having to go to the NICU. It looks like we may get that wish.

Nanc is still doing well, but of course it is getting harder and harder for her to sleep. It takes a monumental effort for her to switch from laying on her right side to laying on her left side at night. They are a lot of ballast to flip over. I try to remind her it's like carrying a 10 + pound singleton. She has worked from home this week to try to keep her blood pressure down and get more rest. The train trip was killing her. It used to be her rest time, but she could not get comfortable over the past few months.

I am starting my FMLA leave for 6 weeks as of this coming Sunday.

It is really great to be able to take the 6 weeks off to bond with Ethan and Emma and to help Nanc with all the tasks. I am lucky I work for a great company (Old Navy).

Will post more once I know what time we are scheduled for the delivery.

-John