Owner: My Wife And Twins URL:http://mywifeandtwins.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:53:14 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: am the only man in a house of 3 females and this blog is here to tell my story….
My Name Is Michael, I am 32 years old and I work in IT for a living. I am a geek at heart and I love gadgets and gizmos.
I am married to Emma and have been for 10 year Site statistics:Click here
The Personality War 2008-03-07 03:29:41 When Lilly & Amy were born, they were the same. Completely helpless and well didn’t really do a lot but as they started to take note of the world around them, they quickly each formed a personality.To start off Amy was very chilled out; she played and did the baby thing. Lilly on the other hand was quite angry and cried quite a lot of the time. Then one day out of the blue they completely switched personalities and they took on the others traits. That was weird.Today they do have very different personalities. Amy is a diva well and truly. She wants what she wants.Take Christmas for example. They both had a woolly fleece as one of their presents. We decided that Lilly would have a pink one and Amy would have the white one. We opened the present at the same time. Emma and I were both e Read more:Personality
Potty, First Contact 2008-03-05 03:25:02 We have been thinking about potty training for a while (well since birth) and we decided to purchase one to put in the bathroom so we could talk about it when the girls had a bath just to ease them into it. We are in no rush for them to start but it's there if they want to use it. After all as soon as they are out of nappies we will be having the words “I need a wee” every 15 minutes when we are on a car journey or at some inappropriate time. I am also sure that they will always ask at different times, I can see it now, “daddy I need a wee”, “why didn’t you go 10 minutes ago when we stopped for your sister”, “I didn’t want to go then”! So as I say no rush.Now I like things that have a duel use and the potty we got is no exception. It is a potty, a step and an attachment Read more:First
Top 3 Strangest TV Programs For Pre Schoolers 2008-03-03 04:07:58 Everyone has an opinion about little ones watching TV. In our house the TV goes on when the adults want some peace and quiet. My girls will watch TV and other times it is just there as a background when they are playing. I have to sit down and watch this stuff from time to time and at times I find myself scratching my head wondering what's going on.The TV channel of choice in our house is CBEEBIES. For those of you who don’t know this channel, it’s supplied by the BBC and is a range of programs aimed and small babies, toddlers and pre school children. Most of it is good educational stuff but there are some very weird ones out there.The following are three of the strangest TV programs I have had the pleasure of watching. For some of you parents out there who have seen this stuff, you wi Read more:Programs
Time To Lock Away Every Curse Word 2008-02-29 01:40:22 Well the day came. We were in a rush to get out the door to visit the grand parents. The girls had just finished dinner and we put the coats on and after about a 10 minute decision from both of them on what shoes to wear (not even 2 yet and they have a thing about shoes and clothes, I feel a constant battle of fashion looming leaving me with a lighter wallet), Emma checked the girls nappies as there was a familiar smell of ripeness in the air.It slipped out from nowhere, fuelled from trying to get in the car and away and still needing to clear the waste ground below their booster seats that was dinner. She put Lilly on her knee and checked, “She’s done a s**t”. Emma covered her mouth as quickly as the word came out but just as quick, Lilly repeated it as clear as day “s**t”Lilly
Earthquake But Not Awake 2008-02-27 16:04:33 We had an earthquake last night. It lasted around 10 to 15 seconds. I must admit I was still asleep half way through it and thought that I was having a weird rocking dream. Anyway, once I woke up a bit and sussed out that it was in fact an earthquake and not our boiler exploding, we waited for the cries from the baby monitor. Not a peep. Emma went into their room and they were fast asleep in their cots. This leaves me with one annoying question.Why can my girls sleep through a 5.0 earthquake but if I make a loud creak as I come up the stairs, they scream the house down as if it the end of the world? Read more:Earthquake
The Twenty Minute Temper Tantrum 2008-02-27 01:41:31 The other day, I witnessed Lilly’s first full on strop. We had just given Amy and Lilly a bath and it was time to put on their pyjamas. It has only been a few weeks since we have gone from all in one sleep suits to pyjamas and already they both have their favourites.This night, it was time for a new pair that they hadn’t worn before. Amy was first and given the choice of what set to ware (we take it in turns and to be as diplomatic as we can). She was happy and one changed went off to play. Lilly's turn and as soon as Emma put the top on here she started. She kicked and screamed through getting changed, trying to. Stood in the middle of her bedroom and screamed. When we took them down stairs to play, she found a corner and stood their and screamed. I put her on my knee and tried to cal Read more:Minute
, Temper
Let The Daddy Years Begin - Back Story - Part 14 2008-02-27 01:37:01 Now I liked my sleep. I would stay up long into the early hours of the morning at the weekends and go to bed and have a long, uninterrupted sleep until the early afternoon. Emma and I had lazy Sundays where we would sit in front of the TV all day with the only worry of what we would be having for tea.Cut to the morning after our first night of two in the special care baby unit. It was about 8am on a Saturday, I had just had a night of about 3 hours sleep. We had been up every two and a half to three hour feeding Amy and Lilly and when they were settled we would lie there listening to every breath and jiffle they were making. If they weren’t jiffling around I wondered why and sit up in the bed to make sure they were okay. It was this night that they had finally got the crying thing down a Read more:Daddy
, Years
The Final Hurdles - Back Story - Part 13 2008-02-24 17:15:05 After our little scare with Amy, I was convinced that we would be spending at least another couple of weeks in the special care unit but we started hearing rumours that we could be going into one of the apartments towards the end of the week. This was good news but there were a few things that the girls had to achieve to get there. In my man way, I just saw this as just an elimination of tasks I could mentally tick off. If I didn’t feel so geeky about it, I would have a laptop with some sort of spread sheet with graphs and such. I just kept this task sheet in my head.Most importantly, they needed to be feeding on there own without the milk going in through the tube. The girls had tried with little success to breast feed from Emma and after some thought she decided to go down the bottle r Read more:Final
Back to the Beginning - Back Story - Part 12 2008-02-21 13:52:36 It was the beginning of week 4 and in the morning Emma called me at work to say that Amy had quite a bad night, she has been sick a few times and she was quite dehydrated and the doctors had decided to put her back in intensive care for the time being. Emma was told that it was just a precaution and that I shouldn’t worry too much.After about half an hour of it weighing on my mind I left work and went straight to the hospital. At this point all of the negative emotions that I had about the whole thing had started to take hold and my thoughts were not in the best place.I got to the hospital and was buzzed into special care. I found Emma in the small booth that we had. Emma knew me well enough to know that I would not stay away so she wasn’t too shocked to see me. She was with Lilly but
Our Routine - Back Story - Part 11 2008-02-19 01:40:39 For the next couple of weeks, we got into a routine. Emma would come and see them twice a day and I would come to the hospital straight from work and spend an hour or so with them. While we were there, the nurses would encourage us to do everything like feed them (which was through a tube in the nose) and change their nappies etc. The feeding was alright I guess but the changing nappies for me was hard.Now yes I am a man and changing nappies when we first have to is like solving some hard puzzle. The other thing though is that they were just skin and bone and I didn’t want to hurt them. After a while though I did get used to doing it. One day though I almost got put off for life while changing a nappy.I think it may have been Amy but I had just taken the nappy off and bam, a projec Read more:Routine
The Uber Breast Pump - Back Story - Part 10 2008-02-17 16:15:03 Okay, so I thought I would have a little post on this subject. I know it’s quite a personal thing for mums and all but I promise I will be tactful.So while we were at the hospital, Emma would go off into a comfortable room and pump out some good wholesome milk. As the girls were still feeding through a tube at this time it was good to stock up on the stuff as much as possible. The hospital had a machine that Emma borrowed to do the deed.When I have been shopping for baby things in the past I have seen these breast pumps on the shelves. They are usually small hand held units, maybe battery powered and discreet enough to carry around in a handbag.The contraption at the hospital was neither of these things. It was the size of a small truck, weighed a ton, ran off a kettle electric plug and Read more:Breast
Their First Few Days - Back Story - Part 9 2008-02-15 17:17:40 Things were moving well. In the first few days there were little accomplishments. Lilly lead the way with Amy very close behind her. They came off CPAP and their jaundice was improving enough that they didn’t need any more tanning sessions. A few days into April and I came to the hospital to find my girls had been moved into the communal area. They had about 30 layers of baby clothing on and they were down 2 wires and 1 tube. One in their nose for feeding, on their skin to monitor their body temperature and one so that if their breathing stopped and alarm would go off. Believe me this was an improvement.A couple of days after that I finally got to meet my girls in person and hold them for the first time. It was a bit scary as they were handed over to me but looking passed their poor brui Read more:First
Five Popular Twin Related Questions 2008-02-15 16:47:51 When my girls were small babies, they got attention well because they were very sweet but also because there were two of them riding around in double stroller (which was at the time the size of a small tank).When my wife and I went out shopping or went for a wander around, most people would just look and smile and then we would here “look twins”. Some, mostly women would come up to us and we would answer the same questions over and over (with a polite smile on our faces):* “Double trouble hey?” By far the most popular. This would be when we would laugh slightly (and entertain that we had never heard that before) and say “yes”.* “Are there twins in the family”?Now this is a valid question and I would answer honestly and say “Yes both sides of the family have twins in gener
The Reality - Back Story - Part 8 2008-02-13 16:45:56 April 2006 and Emma was discharged a few days after popping the girls out and I was already back at work. I planned to take two weeks off when the girls came home.The Special Care Baby Unit, for me took a while to get used to. It was full of very small, mostly premature babies that needed all the help that they could get in the first few weeks of their lives. There were machines everywhere, to help them breath to monitor them and to feed them. At the start Lilly and Amy were attached to everything. There were nurses and doctors constantly buzzing around taking blood and checking them constantly.The procedures were simple in there, babies started out at the furthest end of the unit in intensive care. As they got stronger they would move into a communal area then into their own little room a
A Different Perspective 2008-02-13 01:40:12 I took this picture a couple of months ago now but I am quite impressed with myself because I think that this is the first arty photograph I have taken. Amy and Lilly were playing near the wall and the sun was just coming through the window. They started to play with the shadows ( and fight a bit about who could get nearer) and I managed to run upstairs, grab my camera and take the shot. This is amazing really because usually as soon as they see me taking a picture, they start to walk towards me wanting to touch the camera.Anyway, I like the picture. I have entered it into a competition for a laugh at The Twinkies blog. Read more:Perspective
The Birth - Back Story - Part 7 2008-02-12 11:55:35 I had a seat next to Emma and I held her hand all of the time and quite far enough away from the business end. I don’t think I was the cliché man, I sat there giving her encouraging smiles and not shouting out and breathing with her and actually pretending that I had any idea what she must have been going through.What followed was about an hour or so of contractions and pushing. I had the machine near me and could see the babies heart beats and the contractions. I figured out when the contractions were coming and I knew when the midwife was going to tell Emma to push. Emma on the other hand had no idea when the contractions were coming because she couldn’t feel a single thing. This was becoming a problem because as much as she was pushing nothing was moving south.A doctor was called i
The Preparation - Back Story - Part 6 2008-02-08 03:45:17 What Follows is the most surreal 5 Hours of my life. In the preparation room there were all sorts of stuff that I recognised as hospital things but that was it. I don’t remember there being a computer in that room above the bed. That was a statement in itself “This must be the business room, no time to lie around and watch TV here” I thought to myself. A midwife came in; she looked like she had delivered a million children before these because she was very calm and confident. She went through the usual stuff and asked Emma what pain relief she wanted. It looked like she was going to give birth naturally but because of the twins it would be advisable to have an epidural just in case they had to do an emergency C section but we had never really got to the stage of talking about that so
Knowledge is Power 2008-02-06 17:34:46 I cannot believe it, after spending the whole of their curious lives taking books, ripping them, generally dribbling over them and chewing on them, my girls have started this week to actually open these square things and look at the pictures inside.As well as that, they point at things in the books and attempt to name it or make an associated noise attached to it.Amy and Lilly will both sit on my knee with a book. Amy already has a favourite that she wont let Lilly near and if she does, cries and says “ta, ta” a lot until she gets it back. But most of the time it’s learning central and we have a two way or 3 way interaction which is another new and great experience.I think I am going to encourage this behaviour more. Who Knows, it might lead them into getting some sort of employment Read more:Knowledge
"Happy 33rd" - Back Story - Part 5 2008-02-06 04:13:40 Is what I said to Emma when I woke up that Thursday morning. I was referring to her 33rd week of being pregnant with our so far unsexed twins. I had being saying that for the last couple of Thursdays almost as a countdown. I got ready for work, kissed her good bye (no breakfast, bad boy) and I made the usual 50 mile, 1hour 30 minutes trip to work.It was only my 3rd week at my new job so I was just finding my feet. I got in early; my first job of the day was to make a cup of tea for myself. I exchanged pleasantries with a couple of people in the kitchen and then headed back to my desk. I logged into my PC and the fancy telephone software on there had told me I had a missed call. It was home and I had missed it by about 30 seconds. I called back straight away, it was engaged. My mind started Read more:Happy
The Pregnancy - Back Story - Part 4 2008-02-05 04:37:28 We did everything right, Emma took all the pills and vitamins to give them all the good stuff they needed in there and she took it easy. She had all of the checkups regularly and she had a 20 week scan. There were to be at least 2 more scans before the big day. We took a few pictures of Emma’s bump as she got bigger and bigger. We had the usual happy milestones as well, the first movements and the first time I felt them kick.We attended some antenatal classes with a midwife and a few other people. This was to give us an idea about what was to come in the birth she talked about stuff showed us a video the usual stuff I guess. She also showed us some implements that typically get used in a birth, one of which was, in her words the worst case scenario which were a set of steel forceps that Read more:Pregnancy
The 13 Week Scan - Back Story - Part 3 2008-02-03 12:26:22 November 2005. We were nervous and excited. Emma was feeling semi okay this afternoon as the morning sickness had worn off a little. When I say morning sickness I realised quite quickly that it meant throwing up any time of the day or night, they don’t tell you that little fact.We waited as each couple went in and out with their files and folder full of new baby stuff. They called out Emma’s name, my heart did that thing where it seems to move half way up your chest. This was it.Emma lay on the bed; there was a TV screen above the end of the bed where we both could see the event. The sonographer said some stuff about what was going to happen. The gel went on Emma’s stomach, the sonographer turned out the light and it was show time.Within about a minute of me staring at stuff on the
The Positive Test - Back Story - Part 2 2008-02-01 13:44:45 It was September 2005 and it had been a few weeks after our first try (I’m sure there is a technical term for it). Emma had a feeling she was pregnant. We were at a friend’s house after staying the night and it was a Sunday morning. My friends were still in bed and after about half an hour of getting up we decided to go. We said our good byes and set off the one hundred or so mile trip back home. Almost home and we decided to get a pregnancy test, both of us not really thinking that it would happen this quick.The village chemist was shut so we went to the nearest town and found a place open. I was shrewd and purchased a three pack of tests thinking about the future, plus they were on offer. We got home and read the instructions, pee here and wait five minutes, best time to test is firs Read more:Positive
The Decision - Back Story - Part 1 2008-02-01 13:33:10 It took me ages to come around to the idea of having children. I did want them but this to me was the last step into full mature adulthood. My wife Emma and I had been married for just over eight years and in that time we had had fun, moved into a nice house and had holidays abroad. I thought a few times that we never had enough money to start a family until one day I thought "That’s it if we carry on thinking about money then it will never happen, lets just do it" (pardon the pun).
About This Blog 2008-01-31 16:43:38 I am the only man in a house of 3 females and this blog is here to tell my story….My Name Is Michael, I am 32 years old and I work in IT for a living. I am a geek at heart and I love gadgets and gizmos.I am married to Emma and have been for 10 years. We have beautiful twin girls, Amy and Lilly, born in March 2006. They are non identical and they have very different personalities.I have created this blog to document what it is to be a husband and a father to twins. My experience, my stories and anything I find that is either informational or darn right funny about it all.Like every blog, things have to start somewhere, so why not start here. I like to call it back story. This is where it all began for me and Emma when we started trying for children.I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I w
Contact 2008-01-31 16:00:01 If you wish to contact me, my email is michaelsblogs@gmail.com I will try and respond to any email I receive Michael
Dear Diary – A Morning In The Life Of Miss Amy 2008-03-12 04:57:41 6:30 to 10:45 amI almost couldn’t find my dummy this morning but I found it under my arm. Phew! I cried for a couple of minutes just to let mummy and daddy know that it was quite an emotional few seconds there.I talked to myself for a while going through all of the words I know. I used the word pink a lot this morning, as I do every day. I like pink. I wonder if I will get to wear a pink top today. I hope so. I'm sure mummy will come to my way of thinking in the end. I have purple slippers. I must tell daddy that when he sees me. I told him a few times yesterday but I like to remind him.Mummy came in with the milk and once I finished it, she let me out so I could run to see daddy. Lilly got up as well. I wanted to see daddy before Lilly, I did, he said hello and gave me a hug. He was in Read more:Diary
, Morning
It's MY Pacifier 2008-03-10 05:20:10 The dummy, the pacifier, the soother or what I like to call the mute button. Whatever you call it in your home, I'm sure that there will be or has been a constant battle with this little thing. My twin girls, Amy and Lilly, sleep with theirs at night and sometimes create havoc if they drop it overboard through the slats of their cots if they realise that they don’t have it. During the day is when the battle rages. When it is time for breakfast they take them out and head to the kitchen ready to pile into the first meal of the day. At this point either Emma or I, if I am there, will hide them out of site hoping that they will forget about them and just start playing.So breakfast is over and we let them back into the lounge so they can play and try to cover every square inch of carpet Read more:Pacifier
Dear Diary - An Afternoon In The Life Of Miss Lilly 2008-03-14 06:30:49 12:00pm to 4:00pmI woke up from my nap and had some juice that mummy brought up. I had my nappy changed. While Amy was getting changed, I swaggered around in my jeans with pink stitching on. I don’t really mind what jeans I wear to be honest but as Amy made a big thing about it this morning I may as well play on it a bit.We went down stairs for dinner. I sat in my chair. I hoped that we would have cake today. Mummy’s cakes are the best but I will attempt to eat at least something else as well to keep mummy happy. I usually sit on food to make it look as if I have eaten it. Once, I sat on a whole half a crumpet and mummy was so happy that I had eaten it (snigger). She found it though and then I had to eat flat crumpet.As usual Amy wanted to swap bibs. “swap, swap”, that’s all that Read more:Diary
, Afternoon
, Lilly
Calling All Parents 2008-03-17 04:28:09 Lilly and Amy will be coming up to two years old in a couple of weeks and because of that, I am feeling quite philosophical about my time as a dad.Next week I will be doing pre birthday countdown to their birthday and as part of that I am asking you the parents out there for a few minutes of thought and an answer to this question.If you had to summarise your experience of being a parent so far into one sentence, what would it be?I am looking for a diverse bunch of answers so give me your best shot. You can be a parent in the first months or years on this journey or a parent who’s children have long sing flown the coop.If you want to participate, please email me with your name or nickname/screen name, your blog name and URL if you have one (you will get a link back) and your answer.I will Read more:Calling
, Parents
6 Items That Contribute To A Smooth Routine 2008-03-19 14:57:07 The needs and the demands of the little ones are varied from day to day but there are some things in our household that are needed as part of the every day routine. As I am sure I’ve mentioned it before (and will again), I am all for the path of least resistance and although I can’t always go down that path, certain items in our possession at certain times of the day eases the bumpy ride.The Pacifier / Dummy I have dedicated a whole post to this here. Enough said on that one I think.BatteriesI have a draw in our lounge that has batteries of every kind in there as well as transformers that plug in and recharge other batteries for electric bikes etc. Why do I have these things? Well because you can explain to a 23 month old that their favourite toy has suddenly stopped working and you do Read more:Items
, Routine
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