Angels....well....almost.
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| Someone must be foreshadowing...'We swear we didn't do it!' |
Being a Friday night (which with Bangkok TV means watching CNN news on repeat, TLC reruns...yeah for Friday Bride night...or a few other limited options), I decided to take a night off from blogging. This ended up being a good thing given our soon-to-be first 'rough' evening. Though I am pleased to report the little ones are feeding much better now, I also must state they are beginning to dictate their own feeding schedule. Apparently, they don't like the 9AM, 12PM, 3PM, (every 3 hours), etc. schedule we have designed, especially Miss Clare. We had a lot of crying last night well before feeding times. I was 'lucky' to draw the 3AM (more like 2:30 AM) shift and it felt a little like playing the carnival game 'Whackamole'.
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| This is how I feel during a rough day of teaching as well |
Things were non-violent, of course, and we only had two moles to 'Whack', but we had some very pesky moles to deal with that wanted their feed and wanted it NOW! At one point I literally had two bottles simultaneously in the air. Later, it was one down with bottle and one on shoulder to burp (this will be impossible in a couple of weeks when they gain weight, but works for now). Dazed in the middle of the night, I kept directing an extra arm I don't actually have with my mind to help and was frustrated when it didn't assist. Clare wiggles and chirps her way through feedings and Luke usually downs his bottle with eyes shut. Somehow, I/we survived our frantic feeding with 'Squeaks' (Clare must be destined to be a female tennis star) and 'Bubba' (what I have been calling Luke) both taking down 2 oz. What a night!
Yesterday, we had our first official check up appointment at the hospital. Chris was extremely anxious, of course. For once he was full of excitement and interest in numbers, as in grams of weight gain. Before we headed out, we took our first baths in the kitchen sink. We must be showing improvement, because Clare
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| Hey, this isn't so bad |
didnt' seem to mind this time and made it to her towel with little resistance.
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| All clean! |
Luke, on the other hand,
went back to birth mode and was not as impressed. However, once we got washing his backside,
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| 'Bubba', our little Butterball |
he settled down.
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| Nothing like my terry cloth towel...thanks, Aunt Amy C! |
Once everyone was clean, we loaded up the stroller (it's getting a little more snug with both every day) and made our short walk to BNH.
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| Today's obstacle...a kilometer of power lines, which the workers kindly moved to the side so we could pass |
On our way, we stopped off at the food stalls for lunch. This is something we have been wanting to do and we took advantage of a cooler (only high 80's today...the polar vortex is here!) day to grab a bite for only 100 baht (meaning, we had lunch for $3).
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| Daddy Scott's happy he got his bowl of tom yum gai (spicy Thai chicken soup) |
Once we arrived at BNH,
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| Thais love their royalty |
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| Pictures like this one (on our pedestrian bridge) of the King are everywhere with the message 'Long live the King!' |
we had Clare and Luke's temperatures taken and then the all-important weigh-in. Here are the results (with past weights):
Birth weight Day 4 weight Day 6 (today) weight
Clare 2280 grams (5.0 lbs) 2096 grams (4.6 lbs) 2140 grams (4.7 lbs)
Luke 2372 grams (5.2 lbs) 2260 grams (5.0 lbs) 2290 grams (5.04 lbs)
You should have seen the look on Chris' face over the combined gain of 74 grams (that's 74 paper clips!). When looking at the numbers, Dr. Thidawan said it was good progress and we are headed in the right direction. She asked about the feedings and poops and then gave each baby a good look. According to her, things are looking really good for both Bubba and Squeaks....another successful parent/teacherconference! We made a tentative (only if concerned) appointment for next Friday. When Chris paid our bill (a mere 1800 bath...$56.52), we decided we would definitely come back concerned or not (meaning, we will pay $50 for them to tell us we aren't screwing things up again next week!).
In the afternoon, Chris headed to a translator to have our birth certificates (currently in Thai) translated into English, while I stayed home to watch over the little ones.
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| I totally got the better end of the deal |
We will need the English versions of the birth certificates for our appointments next week with the US Embassy (I will be making a blog post soon about our exit process and potential timeline to keep everyone updated). Both Clare
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| She is all arms and worked very hard to get into this position laying on top of Daddy |
and Luke were such cute sleepers during their nap and when Papa Chris came home to help feed them.
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| Usually sleeps through a 2 oz feeding...what a talented boy! |
We thought it might be an appropriate time, before the twins get too big, to give an idea of how tiny they are. So, we had some fun taking pictures with Luke and Clare and here are some of our favorite shots.
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| Luke and his pink lady (hi, Uncle Jeremy!) |
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| Clare's for dinner |
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| Luke's not impressed with old technology... |
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| ...he prefers Papa's laptop with mouse pillow instead |
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| I-phone addict at 7 days... |
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| ...we hope she reads books instead (and she hopes we read this one!) |
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| Luke's about the length of Daddy's running shoe |
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| Clare is all abaht the baht |
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| Our two little peas in their Swaddle pods |
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| Clare's head is not quite a handful |
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| Luke's teeny tiny hand |
We are headed out for a quick stop next door to get some passport photos for the babies. Given that Luke is awake only about 5% of the day, this should be interesting!
