A Dancing Fool

Part of being a great parent is protecting your kids, right? With three daughters, our greatest threat is going to be teenage boys. With that in mind, Dale took the following video of Adelaida "dancing" last night:


(Facebook friends can find the video here)

He can't wait to show it to her first boyfriend.

Even better, there is a naked version, in case the boyfriend is really really bad! (Note: Dale wouldn't let me post the naked version of the video, but here is a censored screenshot.)

One Month Old Girls!

Today, Cordelia and Estella turn one month old. Although it is hard for me to recognize it, I know they have both grown so much in the past month.


Estella spends a lot of time awake, just looking around with her great big blue eyes. (Yes, her eyes are still blue! They could still turn brown, but every day they remain blue gives her daddy a little more hope that he'll have a blue-eyed baby girl.) Estella's head and neck control has really improved in the past month and she can almost push her head up when she is laying on her tummy.

Newborn Estella


One-month-old Estella



Cordelia enjoys laying on her back, batting at toys dangling above her. Cordelia seems to sleep more than Estella does, but when she is awake she is active! Cordelia also has blue eyes, but they are darker than her sister's eyes and sometimes look almost hazel. With Cordelia's darker complexion, I suspect her eyes might turn brown relatively soon.

Newborn Cordelia


One-month-old Cordelia

Favorite Newborn Photos

Our fabulous photographer, Tammy Staley, just finished editing the photos from our recent photo session and sent us a CD with all the photos. They are great! Here are some of my favorites:

Adelaida kissing Cordelia, who is laying on top of Estella.


Estella


Cordelia snuggling up to Estella


Cordelia is on the left; Estella is on the right


Cordelia, wide awake and happy!


Cordelia


Dale holding Estella


Estella, Adelaida, and Cordelia, three happy girls!


This picture was taken moments after the previous one. Both babies are now awake and crying, Estella has grabbed Adelaida's face, and Adelaida is just trying to look at the camera and hold the babies' heads, like we told her to!


Dale, Adelaida, me, Cordelia, and Estella. A family of five!


Estella and Cordelia, former womb-mates, share a cozy wrap.


The other photos can be seen at our flickr page, http://www.flickr.com/photos/daleandmarie

Newborn Photos

When Cordelia and Estella were eight days old, we had a professional photographer come out to our house to photograph the girls and our family. She was here for four hours, posing the girls and taking amazing photos of them, and she didn't even bat an eye when all of her beautiful cloths and backdrops were peed, pooped, and spit-up on!

The photos are now available to view. First, she put a few of the photos on her blog, at http://staleyphotography.com/blog/. Go to the August 6th entry (titled Twin Newborns) to see our photos. Now, I have a favor to ask of you. Please go to this website and look at our pictures, and at the bottom of our photos, please comment on them! If we get at least fifteen people to comment on the photos, we'll get a free 8x10 portrait. Thank you!

The blog only has a few photos, but she took hundreds of photos. To see more, go to http://www.staleyphotography.com/. Click on the baby on the left to Enter Site. At the bottom right of the next page, click on "CLIENTS." A box will pop up in the main part of the site; the box will say "Enter Password" above it. Enter "Parkes" (without the quotes) and click on "Submit." You'll see our photos in a slideshow mode; to see them at your own pace, click on the photos on the bottom right of the screen (more photos if you click on the down arrow next to the photos). The photos will only be available until August 21, so check them out soon!

The First Two Weeks

We've now had our little girls home for two weeks and are settling into a nice routine. The girls are generally sleepy in the morning, then seem to wake up just in time for the family's afternoon naps. So, I end up getting a lot of housework done in the morning, then in the early afternoon we all lay down for naps -- Adelaida sleeps for two hours, Estella and Cordelia sleep for about fifteen minutes at a time but mostly want to nurse, and I try to lay down to rest but end up nursing for most of nap time. Eventually I give up on my nap, Adelaida wakes up, and we eat dinner. Cordelia and Estella nurse more in the evening, then sleep pretty well in their crib at night, generally sleeping in three-hour stretches at night. All in all, it's a routine I can live with!

The first week or so we were so intent on surviving that we didn't take as many pictures as we should have. But we did get some pictures, and even more this week. Here are some of my favorites.

This was the day after we came home from the hospital. Dale wasn't yet exhausted and even had a big smile on his face! Estella is in Dale's right arm and Cordelia is in his left.


We put Estella and Cordelia in their crib and Adelaida wanted to go to sleep with them. She soon realized she was too big for the crib! Estella is on the left and Cordelia is on the right.


Dale -- the ultimate multi-tasker! He is doing his knee exercises with the theraband, holding Cordelia, and catching up on the news on his phone.


Nonna and her three granddaughters. Cordelia is on the left and Estella is on the right.


Poppa holding Cordelia.


A family of five! I'm holding Cordelia and Dale is holding Estella.

Meet Cordelia and Estella

Estella Mae Parkes and Cordelia Belle Parkes were born on July 17, 2011. I won't dwell on the details of the labor/delivery, except to say that they were born by c-section and both girls were healthy at birth, weighing 7 lb, 3 oz (Estella) and 6 lb, 13 oz (Cordelia). After being born, they were dried off, quickly assessed by the pediatricians, then handed to Dale -- he held them both for the next hour while I was stitched up.

Although I spent most of the pregnancy with fears of delivering tiny, premature twins who couldn't breathe on their own and weren't able to eat or control their body temperature, Estella and Cordelia were full term, healthy, good-sized girls and neither of them spent any time at all in the NICU! I carried them 38 weeks (I would have been induced the following week) and felt so blessed to have an uncomplicated, full-term pregnancy. Of course, I got very big during the pregnancy, but that was a small price to pay for healthy babies!



(After taking a picture of me with my shirt up, Adelaida posed for the camera as well!)


In the hospital, Estella and Cordelia shared a bassinet, and seemed to take comfort from being near each other. Estella is on the left and Cordelia is on the right.


Even before I was able to get out of bed, someone handed me two babies to hold!


By this time, Dale was quite a pro at holding two babies.


Adelaida came to visit us in the hospital and was in awe of her little sisters. She wanted to be near them all the time, to touch them and kiss them and hold them. She is quite the adoring big sister! (Here she is kissing Estella.)


I promise to post more pictures of the girls soon!

Still pregnant

This weekend marked an important milestone in my pregnancy: I reached the 36-week mark, which (for twins) is considered full-term! Ever since finding out that I was pregnant with twins, I have feared having them too early -- tiny little babies who couldn't breathe on their own, couldn't suck to eat, and would have to stay in the NICU for weeks or even months. Of course we would have gotten through that difficult time if the babies had been born early, but I feel a little bit better every day they stay in my belly. And having reached eight months, I almost feel like I'm ready to meet our little girls -- almost.

I'll have an ultrasound on Thursday where I'll find out how big the babies are, but I expect that they are at least six pounds each by now, which is a very respectable weight for twin babies!

Being eight months pregnant with twins has taken a toll on my body. I'm more easily tired, can't climb a single flight of stairs without gasping for breath, and of course have a little bit of trouble bending over. Here's the belly shot (and no, I did not stuff my shirt with a beach ball!):

Swim Lessons, take 2

Despite the four swim lessons Adelaida had when she was five months old, she is far from a proficient swimmer. So this summer, we decided to do another round of swim lessons. They meet once a week for six weeks and Adelaida and Dale swim together while I take pictures. So far it is going really well!

Despite an intense dislike of spraying water, Adelaida is very happy to be in a large body of water, whether it is a swimming pool or a bathtub. Here are some pictures from our first two lessons:

She looks so happy!


The one part of being in a large body of water that Adelaida is not comfortable with is lying on her back. But in her first swim lesson, she was even willing to lie back on Dale's chest for a few seconds.


I don't think this was in the formal lesson plan, but Adelaida's favorite part of swim lessons the first week was dunking her daddy!



At the second lesson, Adelaida was so proud of herself for blowing bubbles in the water!


She was also quite adept at kicking her legs in he water.


Her favorite part of swim lessons today was sitting on the edge of the pool and jumping in. Dale worked with her quite a bit to teach her to lean her head forward rather than backward so she wouldn't hit her head on the side of the pool as she jumped in.



I'm hoping that these lessons will be fun for her and help her feel more comfortable in the water. So far, my goals are being met!

Breathe deeply, tie my shoes, see my belly button, ...

... walk up a flight of stairs without gasping for breath, pick Adelaida up and carry her, cross my legs while sitting, eat until I feel full, pick up something from the floor, ...

The list of things I used to be able to do goes on and on!

Now, here is a picture showing why I can't do those things any more -- the belly just gets in the way!



I'm 34 weeks pregnant now and have recently had to face the fact that we are going to have two more babies in our lives, and relatively soon! The hospital bag is packed, the car seats are in the car, the babies' bedroom is looking less like a storage closet and more like a nursery. I'm still not quite ready for them (and they aren't quite ready to be born), but we're getting closer every day!

Growing babies

I've now been pregnant for 32 weeks. Once a week, I go to the hospital for tests that measure the babies' activity levels and evaluates how they respond to contractions, and so far everything has looked great. The babies are both very active, have strong heart rates, and don't seem to notice when I have contractions (and at this point, that is a good thing!).

Reaching the 32-week-mark is notable in one other way: babies born between 28 and 32 weeks are considered "early preterm" and generally have much longer hospital stays and more health complications than babies born "late preterm" (between 32 and 36 weeks). My goal for the past several weeks has been to reach 32 weeks -- and now I'm aiming for at least 36 weeks (which is considered term for twins).

Of course, carrying two babies means that I look much more pregnant than the average 7-months-pregnant woman. In fact, I look like I'm about 9 1/2 months pregnant! Here are some recent pictures that illustrate how large I've gotten recently:

At 24 weeks:


At 28 weeks:


At 32 weeks (today):


Of course, that much-larger belly has come with a few (dozen) stretch marks. Adelaida discovered these stretch marks yesterday and decided to clean my belly so that they would go away. She got a tissue, climbed onto my lap, pulled my shirt up, and started scrubbing. Unfortunately, I have just as many stretch marks after that thorough scrubbing as I did before!