Pictures

Well, I need to use this blog as a convenient image server, so here goes!

New Blog!

Well, Alex decided to join the blogging world and thought it would be good to unify our blogs, since we'll both be talking about the boys mostly. I'll still use this blog (maybe?) but I'll probably be posting way more often on the other one. So, here you go!

Two Little Hornes!

The start of my adventure!

Well, I've decided that blogging about my children will be a very stress-relieving activity and upon the encouragement of some of my friends, I'm starting!

Alright, first of all for everyone: My name is Travis, I live in Austin, TX with my beautiful, wonderful, and all around awesome wife of mine named Alex, and on December 30th, 2008 we welcomed two more little bundles of joy/poop/crying/spit-up, our twin boys Elijah and Judah. They were born 4 lbs 14oz and 4 lbs 12oz respectively, and were nearly a full month premature. 

The story goes that Alex's mucus plug (the stopper in the cervix to hold the babies in from the outside world, protecting them from infections from the vagina) fell out late night on December 28th. She freaked out, called the Dr.'s office who said that they'd take a look tomorrow (Dec. 29th) when we went to the OB/GYN's office for our scheduled meeting. Her OB, Dr. Campaigne, told us that it may grow back, and was not indicative of labor. This turned out to be completely the opposite of what happened, although to give the doctor credit, her summation probably was taking into account singletons, not twins. Either way, early in the morning on December 30th, Alex's water broke and she began to bleed along with her amniotic fluid. We rushed to the hospital, where she gave birth to our boys at 8:28 and 8:30 in the morning. Little did we know, her placenta was abrupting, which is the act of the placenta detaching from the uterine wall. In the 19th century, this would likely have been a death sentence for Alex, as she was bleeding a lot. Luckily, 21st century medicine sees this often (although it is still relatively rare, so don't worry too much about it) and was able to stem the bleeding and deliver the babies all together healthy. 

They still were preemies, so they went to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (or NICU) for 2 weeks. Alex only stayed in the hospital for 6 days, so we visited the babies for 8 days back and forth at least twice a day. Luckily, we live about 3 minutes from the hospital, which made this task easier than people who live far away from their hospitals. 

When we brought them home, we were inundated with visitors, from parents to friends to synagogue members. It made us feel very loved and we appreciated it all, but we were so worn out after the first week from the babies that we felt that it would be difficult to accommodate the guests properly. 

Special note: Thanks to my mom who helped us clean up the apartment. We REALLY needed the help, and she came in a whirlwind and fixed pretty much every room in the apartment. We really owe her a lot for that help, and I think it's one of the best presents we've received.

Stay tuned to part 2 of the homecoming for the babies! I'm also planning on using this blog to give out helpful advice that I feel was either neglected or not highlighted effectively in most baby books. I've told everyone so far about the projectile poop issue with Eli, but I was so unprepared for it that I still feel the need to warn future parents!