Happy One-Month Birthday

We made it to one month. Yay! I have a feeling this was more of a struggle for Eric and me than for the babies, who only had to concentrate on eating and sleeping. If I wasn't trying to do Weight Watchers to take off some of this baby weight, I'd bake them a cake.

Here are some pictures from this morning, after I gave them a bath and put them in some pants, in an attempt to make them look more civilized in honor of their birthday. Since I took these pictures on my own and the babies were startnig to fall asleep, they aren't the best. If the outfits make it through the day without poop, pee, or formula covering them, we'll try to take more tonight.

A Rant, A Rave, and a Photo

As the title of this post indicates, today I have a rant, a rave, and a photo. Here goes:

Rant: I'd like to rant against this swing from Fisher Price. We got two of these swings based on the recommendation of many mom's, including several twin moms. However, within two uses, the AC adapter on one of the swings broke. What a pain in the rear end!?! This does not give me faith in Fisher Price products. But, that does bring me to my rave.

Rave: I have to rave about Fisher Price customer service. I called them about the broken swing, and the nice woman I spoke with went through several steps with me to help determine that it was indeed the AC adapter that was broken, and not the motor or another part. She even held on the line while I took a quick break in our conversation to quiet a crying Piper. The best part is that they are sending a new adapter out today, free of charge.

Photo: Here is a recent photo of Fletch for your viewing pleasure. I'll try to get one of Piper for tomorrow. I love the way his little hands look in this picture, like he's praying that I keep feeding him and don't take the bottle away.

Happy Visit

Sorry it's been so many days since my last post. On Wednesday, my mom came to visit and spend time with the beans. It was great having her here to help with feedings, laundry, etc., and we just had a wonderful time. Here are two pictures of us having a little fun on the front lawn.

We'll miss my mom now that she's gone back to Boston, but she'll be back again soon.

Change of Location

When you're a baby (especially a slightly premature baby like our babies), your life consists of basically eating and sleeping. Since Eric and I are both the type of people that get bored easily, I'd imagine that our children are the same way. So, today for our mid-morning naps, I've given the babies a change of venue over just laying in the pack n' play (otherwise known as "the pit"). (And don't worry about the blanket on Piper. She's right next to me, so I'm watching her closely.)

Tandem Feeding

One of the biggest challenges of being home with the beans on maternity leave is feeding them at the same time, so they don't erupt into shrill cries of hunger. This morning, I discovered this method using the Boppies.

You can also see my new haircut. I went to the hair salon on Saturday and had them cut all my hair off...I just couldn't deal with it anymore.

This is my first time trying this new feeding method. From the sounds of things, I'll be trying it again in just a few minutes because Fletch is waking up from his morning nap. I'm hoping this new method will save us time and be more efficient than feeding each of them individually because by the time I'm done with that, it's practically time to start all over again. Wish me luck!

Twin Tips

I know that right now, most of the readers of this blog are friends and family who want to see new pictures of the beans and hear of their adventures. But, someday, I'm also hoping that this blog might also provide something useful for other moms/families, especially with multiples. So, every so often, I'm going to post some of the things that Eric and I are learning as new parents of twins. I'll call these posts, "Twin Tips." Today's Twin Tips is about some of our favorite products that we have discovered.

Sleep Sheep: Oh, Sleep Sheep, how we love you. This cuddly little guy is the workhorse of our house and saves us at every nap and bedtime with his soothing sounds of a babbling brook, the ocean, rainfall, or whales. Within seconds of turning him on, Fletcher and Piper calm down and (hopefully) fall asleep. There are two versions of Sleep Sheep. We have the Sleep Sheep On the Go because he can be easily attached to a stroller or carseat or thrown into a diaper bag to help calm babies when out and about.

Pee Wees Disposable Changing Pads: Okay, so these aren't the best for the environment because they are disposable, but these pads are awesome and save us so much time. We put them on top of the actual changing pad, so we don't need to wash the pad every time Fletch or Pipe has an accident mid-change, which happens quite frequently. Our babies have impeccable timing for peeing at the exact moment when we switch between the old diaper and the new diaper. These pads catch those accidents and then we can just throw them away.

Target Up and Up Wipes: Since Eric and I came into this adventure with very little baby experience, including never having changed a diaper before, we probably go through more wipes than a more experienced parent. But, we're learning. In the meantime, we've discovered the wonderfulness that is the Target brand baby wipes. They are inexpensive, don't irritate the babies' little bottoms, and aren't too thick or too thin. We've tried a few other brands, and so far, none compare to these. For some unfortunate reason, Target doesn't sell them on target.com.

There are our first three tips. In other news, the babies are doing great. Fletcher has almost perfected his Walter Matthau facial expression....

...and Piper is getting ready for her next hand model photo shoot...

A Walk in the Park

Today is Eric's first full day back at work. So far, things are good here in babyland. In an attempt to make sure I don't stay holed up in the house for the next several months, I decided to take Piper and Fletcher on a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon. We only lasted about 20 minutes, since the neighborhood is awfully hilly, and I am pretty out of shape after bedrest, but the walk definitely tuckered us all all out, including Piper and Fletcher. They slept like this in their car seats for several hours after we got home. (Excuse the grainy nature of the photo...I took it with my blackberry.)

They've hatched!

Welcome to our new blog, which will tell the tale of raising our two new beans--Fletcher and Piper Woodard. Born on August 30, 2010, these two new babies are so good and wonderful, and we couldn't love them more. For those of you wondering how they entered the world, here is Eric's version of the story (we promise not every post on here will be this long):


Piper and Fletcher technically had a due date of September 23, 2010, but because they were twins, the doctors said they would need to be delivered by September 10, 2010. In addition, because both babies were breach, we knew that the would be delivered via c-section.


Keri was on bedrest at home for much of the spring, and then spent most of June and July in the hospital doing her bedrest there. Eric came back and forth to her room every evening. She did a very good job. At the beginning of August, the doctors let her do bedrest at home. And then toward the middle of August, she was able to walk around.


On August 30, we had a doctor’s appointment in Alexandria. At that appointment, the doctor checked Keri’s blood pressure and was worried it was running a bit high. She suggested we head toward the hospital to monitor it for a couple of hours, warning us not stop for any salty McDonald’s French Fries on the way.


We got to Inova Fairfax Hospital fine, and they started monitoring Keri’s blood pressure. Keri and I figured at most, they would admit her again, but there was a small chance that we might have the babies. As we watched her blood pressure over a couple of hours, it was clearly running high. The doctor, Doctor Stas, finally leaned in and said they would deliver Keri at 4:30 pm, because Keri had last eaten at 8:30 am...and they needed to wait 8 hours since she last ate.


We immediately began calling around to our parents to let them know what was happening. Keri’s mom Sue was in Boston and headed immediately to Logan. My folks said they would be out to the hospital around 5:30 pm. We let them know that they might not be able to see us till 7:30 pm - we were worried about visiting hours closing at 8 pm. Keri also talked to Auntie Corinne on the phone. I had just bought a new Droid 2 phone (which was very state of the art) and it was the only phone in the delivery triage area that works (I was very pleased about this). We had about 90 minutes to kill before it was time so Keri and I just sat behind the curtain in the triage area making jokes and trying not to be nervous.


Around 4:30 pm, they said it was time and that I should proceed with the charge nurse to put on scrubs, I would see Keri in the Operating Room after she had had a spinal epidural. They wanted Keri to have shoes on so I helped her put her shoes on, then we kissed goodbye.


While they were wheeling Keri into the operating room, they had me put on this big yellow scrub suit they called “The Big Bird.” Meanwhile, they were giving Keri the spinal epidural in the operating room. At last, they called me in where I sat next to Keri’s head. It was about ten minutes before they announced that the first baby, Fletch, was out. They pulled him to the side and started cleaning him up. He cried right away.


While they were cleaning up Fletch, they pulled out Piper...she didn’t cry quite as loudly at first, but then she did. I didn’t want to look at the babies on the other side of the room because 1) I didn’t want to get in the nurses’ way and 2) I wanted to see them for the first time with Keri. After a few moments they brought Fletch over and I held him up to Keri’s face. Then they did the same thing with Piper.


As Piper was taken away, they had me follow her to the recovery room. I was there as they did the final checks on the babies and eventually wheeled Keri in behind. She was still numb from the chest down. We looked at the babies, and I fed Piper a bottle.


After about an hour the recovery room, the nurse declared that Keri was ok to go upstairs. So, they planted a baby on each side of her and wheeled us Room 341. I called our parents, who had been waiting forever, to let them know that they should meet us there. The nurses said we didn’t have to fret about the visiting hours.


We arrived at our room and got situated, and our nurse Sarah gave us some preliminary instructions about how to handle things with the babies in that ward. Our parents held the little babies and were elated. Upon holding Fletch for the first time, my dad remarked “I don’t want to hold him, I want to fight him.”


That evening the babies slept in our room - we fed them every couple of hours and were so excited - probably too excited to sleep anyway.


Over the next few days, Tuesday night and Wednesday night, we kept taking care of the babies, and learned how to do a few basic things like diapers and bottles. Neither Keri or I had really handled babies before, but we felt pretty natural at it.


By Thursday, the doctors thought we would be ok to come home, and so did we. So, we packed up into our new Honday Odyssey minivan and made the trip home. Keri’s mom caravaned behind us, and my parents met us at home.


Baby first impressions:


Piper is very expressive and extraordinarily sweet. She likes to move her hands gracefully and strikes various poses. She is clearly already too cool for her parents. Often when she sleeps she looks like a little doll.


Fletch is a beast. He has a giant head like his father and looks like a Roman gladiator - but he is still a very good little boy. Fletch seems a little afraid of his arms, which tend to flail about wildly...he likes it when somebody holds his arms so he doesn’t have to worry about them. Though is still a little be skeptical about them...he doesn’t trust his arms entirely.


That's just Eric's story. I also typed up their birth story, which is even longer. If you want to read it, you can find it here.