Daddyman @ Home

It's taken this rookie At Home Dad 4 days to perfect it, but I think I've got it worked out.

Supplies

• One bottle. We've got a platoon of bottles at the Pamphlet Place, but during the day we only use one or two, washed between each feeding.
• A bouncer with a wire frame. The wire frame makes for easier hands free movement, anything with a tubular frame makes it too difficult. If your in the market for one, head to the store to see one you like, and see how easy it is to bounce it. All the popular baby stores have them on display to tear up. Then, go home and see if you can find it cheaper online.
• Your foot. If you're a percussionist, this'll be a bonus.
• A seat with an arm rest.

Strategery

My adorable ones eat roughly every 4 hours, with a bonus stretch occasionally throug the night. Pink helps me with feedings as long as she'll have a little while to get ready for work, so I plan on my first solo feeding based on their last feeding.

This morning, right at the 4 hour mark, both Baby Purple and Teal started their wakeup fussing right at the four hour mark. That's my cue to get the bottle ready.

After placing the bottle near the arm rest cafe, I grab the baby that's fussing the least and place her into the bouncer. Then I take the one who's fussing the most and perform a pit stop at the changing table to ensure she's totally awake.

Then, before placing the bottle, gently...gently, move the bouncer close to where your feet will be and wedge your foot between one of the legs and where the seat attaches. Then, rock the bouncer gently with your foot. Then, focus on feeding the baby in your arms.

Most bouncers come with a vibrating function, which usually isn't that effective. The gentle bouncing tends to keep the baby settled while she waits her turn.

So I bounce one while I feed the other. Then after the last of the burping is down, they switch spots and I do it all over again, cleaning out the bottle and using it for baby two. I rock the second a little more gently because she's fed, but it also helps keep her more upright so most of the food stays down. It's not easy trying to feed one baby and cleaning spitup after the other.

Once done, I sneak a peek to see if there are any leaky gas tanks or skid marks, swaddle them up, and lay them back down to rest.

Start to finish this usually takes about an hour, longer if they're being a little stubborn.

The worst part about this is that it's difficult unless you're used to tapping your feet for long periods of time. If you've been a band or music geek, you'll be at an advantage, otherwise, build up some calves to get it done. It's made my daily feedings SO much easier.

Taken from the brain of DaddyMan at 9:19 AM 1 highly regarded thoughts    

Labels: At Home Dad, bottles, bouncer, feeding, Twins

Result?

A man who's got a laptop on his lap, with his twins together in their bouncy chair, bouncing them with his left foot, while working on this blog and explaining to my wife that the "Stroll" status in RPG's refers to abilities recharging while walking.

Ooh yeah, the laptop isn't shaking either. I knew playing the drum set would come in handy. :)

I however, can't make bottles a the same time. Pink's heading into the kitchen to do that now. I'm geeking out and keeping them settled for a couple minutes.

And in a total geek fashion, Baby Teal is swaddled so that I can only see the top of her nose, eyes, and slightly furry head...and it reminds me of when Darth Vader had his mask off in Return of the Jedi, before they took the mouth piece away.

Note to anyone who sees me in the next couple days and if I have a bruise on my arm...Pink probably smacked me because I compaired my daughter to Darth Vader.

Taken from the brain of DaddyMan at 7:44 PM 0 highly regarded thoughts    

Labels: Darth Vader, Gaming, RPG, Star Wars, Twins

I don't think I've been more afraid in my life...and so emotionless.

It was either Sunday or Monday night this week, and we were just settling down and getting ready to go to bed. Both girls had their bottles and burps, and we were snuggling them into their bassinet. I had laid Baby Teal in bed while Pink was swaddling up Little Miss Purple. I made it a pit stop in the bathroom, and...

...turned into a robot.

"Pink, it's Teal, she's not breathing, her face is purple." I dash over and squeezed her cheeks and tried to get them open, but her mouth was shut like a vice, despite by very forceful adult fingers trying to get in.

Infant CPR from the hospital kicked in.

I picked her up, turned her over, held her head down on my left arm, patting with more force than I'd care to admit on her 3 week old spine. A couple quick pats, I turn her over, and she's got formula coming out of her noise.

Pink is freaking out, but I think in the scheme of things, I knew that was good because the fluid was draining somewhere. Still, no breathing.

I roll her back over, pat her some more, and see more fluid. A whole 20 seconds has passed and Pink screams, "Oh my god! This is not working! Call 911 now!" Her brain is working because I'm working on Baby Teal, so she flies to the other side of the room, dials them up, and remains calm and clear when asked and reasked for the address.

I don't know when it happened, but Teal's pathways cleared and she started some shallow breaking, so I heaved her over my shoulder and gently patted her on the back. They were short labored breaths, but they were breaths.

The 911 operator says they're sending people over, so we head downstairs, and I open the the front door and turn on the porch light so they know which house to come into.

I no more come back into the living room and a police officer knocks twice and enters the house.

"How's the baby?"

"I think we're okay," Pink says, "She's breathing, but not too well."

The officer visible relaxes. I know that relaxed feeling. It's the same feeling of driving hell bent into an emergency situation assuming the worst and realizing it isn't going to be that bad. "Good, with these calls involving children, I think of my own and start to imagine what I'd do if it was my kid."

We all have a tense laugh, and one minute later, a firetruck arrives and the firefighters some right on in and I place Teal on the changing table in the living room.

After catching them up on everything, they listen to her heart rate and for fluid on the lungs, but by this time she's settled down.

Then Med-Act arrives 1 minute later. 6 minutes ago I had a house of 5. Now I've added a police offier, three firefighters, and three med-act personnel.

I saw Med-Act relax when I said, "Welcome to the Party!"

We signed some paperwork that night to say we're keeping Teal at home rather than taking her to the hospital to have her checked out. I shook both the firefighters hands has Pink said, "You know, Little Blue is going to be pissed off in the morning when he finds out REAL firefighters were in our house."

This all happened right around midnight, so Pink and I stayed up till about 3 or 4am to give the girls another feeding and put them to bed.

It was the first time Pink's had to call 911, but not my first 911 altercation. Being a Resident Assistant and Assistant Hall Director in college, I got pretty comfortable giving the emergency services a call when needed.

I was totally cool and calm through the whole thing, I barely said a thing, just did what my mind told me to do and what my muscles remembered to do.

I'll say this though, I look at them pretty often to make sure their little chests are moving up and down or that their pacifiers are gyrating minutely in their mouths.

Please...don't let me go through that again.

Taken from the brain of DaddyMan at 10:49 PM 1 highly regarded thoughts    

Labels: 911, Dusky Spell, Twins

After a week long hospital stay, the Twinkies were born on October 22, 2007. Ever since, Pink and I have been living our lives nearly three hours at a time.

We checked into the "hotel" due to Pink's contractions being 3 minutes apart, and by the time they subsided they determined she was having some high blood pressure, and after a day in the hospital, the docs determined she'd be staying till the twins were born.

On the Monday of their birth, I had intended to go into work for a couple hours, but as I was finishing my egg mcmuffin, Pink calls me on the cell phone

"Honey! We're having babies today!"

*Blue drops his gargantuan vanilla iced coffee over the library's parking lot*

I had a split second of happiness followed by a brief, "Dammit, there's two bucks of coffee on the ground."

I finished up work, dropped Little Blue over at daycare's house, then headed to the hospital to by with my wife. As surgery time approached, I passed my keys off to my Mom to go pick up the dude from daycare and hang out at the hospital.

A little after 5pm, identical girls were born, and we heard their meowing telling us they were breathing on their own and happy. Little Purple was born weighing 6 pounds and 2 ounces, Little Teal was born at 5 pounds 12 ounces. Very healthy weights for identical twins sharing a placenta. I stayed with Pink while she was getting sewn up and we joked with her OBGYN while the twins were whisked off to the nursery.

They both came out of the nursery for about a day, till we heard Little Purple had a dusky spell where she stopped breathing for about 20 seconds. From that point on, Little Purple stayed in the NICU for the next 5 days when they were sure they wouldn't have another spell.

Little Teal was in the room with us during recovery for a couple days, but they whisked her to the NICU after they found out she wasn't gaining enough weight.

Then both twins weren't gaining weight. The docs feared that they were struggling to keep their body temps up and were burning too many calories to gain weight.

Then, over two days, NICU nurses, doctors, and pediatricians were furious because they couldn't find a scale that would measure the twins accurately. They put both girls in an Isolate (I think that's what it's called, I couldn't remember), to keep the air temp up to make them comfortable so they could beef up while the doctors figured out the scale thing.

Pink was discharged the Friday after their birth, and she was rolling and rocking around like a woman who wanted her children at home. It turned out to be a good thing because we made some last minute needed items so we could get them home and got a second car seat for our twin stroller.

I had a chore figuring out how it all worked. When strollers are gifted to you, you're hard pressed for a manual.

The twin limo was used for the first time on Tuesday the 29th after we brought them home from the hospital. We made a detour to pick up big brother first, then headed to the pediatrician's office to get a starting base weight. That Friday, both had gained enough that the pediatrician said we could start going 4 hours between overnight feedings.

Much to the Pamphlet's happiness. Living three hours at a time, while necessary, does tend to grate on you after a couple days.

It's been a good ride so far, and Baby Teal tends to have a fondness for having her Dad feed her. Apparently I have the innate ability to ensure she gets the bare minimum of breast milk and formula down each feeding.

And the kickass thing? While at the doctor's office, the nurse gave us $60 dollar's worth of the high calories Neosure formula the twins have to guzzle down twice a day.

"Hide these in your backback...if the doctor offer's more, don't tell him I gave this to you! I've got a 9 month old at home, I can't imagine the costs for twins!"

Taken from the brain of DaddyMan at 9:06 AM 0 highly regarded thoughts    

Labels: At Home Dad, Twins

Pink was having contractions 3 minutes apart on Thursday night, so we checked into Shawnee Mission Medical Center at roughly 11:30pm to see what our girls were up too.

As a true child of the technology age, I was chatting online with a buddy of mine from work, so we dropped Little Blue off at his house so Little Blue could stay the night with some friendly faces (thanks Cap'n and Circumstance!).

We checked in and monitored the girls over night, and at 4am Friday morning they decided to do a 24 hour protein analysis to ensure everything was going smoothly. Pink's blood pressures were a little erratic, which indicates that the placenta may be getting a little wore out (after all they tykes are sharing one).

As of Saturday morning, everything is leaning towards bed rest in the hospital, just for monitoring. The doctors have been and and agreed it'll be best for Pink to stay in here until the girls are ready to come out or her scheduled due date on the 30th, whichever happens first. She's getting some blood work done now (the nurse was smart and brought needles AND breakfast), so she's gearing up for some eggs and toast.

Though, Pink just told me, "I want to prove to these people I can do bedrest at home!"

Grandpa Blue has a sleep over at Little Blue's house last night (actually, I think G'pa did his fantasy football and watched Transformers while Little Blue was sleeping), so they're both causing trouble this morning I'm sure.

Taken from the brain of DaddyMan at 6:45 AM 1 highly regarded thoughts    

Labels: At Home Dad, Hospital, Twins