Pictures of the Homecoming

Our little man in his car seat. Doesn't that car seat look huge on him? He'll grow into it someday. The blanket you see around his head is a hospital blanket to make the head support a little smaller. We actually have a couple devices to help with that in the future.
Our little princess in her matching car seat.

We just placed both twins in the SUV for the first time. You can see the little mirrors we have so we can monitor them from the front seat.

Here the kids are testing out their twin pack 'n play. This will be their bed for a little while. So far, they have slept very well in it.

Here is Mommy and her little man.

Here is Caden trying out his crib. (He's in there.) We also hung up hi name on the wall. We had been hiding the letters since we had not announced names yet.

Here is Mommy showing Caroline her new room. I'd like to say Caroline was impressed. After all, I did a lot of work to the room. In reality, I don't think she even opened her eyes for the occasion.

Today, we took the twins to their doctor for their first checkup. Everything went well and plan to head back in two weeks. Here is a picture of the twins in the doctor office wearing the first outfits Amy picked out. Her onesie has a lot of strawberries on it and his says "Daddy's All Star."

Our Feeding Routine

I always hear people talking about getting babies on a schedule. We'll, our twins are on one. It might not be the best one ever but here is how we spend our time.

1. One of us will wake one twin up and change their diaper
2. Amy will breast feed for 30 to 45 minutes
3. Just before Amy finishes breast feeding, she will wake me up (if I am sleeping). This means I will normally get about 20-30 minutes more sleep than Amy per feeding.
4. I will then prepare two bottles, wake up the other twin and change their diaper. Then, trade babies with Amy
5. Amy will breast feeds the second twin for 30 to 45 minutes
6. While Amy is breast feeding, I will burp the first twin, feed them with a bottle to supplement their food intake, burp again, and let then sit up for awhile to make sure it all sits well. (Caden often spits up a little while Caroline normally keeps it all down.)
7. I then change a diaper (if necessary), swaddle them, and put them down to sleep. They normally are very good about going to sleep after eating.
8. About then, Amy will finish breast feeding the second one. I will take that twin and repeat steps 6 and 7.
9. While I am doing step 8, Amy will pump some breast milk for use during the next feeding cycle (step 4)
10. If the kids are both sleeping, we're done. Other wise, I will walk them around to calm them down while Amy gets some time to relax. (Unless Amy wants to hold a kid and talk to them for a little while.)

And that is our feeding routine.

It takes us between 1.5 and 2 hours to do all of the above steps. We repeat the steps above every 2.5 to 3.5 hours and feed the kids at least eight times in a 24 hour period. That leaves us with somewhere between 30 minutes and 1.5 hours free between feedings (typically, we have just over one hour). Plenty of time to sleep, eat, clean, shower, etc... Okay, so it is not plenty of time, but it's our life for awhile. :)

I can't wait until Amy is able to breast feed both of them at once. That will greatly shorten how long our cycle will take. Amy could definitely use the extra sleep.

P.S. -- I will post some more pictures soon. We have taken a ton and now that we are home, we have some scenery other than our hospital room and clothes other than hospital shirts and blankets.

Home From the Hospital

We are now home from the hospital! We were a little worried they were going to make us stay another night because Caden's temperature dropped a few tenths. We were able to get his temperature up with some skin time and they released us! Now, it is just Amy and I against the twins. There are no nurses to back us up... That is a lot to handle but I know Amy is up to it. As for me being up to it, only time will tell. I'll try my best.

Three Days Old

Our twins turned three days old today and we are still here in the hospital. The current plan is to take the family home tomorrow afternoon. There are just a few more things to do here before we can leave.

Today, it was just Amy and I with the kids. Well, us and all the hospital staff here helping us. Everyone at the hospital has been great...especially the nurses. They are all soooo nice and helpful. We will definitely miss that help when we get home. :) We've taken pictures of several that I'll probably post later.

On our second night here, we decided to let nurses take the kids to the nursery in between feedings. Doing this let's Amy and I get a little more sleep. We plan to do the same tonight. It was very helpful and I think we need to take advantage of it while we can.

The kids ate a lot better today. Breast feeding has definitely been difficult but Amy is getting the hang of it. Both the nurses and myself think Amy is doing really, really well. To help keep the kids weight up, we are following up a breast feeding session with a bottle. It helps supplement everything they need a little bit. It is hard for someone to generate enough food for twins.

That's it for now. Our next post might be from our house.

Happy Two Day Birthday(s)!!!

The twins are now two days old! The time has flown by.

Caroline, or as Amy likes to call her, Miss Caroline, does a much better job sleeping than she used to. About the only time she gets fussy is when she is feeding. Neither twin has masted feeding yet. Amy is being very patient and I have no doubt they will get their soon. They have both improved a ton in their first 48 hours outside the womb.

Caden is having a little bit of trouble keeping his temperature up. Nothing to be too concerned about but we need to make sure he can regulate it before we leave the hospital. They would like it to be over 97.6 and he normally reads in at 97.4. We are giving Caden a lot of "skin time" trying to keep him warm. I think he enjoys that a lot. He definitely eats better after getting some skin time.

Here are our little guys hanging out in their bed. Sometimes, they like facing each other while they sleep. This was taken just a few minutes before their 6:35pm two day bday.

We Made it Through the Night

Here is a picture of the two of them. They sleep nicely side by side. We can definitely see the differences in their personalities already.

We made it through the night just fine. Caroline did a lot of crying and often needed to be held. On the plus side, she was a really good eater. Caden NEVER cries and is a great sleeper. He's not the best eater yet but I'm sure he'll get there.

36 Weeks and the Twins Are Here!!!

We hit 36 weeks today (September 26th) and we were planning a C-Section on Monday. The Monday plan did not quite work out. Amy woke up not feeling well and we went into the hospital to get checked out. The doctor said that we might as well deliver today. We called our family and thankfully, everyone was able to make it in time. We needed to wait until 6:00pm for the C-section because Amy had breakfast at 10:00 and they wanted to make sure here stomach was empty. That gave people enough time to drive in from Dallas.

Everything went very well. Both twins are healthy and are staying in our hospital room with us tonight. They struggled to breath at first but both of them got the hang of it quickly. Amy is recovering nicely from the C-Section and is doing very well. She is already showing what a great mom she is going to be.

And with no further ado, meet Caroline Abbie Case! Caroline was born at 6:35pm. She weighed in at 7 lbs and was nineteen inches long. So far, Caroline is the crier. She is either sleeping or crying. Not much else.


The second twin to come into this world was Caden Brian Case. Caden was born at 6:37 pm (less than two minutes after his big sister). Caden topped the scale at 5 lbs 10 ounces and was also 19 inches long. Unlike his sister, Caden almost never cries. He is way more active and interested in the world. Caden loves grabbing hold of fingers and is much more willing to open our eyes.


We'll post more later. For now, mommy and babies need to get some sleep. (Daddy is still trying to track down a cot.)