Names and the first week

Our daughters are more than a week old now, and are doing great! We totally love them.

We had a little trouble naming them because I've always disliked my name so I didn't want to give my girls weird names. We decided on Camille Katherine (fka Athena) and Macy Elizabeth (fka Xena). John's only serious suggestion was that we name our girls after his twin sisters Camille and Maryanne who were stillborn (though he was still suggesting "Moki" and "Mogli" as we were filling out papers). I like the name Macy, so we substituted that for Maryanne. We then realized that Camy and Macy are anagrams....then debated whether that was a good idea. We gave them middle names so that they would have nick name options and could sort of choose their own names in a few years. For now we are calling them Camy and Macy.

Both girls are happy babies, fuss very little, and love to cuddle. Camy is most often awake and loves to interact, much like Athena. Macy sleeps more, loves using her hands, and likes to snuggle, like Xena. As I suspected, both girls sleep with their elbows sticking out, just like their Dad.

Monday we had our postpartum visit where our girls and I were assessed. John was prepared with a full report of how many diapers and bottles of what sorts and when, with daily averages and standard deviations. The nurse was quite impressed. The girls are maintaining their weights, and we have a plan to help them gain weight. I've lost 50 pounds in the last two weeks and am quickly recovering.

Wednesday had our first visit to the pediatrician. The girls are almost back up to their birth weights, and we are trying to decide what to do about our tongue tied little Camy. For John and me the strangest part of the visit was when the nurse asked to see the patients- Camille and Macy. It was odd to hear them referred to as separate individuals, no longer part of me.

Here are a few pictures from the first days at home.

Camy and Macy sleeping, and Camy's and Macy's Halloween costumes

John's response to above bunny suits "Hi. I'm John and I completely disapprove of this." He also asked that I include this video to point out the inappropriateness of bunny suits.

More Camy shots

For those of you who can't get enough pictures of these two, check out this link and this link. Because we are fanatical penny-pincher's and refuse to pay the subscription fee, these are only available for a limited time.

Here and home (by John)

I went to Norway in September for a conference. While there I had the chance to visit Vigeland Park - an 80 acre park displaying over 200 bronze and granite sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. His work bridged all ages and stages of life. Among the sculptures was one I identified with in particular.

I thought, "Hey that is going to be me in a few weeks." Well, the girls have arrived. Rather than the simplicity suggested by the statue, this is what it actually looks like today:

I used to leave the house with a wallet and keys - no longer. Here, upon exiting the hospital, are two diaper bags, a pump, a bag of dirty clothes, a twin boppy, and three bags on wheels. But let's be honest. These are not the pictures you came looking for. I will address some of the questions I have been asked in the last few days:

• Details: when, where, weights, lengths, etc.
• What do they look like?
• Are they identical?
• Who do they look like?

Details On October 13, Athena was born at 10:51AM weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces and measuring 20 inches. Xena was born at 10:52AM weighing 6 pounds 7 ounces and measuring 19 inches. They held out to a 37-week term, so they had a decent amount of time to develop. What do they look like? Are they identical? Athena is on the left. She has a relatively larger head, rounder ears, fuller eyelids, and a lower bridge on her nose. Both have hair, but fairly thin - no idea if it will stay. Xena's hair is slightly thicker and if not combed gets mad-scientist look.

Their eyes are blue for now. This can change. Here is one of the few glances I could catch from Xena on camera.

Pop quiz Who is this with one of her signature looks? (you have a 50/50 chance) And below is her sister.

Highlight here for the answer -->Athena is above, Xena below<--

Who do they look like? This game will play out over the years. Perhaps in future posts we can dig up pictures of Edna or me as infants and compare. Edna's eyes seem to influence Athena - nose too. My nose is more visible in Xena - eyes too.

36 Weeks

Estimates are that Athena is now 7 lbs. (70th percentile) and Xena is about 5.5 lbs. (30th percentile), both of which our doctors are happy about. Xena's been working out lately, so maybe she'll beef up.

Here we are this week, just before our 7 hour marathon of doctor visits on Thursday- very exhausting. I had to wake up at 7am, which doesn't happen much these days. I've run out of clothes that will cover my belly, so I wore a tank top with adjustable straps, loosened the straps so that the top of the tank top is at my belly, then covered the top of me with another HUGE black shirt.