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.