Mommy didn’t know…that her Email was a blog post. But it was…and here it is now:

Hi again,

We are home! What a joyous but overwhelming past several days! Thank you all for your warm wishes of congratulations and support via emails and texts! It’s been hard to keep up on replying, but they are so appreciated! Also thank you in advance to those of you who have already signed up for the Meal Train. Wowsers! Feeling the love there. 

I want to take a little time here to share about our hospital stay and our first few days as a new family. All in all, the twins’ delivery went so much better than Mike or I expected. As some of you know, Phoenix (girl) was diagnosed with Intrauterine Growth Restriction at about 33/34 weeks, meaning she was not growing at the rate doctors would have expected. Her estimated weight was at less than 5 percentile, and Mercury’s (boy) was at less than 10 percentile. 

Although common in twins, my care team did not want to take any risks and bumped up my scheduled c-section to 37 weeks. To be honest, Mike and I were a little worried after that conversation. We didn’t know what to expect at delivery. Would the babies need to be in the NICU? Would they require feeding or breathing support? We would just have to wait and see.

December 8th came and it all went so well! Our doctor and nurses were great! The only concern the first day was the maintenance of the babies’ body temperature. For both of them, it dipped below 98 degrees a couple of times, which meant a trip to the warmers! Or as Mike put it, a trip to “the tanning salon.” Every other test they knocked out of the park. The nurses were especially elated with their glucose scores. 

Regarding my recovery, I’m doing fine but still on the mend. I started to develop high blood pressure during late pregnancy and then at delivery was diagnosed with preeclampsia. Right after delivery, the doctors put me on magnesium for 24 hours to prevent any serious complications, but it made me nauseous and groggy. My blood pressure is still too high. My doctors are monitoring it, and I’m taking meds until it settles back down. 

It’s still very surreal to realize that these two people, who are now out in the world, were inside of me. And, to have them at home under our care from now on is so wild. What Mike and I agree on wholeheartedly is that we love having two! And we can’t imagine it any other way than one boy and one girl. Since neither one of us has much prior experience with infants, it has been such a thrill to observe the similarities and differences between our two babies already. Let me tell you a little bit about them!  Phoenix (born second at 4 lbs 8 ounces, 19 inches long):What she may lack in size, she makes up for in gusto. This girl is an eating champ. If she could, she would eat all day, but the powers of sleep eventually take over. Phoenix only lost about 1-2% of her body weight in her first few days, and by day 6 has already gained all her weight back. While too soon to draw any conclusions, Mike says that Phoenix has my ears and makes some of the same faces that I do. Does that mean she’ll be my favorite…? (wink, wink). 
Mercury  (born first at 5 lbs 3 ounces, 19 inches long). While Phoenix is the master eater, Mercury is the master pooper! He’ll often go through several diapers in one changing. Mercury loves to look around, scanning his eyes left and right, at the kitchen or lamp lights and new sounds (i.e. snowplow!). He gives off a very cute impression of feeling both worried and curious. 

The last thing I want to share about our hospital stay and brief time at home is my wish that you all could have seen what a rock star dad Mike has been straight from the get go. Where my routine in the hospital was nurse, nurse, rest, Mike was doing double duty of everything else: prepping donor milks, changing diapers, swaddling, feeding by syringe or bottle, changing Mercury’s diaper again, and washing all the pump supplies. He did all this while under his own weight restriction from his surgery 2 weeks ago. He was also a very safe driver to and from the hospital! I’m so grateful for Mike and I see very, very clearly how much I depend on him. And I know he has his own list of how he depends on me. 

Mike also had some very tender moments in the hospital with our children. The one I want to share is when Mercury was cold and crying during those first diaper changes. And I saw a fear in Mike’s eyes and shaky jaw and heard in his voice a fear that I have not seen before. Mike was worried about Mercury and he didn’t know how to fix it. The moment resolved itself, of course, and we all calmed. But there it is – parenthood, a journey which we will embark on together. Blessed and tired, we are learning this new groove with grace and awe, and with these two little people as our guides. 

If interested in reading more updates, similar to this one, we hope to update this blog with baby stories in the future: https://babiesbonanza.mikemason.design/
Love, Tiff (and Mike)