Imagination

Owen has the most extraordinary imaginary play. Here are a few examples:

1)About a year ago, Owen started to have an imaginary friend "Little bear". He was VERY little - he would sit in the palm of Owen's hand. Not long afterwards, little bear was joined by "little cloud", who appeared to be about the same size. These friends would appear unexpectedly anywhere (yes, ANYWHERE) we happened to be. Owen, being very inclusive, would insist that all and sundry acknowledged and included them in whatever we were doing at the time.

We now have a theory as to where these friends originated. Check out the photo below - of the twins enjoying a playmat (given to Owen by Nathan's colleagues in Germany). If you look really closely, you will see... a little bear and... a little cloud!!




One of our old posts shows proof that Owen once used this playmat; quite obviously, these toys were imprinted in his mind from a very young age, hid in his subconscious, and only now resurfaced.

More recently, Owen has added "big bear" and "big sister" to his posse. We have no theories yet as to where they came from.

2) Owen is rather obsessed with dinosaurs, not uncommon in young boys. For some reason, he has a favourite; the diplodocus. This was one of the first dinosaur skeletons that Owen saw, at the nature museum in Denver during our 2008 trip.

You may not know this, but there is a family of Diplodoci in Sydney! They consist of Daddy Diplodocus (Nathan), Mummy Diplodocus (Jo), Dabby Diplodocus (Owen), Abby Diplodocus and Sean Diplodocus. Owen can get quite upset if you call him Owen at the wrong time. In the photo below, you can see Dabby's diplodocus tail. Dabby must be the only Diplodocus in world history to play Wii tennis!




Fortunately, he understands that not everyone understands his imaginary world. "At preschool, I'm just Owen", he says.

I think our esteemed dinosaur researchers will be rather surprised to find out what baby diplodoci like to eat. "Bones, leaves, chocolate biscuits, mango biscuits and plum biscuits".

Updated photos - 3 months old

Top Abby, Bottom Sean:



Sean, Abby:



Sean:



Abby:



Sean, Owen, Abby.

Updated photos - 2 months old

The babies are now 4 months old, and the last photos were when they were only 1 month old. It's been a bit hard to get around to blogging, so this and the next few posts are a bit of a catch-up post with some photos at roughly monthly intervals. We've named people left to right.



Jo, Abby, Sean:



Jo, Abby, Owen:



Owen, Abby:



Abby, Sean:

The (illustrated) guide to breastfeeding twins

Jo commonly gets asked about breastfeeding twins. "At the same time?? How do you manage that?"

Here's how to twin breastfeed BY YOURSELF!

1) You need to get the right equipment. A wide sofa and a feeding pillow will make things much easier. A double bed pushed against a wall can substitute for the sofa.






2) Set yourself up with one baby on each side (within reach), and fit the feeding pillow.






3) Pick up twin 1, place in position and attach them to your breast. We have it on good authority that the safest way to pick up the baby is by grabbing their body suit.






4) Once twin 1 is feeding well, pick up twin 2. Be very careful that twin 1 doesn't move (ouch!). Best to pack twin 1 in position with cloth nappies so that you can use two hands with twin 2.






5) Attach twin 2. Again, make sure twin 1 doesn't move.






6) After a short time, twin 1 will need a burp. Lift over your shoulder and pat. Remeber to pack twin 2 in place first!






7) Depending on timing, you might end up burping both at the same time.






8) After burping, attach them back. Continue until feeding is finished. Then reverse all the steps to get both babies off the breast and feeding pillow. You are now finished!






Thank you to our models: Owen (mum), Teddy (twin 1) and Steiffi (twin 2). Teddy and Steiffi are the same teddies that Owen gave birth to here. Owen told us that "the teddies had a good feed".


Troubleshooting - FAQ

Q1) I have attached twin 1 successfully, but twin 2 is having trouble attaching. What do I do?

A1) You will need to detach twin 1 so you can concentrate on twin 2. Re-attach twin 1 afterwards.

Q2) One of the babies needs a nappy change and won't feed. What do I do?

A2) Unfortunately, you will need to detach both babies and put them back on the couch, remove the feeding pillow, and change the offending baby. Then, start from step 1 to re-attach both.

Q3) An older sibling is misbehaving while I am feeding. What should I do.

A3) When you figure this out, could you let me know??

Q4) Something happens, and I must quickly move from the couch. What can I do?

A4) If your feeding pillow is equipped with a belt, you can stand up with the pillow and babies all attached. This is only recommended for emergencies!

Q5) This sounds too hard. How can I make this easier?

A5) Get help! A second pair of hands can pass the babies to you when needed, and take them for burping or nappy changes.

Higher Authority

Nathan had just finished on a conference call with Germany. He came to the dinner table, and talked to Owen.

Nathan: I was just talking to my boss. My big, big boss!
Owen (after a short pause): God??
Nathan (trying not to laugh): Um, no, not THAT big a boss! Good question, though!

Same... or different?

Would you expect Abby and Sean to be very similar, or different? They have the same parents, shared a womb for 38 weeks, were born within 30 minutes of each other, and haven't really been apart for the first weeks of their life. How different could they possibly be?

Even at this young age, there are quite a few differences we've noticed. Want to play a game? Try and guess which ways they are the same... or different.

Options: Looks, usage of nappies, eating/burping/chucking, sleeping, crying.

And the answers:

1) Looks - depends who you ask. You can clearly tell them apart if you know what to look for, but when you find yourself holding one of them at 3am, and can't directly compare to the other its easy to make a mistake. Here is another gratuitous photo of them. Can you tell who is who?






2) Usage of nappies - different.

Sean uses about twice as many nappies as Abby. How does he manage this? Step 1 - synchronise your poos to start shortly before you are due for a feed, and refuse to attach until your nappy is changed. Step 2 - continue your poo during the feed, and stop feeding until your nappy is changed. Step 3 - finish your poo with a flourish after the feed is over, and refuse to sleep until your nappy is changed.

How many nappies does an average newborns use a day? Usually around 8. They get 6-8 feeds a day, and need a change at each feed. Then they might need a change or two if they wake up between feeds with a particularly wet or dirty nappy.

3) Eating/burping/chucking - different.

Abby tends to feed quickly, and will have at most two session each time. It is really hard to get her to burp, even though she really needs it before she will sleep. She rarely chucks (that's slang for vomiting).

Sean stays attached for much longer, and seems to always want to come back for more. He burps very easily - sometimes he even burps himself during the feed! And he chucks several times each feed, often through his nose (poor thing!).

4) Sleeping - same... but different.

Both of them sleep soundly for 3 out of 4 sleeps, and have 1 or 2 very bad sleep sessions a day. They are different in that they don't synchronise their poor sleep times. They have tended to have their unsettled times during the night, but would take turns so that we end up with very little sleep. Unfortunately we haven't been able to catch up during the good day sleeps, because Owen is awake and wanting attention.

We've kept going with the swaddling, which is supposed to help them sleep longer. They both try to free their arms, and in this photo were partially successful.






5) Crying - Different.

When they were born, Abby sounded like a cockatoo, and Sean like a piglet. Want to hear it? Click here.

1st day of (pre-)school

Owen is really growing up! Of course we know this, but two things have recently brought this fact home to us.

Firstly, once Abby and Sean were born, Owen overnight grew much bigger, heavier and more mature; a psychological effect of now comparing him to his much smaller siblings. We have had to be quite careful when adjusting across the age gap; the first time Nathan tried to pick up Owen straight after carrying Abby, he nearly threw his back out!

The other - this week he had his first day of preschool! Here he is fully equipped with his new pre-school bag.






Unloading his provisions for the day:






There were no tears at all - in fact, Owen hardly had time to say goodbye to mum and dad, before he was off to play.

One week old

Abby and Sean turned 1 week old today!

After 4 nights at the hospital, mum and the newborns came home! They were very small in the car seats - here is Sean all snug and secure.






The first few nights at home have been a bit tiring, as expected. Breast-feeding is all the harder when you have twins. You need to feed them at the same time in order to have time for other important activities (such as sleep!), but feeding two together is not easy! Probably for a while, Nathan will need to wake up for the night feeds to lend a hand.

Having twins after Owen has been both good and bad. Jo is much more experienced at breast feeding, which makes a huge difference. But Owen also needs our attention, sometimes at the worst possible time!

We have lots of photos of course. Although not as many as with Owen. Probably because we both tend to have our hands full of baby, rather than a camera. We think the cutest photos are of Abby and Sean right up next to each other. It's also easier to work out who is who that way; Nathan still occassionally gets them mixed up! In the following two photos, Abby is on the left.











WARNING! Skip the rest of this post if you don't like poo stories.

One highlight of the first week is that Nathan managed to get poo'd on! This is actually quite an achievement when you think about it. Most mums and dads would have experienced the suprise wee in the face (Nathan on his first nappy change with Owen!), but poo??? The secret is in the timing. You have to pick a time when your baby has explosive, mustard poo. Then you have to remove the old nappy at exactly the time that your baby explodes. Here is the evidence:

What's in a name?

If you are wondering about the names, here are the meanings:
Abigail = Father's joy.
Thea = Gift of God.

Sean = Gift of God.
Thomas = Twin.

We have a bit of a theme going in our family. Nathan, Johanna and Matthias (Owen's middle name) also mean "Gift of God".

And here is a photo of a 3 headed monster we discovered in our room:

One big family

Firstly, thanks for all the well wishes we have received! We have appreciated your concern and prayers over this time.

Owen was very excited that the "babies" were finally out, but it was a bit late for Owen to meet his new brother and sister on the day they were born. Today was the day when we could be one big family! He was very excited, and marvelled at their tiny hands and feet. Here is a photo of all of us:






It didn't take long for two sleeping babies to bore him, though. We are hoping that he will adjust well, and continue to be proud of his new status: BIG BROTHER. Fortunately his baby brother and sister were thoughtful enough to bring him some presents - one of which gave him a bit of valuable mummy time.






We found it interesting that in Australia, the babies are all tightly swaddled - see below.






It makes for a cute photo, but is quite different to Germany, where the little ones were given freedom to stretch their arms eg Owen in Germany.

They also have a very snazzy hearing screening test. The tester plays a series of beeps to the babies, and monitors nerve activity to make sure the signals are getting through. You'll be happy to know that Abby and Sean passed with flying colours.

More about the birth

We are very thankful that Jo did not have to have a caesarian section, unlike over 95% of twin deliveries at this particular hospital. Jo was induced, and had to have an epidural because they were twins. Less than 7 hours later they were both out - a bit longer than with Owen (around 5 hours), but probably slowed a bit by the epidural. If you want more gory details, you'll need to ask Jo in person.

Although the birth itself was straight forward, there were a few dramas in other areas:

1) The weather in Sydney was VERY hot that day - pushing towards 40C in some areas. The air conditioning wasn't working that well, and Jo really felt it. To make things worse, there was a fire alarm right when Jo was fully dilated, and just about ready to push! She had visions of having to give birth while being evacuated!! The nurses and midwives were very calm, and ignored the alarm, which they rightly assumed was a false alarm caused by the high temperatures.

2) Unfortunately, the day of the birth was one of the busiest the birthing unit had had for a long time. All the suites were being used, and the midwives were run off their feet. This was no problem during labour; but once the babies were born, we dropped in priority. We had to cool our heels for a while before Jo could get cleaned up and moved to her room. This was a bit frustrating, because it seemed like all the work had been done, but we couldn't settle down and rest.

3) Perhaps to balance out the hot labour, the room Jo, Abby and Sean stayed in on the first night was very cold - like being in a fridge. The nurses told us that the air conditioning control panel (which could be used to control each room individually) had been locked up by maintenance people; in the past, too much fiddling of the settings had caused the system to break down! The nurses became concerned when Sean's (the lighter one) temperature dropped, so they all got moved to a more temperate room.

Despite all this, Jo was very positive about her experience. The difficulties were not the fault of the staff, who were lovely, and were really quite minor. It was all alot easier than when Owen was born in Germany (newer readers might want to check out our 2005 posts) - due to language (having to concentrate on translation leaves less energy for other things), as well as cultural differences.

They're here!

Announcing the arrival of Abigail Thea (pronounced "Tay-ah") and Sean Thomas on 15th Jan, 2009.

At 38 weeks (considered full term for twins), Abby was 2.7kg, Sean 2.45kg.

Here is a photo of them (Sean on the left).



More to come - gotta get some sleep.