Spoiled

Well, the flight wasn't so bad. Flying business class is fucking awesome. I never really thought economy was that bad but now that I've gone business, economy is so... for the masses. They had a little bassinet for each of the kids, they gave us tonnes of toys, and they even asked other passengers to switch seats so that we could all be together (that's another story). When your meal comes, they give you a tablecloth and they bring out your tray individually instead of on a cart, and when you recline your seat, it really reclines - I'm not talking just a couple of inches, I mean you go down to at least 45 degrees and the footrest comes up and the pillows are even bigger. Since Celia has decided to fly home with me instead of staying longer, we'll be upgrading to business class for our flight home. Sweet.

Leaving

We leave tonight for Taiwan. 13 hours on a plane with the babies. Wish us luck...

9 Months Later...

Well, the twins are now 9 months old and I still have no idea what I'm doing. I'm pretty good at faking it though so we get by. I was looking at some old pictures of them and it reminded me of all the stuff we had to go through last spring. I look at pictures of Lucas with his feeding tube sticking out of his nose and Amelia with an IV in her scalp and it almost brings me to tears to think of the daily trips to the hospital, commuting to the children's hospital in the city, and the calls in the middle of the night from the NICU nurses. I've had friends say that it was quite a rollercoaster, but they have no idea how crazy the ride really was. I know Celia doesn't like to look at the old pictures because it was such a hard time for us, but I like to see them to remind myself how far the kids have come. Every day I come home from work and see them smile and all I want to do is pick them up and hold them. It takes everything I have to not hug them too tight or to not kiss them until they're practically crying for me to leave them alone.

Yawn

Last week I said we put Lucas through boot camp. Well, its been a week now and I have to say that Celia and I have never gotten so much sleep since we brought the babies home from the hospital. Last night Lucas slept from 8pm until 3am, ate, and slept until 6am. We went to bed around 10 so we got 5 hours of continuous, uninterrupted sleep. Earlier this week, we got almost 7 hours! I don't have a favourite between the two of them or anything, but I now have a new favourite.

Update

My kids are so damn cute. No, there's no story to go with this, I'm just saying they're pretty damn cute.

Every Once in a While...

I say to myself, "Holy shit, I have twins."

Boot Camp

Over the past couple of months Lucas has gotten into the habit of sleeping in the same bed as us. Not too bad considering we have a King Size bed but for some reason I'm still sleeping right on the edge. The real problem is that he has also gotten into the habit of snacking throughout the night. He wakes up every 2 hours again to have a snack. He won't go back to sleep unless I get up and rock him for 30 minutes or unless he goes on the boob for 5 minutes. Which solution do you think we choose at 3 in the morning? So, last Thursday we decided enough was enough and he was going to learn to sleep through the night and learn not to snack. For the past 2 nights we've been letting him cry himself back to sleep. The first night, he cried for an hour and then passed out. Celia thought it was hilarious that when he was crying he was kicking me nonstop (we had to let him cry in our bed so that he wouldn't wake up Amelia in the other room). The second night he cried for about half an hour in his crib and slept quite well through the night. I'm hoping that a couple more nights of this and he'll be sleeping all night in his crib. I'm actually kind of excited at the idea of him not waking me 3 or 4 times.

Alone Again - w00t!

We're going to Taiwan and the Philippines this Christmas. We leave on the 24th and return on January 11th. Well, I return on the 11th and Celia returns on the 13th. Someone stupid asked me "couldn't you get seats on the same plane?" Seriously. She just wants to stay a couple of extra days with her family and she'll fly back with her sister a couple days after me. If things really work out the way she wants, she'll convince her mom to fly back with her after the chinese new year. If that happens, it means I'll be home alone - no Celia, no twins - for close to a month. It's time for a sexy party!

Shopping

Today we decided to go stroll outside with the kids. It was nice and sunny, not too cold, and the kids were nicely bundled up in their stroller. We decided that Robson St. would be a nice place to walk around, do a little shopping etc etc. Driving to Vancouver was uneventful - hwy 1 wasn't too busy (only took us 20min to get to science world), chinatown wasn't too crowded, all roads leading to downtown weren't busy at all, and then... Oh shit. Just as we got to the point of no return, we turned the radio on to find out what was going on and today was the Santa Parade. It took us 20 minutes to get to a place where we could turn around (no thanks to the assholes who won't let you merge) and another 10 minutes to get out of downtown.

So then we decided the W4th would be a nice place to go. Holy crap, it took us another half and hour to get there because of all the construction and traffic. We finally got there and we looked around and just... strolled.

stupidest store entrance: Baby's World has a giant, and I mean a Giant, step to get into the store. I guess if you have a baby in a stroller they don't want you to go in.

best baby sleeper slogans: "My dad can kick your dad's ass," "Bitch better have my bottle," and "All dad wanted was a blowjob."

Weekly

We've been really good at going to church every week. A couple of weeks ago the kids were sick so we didn't go but other than that, we've gone almost every week since summer. I haven't gone this regularly since high school.

Angels Falling from the Sky

Last week I told Celia that we should lower the mattress in Amelia's crib.  She's crawling around in it, craning her neck to see over the rail, and pulling at the bumper pads trying to stand.  Up until now, she hasn't been able to pull herself up into a standing position unless she had a little help.  This morning, however, Celia heard a "thump" from the room and when she went in there, Amelia was on the floor in front of the crib.  Apparently, she pulled herself up and climbed over rail and fell.  She seems okay, but we'll be taking her to the doc to get her checked out.

Paparazzi

I mentioned this before, but me and my family are celebrities. People watch us as we walk by and as I pass I can hear them talking about the twins and how lucky we are and all that jazz. At first it was kinda cool being the superstar in the mall, then it was a little annoying because people stopped us all the time, and now its just a super pain in the ass. I was walking with my stroller and there was this lady that was smiling at me and the babies and looked at me like she wanted to talk to me and ask questions about the baby. I just gave her a polite smile, turned my eyes forward, and kept on walking. I do this a lot now. I don't bother to speak to my fans because it's very tiring. Maybe I'm not appreciating the people that got me here, but sometimes I just need time for myself. I can totally understand what the Olsen twins are going through.

World Wide Twins

We got the kids their passports the other day. Finally. Well, we sent in the applications anyway. We mailed it in during the summer but it was returned because the pictures weren't good enough. This time, we made sure the pics were okay and we waited in line for 2 hours with the babies to get the applications in.

I Need to Win the Lottery

The trouble with having a job is that you have to be somewhere every day for a specified amount of time. I guess its optional but after some time you won't have a job anymore and then after a little more time you won't have a home either. Then your wife leaves you because you're a bum and then The Man comes and takes away your children. If you don't believe me, check out Britney's blog. Anyway, my point is simply that I have to be out of the house every day for 8 hours. it really sucks because I come home and Celia says, "Amelia learned how to crawl today." or "Lucas can sit up by himself now." I was home all summer so I got to see them roll over for the first time and I was there for them when they had to have their immunization shots. Now I feel like I'm missing it all.

Thank God for Little Girls

Don't get me wrong, I love both my children the same. After saying that, I also have to say this: if it wasn't for Amelia, I think I would go crazy. Lucas is not the kind of baby that falls asleep on his own. It is always a struggle to get him to sleep - and then a continuing battle throughout the night. If we didn't have twins, and our only child was Lucas, I'd go nuts. I know that you're probably thinking twins is harder than having just one (and it probably is, believe me) but without Amelia to even me out, I'd go crazy. My little angel is saving my sanity.

Crappy

I guess it's not crappy that I now have a home again. For a while I didn't think I had a home because I thought my house was sold and we hadn't found a new one yet. Our buyer fell through and now we have to start over. We made an offer on a new place that we really like but now we have to wait until our house is sold. I'm kinda bummed out about the whole thing but hey, whatever. At least our realtor has been great to us. If you need one, let me know and I'll hook you up.

Who Said That? Level 7

This one is easy and hard at the same time. Remember: movie and the character/actor that said the quote.

"Do you know how I know you're gay? Because you are holding each other ever so gently."

You Can't Handle the Truth Part 7

If you ever hear me talking trash about you, don't be offended or think I'm picking on you, because I'm not.  I make fun of everyone equally.  I'm very non-judgemental that way. 

Memories

I've been at my house for about 5 years.  It was a time in my life where change happened often and happened quickly.  A few very memorable events (breaking my wrist - showering, cooking, washing dishes: all very difficult with a cast) and a few not-so-memorable events (you don't want to know).  A lot happened here and it was a stage in my life that I'll never forget.  But, as life goes on, we must move from one stage to the next.  I think we'll be selling our home very soon and making new memories in a new home.  Like I've said before, I find it a little sad that my kids will never know their first home.  Sad because it meant so much to me but to them, not even worth a footnote. 

What's Been Going On

It's been a while. Needless to say, I've been a little busy. I'm back to work now and every day I rush home to help with the kids. When I walk in the door I pick one of them up and hug them so tight. I'm only out of the house for 8 hours and they look at me like I'm some weirdo stranger. Makes me want to quit my job. Anyway, here's a quick update:

We're selling our house. Hopefully we get what we're asking but compared to what I paid for it 5 years ago, anything even close would be a shitload of money. Then again, it would have to be a shitload of money to make a dent in the asking price of a new home nowadays.

Work sucks. Too much to do and I'm still not back in the swing of things.

I bought an XBox360. When I first said I wanted one, Celia said "No way, you won't have time to play it anyway." Well 9 months later, I ended up buying one and guess what: Celia plays it more than me.

I'll write more this week. Promise...

The End

Dear Summer,

I'm really glad we were able to spend some time together. I will truly cherish the past two months and will never forget the warm evenings and the sunny mornings and long walks my family took during our time with you. With all these memories, it makes it difficult for me to say goodbye. I'm sure it must be hard for you as well, but always remember that we'll have more time together next year. Please take care always and I look forward to seeing your sunny face next time. Until then, goodbye.

love,
Oliver

It Was a Long Weekend

This past weekend, we had some guests. Two of Celia's aunts, 5 of her cousins, her sister, and 3 friends all came into town to visit her (us) and the babies. It was a fun weekend, but very tiring. We had some stay with us so the babies stayed in our room with us. We got up at 8am, took the kids out to visit with the visitors at around 2pm, then didn't get home until 11pm. They were long days for the kids and very long days for us. The nice part was that everyone else wanted to hold the babies so Celia and I didn't have to carry them all the time. Actually, I felt like I barely carried Lucas for 2 days. It's a nice break because he's starting to get a little heavy. Anyway, they were all a fun bunch and they're all going to the Philippines this winter for Eva's wedding. It'll be a fun time.

Night Shift

When the kids were first born, I always told myself not to get used to any kind of pattern because they'll just change anyway. Of course, after 6 months, I've come to rely on patterns. Big freakin' mistake. For a little while, Amelia was sleeping through the night. 6 or 7 hours easy. Lucas was still waking up every 3-4 hours, but that was okay. One kid at night is easy. The past week, Amelia has decided that she would like to wake up at least twice/night again. This comes just in time for me to go back to work. Yay. Last night, she woke up at 4am wanting to play. Laughing and smiling, she tried her best to wake up mommy and/or daddy. At least Lucas slept through it all.

You Can't Handle the Truth Part 6

I get jealous when I see people with just one baby pushing him/her around in a really cool stroller. Double strollers just don't come in all the cool models that the single strollers do.

This Old House

So we decided to list our home. It should be available in a couple of weeks with an open house at the end of september. We're just tired of all the stairs and we want something a little bigger. This place was fine for just me and okay for the two of us, but for the 4 of us, it's just too small. I hope we sell it quick and find a new home quick. If we can't find anything to move into, we'll squat at my parents' house for a while.

When I first bought this place and moved in, I was quite proud of myself that I did it on my own. I was Mr. Responsible and bought a home rather than blow all my money on useless junk. This is my first home and has some sentimental value because of that. It kind of makes me sad to think my children will never remember their first home. Oh well, they'll create a lot more meaningful memories for me than this old house.

I'm an Addict

Yesterday my head almost exploded. I felt like someone had a pump attached to my head and kept trying to inflate it. I swear I almost had a stroke. Waking up in the middle of the night was torture and this morning I still had a headache. It finally dawned on me what the problem was. I didn't have my daily coffee yesterday. See, I have a problem. I'm addicted to caffeine. I need a cup of coffee every day or I go through withdrawal. No, seriously, I'm not joking about this. I get a really bad headache if I skip my daily coffee. I need a new coffeemaker so I can program it at night and have it ready in the morning.

Good news/Bad news

Good news: Amelia can now roll over onto her stomach.
Bad news: I have to keep a very close eye on her because she hasn't figured out how to roll back onto her back.
See it here.

Good news: I'm back to work soon so we won't be so broke anymore.
Bad news: I'm back to work soon.

Good news: We're going to the Philippines and Taiwan this Christmas.
Bad news: Expensive and traveling with infants.

Good news: We're getting a nanny.
Bad news: Who's gonna pay for this?

Our Friends

In honour of their new life together, I'm posting a video of Annalee and Noel dancing. If anyone else wants one, send me pictures of your face.

Dancing Maniacs

Chill Out

sheesh, relax everyone. I'm not saying raising one child is easy, I'm just saying that if we only had one at least we could take turns. As it is now, there are times when neither of us can cook, neither of us can eat, and neither of us can clean up (if we really wanted to but our house was a mess even with no kids). I don't care if you have one child, twins, 4 children, whatever - we have 2 and we're exhausted.

More Visitors

More of Celia's relatives are coming to visit at the end of the month. This is always a good news/bad news kind of thing.

Bad news: the kids end up being up way past their bedtime and they're difficult to settle all night.

Good news: we get a tonne of good shit. Seriously, it's better than Christmas and both our birthdays combined.

It's nice to meet her family though. Some of them I've already met so it'll be fun to see them again. I'm glad I'll still be on vacation.

Carry Me

When we used to take the kids out, we'd use the stroller. This worked okay sometimes, but it was always kind of iffy whether or not they'd stay in the stroller. If they got too fussy, we'd pick them up so they wouldn't scream at us. Then we'd end up carrying the kids and pushing an empty stroller. Stupid and a pain in the ass. Then we started using the baby carriers and everything changed. The kids loved being in the carriers, they never cried (unless they were hungry) and it always left us with 2 free hands. Since we switched to the carriers, we go out all the time. We've been to almost every mall in the lower mainland and run errands and all kinds of stuff without stressing out over the stroller. Lately, we only use the stroller when we take the kids out for a walk in the neighbourhood. Maybe we should have gotten an offroad stroller after all...

New Project

Now that we're confident the babies are okay and the baptism is done, we've started planning our wedding. Wedding planning is boring. I'd go to Vegas if I could. If you're a close friend of ours, expect an invitation.

Nowadays

Yesterday the twins turned 5 months old. "5 months? They're so small!" Yeah, stfu. When people ask me how old they are, I usually tell them they're about 3 months (their corrected age). It just stops all the questions and comments about their size so I can get on with my day. I can't believe it's already been 5 months. I was watching a video of Amelia when she was still in the hospital. She was crying and it was a tiny little cry, barely audible over all the beeps and bongs and bells in the NICU. It was definitely Amelia's cry though. Nowadays, I kinda wish her cry was that quiet again! I tell ya, when she doesn't get her milk fast enough she lets you know she's not happy. She also lets the neighbours know. I swear the neighbours must think we're abusing them because they cry so loud (we're not, btw).

What have we been up to? We spend a lot of time finding places to go and things to do during the day. We like to take the kids out to see the world. The world as in the different malls around the lower mainland. We're considering moving into a bigger townhouse. Why not a house? Neither of us want to mow the lawn or worry about exterior maintenance. We have a hard enough time with the interior. Maybe when the kids are bigger we'll move into a house.

Movie Reviews

Beerfest with Paul Soter & Erik Stolhanske

Reminds me of all those drunken nights in my younger, wilder days. Wait, I was never wild but I did get drunk a few times. Ahh, good times, good times.


Reno 911!:Miami with Thomas Lennon & a bunch of other yahoos

Funny shit man, funny shit.


Blades of Glory with Will Ferrel & Jon Heder

Hahaha.

I'm Loving It

Man, I hope McDonald's doesn't sue me. I really like their fries.

Big hint that you and your friends are parents:

When you drive up to your buddy's house and all the guys come out to check out your sweet new minivan.


Anyway, a couple weeks ago Celia and I took the ultimate step into parenting in the suburbs: we bought a minivan. Her car just wasn't big enough to carry all our crap, plus the babies and us. We needed something bigger and it had to be nice. Introducing our third baby: the Odyssey.

We're Celebrities

When you're in the mall with your kids, how often do you get stopped by a complete stranger to ask you about your children? Once? Twice? We get stopped at least 4 times per hour that we're in a public place. "Are they twins?" "You're so lucky!" "That's so cute." "Are they identical?" and so on... I imagine that Steve and Lisa are the only ones (that I can think of) that would truly understand what I'm talking about. It's kind of flattering, but when we're in a hurry I just want to say "yes they're twins, no not identical, it's one boy and one girl. bye." and keep on walking. Everything takes longer now - walking through the mall, going through a grocery store checkout, ordering at restaurants - because we have to acknowledge our newfound celebrity status as parents of twins.

Movie Review

Transformers with Shia LaBeouf & Megan Fox

I remember growing up in Regina and my friend Patrick had a million transformers. He had almost all of them. We would play for hours with these things then go back to my house and play for hours with my GI Joes. I always liked the Autobots because I liked that they turned into cars instead of guns and planes and stuff. Not too long ago, I downloaded the entire Transformers cartoon series including the original animated movie. Totally legally, of course. Anyway, the only thing I didn't like about the new movie was that the character's faces were hard to see. Too alien.

Mini-Milestone

The other night the twins had a breakthrough. They slept in a crib instead of in our beds. It was incredible. I was able to stretch out and not worry about squashing one of them. Maybe we'll be able to get them to sleep in their cribs a little more so mommy and daddy can get some better sleep.

Stupid Question

Here's the stupidest thing I hear all the time:

"Oh how cute, are they twins?"
"yes, one boy, one girl."
"Oh that's perfect. Are they identical?"

What the fuck? "Are they identical?" If you're thinking "what's wrong with that?" then you should maybe look up the definition of "identical". Then tell me how a male and a female can be identical. "Oh but they can look alike." Yes, they can look alike, but does that mean they're identical? No! When people ask me this I want to send them to the corner to think about what they've said.

I Like DVDs

Movies That Will be Seen on DVD Because Theaters Are Out of the Question:

Spiderman 3
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers
Everything else that is released between now and 2018.

Updates

I'm really quite angry with myself for not keeping my blog more current. However, because I have twins at home, I'm a little busy so quit your complaining and be glad that I haven't completely abandoned my blog all together (like some...). Anyway, here's a quick update:

Mother-in-law left last week so we've been alone with the babies. Tiring, but rewarding in it's own way.

I'm on parental leave now. I don't have to go back to work until after Labour Day. That's Labor Day to you americans. Anyway, I get to spend the entire summer with my family. Take that, sucker!

Celia's Acura has gone the way of the Pinto. It's been replaced with a minivan. The other day we got a 2007 Honda Odyssey EX-L. As far as minivans go, it's pretty freakin sweet. It's so much more convenient and we have way more space now for all the junk we have to carry.

We've decided that we will be going to the Philippines this winter. We'll make a stop in Taiwan so all of her relatives can meet the twins and then spend the rest of our holidays in the Phils. Her sister's wedding will also be in the Philippines so it should be a pretty fun trip. Hopefully the twins will be up for it.

I don't have a blackberry all summer so if you only have that phone number, you'll have to hunt down my personal number. Or just email me at home. Actually, facebook works too.

If you live somewhere where you're not allowed to intall an airconditioner or you want to be able to cool just one room at a time, get yourself a good portable air conditioner. We got one. It fucking rocks.

Don't You Wish Your Girlfriend...

I didn't watch the whole show or anything. Actually, I barely watched it at all, but there was a lot of talk about it amongst people I know. The Pussycat Dolls show, I thought, was pretty blah. Who should have won? Melissa R was a favourite but Asia won. Apparently, Asia won but isn't really part of the Pussycat Dolls. I don't remember the details of the first prize, but I guess it wasn't to fully join the group because Asia isn't in the pictures of the group and she didn't perform with the group recently. So now there is some controversy over whether of not Asia is really part of the group. I don't mind because I always thought Asia was ugly. I hear the other pussycat dolls didn't like her either. Where did I hear all this? I'm really good friends with a few of the pusscats and they told me.

Bedtime

I learned something this evening. The twins don't like to sleep with us in our bed, they just like to sleep in our bed. Yeah, whether we're there or not, they don't care, they just like our bed better than their own. Man, if it meant getting a full night's sleep, I'd curl up into their crib in a second. I knew we had a freakin sweet mattress.

Movie Reviews

Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz with Simon Pegg & Nick Frost

Not exactly oscar material but pretty fucking hilarious.

No Other Way

You know when you watch TV and movies and when one of the characters has a baby and the dad says "all my priorities changed as soon as I found out we were pregnant.". It was a little different for me.  At first, I couldn't help but worry about all the work I had to do around the time the babies were to be born.  Then, starting  after they were born, I started to worry more and more about missing time with my kids.  It's taken a while for me, but I think its starting to finally sink in - and I mean REALLY sink in - that I'm a father.  Not just a father, but instantly a father of 2 children.  The other day I was watching them sleep and thought "holy crap, I have 2 kids".  My brother and his wife have one (I'm hoping they have at least one more) and when they come over I always think "where's the other one?". I can't even imagine having only one baby now.  And I can't wait to start my parental leave, I feel like I'm not helping raise my children. 

Mom 2

The greatest thing about having your mother-in-law live with you is that it's like living at home again.  Celia's mom cooks for us, cleans, and  helps look after the babies.  I feel like I won the lottery.  I honestly can't think of anything that has been more valuable to us over the past 3 months than having Celia's mom here with us.  Unfortunately, she'll be going home at the end of the month and we'll be on our own.  Oh well, I guess its time to be our own family at last. 

Progress

The twins are both 8lbs11oz. Doesn't sound like much but to me that's huge.

Tired and Grumpy

I can totally understand why new parents disappear for a few months and suddenly reappear with a little crawling baby. It is such a pain the @$$ to get the kids ready and out the frickin door. Then, when you're out you have to worry about them eating and having to change their diapers. The mall isn't exactly the best place to be doing these things. I mean, it can be done but sometimes its a real pain. We were at Oakridge for, like, 4 hours today - 1 hour of shopping and 3 hours of feeding, diaper changing, eating. Seems like such a waste of a day but I guess the other option is to stay at home and do all the same things. I guess Celia's just sick of the house. It's always difficult when you're with people and they are just taking their sweet ass time while you're sitting there trying to soothe 2 crying babies. Then they leave their bags hanging off the handles of the double-stroller so that when you're pushing it through a store the bags are catching on things and knocking things over. As if it wasn't wide enough. So they stick it in the little storage basket under the seat (which, by the way, is very nice in my stroller) but you can't access the basket when the seats are fully reclined which they have to be with newborns so now if they want their bag you have to remove the baby, raise the seat, remove bag, recline seat, settle baby back in the aforementioned seat, and then pray that the baby doesn't start crying again. Just carry your own damn bag like you would if there wasn't a stroller. Anyway, none of these things would normally bother me, I was just having a bad day.

Milestone

I'm approaching 10,000 hits. I can't believe it. It took 2 years to get this far but who cares if no one really cares what I have to say? I'm at 10,000!! If you visit the page and you are #10,000 let me know and I'll write you a limerick.

Long Live Z

I'm quite disappointed.  Sixteen years ago I started listening to this new radion station that played dance music.  At the time, the only other "good" station was LG73 but it was AM and sounded crappy.  Since 1991, Z95.3 has always been the first station that I programmed into my stereo.  I always woke up to it, I usually drove while listening to it, and sometimes went to sleep listening to it (not that it was boring, it was just 3am and I was drunk).  As of a few days ago, Z95.3 is gone and has been replaced with 95Crave.  So far I'm unimpressed. 

In honour of this sad event, I have a special "Who Said That?"  Double points if you get this one right.

"Zed's dead, baby.  Zed's dead."

I've Waited a Long Time for This

It started 10 years ago and it's finally coming back, better than ever.

Starcraft 2

You Can't Handle the Truth Part 5

I seriously have no idea what I'm doing most of the time. I mean at home, at work, during leisure time, etc. I really think I'm pretty clueless but good at faking it.

Dreams

I dream that one day, I will once again be able to get a full night's sleep.

My Old Friend, Sleep

So the twins have been home for almost 2 weeks now. I get a lot of people asking, "so how is it?" and "are you sleeping much?" It's been totally fine and I get more than enough sleep. I don't know why people complain so much. Seriously, things are going great. I'm kidding about the sleep thing though. I haven't slept more than 2 hours in a row since they came home. They're so cute thought that I don't mind. I'm sure in a couple of months I'll be dying for a full night's sleep.

Last week I finally bought a stroller. We originally wanted a stroller that was lightweight, folded compactly, had seats that reclined to flat, and could take car seats. As extras, I wanted something with big wheels and something that just looked cool. We found 2 but one was $1100 and the other was $850. Screw that. I ended up forgetting about my extras and the car seat option and bought the 2007 McLaren Twin Techno. Lightweight, folds compactly, rated for newborns, and side-by-side seating. We can't put car seats into it, but whatever. So far, it kicks ass.

Don't Doubt Yourself

Ah, the old multiple-choice-test dilemma. You've already answered a question but as you're going over it you think that maybe you were wrong. Do you change your answer or do you go with your original thought? I always change my answer. Why would it stand out if I didn't think it was wrong? I have to admit, this has burned me once or twice in the past but I still say go with what you think is right. A few months ago, Celia's computer started acting up. I had a feeling it was the power supply but then I thought, no, it must be something else. The problems kind of went away for a while but a couple weeks ago it really crapped out and wouldn't start. We were just about to cannibalize it and use the parts in my computer but I tried one more thing. Again. I swapped out the power supply with mine and everything seemed to work just fine. Damn, I shouldn't have doubted my original thought. See? Burned again.

The Wonderful World Wide Web

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The Long Road Home

The twins passed the car seat test and yesterday we took them home, exactly 2 months after they were born.  It was quite emotional when we found out they were finally being discharged and when we actually walked out of the NICU I was so happy I couldn't even talk.  It took us 15 minutes just to say goodbye to all the nurses that looked after our babies. As we packed up all their stuff in the drawers, it felt they were moving out. 
When we arrived at home and carried the car seats up the stairs, my first thought was, "this is gonna be a pain in the ass, going up and down these stairs with seats in hand.".
Anyway, they're home now and after 20 hours, everything is still okay. I haven't dropped them, stepped on them, bumped them, rolled over them, or burned them.  I think it'll be pretty tough but we'll be okay. Thank you to everyone for all you're support over the past two months, I'll be calling you soon to help babysit. :)
 

Looking Back

I was talking to a friend of mine and she was asking how often I go back and look at old pictures that I have on my hard drive.  Because they easily available, I look at them all the time.  Okay, not every day or anything but often enough.  Yesterday I went through all the pictures I took of my twins from March 9 to today.  I can't believe how far they have come.  The day they were born they couldn't even breathe on their own.  They weren't strong enough to turn their own head and they couldn't maintain their own body temperature.  Last night as I held Lucas I thought back to when Celia and I got a call in the middle of the night telling us that they had to intubate him because he had an infection and they needed to help him breathe so that he could fight off the infection.  I held Amelia and remembered the day they took her to the children's hospital in the city because they thought she needed a major surgery.  And I thought back to when Celia phoned me at home to tell me she was going to surgery within 4 hours so the babies could be born.  When I imagined how I would have my first children I never thought they would be a high-risk pregnancy born at 29 weeks by emergency c-section, intubated twice (each), and in the NICU for 2 months at 3 different hospitals.  I look back at it all and wonder how the hell I didn't have a mental collapse during this time. 

I have a feeling they'll be home this week.  Maybe that's when I'll have a mental collapse.

My First Time

If the title of this got your attention for the wrong reason, you should seriously get a life. I'm a father now so what you're thinking is just juvenile. My first time was a long time ago and that's all I'm going to say. I've already said too much. Anyway, what I was going to say was that Lucas spit up on me for the first time. I mean, he's spit up before, it just hasn't been on me. One time Amelia spit up and because she was lying down directly behind Lucas, it hit the back of his head. Gross dude, your sister just hurled on your head.

Wait For It...

Only a few more days. Part of the criteria for sending the twins home was that they continue to gain weight while feeding strictly by bottle or breast for a 48 hour period. The both have their NG tubes out and they are both taking all their feeds by bottle or breast. And, for the both of them, it has now been over 48 hours. Amelia's weight gain yesterday wasn't great but she's eating a lot. Being the weekend, not much happens at the hospital (except in emerg where all the crazies go), so we're just waiting for Monday for when the doc can come in and discharge my babies. The worst part is that I have to work Mon-Wed and then on the weekend. After that, I have a couple weeks off so I'll be home changing diapers, feeding babies, and having the time of my life. Secretly, I'm hoping they get discharged Wednesday. Oh crap, I guess it's not a secret anymore.

I Quit Smoking

I never got a cigar when my twins were born. Who wants to come over and smoke a cigar with me? Can anyone suggest a good cigar? I don't mean a $100 cigar, I just had twins and now I'm poor. I just want a cigar that isn't too expensive but not a cheap, rolled-up banana leaf either. If anyone says I should know about cigars because I used to smoke, I'm want you take your right hand, put it behind your head and in a quick, forceful motion push your head downwards to your keyboard. It should make you say "ouch". Repeat this 3 times. Anyway, while we smoke cigars we'll drink this wine I had made. It's actually not too bad.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law-in-law, Kerri.  Here is my annual limerick for her:

There once was a girl from Saskatoon,
Who liked to howl at the moon.
She wasn't a wolf-were,
Nor was she a big bear.
She was just a girl who liked to croon.

I never said I was good at limericks so shut up.  Happy birthday, Kerri.

...in Bed

The next time you go out for chinese food, when you read your fortune say "in bed" at the end. It's freakin hilarious. I'm going to do that more often with everything. Check me out on Facebook and you'll see what I mean.

Tip of the Day

Although everything seems to be settling down in terms of blog visits, I decided I need to try and increase my site traffic a little. My ratings are dropping like Lost - Season 2. In order to ramp things up a bit, I think we all need a little more drama or scandal and intrigue. I can't think of anything right now but since everyone likes food, here's my tip of the day:

If you go to In & Out for burgers, order your burger "animal style" - it's not on the menu, you just have to ask. They put some fried onion in there for you and it's some good shit man.

Top Five Email Pet Peeves

1. Reply to All when you don't need to.  We had someone spam the entire network once (over 20,000 users) and people actually used the "Reply to All" to say "Whatever you do, don't reply to all."

2. Forwarding too many jokes.  If it feels like you're sending too many jokes, then you're sending too many jokes.
3. Asking questions or putting the entire content of the email in the Subject line.
4. Plain text.  It's just plain ugly.
5. No signature at the bottom.  It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just put your damn name at the bottom of your email.  I know it's in the From: line but it's like not saying "bye" at the end of a phone call.

Wait For It...

I've been to the hospital every day for the past 6 weeks. Sometimes twice. Here's our daily schedule for the past week: Celia drops me off at work or I drop her off at the hospital in the morning. After work I either find a ride to the hospital, she picks me up, or I pick her up. Then we run some errands, go home and take a nap. Quick dinner then off to the hospital for the babies' 8pm feeding/cuddle/bath. Then home at about 10pm. On weekends I get to spend more time in the afternoon at the hospital. Even though I don't get a lot of time with my babies right now, it's still the best part of my day and it practically kills me sometimes if I'm even 5 minutes late.

Bandwagon Fan

Well it's good to see that everything is going back to normal. My blog is no longer getting hammered with 12,000 hits/day. It seems we've settled to an average of 100-140/week, just slightly more than pre-twin days.

How come no one writes in their blog anymore? I've got about a dozen of them bookmarked and when I go check for updates, there might be one that has been updated. You guys suck. Maybe you should get off Facebook and update your blog to prove that you didn't start it just to jump on the blog bandwagon and that you really wanted to share your thoughts with the world.

You Can't Handle the Truth Part 4

It's okay if you're jealous that my kids are cuter than yours. I'm jealous that your kids were full term and are at home with you.

No Heavy Lifting!

We found out today that Lucas needs surgery. Apparently, all his organs are backwards and he has to have major surgery to correct it or else when he grows up he'll have major problems. Hang on a sec... I think that's the story from Grey's Anatomy. Lucas has a hernia and needs it repaired. It's the kind of surgery that only takes a couple of seconds and then he comes home again like nothing happened. So he's not going under the knife for anything major after all. It'll probably happen later later as in not any time soon.

Wait For It...

Last Saturday Celia and I were supposed to get married. Since Christmas we though that April 14 would be the day. Well that day has come and gone my friends. Just in case you haven't been paying attention, our babies were born a little early. All our plans for Feb-May have changed. Now, our wedding is being rescheduled for... later. We haven't decided on a date yet, we are waiting to find out what a lucky day is for us. Even though we didn't get married when we thought we would, this works out better for us because now we don't have to rush. You'll get real invitations this time (unless I don't know you - why are you reading this?) and there will be a real wedding and reception (probably anyway). I figure if we get married in May or June next year, we'll have our anniversary, Celia's bday, my bday, mother's day, and father's day all out of the way. I guess that could be expensive, huh?

Smile

Today I didn't get to go to the hospital until late in the evening. I didn't realize it before but if you go too long without seeing your newborn babies, you get very antsy and grumpy until you finally see them again. The best part is when you get to the hospital and the babies are no longer in separate isolettes but co-bedded in one crib. Seeing them sleep beside each other is probably thus far, the greatest thing I've seen. I can't even begin to explain how incredible it is to see them go from being intubated because they were born so early they didn't know how to breathe yet, to seeing them sleep peacefully beside each other in a crib. I have only 3 words to describe it: W. O. W.

I am in Control

Facebook isn't addicting like everyone says it is. "Internet crack", my ass (get it? my ass ->crack?). Anyway, just because I spend most of my time on Facebook doesn't mean I'm addicted to it. I can quit any time.

Not the Source but Still A Lot of Fun

Just in case you haven't already figured it out, Lucas and Amelia's names are quite fun for me.

Lucas & Amelia
Luke & Lia. Fraternal twins. If you haven't gotten it yet, you're a moron.

"Luke, I am your father."

The Twins

Lucas:
Usually he's quite laid back. He sleeps like daddy with both arms over his head and generally sleeps through anything and everything until it's time to eat. Once in a while he'll get all fidgety like he's got ants in his pants but if you give him a soother he's good until it's feeding time again. As of a few days ago he started wearing clothes. He was born a little smaller but now he's bit bigger than his sister. His head was shaved a couple of weeks ago and it looks quite good on him - like a cute little thug.

Amelia:
When she first came out we were really worried about her. As soon as the docs removed her, the NICU nurses grabbed her, did a few things, then whisked her off to the nursery. We didn't even get a chance to see her. As Celia was being wheeled to recovery she said to me, "go make sure Amelia is okay." Even though she's doing great now, I still think back to that moment and I get scared for her. After the incident last week, I was reminded of her first moments in life. She sleeps like mommy, a little more spread out with her mouth slightly open. Also, when she's sleeping she tends to have a little smile on her face. She's very alert, even when she should be sleeping, with her eyes wide open watching everything going on around her. When she cries she is easily soothed when we hold her.

I have pictures of both of them that make me smile with joy but at the same time the look on their faces seem to say, "Why?" As in "Why was I born so early?" "Why is everything so difficult already?" "Why aren't I still inside mommy's belly?" I look at them and I want to say sorry that they had to be born so early and struggle with life already.

I Would Never...

...Want to be on the team that plays against the Harlem Globetrotters.  They cheat, they break all the rules, they goof off, and yet they always win. 

"Mom"

Celia's mom has been staying with us the past week. She'll stay with use during the week and on the weekend, go stay with Celia's sister. Most people would cringe at the thought of having their mother-in-law stay with them, but I actually kinda like it. The past week, Celia and I have been driving from hospital to hospital to see our kids and by the time we get home its like 10pm or later. Every time we've come home, her mom has had food ready for us. She also cleaned the house for us (including the bathrooms) and went grocery shopping. She's been a mom for a long time so I guess she knows what she's doing here. Not only do I like her being around to help with all this stuff, but whether she's willing to admit it or not, I can tell that Celia really likes having her here too. I know that the two of them have had a very tumultuous relationship over the years, but I guess that now that Celia is an adult (as if she hasn't been for like 15 years) and has settled down with a family of her own, things are a little more relaxed. It's nice to see them sitting down with a cup of tea talking and laughing like old friends. I have no idea what they're saying but Celia tells me they are just gossipping. I hope someday Celia will be sitting in Amelia's living room laughing and gossipping over a cup of tea.

You Can't Handle the Truth Part 3

When I used to work at the bedside, if a patient had a nice family it meant I liked the patient better.

So Very Important...

I work in informatics. I work the informatics department of a very large organization. If you don't know what informatics is, look it up. Anyway, where I work, there are a lot of people with a lot of access to a lot of information. Some very personal information. Also, because of where I used to work, there are a lot of people with little bit of access to very specific information. No offense to anyone but I don't want you poking your nosey little noses into my wife and kids' records. They are all marked as VIPs so if you try snooping and looking at what's going on, we'll catch you. I know I publish my blog to a very public place and I don't restrict anyone from reading this, but when it comes to my very personal life, go mind your own damn business. I'll tell you what I want to tell you and if you want to know more, ask me instead of invading my privacy.

So Much to Celebrate...

My little girl is back at our local hospital. She's been ready for a couple of days, we just had to wait for a bed to open up for her. Every day we had to visit her in the city, she seemed so grumpy (but then again, she was probably really hungry) but yesterday, back at our hospital, she seemed so much more relaxed and calm. I think she could sense that she was close to her brother again. I didn't mind driving into Vancouver every day - Celia and I used to do it all the time - I didn't like the the idea that my twins were so far apart from each other so early in life. Aren't twins supposed to be close to each other?

Today is Lucas and Amelia's 1 month birthday. They have officially been out in the big bad world for one month. Celia and I will be having cupcakes at the hospital in honour of this event.

So far, so good

We had a visit from the surgeons - and not just any surgeon, it was the fellow and the boss - and based on their assessment of Amelia, they don't believe that we should be worried at all that she has necrotizing enteral colitis.  In the past 24 hours her abdominal girth has gone down a few centimeters, the xrays look clear, and (just as the doc was opening her diaper) she had a huge, smelly bowel movement.  The surgeons were going to follow her for the next few days but they said they really didn't think they would need to get involved.  So today: good news!  In a couple of days, let's hope for more good news. 

Getting good news like this is always such a relief.    We were having coffee and Celia tried this cranberry cider thing.  At first she said it was very soothing and made her feel better but then we realized that after the good news we got, the nice, soothing cider topped it off and made her feel good all over (not in THAT way, get your mind out of the gutter).  Have you ever had that sense of relief and comfort at the same time?

Brave Little Girl

I figure it's because she wants to be a nurse like daddy and she just has to see all the different places she can work. This afternoon Amelia was transferred to yet another hospital. Some time during the night her abdomen began to balloon up and slightly bloated belly became significantly distended, interfering with her breathing. Once the docs saw her, they decided to transfer her to the big children's hospital in the city just in case she needed to go for surgery. They did all kinds of things to her and she didn't cry a single tear (that's my brave little girl) - I think mommy and daddy cried more than she did. Even with her little ventilator and gazillion tubes and IVs and monitors, she held my hand so tight and was stronger than daddy.

So now the twins are separated. Not just in different incubators, but this time they're in different hospitals in different cities. For a third time I ask you, please pray for my children.

Be My Friend

Have you heard of Facebook? It's the new friendster or myspace. Its got some neat features and I still haven't quite figured it out yet. It's always fun to join these things because you can post pictures and comments and network with friends - old and new. Friendster was getting boring anyway. I really like it because I can advertise my blog to complete strangers and then maybe I'll get 13000 hits by the end of the year.

Funny

You Can't Handle the Truth Part 2

Sometimes when it looks like I'm thinking hard about something at work, I'm actually wondering what I'm going to have for dinner. Even in mid-conversation with someone.

One Step Closer

Today the twins were moved to the local hospital. No more driving across the bridge to see them! Woo hoo! They took a little time getting used to their new home but I think they'll like it. Amelia's doing great, still no problems. Lucas is doing much better now. He doesn't need any help breathing, but he still forgets once in a while. He looks better though. He's filling in a little more now and apparently he's starting to look like me. I don't really see it though - he's much better looking. Amelia looks like both her mommy and daddy but she does all the cute things that Celia does when she sleeps.

Baby Update

Both twins are back to Level 2 and breathing on their own. Tube feeds are going well for both and both are gaining weight. Lucas looks like his daddy and is one good-looking dude. Amelia looks like both her mommy and daddy and is starting to gain some weight so she's super-cute right now.

My sister-in-law said that when her daughter was born she was 4200 grams. My kids combined were only 2200 grams.

You Can't Handle the Truth Part 1

When my twins were first born I took a bajillion pictures of them but when I got home I couldn't tell them apart.

Why does the word "lisp" have an 's' in it?

I know I've been writing a lot about the birth of my children lately. Even though I fought the idea of it for years, I always knew it would be an exciting moment for me. So, if you thought the past month of entries was boring, screw you. Go write your own blog instead of living vicariously through mine - I know my life is way more exciting than yours. Anyway, although these twins have taken up a great deal of my time (apparently children do that. I read it in a book once), there have been some other things going on in my life too.

We finally got officially engaged. With a ring and everything. You should see the ring. Its fucking beautiful. Seriously, if you think the one you got/bought for/from your wife/husband is nice, when you see this one you'll be jealous and think, "damn, Oliver is one classy dude." Yes, I'm bragging about it. What are you gonna do about it? Huh? What? That's what I thought.

We repainted the house. No, not the outside, stupid, I live in a townhouse. We repainted the entire main floor so now the colours are bright and fresh. Very family-like.

Work is going well. It just really bugs me how it always seems to interfere with things like "life" and "fun" and "sleep".

We moved the computers downstairs again. They've been upstairs for a couple of years now but we're turning the old computer room into a baby room so we needed to clear some shit out. As in everything. Oh, and my wireless network sucks. I unsecured it so if you park in front of my house with your laptop you can steal my internet. I think there's someone out there doing this right now.

I've officially quit smoking for 3 months. Since January, I've had a total of 1 cigarette. Don't try to tell me I haven't quit if I had a cigarette, that's just stupid. Trust me, a smoker knows when he's quit. To celebrate I'm going out for a smoke. Just kidding.

I'm Obviously a New Dad.

I'm not much of a crier. I don't cry during movies, I don't cry at weddings or funerals, and I don't cry when Britney Spears goes to rehab. The past 2 weeks though, these babies are making me cry like... well, a baby. Sometimes it's frustration, sometimes it's because I'm scared for them, and sometimes it's because I'm literally overwhelmed with joy. Last Wednesday night we got a call saying Lucas wasn't do so well and needed to be intubated. Over the last few days I got more information and realized that it wasn't so much that he wasn't doing well, the little guy just needed a little help. I felt better and seeing him wasn't so hard. Today we went to the hospital and he had been extubated and was breathing on his own like nothing happened. I almost cried when I saw that he didn't have anything stuffed down his throat. I was able to hold it together for the whole visit until the nurse said that he might be getting promoted back to the West Side and back down to a Level 2. Okay, I didn't break down in tears or anything, but I was so happy to hear that I let a single tear fall down my cheek.

A friend of mine once told me that when she sees her 8 yr-old son win tae kwon do tournaments, she gets so full of joy she cries. I cry when I get the chance to actually hold my children in my arms and not see them in a clear plastic box. I fill with pride when I hear my twins are no longer level 3 and that they've moved to the West Nursery. And I'm probably the happiest guy on earth when I hear they are tolerating their tube feeds and the volume increases by 3mLs. Right now I'm praying that I'll be able to see them in tae kwon do tournaments or piano recitals or school plays.

Pictures

I've added the link to my pictures over on the right. -->

Shit

We got a call last night at 3am from the hospital to let us know that Lucas has an infection.  They stopped all his feeding, intubated him again, took blood samples, and did a lumbar puncture.  He also got moved back to the Level 3 side.  They put him back on the ventilator so that he can focus all his energy on fighting the infection.  At his age, fighting infection and breathing are still pretty difficult to do at the same time.  When I think about how small he is I get so scared for him.  Please pray that he'll be okay.

Wow

According to my site meter:

as of March 2, 2007
visits/week: 98
average/day: 14

as of March 16, 2007
visits/week: 207
average/day: 30

Just as Expected

I always knew that if our babies were going to be born at 29 weeks, it wouldn't be easy. I knew that at that age they would go back and forth in terms of 'stuff' they can do. I fully expected either Lucas or Amelia to go from breathing on their own and back to cpap and then breathe on their own again and so on. I figured that if they were digesting food, they would be better at it on some days and on other days, not so good. This past weekend I was so happy to see both of my children breathing on their own and having their diet increased in volume and frequency. Being able to hold them as we tube fed them has been the greatest feeling I've had as a father thus far. Doesn't sound like much but if when most of the time you see your children it's through a plexiglass isolette, just being able to touch them or hold them, even for just 10 minutes, puts a huge smile on your face.

The hospital told us that if the twins even had a set-back, they would call us and let us know. I always felt better that they would keep us up-to-date on how they were doing. Until I actually got a call from them. This evening they called and told me that Lucas needed a little bit of extra help remembering to breathe so they but some hi-flow nasal prongs on him. This isn't really a big deal - like I said, I always knew they would go back and forth until they were a little older (they're not even 2 weeks old yet). As the nurse was telling me about this, I felt a little numb. Was there anything I could do? No, he's fine now. Should I be concerned? No, this is normal. I finished painting my living room and an hour or so later I sat down and looked at today's pictures from the hospital. I don't think I've ever felt so crappy in my entire life. Never in my life have I envied my friends' healthy, full-term children more than now. Never have I been so... angry that my children weren't home with me. And never have I felt so helpless. To all those parents out there, did you ever promise your newborn child that you'd always protect them and take care of them? Well I did and I feel like I'm not doing anything.

Stupid

Okay, I'm not complaining about my TV or anything, but when the specs say it has a max resolution of 13xx by 768, it suggests a widescreen aspect ratio. So why, I ask, when you hook a computer up to it, it only supports 4:3 aspect ratios? This stretches my desktop and warps pictures and stuff. I can set the TV to display 4:3 but that wastes a lot of space on the sides. The computer displays quite nicely - clear and bright - on the TV so to use it as a monitor is perfectly acceptable (I wonder how games would look...) but I'd like to take advantage of the widescreen.

Still Growing

A couple of days ago, little Amelia's cpap was discontinued and she now breathing on her own! Also, both of them are slowly increasing their intake of breast milk so they should start gaining some weight pretty soon. We went to visit them and poor Amelia had to have part of her head shaved so she could get a scalp IV. They saved the hair for us and marked it "Amelia's first haircut". So cute...

Originally, they were in the East Nursery where the Level 3 babies go - the ones that need the most care. Usually the ones that are ventilated or in bad shape or born super early like my guys. This past weekend, they both graduated to Level 2 and were moved to the West Nursery. That means they are doing well and we shouldn't have to worry about anything. Once they hit a certain weight, they can be co-bedded in one crib. I'm sure they'll like that better - being separated like this must be real confusing for them. "Where's my brother? He was here a minute ago."

I tell ya, these two are real fighters. First they're born at 29 weeks, then they have to be taught how to breathe earlier then usual, then taught how to digest food earlier than usual, and now they're getting their heads shaved like some gang initiation.

Pictures!

Finally!

Remember its like a Life Network show so some pics really pull at the heart. Just kidding, they're just pictures of my family in the hospital. I remember when going to the hospital meant going to work. Now going to the hospital is like going on vacation - I can't wait to get there and I don't want to leave.

Getting There...

Today I finally got to hold Amelia. I rushed to the hospital after work and got there just in time to hold her for just 10 minutes. I didn't cry this time because I was too excited to just be holding her. She is so beautiful even behind the cpap and IV lines. Both her and Lucas' feeding schedules have been bumped up to 2mL every 2 hours (instead of every 3hrs) which means they are tolerating the feeds a better. Maybe now they'll start gaining some weight! They're still so small...

Yesterday Lucas' cpap was discontinued. He's now fully breathing on his own so there's nothing covering his face anymore except a tiny little feeding tube going to his nose. I knew that eventually he would lose his peripheral IV lines and would have to get one in his scalp and today he had one. It was so cute and sad at the same time. His head was shaved in the spot where the IV was and you could see the little IV going into his scalp. His hand were now free to wave around and boy did he ever wave them around! It was so cute to see him stretching and yawning. The nurse on tonight said she thinks Amelia would lose her cpap tomorrow morning so hopefully we'll be able to see her pretty little face again.

I know I haven't posted any pictures yet, but I'll get some up soon.

Home Alone

Well we're home now. Because of her discharge, we had to get a lot of things ready for when Celia got home and we couldn't be at the hospital when they were going to weigh Amelia. In other words, I didn't get a chance to hold her today but I'm going to try tomorrow. I thought it would be great to finally get out of the hospital and go home to lay in our own bed in our own room in our own house but... it just doesn't seem right to come home from the hospital after our babies were born without them. We got here, dumped all our stuff, sat down and cried that we came home alone. Will our babies be okay by themselves at the hospital? Do they know we're not close by anymore? Will they notice that we're not there as often? I don't know if any of these things matter to them, but they all matter to us. We don't want them to be alone there, we want to be close to them, and we want to see them often. Poor little babies, don't worry, mommy and daddy are always thinking of you.

Still Here

We're still at the hospital.  Wednesday will be day 5 post-op.  That's a long time for c-section to be in the hospital.  My old knee replacement patients who are in their 60's or 70's usually only stayed for 4 or 5 days.  I think the worst part for me is the crappy cot that I'm sleeping on.  My mom has been nice enough to go over to our house and do a little cleaning.  She did laundry and changed the sheets on our bed and washed the dishes.  I stopped off at home today to pick up some stuff and when I saw my bed I wanted to lay down in it so bad and take a nap in its glorious comfort.  No, couldn't do that, I had to get back to Celia.  Instead, I took a nap on my cot.  It was great.  I was wearing jeans and I was cold and the mattress on the cot wasn't centered so one edge had a metal bar digging into me.  I loved it.  I haven't watched tv either in 5 days.  I know there are some people that actually prefer this, but I like a little tv.  I'm dying here!  

Seriously though, the twins are doing great.  They are producing tonnes of milk when we pump and we have to start freezing it for the kids, who doing well to by the way.  

Amelia is getting a reputation as the feisty one with the nurses.  She's still on cpap but I'm told she's doing really good otherwise.  Right now she's a little jaundiced so she's under the tanning lights.  I don't think she likes the mask over her eyes cuz when I go talk to her she holds my hand (my finger) and doesn't let go.  It almost makes me cry. 

Lucas is doing well too.   He's on cpap too but I think he's the independent one.  He kicks stuff away and does all his stuff on his own schedule.  Like breathing and digesting food.  He'll have periods of apnea but the RT says that's normal for his age and that its just a phase and he'll get over it.  He's tolerating the breast milk once in a while but not all the time.  I tell him he needs to eat and grow and he just waves his cpap at me.  Yesterday I got to hold him for the first time.  He still had everything hooked up but they weighed him so he was out of the isolette anyway.  I got to hold him for about 15 minutes and for about 12 of those minutes I was actually crying.  I was holding my son!   Tomorrow, I'm going to hold my daughter and try not to cry. 

Hi, my name is dad

Lucas, 2lbs 6oz
Amelia, 2lbs 10oz
They'll be in the NICU for a while but right now they're doing okay.
Mom's still in recovery but she's doing okay too.

Now!

We're going to the OR now.  Next time I update my Live Blog I'll be a dad.

Another Day

We've been given another day with the babies inside. Right now, everything looks good enough to leave them in but we're taking it on a day-to-day basis. This is double good news for me. One more day for the babies and a day for me to run errands. Woohoo!

Almost

Yesterday when we were hunting for some NICU beds, the doc told us we almost had to go to Alberta.  That would have really sucked.

Observations

The past couple of weeks we've made a few observations.
1.  Our local hospital has a nicer maternity floor (then again, its much newer).
2.  The dad chairs that convert into beds are medeival torture devices. The one I'm on now dooesn't even go flat.
3.  Celia: "they have good-looking doctors here."
4.  Going out of your own city to go to another hospital sucks.  I understand now why people go to those little community hospitals close to home even though all the services aren't there.  I'm only 5 minutes further than my hospital and I feel like I'm in a different province. 
5.  I've been on one side of health care for years as a nurse.  Now, I can honestly say that being on the patient side really, really sucks.  If I still worked at the bedside I'd be more caring and compassionate to all my patients that really annoy the hell out of me. 

So Close and Yet So Far Away

We changed hospitals.  The other one can't handle babies this early so they transferred us across the river.  We're still waiting to find out what the final decision is (I'm not sure they've decided yet).  I'll keep you updated. 

Here We Go Again...

Well we're back at the hospital again.  Her bloodwork is all out of whack and her bp is still wonky.  I think this time she's here for good.  For good as in until she delivers.  Hopefully later rather than sooner.  Don't call me until later, I'll be with her all afternoon. 

Whew

Well, I was back in bed with Celia by 3am. Her blood pressure stabilized and they let us go home. I'm falling asleep here at my desk today but at least I can go home after work instead of hang out at the hospital. As you can tell, I'm having a hard time concentrating on work.

Back Again

We're at the hospital right now.  Blood pressure was a bit high again.  Hopefully we'll be home tonight. 

Lost in Translation

I was reading an old issue of FHM Philippines and there was this interview with some filipino guy and he was talking about all his favourite stuff. "What's something you couldn't live without?" "Oh that's easy, its my PS2, straight out. I could play it for hours." Straight out? Who says that?

I remember as a kid, my grandmother would offer me something to eat. Often, I wasn't hungry or I just didn't feel like eating. The conversation would go like this:

grandma: "Do you want some?"
me: "No thanks."
grandma: "You don't like it?"
me: "Well I like it, I just don't want any."
I always thought it was funny how not wanting to eat something automatically meant I didn't like it. It was just recently that I finally realized that something probably got lost in translation. If I didn't feel like explaining why I didn't like something, the conversation went like this:

grandma: "Do you want some?"
me: "No thanks."
grandma: "You don't like it?"
me: "No."
grandma talking to someone else: "Oh Oliver doesn't like this. Its good, he should try it."
someone else: "Maybe he just doesn't know its good. Oliver, do you want to try this?"
me: "No thanks."
someone else: "You don't like it?"
Right back to where we started. Has this ever happened to someone else? I just remember getting really annoyed at these conversations.

Torture Me.

Last week I spent the night at the hospital with Celia. There was a little chair in the corner of the room the folds down into a "bed". The chair/bed is about the width of the average computer keyboard and, of course, the armrests of the chair become bedrails that prevent you from moving. As I'm lying on this super-uncomfortable torture device, all I can think of is "I have a new king-size bed at home." Being the selfish bastard that I am, I am thankful that Celia is no longer in the hospital because the thing I was sleeping on was the worst bed ever.

Signature Dish

Celia's been on bedrest for a few days now. I'm trying to paint and organize the main floor and today I got word that it has to be done within 2 weeks. I figure if I was able to prime and paint the kitchen in 2 days, the rest of the house shouldn't take too long. If anyone wants to help, I'll buy the beer and pizza if you come over. I still have to move a heavy-ass desk down the stairs at some point too.

Since Celia's stuck in bed I brought her computer into the room and hooked it up to the 32" LCD. with her wireless keyboard and mouse, she's surfing the web, chatting with friends, listening to iTunes, and paying bills all from bed. The thing I find funny is that her 19" monitor is sitting there on her desk 4 feet away from me and I haven't started using it yet. Soon...

I've had to prepare meals for the two of us since Thursday. As everyone knows, I can't cook. Someone asked me once what my signature dish was. Even people that can't cook have at least one dish they can make and make well. Here's my dish: instant noodles. I can make some pretty damn good instant noodles. Sometimes I'll even throw an egg in there.

Staying in Bed

No, I'm not staying in bed.  In fact, I'm doing anything but staying in bed.  Now that Celia is home, she is on bedrest until she delivers.  Everything else is okay and the babies are alright but Celia has to make sure they stay in there for at least another 4-6 weeks.  She's only allowed to be on her feet for up to 10 minutes at a time, she can only go downstairs once/day, and she isn't allowed to do sit-ups or crunches.  The first 2 things are difficult but so far the 3rd one has gone quite well.

Yay!

Good news, we're going home today.

American Idol

I have my top 2 girls and the internet-slu* Antonella sucks. I don't mean guys, I mean at singing.

Blackberry blogging

Since I'm going to be spending a lot of time at the hospital without any internet connection, I'm trying to blog from my blackberry via email.

I guess I have internet access, seeing as I work in Information Management. I just need a computer which I don't have.

Help!

Last night I took Celia to the hospital. The past month we've been watching her blood pressure pretty closely and last week while I was in Boston, her bp did a bit of a jump. Its a little higher than we're all comfortable with so the midwife and our OB admitted her to the hospital. She'll be staying there until either her BP stabilizes or until she delivers, whichever comes first. The babies are okay, we're just worried about Celia. I don't pull out the religious card very often, but please pray for us.

I suck

Like I said in a previous post, I don't know how to do shit on the internet other than download videos inappropriate for work and children, and write text messages in my blog. I still don't know how to post videos, add sound, or even change my fucking template properly. I'd make a better presentation of this if I could but obviously I can't. Here's the link to Rodney's video from our trip to Big White (AKA best damn mountain ever). The video is awesome!

Snow or Shine

Home At Last!

For the past 5 days, I was in Boston for some software training. It was good training but I don't like living in a hotel room for a week. Plus, Celia had some important appointments that I would have liked be there for. Well, here's an update on the past little while:

We went out for Valentine's Day on the 16th because its just easier. No crowds, reservations are easy to make, it was a friday, etc etc. After dinner we went to visit Karen. Karen's son was so fascinated by Celia's belly. He was so cute:
I saw my cousins in Boston while I was there. It turns out they're not going to the Philippines next year. To be honest, the only reason I want to go is for Eva's wedding. All that family stuff that's going on... I'll pass on that. Plus, I kinda want to go to Taiwan. I've never been there and it would probably be fun to bring the kids to see their family. The only thing I'm worried about is that it's going to cost a million dollars. If I buy tickets now, it's a bit cheaper but I was hoping to wait until the babies were born to make up my mind. By then, it'll be a little more expensive.

Boston was kinda fun. One day we went into the city and did a little walking tour. We went to Cheer's for a beer. It's nothing like the bar in the tv show but its fun to say I had a beer there. They even serve their beers in those glass mugs like the one Norm always had. If you don't remember the show, then you're probably too young to fully appreciate the Diane years (better than the Rebecca years).

Celia's blood pressure is a little elevated so she's starting her maternity leave a bit earlier than expected. Only a couple of weeks earlier but this is the first thing that has happened to make me nervous about the whole pregnancy. Babies are fine, I'm just worried about Celia. Aww, isn't that sweet?

Name Game

Everyone always says they have names picked out for their future children. I think they're full of shit. You can't pick a name for unborn children. What if you've always liked the name "Bob" and then the baby comes out and it doesn't look like a "Bob"? What if this new little baby looks like a "Mike"? Do you name him "Bob" anyway because you've always liked that name or do you go with the name that actually suits him? We've got some names picked out but I'm worried that when the time comes they won't suit the babies. Or am I full of shit and this kind of crap doesn't happen?

btw, I always thought the name "Bob" was a little comedic. I've never had a friend named Bob so I've never taken the name seriously - no offense to anyone named Bob.

What do you a call a guy with no arms or legs in a swimming pool? Bob.

If anyone can suggest names, I'll add them to my lists. Don't ask if I need boy names or girl names. If you don't know you haven't been reading.

New Goals

As you can tell, I'm revisiting some old issues from previous posts. My totally unrealistic goal for 2006 was to get 10000 hits before the end of the year. Obviously I didn't reach that goal so I'm going to change it to 13000 before the end of 2007. Why such an unlucky number? Because I'm not an ignorant, superstitious moron. It's just a number. 13000 shouldn't be too difficult to get. Why do I think that? Check this out.

Who Said That?

No one got Level 4. Here's a hint:

"Cinderfuckinrella"

Super Ultra Sound

I was thinknig about the word "ultrasound" and realized that it sound so... comicbook-ish. "ultra sound" like "super sound" or "mega sound". Anyway, we went for our 3D megasound and it gave us super, ultragoodnews. One boy, one girl. :)

Bye!

I found out yesterday that my friend at work, Rene, will be leaving for a couple of years to go work on some top secret, confidential project. Apparently the bigwigs were scoping her out for a while now to do this mission. It'll be sad to see her go, she's been my mentor these past 3 years and the only person I feel I can go to when I have questions. Bye Rene! Good luck and be careful on your job and we'll keep your seat warm for when you come back. Actually, I can't guarantee that your ratty old chair will still be here when you come back. Maybe bring it with you...

TV Series Review

Dead Like Me with Ellen Muth, Mandy Patinkin, & Jasmine Guy

I like this show a lot. Funny and insightful.

Temp

You're probably wondering what the hell is going on with my blog. Why does it have a new template? Because I was playing around with something and screwed it up and had to go back to a standard template just so I'd be able to post. Don't worry, it'll only be like for as long as it needs to be and then I'll be changing it into something a little nicer.

Registry

So we created a baby registry. No, you can't buy babies off of it, you buy baby stuff. We created one at Babies R Us and at TJ's. TJ's is actually the better one so you should buy us stuff off that registry first. Both registries are under Celia's last name. If you don't know it, just ask either of us. If you don't know us, quit trying to look at our registry.

Call Me

Last month Celia and I bought new phones. We both needed an upgrade (okay, I didn't really need one but I wanted one) so we went out and bought matching phones. Aww, how sweet. Anyway, the phone we got was pretty sweet. 2 MP camera, mp3 player, world phone, internet, etc etc. I don't need any of these features but all the phones that didn't have them were pretty sucky. We also got bluetooth headsets just for the hell of it.

Woof Woof

For the past couple of weeks we've had the dog. Good ol' Shaughn. I don't know if you know the story of the dog but he was named after Shaughnessy (Celia's family used to live there) and a couple of years ago got sick and hasn't been 100% since. Anyway, he's still a great dog. He'll follow me around the house even if I'm just going from one chair to another. He'll sit at my feet as I watch TV and he'll watch as I play on my PS2. Understand this: I like him, he's a good dog. The part I don't like is getting up early in the morning to let him out so he can "do his business", especially on my days off. I don't like taking him out late at night just before I go to sleep and I don't like having to worry about coming home right after work so I can let him out again. People tell me it'll be great practice for when the babies come. Seriously? You're comparing raising children to taking care of a dog? I've never been a pet person. I don't feel that emotional connection to animals. I know that Celia does so I do my best to make sure Shaughn is well taken care of. I'll look after Shaughn for as long as I can because he's part of Celia's family and he's a good dog. I'm just not a pet person.

Good News/Bad News

Good news: my RSS feed works! I have it on good authority that I'm right about this.

Bad news: even though we have over 3 meters (that's like, 10 feet for you americans) of snow and even though I have a Monday night snowboarding pass, I can't go. We have some classes that we have to go to and they just happen to fall on Monday night. Crappity crap. Oh well.

Basic Training

People seem to think I know how to do things on a computer. I don't know why, maybe it has something to do with me working in informatics. Seriously though, I don't know shit. My blog site uses standard templates because I don't know how to use those fancy schmancy ones that some of you have. I can barely set up 2 computers to share files and I have no idea what an RSS feed is. Are these things I should know?

Better Late than Never

I'm pretty late with this, but I figure because it's still January, I'm okay. If anyone gives me grief that there's 12 items in my top ten list, I'm going to publicly humiliate you in my blog. On an ongoing basis too, not just once, but regularly. Man, you people probably all want that, huh? As my priest said, there's something missing in society if it find entertainment in the pain and suffering of other people. Well, he said something to that effect. I can guarantee he said it better, but if I had a photographic memory, I'd probably... remember things a lot better. Shut up.

Top Ten New Year's Resolutions for 2007:

1. Watch less TV.
2. Lose 10lbs.
3. Read 6 books.
4. Be a good father.
5. Don't eat fast food or mall food as often.
6. Quit smoking (I'm at 1 week now!).
7. Save money for trip to Phils next year.
8. Less slacking off at work (don't tell my boss).
9. Go to church.
10. Stay out of debt.
11. Spend more time with my family.
12. Smile more.