Olivia is lifting her head....

Granted it's only about 2 cm off the floor - but I'm proud of her. It takes a lot of effort (As you can see!)

First Bath

Ok, ok...so this really wasn't their FIRST bath. Technically the first bath was at the hospital. Apparantly they screamed their way through it? I wasn't there to see - but that's what I hear. I was surprised to hear that because it's been a different story here at home. The first week we gave both of them a sponge bath (which you have to do until the cord falls off). We were ready for screaming mayhem...but neither girl even CRIED.

Fast forward to these pictures. The cord was off and it was full on bath time...no sponge baths anymore. Now, surely, we thought the screaming would commence.

Clearly Matilda is VERY concerned....she was so relaxed she dipped her arm in the water to test it out!

Olivia also didn't make a peep! They didn't even cry for a second. This makes me think that they are going to be water babies!!!

Awake and Alert!

So my friend Meg gave us a really neat infant gym type thing. You lay the baby on the floor, and then, above their heads, are lots of fun, bright, colorful toys and rattles to look at and play with. Right now the girls are a little young for most of it - but we thought we'd try it out yesterday. Turns out - they LOVED it. I think it was the bright colors...but they just kept looking around and loving it!

Wide awake and looking all around! It's amazing how much more alert they both are after only a month!!!

Maybe even getting to be aware of eachother?

Loving all the fun colors!!! We kept shaking the rattles, but they wanted to look at other things

Playing together.

The good news was, this playing EXHAUSTED them and they slept the best overnight that they have yet. Granted it's still only about 3 hours at a time...but they did go straight to sleep after each feeding. This new toy was a hit!

Personalities

It's amazing how at only three weeks, the girls have such distinct personalities. They are honestly such good babies. They aren't fussy much, they don't cry a lot, and they are sweet as can be.

.Olivia, the older sister, is a little bigger still. She is a total cuddle bug. She loves to be held - and usually won't go to sleep unless you do hold her. I'm sure we're encouraging bad habits by doing it - but when you see those dimples...how can you not? She is a bit more fussy the Matilda too - but not bad at all. When she sleeps, she constantly murmurs, or coos. She is the "loud" baby. Definitely a bit needy, but we need her too so that works out.

Matilda is younger by a minute - and a bit smaller than her big sis. She is such a sweet girl - not fussy at all. She is MUCH quieter than Olivia. You put her down and she just looks so sweet and goes to sleep. She's eating more and more every day and is catching up in weight to Olivia...and has already surpassed her in length. She so precious when she sleeps too!

Life is good with the girls! No one is getting much sleep, but it's worth it!! Hopefully we'll get them sleeping for 4 hours at night. That will be a start!

Twins Take Over

I am sure Caroline will correct me with the details as I am writing this while I am tired and sickly. I am going to try and take you through the last several days as best I can. Caroline had finally scheduled her C-Section for the 21st of September so we were looking forward to the girls coming then. For some reason Caroline was concerned with her Blood Pressure (Added by Caroline: becaue my BP at my last appt was way higher than normal - like 20-30 points above my usual). She called the doctor to check and they told her to come in and have some tests done. We arrived at the hospital Wednesday night for the tests expecting it to go quickly. I only brought a magazine becasue i thought it would be a quick in and out exercise. They actually checked her into the maternity ward and we spent a couple of hours with Caroline hooked up to monitors to check on her and the babies.

After the doctor came to see us we were sent home with instructions to rest and collect urine for 24hrs and then come back. This was to check the amount of protein being spilled into her urine. That, combined with the increased BP is a sign of pre-eclampsia. Caroline was not excited about collecting urine but did her best and we headed back to the hospital Thursday night. They took our big jug of urine away for tests and we settled in to wait for the doctor again. i had learnt somewhat fromthe night before and brought more school work but still ran out before anything happened. The urine test revealed elevated protein so they told Caroline she would have to stay the night and see the specialists in the morning.

I went home and I think at that stage we both thought this was just the doctors being cautious and we would be back on schedule for the 21st soon enough. I returned in the morning and found they had switched Caroline to another room because there was a hole in the wall of the original room? I had brought all my school work and was trying to work on my ICS presentation. The high risk specialist came in and ran the ultra sound over Carolines stomach. He decided that becasue of the protein and high BP that we should do the C-section that day!

The nurse was telling us that there was already a C-Section scheduled for noon and being that it was already 10:30 we would probably be after that. Caroline talked to her Mum and told her she had plenty of time to get to the hospital and I was thinking of heading to school to hand in my Dose Op homework then coming back. About 10 minutes later the nurse was back to tell us we were going to surgery NOW!

"Now ,Now?" we replied

"Now, Now" was the response

I changed into my scrubs (provided by the hospital) and they whisked Caroline away to prep her for surgery. I then wandered out to the nurses station and asked about faxing my homework.

Stewart hasn't exactly had any free time to finish this: but basically...the girls are here. We are so happy, proud, excited and completely smitten with both of them. We're also exhuasted, tired, overwhelmed, etc!!!

September 10th, 2010

11:29 am: Olivia Delaney

11:30 am: Matilda Jean

More to come once we get some sort of routine going!!!

Long Awaited Nursery Update

Ok - so while the nursery isn't FINISHED - we're pretty close. My mom has ordered some sort of decorative thing to go above the cribs, but besides that - we're done. I have finally takensome pictures from my iphone, so there is no guarantee how good they are...and I can now give you all (4 people who read this blog) a photo tour of the Morris Girls first bedroom. I have to say I'm pretty enamored with it.

This is what you see when you first walk in (you can see the door in the picture). The framed picture has been there since I was a baby (see previous nursery post about this room). The glider was given to me by a friend of a friend, and I am eternally grateful. The quilt is just one of my old quilts

draped over it, and a hand knitted blanket from a colleague

over the top. You can see the two boppy's locked and loaded and for the moment, Scruffy Puppy is using them. I love the

boppy covers I received!!!

Next is the changing station. I love it. The dresser is one of my childhood dressers in white wicker, which is my favorite. The shelf above is from Land of Nod, and installed, expertly, by Stewart. Right now it holds the video monitor (which won't be there), diaper rash cream, two

Essendon Piggy Banks and a picture frame that I think I'm going to move. Close up of the changing station in the next

picture.

Just a changing pad, and a little diaper holder (already stocked with newborn diapers and

wipes) and as you can see, Diaper Genie loaded up and ready to go as well.

Crib one and Crib two - with a view of the insides.

Last but not least- the girl's first closet...stocked thanks to my AMAZING friends and

family.

That's all for now :) Maybe some scary belly pictures soon?

Pregnant or Fat - 6.5 months edition...

My favorite game! High tech iphone photography in the bathroom at work...