Molly Piper

I’m the mother of twins. I’m the mother of twins–TWO babies! How did this happen? I mean, I know how it happened, but sometimes it just blows my mind!

At three weeks, this is Miss Cadence (aka Baby CayCay, Cade, Cage, Cagey, Cackamalatchee):

She seems like she’s grown up a TON in the last few weeks. Not that she’s really doing anything different, she just looks different! Sometimes she looks so grown up, and then I start crying because there’s already three weeks gone of her life, and I’ll only be able to remember so little of it. That’s the part that kills me.

She is a pretty chill baby still, but has some gas issues that sometimes make evenings and nights difficult. Why does it always get worse at night?

Anyway, Cadence is pretty big time, and we love having a little girl in our home.

At three weeks, this is Mister Whitsun (aka Whit, Wichita, Wee Willy Whitsun, Whittaker, Sandwich):

Whit looks soooo much like Orison when he was a baby. So much so that sometimes it feels like a do-over. His cry sounds exactly like Orison’s did, he has swirly cowlicks like Orison did, and he even spits up like Orison did.

This kid can pee through five outfits in a day, no joke. Somehow he finds a way to pee out the side or top of his diaper no matter how diligent mommy is about getting that rascal pointed down! I’ve had 3 boys now, and I’ve never had this problem before. He is so laid-back, though. It doesn’t seem to bother him at all!

He loooves his pacifiers, he’s kinda pokey at the breast, and he loves his supplement bottles (sucks them down in record time). He’s a pretty good burper (as opposed to his sister who takes her sweet old time).

And here’s Molly at three weeks (aka Mom, Mommy):

Overall, I feel like I’m doing pretty well! The twins sleep decently at night. They still get up to nurse 2 times at night, but that’s okay. For some reason the 1am feeding feels awful, but the 4am feeding seems doable. Go figure.

I’m nursing them mostly, and providing some supplemental bottles. They are doing very well with both and gaining weight (which is the most important thing in my mind). I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say right now that I think nipple confusion is the biggest myth ever sold to moms. Okay, there, I said it. Glad to get that off my chest.

I’ve had help at home from various family members and friends every weekday since Abraham went back to work–that’s been the hugest blessing for me. There’s simply no way I would make it through a day at this point. I feel like I could either take care of my big boys by myself or take care of the twins by myself, but definitely not all four together. There is truly a village of people taking care of us right now. I couldn’t be more thankful. And if you want to come help some day, let me know. I’ll put you to work!

We still have meals coming too! Again, so thankful for all of you! Without having to factor meal preparation into my days I can actually keep my head above water. I’ll probably need some ongoing help with that, so if one of your spiritual gifts is browning ground beef or cooking chicken breasts, let me know!

So that’s about it! The twins say “thank you” to all of you for loving them, near and far!

(Photos by Wendy Maybury)

The other night, Cadence was really struggling with some gas issues. She was all red in the face and it seemed as though her tummy was bothering her. So I thought to myself, “I should look up some infant massage techniques. I’ll You Tube it.”

So I searched infant massage and got tons of results for relieving gas. Perfect!

I clicked on the first one and began watching it. It was a woman with her maybe three-month-old daughter and it seemed pretty easy to follow along with, so I backed it up and started it again, this time doing it along with Cadence.

I got two and half minutes into the video when this happened:

WHAT?!?!

Abraham and I were in shock! Our heads snapped over at each other with mouths gaping open. What are the chances of that?

We went back and played it again to make sure we heard it correctly. Talk about weird!

So somewhere out there, another little Cadence’s former gas issues have helped our little Cadence with her gas issues. The internet is so freaky.

On Sunday, our little Morrow turned TWO!

We celebrated with our family of SIX(!!!) and our friend Wendy Maybury, who just happens to be a professional photographer and just happened to bring her awesome camera and her love for our kids along.

Morrow is in love with all sports that involve a ball. His favorite at this juncture is basketball. So I attempted basketball cupcakes!

Feel free to submit these to Cake Wrecks if you feel you must. I don’t have the steadiest hand, if you couldn’t tell! I went back and forth between thinking that some of them looked cute and thinking that they looked like spiderwebs. You decide.

Regardless, this was how Morrow felt about them:

And this is how Morrow looked when he was eating one:

Pure enjoyment! I’m no Martha Stewart when it comes to how my cupcakes look, but I’ll take that smile over perfect cupcakes any day!

For the occasion, Cadence wore her first dress! Morrow is in love with the twins. He loves to hold them, give them kisses, throw their dirty diapers in the garbage, and get clean diapers out of the diaper basket.

Orison and Morrow shared some sparkling grape juice for the special day. I love how this picture turned out. It looks like stock photography or something (except for the fact that it looks like our 5-year-old is drinking wine).

I can’t believe it’s been two years since Morrow came into our lives! In some ways it feels like yesterday, and in some ways it feels like we’ve always had him in our family. He brings such laughter into our lives every day.

Happy birthday, Johnner. We love you so very much!

When we left off…

I was just getting a shot of pain medication and then instantly was told that I was at 10 centimeters (ready to push). The resident ordered that I be transported to the operating room STAT!

So without any further adieu, I present:

The Birth, Part 2

With twins you deliver in the operating room, so that if a c-section ends up being needed, everyone is right there and you don’t have to wait for anything or anyone. There’s an operating room right within the labor and delivery wing so that’s where I was heading.

Now, when we were discussing how this would all go down, they made it sound so leisurely. “When you get to about 8 centimeters, we’ll take you down to the O.R. You can hand your video camera off to a medical student and show them how to work it, blah, blah, blah…”

However, they were wheeling me out of there like mad women, yelling to each other down the hall. It seriously felt like something out of a medical drama. One of the nurses tried to cover my lower half so I didn’t flash the whole labor & delivery wing, but the doctor with me said, “Don’t cover her in case we have to deliver in the hall!” Basically, no one was expecting for me to go from 7 cm to 10 cm in a matter of minutes.

At this point I was still just lying on my side in the fetal position, calling out to Abraham from time to time to make sure he was still with me. They threw one of those painter’s suits at him and told him to get in it. He was so stressed out by this point, and his shoes kept getting stuck while he tried to put it on! He was so afraid he was going to miss it!

They got me into the OR and hooked me into these CRAZY moonboot stirrups. At this point my calm-as-a-cucumber doctor came in. She gave some instructions to the people in the room (there was over a dozen people there, I’m not exaggerating) and then she gently told me, “Okay Molly, whenever you want to push, just take a deep breath and push. You’re gonna see your babies soon.”

I was more than eager to follow her instructions, so a few pushes later, at 1:54pm, I heard the cries of Cadence Felicity. I was SHOCKED by how much dark hair she had. They put her right up on me so I could hold her. It was an awesome moment. They just let me hold her. I guess I suspected they would be whisking the babies away right away, so I was pleasantly surprised to just be able to snuggle my little girl.

Also at this point, I was getting majorly hopped up on the narcotics that I had just been administered, but had almost no time to work for me during labor. I suppose it must have relieved a little of the pain of delivery (maybe) but I’m not totally convinced of that, because I felt most of it.

I wasn’t really able to engage emotionally too much at this point, due to a) narcotics and b) having to focus on another baby coming out.

Baby B was a straight breech, so they decided that, instead of trying to turn him, they would just do a breech extraction. My amazing doctor was guiding the chief resident via ultrasound. It was a very strange experience, I’ll tell you that and spare you the gory details. Let’s just say, he was delivered in the following manner: one foot, butt, other foot, body, one arm/shoulder, other arm/shoulder, then head.

And then at 2:00pm I was seeing Whitsun Robert for the first time. He didn’t cry right off the bat, so I was very worried. Very worried. The doctors were assuring me that they’d just heard a nice little sneeze and he was doing fine. But it wasn’t much comfort to me until they put him up on my chest.

They took him over to the table and did a little tune-up on him, then a few minutes later, I was holding both of my babies for the first time!

Whit had to go to the special care nursery for a little while because his breathing was a little bit fast. Cadence was able to stay with us pretty much right away, aside from going for a little bath to get cleaned up.

In the hours after the birth, after the initial high had worn off, the drugs really hit me full-force and I spent the rest of the day vomiting and sleeping, in and out of a groggy haze. So, all in all, I would not recommend an intrathecal narcotic shot. Either go for the epidural or just go natural. There’s really no middle ground that does enough to make the drugs worth it, unless you’re going to go full-out and get some real relief (ala the epidural).

Also, one of the first things I exclaimed to my parents and in-laws when I saw them in my drug-induced stupor was, “I’m not pregnant anymore!!!!”

So that’s the story, folks. There was no shortage of drama during the pregnancy with them, so how could I expect that their birth would be drama-free???

Thanks again to all of you who prayed for us, for these special little babies, and for our delivery. All in all, your prayers were answered. We got two beautiful, healthy babies, an undeserved grace from God!

Thanks to all of you who’ve been so patient as I try and try (and mostly fail) to get anything written about the last two weeks.

TWO WEEKS?!?! I can’t believe the babies are two weeks old already!

So I guess I’ll try to start at the beginning.

The Birth, Part 1

With the help and guidance of our amazing obstetrician, we decided to induce labor at 36 weeks, 4 days. We were balancing risk factors for near-term prematurity (38 weeks is term with twins) against another unexplained full-term stillbirth.

We went into the hospital on Sunday night, Aug 1st. It’s always a surreal experience to walk into the hospital and know you’re not coming out of there without a baby. And then knowing we were leaving with two…it was a strange feeling. It was definitely a horrible night, from a sleep perspective. Every time I moved they’d have to come back in and get the babies’ hearts back up on the monitors. Sometime in the middle of the night I watched ridiculous reality television to pass the time. I was really thankful for them watching the babies so closely, though.

I had some mild contractions throughout the night, due to the small pill I was given to soften my cervix, but nothing too uncomfortable. When the morning came, they started the pitocin and had my epidural all ready for me whenever I wanted it.

I’m a big fan of the epidural. Abraham always comforted me against the haters by saying, “The most natural thing for a human to do is avoid pain. Thus, an epidural is natural childbirth.” I love him. Also, with twins it’s kind of a good idea to be ready for an epidural in case an emergency c-section is necessary.

I labored through contractions until about 5cm, and then decided I might as well just get the epidural going. It was taking quite a while for them to come, and then the chief resident who was also taking care of me came in and dropped this bomb:

“The anesthesiologist won’t give you an epidural.”

I was stunned. Shocked. WHAT?!?! That was my birth plan, lady!

Turns out, because I had a mild bleeding disorder on my chart from years ago, the anesthesiologist refused to give it to me. She didn’t seem to care that I’d had 3 babies, and 3 epidurals and there was no issue whatsoever. The craziest part about it? Her husband is also an anesthesiologist at the same hospital and he’s given me an epidural before, no questions asked! So that was a bit of a shocker.

I got a shot of nubain to “take the edge off” the contractions. Abraham says he thinks it helped. I don’t really remember it helping a whole lot. But I was in a ton of pain, so I have very selective memories about the whole thing!

I took a little over an hour for me to go from 5 to 7 centimeters, and I was in so much pain at 7 cm that I figured, “Okay, I can’t take another 2 hours of this, with the pain just getting worse and worse.” So I called the resident back in and begged for some other pain medication.

Eventually she came back and told me that they found another anesthesiologist who would give me an intrathecal narcotic shot. It’s just a one-time shot in the spine that’s supposed to have many of the same effects as an epidural. So I said, “YES! Tell him to HURRY!”

Now most of my labor was in complete silence up to this point. I’d feel a contraction coming and I’d silently hold up my hand so Abraham would give me his fingers to squeeze while I breathed through it. I seriously cannot imagine talking or even making noise at all. Very Mrs. Tom Cruise of me, right? But seriously, every sound I made took my focus off of just getting through the contraction.

So the anesthesiologist comes in and he’s just chattin’ it up with the nurse about work and such. I’m laying on my side in the fetal position trying not to scream, “SHUT UP!!!” at them.

He gets going on placing the shot and I’m laying there, curled up in a little ball, contracting like CRAZY. I started feeling like I had to push so I yelled back to him, “How much longer do you have?!?!”

“Fifteen seconds,” he replied.
“I feel like I really need to push!” I panicked to the resident doctor (who was amazing, by the way).
“Really?!?!” she asked.

So those 15 seconds were done and I rolled back over on my back so they could check me one last time, and the doctor told me, much to her surprise and mine, “You’re complete. We’ve gotta get you out of here!”

Stay tuned for the dramatic Part 2…

Pop over to Abraham’s blog to see a sweet picture of the twins together last night! They kill me!

I promise to write some more in the next few days to fill you all in on how things have been going. Most of the time it’s been going really well, thank you GOD!

The babies are amazing, and I love having two. Not to say there won’t be some difficult times when I’ll want to puncture my own ear drums to block out their crying, but hey…so far, so good!

Feel free to gush about them in the comments or over at Abraham’s blog (HA!)

You know you’re a nursing (read starving) mom when you’re going through your feed reader at 7:30am and are DYING to make this recipe as soon as possible:

Peanut Butter Cup Popcorn

Also, you don’t have to be a nursing mom to want to make this at 7:30am. You basically just have to be human.

And I just realized, you’re a pretty nerdy blogger if you throw the phrase “going through your feed reader…,” into a post without thinking, like everyone speaks this language.

By the way, you should subscribe to this blog, Our Best Bites. So many good recipes, and nothing too complex. I haven’t actually been making any of these good recipes as of late (just drooling on my computer screen), and probably won’t be for a little while still, but you’ll find some good stuff there if you’re in a rut.

Whitsun Robert (L), Cadence Felicity (R)

Many of you have been thinking about our baby names pretty much since we told you we were having a baby. Somehow our baby-naming philosophy has intrigued you.

Some of you already know this, but we try to name our kids with real English words that mean something significant to us.

So, here we go…

Our newest daughter is Cadence. I’ve always thought of her name being taken from definition #2, “a sequence of notes or chords…”.

It makes me think of a few things, and this is my brain-dump about how this all comes together for me:

• Henri Nouwen’s book The Dance of Life: Weaving Sorrows and Blessings into One Joyful Step. I love this book. I love the title alone.
• To have a dance [of life], you must have music. God is writing music, a score, that we’re all somehow dancing to. Sometimes it’s a jig, sometimes it’s a dirge.
• When I think of the swells and lulls of the music of our lives the past few years, cadence was a fitting word.
• I think of all the times the Bible talks about “a new song.” And when you add her middle name (Felicity=joy) to that, it makes me think (and hope) for the new song of joy that God is writing in our lives through the birth of these twins.

Did you follow that? And of course, her middle name is Felicity, in honor of her older sister, now almost three years in the presence of Christ.

Now, next up…our son Whitsun.

How’s that for unhelpful? Here, maybe this’ll help:

We’re already kinda planning to call him Whit. When I think of Whitsun, I think of:

• Pentecost: how cool was that?
• How little I understand of the Holy Spirit, and how I pray for little Whit, that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit from a young age, following Christ in heart and deed.
• How I pray for our family, for a fresh falling of the Holy Spirit. I want to pray that more often.

And Robert is my dad’s name. I wish I had it on video when he heard that he got the middle name. He was so teary and awesome and cute. My dad is amazing. It was our hope to find a name that went well with Robert, and I think Whitsun does it. We love you so much, Dad/Papa. It’s an honor to have a son who shares your name.

So, Cadence Felicity and Whitsun Robert.

This is Abraham.

I don’t think Molly will mind me coming on her blog to tell you about our new babies. I’ll just make the announcement and Molly can tell the story with more and better pictures later…

Cadence Felicity
1:54 PM, August 2, 2010
5 lbs, 14 oz
18 7/8″

Whitsun Robert
2:00 PM, August 2, 2010
6 lbs, 8 oz
19″

The babies are healthy and keeping warm in the nursery right now. Molly’s doing great, just very tired.

And for fun I’ll give you a teaser for the birth story… It includes a doctor saying, “Don’t put a sheet on her in case we deliver in the hall.”

The reinforcements have arrived, my awesome mom and dad from Pennsylvania:

So, my children are now hooked up with 3-ish days of grandparent, spoil-you-silly fun!

Tonight I will walk into the hospital looking very pregnant:

I’m savoring my last minutes with our little family of four, gathering all the kisses I can:

We will spend the night in the hospital, and induction begins tomorrow morning! All of your prayers are especially welcomed!

Thanks to Wendy, my friend who took these photos for us today! We love you!!

And thanks to all of you for reading, commenting, praying, emoting, supporting. We’re excited to share our newest additions with you, Lord-willing.

(You can see more pictures at Abraham’s blog.)