Nursery Update

On Monday, my husband and I toured the hospital where the twins will be born, which was thrilling; however, we got a little bit emotional (unexpectedly so) when we walked through the NICU and saw the littlest babies.  Fatherhood has me leading more with emotion than logic nowadays.  I can't help it.  I'm certain I will need to focus to ensure I'm not an obsessive enthusiast on the day of their birth.

During the hospital tour, the most amazing nurse explained we would get our own hospital room separate from our surrogate's where we could keep the babies with us.   Or, she said, we could send the babies to the nursery and the nurses would care for them.   I immediately said my babies will be with me at all times!  My husband made fun of me for jumping in.

As noted previously, I'm going to need to focus to ensure I'm not a maniac.

To prepare for the babies arrival we have been pulling together items for the nursery.

The cribs and chest of drawers are from Dwell Studio.  The mattresses, glider and ottoman are from The Land of Nod.  The rugs are from Anthropologie.   The photograph is a print of Slim Aaron's Poolside Gossip, which was purchased from Surface View.  The rocking horse is from Restoration Hardware.

I kept the plantation shutters in the room, because the only curtains I really wanted cost more than my first car, and I wasn't sure if curtains should be in our nursery since we have the cribs against the window wall.

I finally got around to framing the original art work we purchases from Etsy; we hung it high since this will be the changing table.   One of their first lessons our children will learn about art: we look with our eyes not our hands.

I think the nursery is coming together nicely.  We still have items to add, like bedding, but that will arrive over time.

First Contact

Today, for the first time, at 23 weeks and two days I made contact with my daughter.  I held my hand against Morgan's (our surrogate's) tummy and I felt the tiniest little kick from our 1.5 pound daughter who lives on Morgan's left side!  Our daughter enjoys motion; she flips and kicks often.  Our 1.6 pound son who lives on Morgan's right side is more calm and enjoys his slumber, but Morgan said when he wants to move - he moves with intent.

Morgan informed me that we are in trouble, because the babies wake up around 2:00 AM or 3:00 AM each night.  She thinks they get hungry.  I told her she has 13 to 15 more weeks to get them in line.  I often have to tell our 6 month old Frenchie, Matt Damon, that night time is for sleeping.  Maybe she needs to tell our son and daughter that night time is for sleeping.

I asked Morgan if she was anxious about carrying twins.  She said no.  She said she would be anxious if she was bring two babies home in a few weeks.

Wait.

We're bringing two babies home in a few weeks!

Dolls Dolls Dolls

Yes, this is a real picture from my youth.  My uncle Chuck deserves the photo credit from documenting this amazing moment.

Now that I'm having a daughter, I wished I would had saved my dolls and stuffed animals, but I think I got rid of them once I realized all other boys I knew did not play with dolls.  In addition to a juice box, I'm holding my boy and girl twin newborn babies (foreshadowing?) but my favorite doll is the big one I'm holding on my right.  It was designed and weighted to feel like a real baby.

A real baby is something I will have in my hands in a few months.  Actually, I will have two real babies...good thing I spent the first seven years of my life practicing.