Bringing the Twins home

We've had the twins home with us for two and a half weeks! Honestly, things have been great! Don't get me wrong, having newborn twins is no walk in the park. They each have their fussy moments, and we are lacking in sleep, but I honestly can't complain. We've had meals brought over from friends/church, and my sister in-law, Courtney, came over most days and was a huge help!

Recovery from the c-section has been good for me; much easier than recovery from my first c-section. I think that's partly because being 38 weeks pregnant with twins was very similar to recovering from major surgery. Haha- but really. I remember walking around my hospital room thinking that it was actually easier to walk post surgery than it was the previous day with 14lbs of baby in my belly. However, the past few days I have been experiencing what is called "referred pain" which is caused by the manipulation from the abdominal muscles from the c-section. Basically, I've been getting really bad abdominal/ upper back muscle spasms. It comes sporadically, and is very painful, but they say it will go away as I continue to heal...so I'm hanging in there!

The twins have been eating great! They nurse every 3-4 hours for 15 minutes or so, and sleep most of the day (like most newborns do!). They aren't super fussy, unless they are hungry, getting a diaper change, or in Ryan's case, a paci has fallen out of his mouth. Lyla can also get a little fussy if she is tired and we try to put her down before she is asleep; she likes to be held. They are great babies though, and Jared and I love that we each get a newborn to snuggle with whenever we want. Seriously, snuggling a sleeping newborn is one of the sweetest things in life :)

Big brother has adjusted well, and has been such a good helper. He is great about running over and popping binkies back in the twins' mouths for us, throwing diapers away, and doing other little chores. Occasionally when Lyla is crying he'll ask if we can take her back to the hospital, and almost nightly we hear him yell "shhh be quiet!"  when he is trying to fall asleep at night and one of the twins is fussy. It makes us laugh. He usually is a sweet big brother though, and loves to hold them, and sing them songs.

The twins last check-up with the pediatrician in the hospital went very well, with the exception that Lyla had lost 10% (or more) of her birth weight.

Our doctor said that typically he would have her stay in the hospital, but because my milk had already come in, he let us take her home... if I promised to pump a little extra for her after each feeding, and then bring her in to his doctor's office on Monday to have her weighed, and home we went!

Feeling so blessed to go home with two healthy babies!

Kyler was delighted to have the twins home! I'll never forget that moment Jared set the carseats down in the living room. Kyler was literally squealing and bouncing around in delight. He immediately got blankets and binkies and started "taking care of them".  It was pretty cute. What a good big brother.

Some friends of ours watched Bauer for us while we were in the hospital. They brought him home on Sunday, and we introduced the twins to him... he sniffed them once and has pretty much ignored them ever since-hah.

...Ryan pretty much cried the whole time during his first bath at home. His second bath went much more smoothly :)

Jared bathed Lyla like a pro, and she hardly cried at all. Daddy's magic touch!

Jared is also good at telling the twins' cries apart in the dark. Their cries sound pretty much identical to me.

Tandem nursing was so hard at first, but we finally have it down! I love this giant twin nursing pillow thing:

Kyler had his four year old checkup the same day as the twins had their checkup. Kyler is in the 25% for height and weight (32ish lbs and 39ish inches tall-- I think). He had to get shots, and after he cried for a minute he told Jared: "It's not nice to poke people! That doctor was grumpy!" 

The twins' checkup went well too! Lyla gained a few ounces and was up to 6 lbs 11oz and Ryan was up to 7 lbs even.

I love these random newborn smiles :)

We put them next to each other for tummy time, and they fell asleep looking at each other :)

The twins and their cousin, Andie are about 5 months apart... they are going to be best buddies some day!

I don't have a lot of time to go into details right now, but also... Christmas happened during the twins' first 2 weeks at home...and it was a good one!