Our year so far

We've had an eventful year so far. 
Around the beginning of February, I had a job interview with a company in Clearfield, about 15 minutes from home.  The interview went well and the job seemed really great.  Two weeks later they made me an offer.  I kind of had a feeling that this was the best offer I would ever get, so I prepared myself to quit my job the next day.  Another guy on our team had quit a few days earlier, and he did it in a really horrible way, so this was bad timing for me to quit.  But I was ready for it.  The next day I mustered everything I had and told my boss I had an offer and would be leaving in 3 weeks.  He just sat there shaking his head, saying he totally understood and he knows how hard it is to commute so far and leave kids home.  But then he asked if it would make a difference if I could work from home sometimes.  It definitely would.  The new job would mean a much better commute, but 5 days solid at the office every day.  So my boss talked to the CFO and got him to agree to let me work from home Tuesdays and Thursdays.  The CFO hates letting people work from home.  He's all about wearing ties every day and being at your desk all day every day.  I know plenty of companies work that way, but it doesn't seem really necessary in our company.  I can absolutely do my job from home, so driving 2+hours a day does't make sense.  My boss also got me a little raise to make up for the fact that our benefits are worse than anybody else anywhere.  So I stayed.  I know I'll regret staying on days when I really hate my job, but for the most part it's a super easy job, and working from home twice a week is great.  It gives Matt a chance to have full days for meetings and appointments and just to get away from the babies for a little bit.

3 weeks ago on a Saturday I had just gotten home from grocery shopping with a fridge load of groceries.  As I was putting them away, the fridge started beeping.  Usually this means the door is open too long.  I closed the doors and it kept beeping.  We checked all the doors and levers and read through the owners' manual but couldn't get the fridge to stop beeping.  And the temperature indicator showed the temps of the fridge and freezer were going up pretty quickly.  After messing with it for about an hour, we had a quick conversation to decide between calling a repair man, knowing he probably wouldn't be able to come for a few days and it would be expensive and the fridge would probably only last a year or two longer anyway (it came with the house and is 10ish years old), or we could buy a new fridge and hopefully avoid extra costs later.  By this time it was late afternoon- the appliance store was open for one more hour.  So Matt sat with the girls and I ran down to the appliance store.  We texted about what features we wanted, I sent him a few pictures of the fridges that looked good, and I bought a new fridge.  We had to live out of coolers in the backyard for a few days (yes, it was February, but it still got to the high 50s each day so the ice in the coolers melted faster than we expected), and the new fridge was delivered Monday afternoon.  It's great.  It's nice and big and does the job.

The next weekend we all got sick.  I think I probably caught it from work.  When one person gets sick in my office, we all get it within 1-2 weeks.  I was on the tail-end of this one, but I still got it.  It was just a bad cold, but still not great.  I was super sick Saturday, Matt was super sick Sunday, and the girls got it Sunday night into Monday.  They only had runny noses for a few days, but it was still gross and a bummer weekend.

Last weekend we had all sorts of house cleaning and projects we were going to do.  Matt went downstairs Saturday morning to do something and came up a few minutes later saying, "we have a problem, there's a bit of water in the basement."  He went back down to vacuum and towel out our storage room.  I went down a little while later and when I stepped on the carpet, my socks were immediately soaked.  We probably had about an inch of water in the storage room and out into the carpeted area a few feet. Matt couldn't tell where the water was coming from, so he called the handyman that he works with a lot through the properties he manages.  The handyman (Shane) came right over and they worked together to find the leak.  They finally decided it was probably a leaky spigot on the back of the house, so Shane left to get tools to cap that spigot off.  Meanwhile, Matt had shut off the water in the house and was still vacuuming water out of the basement.  Once Shane got back, they realized it wasn't the spigot (I was with the babies all this time, so I don't know the whole process they went through to figure it out).  It turns out, the main water line running from the street to the house had broken somewhere near the house.  Matt called his brother-in-law (he owns an excavating company and has all the equipment you could want to tear into any ground, and used to work for a utility company so knows about repairing water lines).  He came and looked at it that night and said he'd be back in the morning with his equipment.  So we turned on the water for just long enough to fill some pitchers, make bottles, and get ready for bed, and then Matt turned it off again and vacuumed the water out of the basement again.  The next day, Matt's bro-in-law (Jake) came over and dug a piece of our driveway out right next to the house.  Then he tunneled under and into the house and replaced the broken pipe.  He ended up spending all day there, but by the end of the day, we had running water again (hallelujah!!!).  We still have a section of concrete missing in our driveway, right in front of the door, but that's nothing as long as we have water.  I think we have to wait til it's a little warmer to re-pour the concrete (of course that was the week winter hit finally).
I was a little wary going into this past weekend, wondering what new disaster would hit.  But we're safely on the other side now and we had a good weekend. 
Here are a few more pictures of babies, because they're super cute.

Tille and Hattie holding hands while they relax before bed

In the past couple of weeks, Tille has gotten really good at scooting around on her stomach, but she can only go in circles or backwards.  So she spends a lot of time stuck under the couch.  Hattie has gotten in on this action too in the last few days.

Both babies are starting to learn about different toys.  Rather than just suck on everything, they know that this toy can be pushed and will roll, vs rattles that they shake or animals that they squeeze.  It's so fun to see them zooming this car around on the carpet.

Tille is really good at playing by herself on the floor.  Sometimes she'll be good for 15-20 minutes, just entertaining herself.  She'll scoot around playing with various toys, and every minute or so she'll take a break, where she rests her head on the floor for just a few seconds, and then she'll pop back up and keep scooting or rolling. She also looks like she might crawl any day now.  She'll get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth for a few seconds before falling down again.  Hattie likes to be on her stomach more.  She'll scoot around and she's really good at rolling from stomach to back and back to stomach. She'd rather sit in someone's lap all the time, but she's pretty good on her stomach.  Hattie's also just started a thing where when somebody is holding her against their chest she'll rock and jump, like she's dancing.  It's pretty cute.

Taking a break

6 months already (Hattie in purple, Tille in pink)!  They have their next doctor appointment tomorrow, so we'll see how they're doing.  I have a feeling they'll still be on the tiny end of the spectrum- they're still in most of their 3 month clothes, but some of the 6 month outfits are starting to not drown them.  Now that they're 6 months, we're getting more relaxed about what they can eat.  If they're awake while we're eating meals, we put them in their bumbos on the table and give them bits of our meal.  So far they've been pretty good about eating whatever we give them.  They've had broccoli, potatoes, oatmeal, bread, banana, and pancakes.

Lots of pictures

The girls are starting to reach for each other. Sometimes when one is eating, the other will pet her head.  When they're both eating they like to hold hands.  Hattie is petting Tille in this picture.

We've started giving them oatmeal a few times a week.  At first, they would let 2 tiny spoonfuls in and then spit it all out.  But now they'll open their mouths and reach for the spoon and swallow most of it.  I make a tiny bowl at a time and they share it. One gets a spoonfull while the other chews and swallows her last bite. This is Hattie saying, 'No pictures, please'.

Tille is patiently waiting for her next bite.

5 months already!  They've both started sucking on their bottom lip.  They do it all the time (Tille on left, Hattie on right)

Hattie and Tille got this water play mat for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa.  It helps them get good tummy time in without freaking out, and they'll sit on this for a few minutes at a time (Tille in blue, Hattie in pink).

Hattie getting good tummy time.

I just think this picture is pretty cute. Look at those tiny hands! I'm feeding Hattie, Matt's got Tille.

The girls don't have a ton of Sunday dresses.  I think they each have 2 that fit right now.  So these dresses get a lot of use (plus I think they're super cute). Tille in light blue, Hattie in yellow.

A few days ago I had both girls trying to cuddle with me.  They were super squirmy and snuggly.  Tille kept putting her arm around Hattie, then they would look around, squirm some more, etc.  I was trying to get a picture of them hugging, but they kept looking at the camera.  Sidenote- lately, anytime I hold one or both girls against my shoulder in burping stance, she'll suck on my chin, my cheeks, my lips, whatever.  They just love sucking on my face.  I've been covered in slobber a lot.  But it's fun and I don't mind.

More cuddling.

Tille's petting Hattie while Hattie eats.

These girls love looking at screens.  If I have my phone on anywhere near while I'm feeding a baby, she'll stop eating and try to see what's happening on my phone.  This morning Tille helped Dad send a few emails out. (Bad picture because I was across the room with Hattie trying to eat my face).

Getting ready for oatmeal!

Any time we put the girls in their bumbos, they both go immediately to this position.  Matt said that Tille even managed to get out of it yesterday, so we're going to have to start being careful (Hattie on left in pink shirt, Tille on right in white shirt).  One more little story- the babies have been talking for a month or two.  Hattie likes to growl and babble, Tille mostly babbles.  Hattie's always been the more talkative of the two.  But a couple weeks ago I was feeding Hattie in the living room super early in the morning while Tille was asleep in their room down the hall.  I could hear Tille starting to move around so I was hoping I could get Hattie back to sleep before Tille started crying.  But Hattie was going strong so I thought it might be a little while still.  And then Tille started talking to herself.  She was laughing and talking and growling and babbling, all happy as could be.  And she hasn't stopped talking since then.  It's so cute to hear them talking.  Specially when we have a full conversation. It's the best.

Here are just a few little things I keep forgetting to write down.  Since she was brand new, Tille has purred as she eats and sleeps.  It's kind of like a sigh, but really sounds more like purring.  She'll also bark in her sleep.  It's probably a gasp or hiccup or something, but just at random times while she's sleeping she'll let out a barking noise.  Hattie's more of a growler.  She likes to talk to us a lot, and about half the time it comes out as a growl.

How about some more super cute pictures?

Tille is getting better at rolling over.  Hattie prefers to sit on her elbows and look around.

The girls were so tired after two days of family parties for Christmas!

This is Tille's favorite way to sit.  If she's really tired, when we put her in her rocker her arms just go up immediately and she'll be out in an instant.

Both girls are starting to grab and hold toys.  This is Tille playing with a stuffed dog.

They're learning to pose for the camera.

More posing. This is Hattie.  They love standing up.  When they're laying in our laps, if we grab their fist they'll go into a tummy crunch and then they'll pull themselves up (with a little help).  Even if they're screaming mad, they'll go quiet to do this.

Both girls love watching tv.  Wherever they are in the room, and wherever they're facing, they'll crane their necks to watch tv. In this picture, Hattie is watching Jay Leno talk about cool cars.

I'm too tired to think of a cute title for this post

We're having a lot of fun with the babies.  In the last week or so, they've started noticing each other.  One will look at the other and smile while the other looks off in another direction.  They both do this, just never at the same time.  But yesterday, I was holding both babies on my lap.  They started looking at each other and smiling, and then they had a little conversation.  One would say something in baby talk, then the other would smile and say something back.  It lasted a couple of minutes and was the cutest thing ever.  Last week Matt's friend Lynden was over helping move some furniture.  I was holding Hattie on my lap and he came over and started snapping his fingers right in front of her face.  She just stared at him, then she smiled, and then she laughed.  I've heard her do little laughs before, but this was a full on baby giggle.  Seriously heart melting.  It was so cute.  And she kept doing it.  We haven't gotten her to laugh like that again, but it was the best. 
We've still been waking the girls up every 3 hours at night to feed them.  A couple weeks ago, on a Friday night, I slept through my alarm and didn't wake up until Matt woke up 3 hours later to feed them.  So we realized both girls had slept 6 full hours and were fine!  Hallelujah!  We decided to try again the next night, and just get up when the girls started making noises.  We made it about 5 hours before the girls got hungry.  Still fantastic.  I was sure this would be the beginning of almost enough sleep again.  But the next night, they only made it about 2 1/2 hours, and the night after that, just 3 hours.  It's so much easier feeding one at a time in the middle of the night, with changing, feeding, cuddling, and putting them back in bed.  If we have to do two at a time, one will fall asleep, then by the time the second falls asleep and we try to move them to bed, the first will wake up again.  It's a bad cycle.  And Matt and I can't both be waking up a few times a night to do both babies at the same time.  So we're back to taking turns waking the girls up for feedings every 3 hours.  I'm sure we'll try letting them sleep again in the near future, but we need our sleep too.

Now that I don't have a full gym just a 3-minute walk away, I've been going running/walking in the neighborhood each morning.  And some days it feels like we live in a forest.  We have tons of blue jays and magpies around our house, so we're getting used to seeing those.  But we've also seen a kestrel (in a tree right by our driveway!), a pheasant just wandering somebody's front yard, and squirrels.  Then on one of my morning walks a couple months ago I saw something in the corner of my eye run across a yard.  As I got closer, I saw a couple more things run across.  And then I got close enough to see 2 raccoons eating apples under a tree.  There must have been 4 or 5 total before I scared them.  I don't think I've ever seen live raccoons in the wild, so I thought it was kind of cool. A week or two later, I was out walking and a family of deer walked out of somebody's yard and crossed the sidewalk right in front of me.  We looked at each other for a few seconds and then all went on our way. 

Where's the baby?

For the first few weeks after we had the babies, Matt and I, in half dream, half awake states, would think we had a baby in the bed with us, and then get scared when we couldn't find her. For the record, we've never had the babies sleep in our bed- they always sleep in their swings.  But we'd (half) wake up in the middle of the night thinking we were holding babies.  A couple times I'd wake up to see Matt patting down the blankets looking for a baby.  We've pretty much gotten over that.  Every now and then, I'll still dream that I'm feeding a baby, and then when my alarm goes off to go actually feed a baby, I'll wake up with my arms folded over my chest and wonder where the baby went.
A couple nights ago, I woke up to see Matt patting around on the blankets. He asked me if I wanted him to make a bottle for 'her'. I said "who?" and he said, "the baby."  I realized he was having another half-waking moment, so I told him the babies were asleep and it was ok.  He kept looking around, lifting the blanket and the pillows, trying to find a baby.  The he asked me where 'she' was.  I asked who again, and he said the baby.  I told him again that the babies were sleeping.  He asked me where, I told him in their beds.  He kept feeling around for them for another minute, and then got up and checked on them in their room.  Then he came back and went to sleep. I thought it was pretty funny.

For some baby updates, we took them to their 2-month check-up last week.  They're both doing really well.  Hattie weighed in at 9 lbs 4 oz (she's finally caught up to what I was at birth) and Tille weighed in at 8 lbs 9 oz.  And they're both on the growth charts now!  They're each between the 2nd and 8th percentile for various measurements.  Except Hattie's head is at 20%!  They're a lot more attentive of us and will sometimes imitate our facial expressions.  If we frown, they'll frown.  If we smile, they'll smile.  So cute!  They have a little stuffed turtle toy that rattles and has a mirror on it's belly. They love it!  We'll dangle it over their faces and they'll smile and bat it around.  Some days, that's the only way to get Tille to smile.  She's a very serious baby.  But she's smiling more and more.  Hattie is easier to get a smile from.  You just have to talk to her for a few minutes and she'll give you a big smile.  Their smiles are the cutest things ever.  Really. Cutest ever. They still love their baths.  Hattie even fell asleep in the bath yesterday.  So relaxing!  I'm sure this is a normal baby thing, but Tille has a cute habit of holding both arms out stiff.  The best is when we're feeding her and all of the sudden her arms will fly out like she's exclaiming something, and then she'll just hold them there. Little weirdo.  They've also both gotten really good at holding their heads up.  Tille's been doing this for weeks.  We'll try to cuddle her on our shoulders, and she just sits bolt upright and looks around the room.  Hattie's gotten more into it.  Last week I took her for a walk, just carrying her on my shoulder.  She spent the whole time with her head straight up, looking around the neighborhood.

Look at that sweet face!

I mean, really, look at that sweet face!

Their 2 month birthday.  Hattie is accidentally wearing a 6-month outfit.  Tille is wearing the newborn outfit that Hattie wore home from the hospital.  They've finally grown into it! So we'll watch to see how well they fill in that 6 month outfit in a few months.

Tille is very excitable when she eats

So cute!

And one last picture.  This is neice 3 being cool (?) at her sister's wedding open house.

So Cute! And stuff

The babies are doing great!  At our 2 week checkup, they were at about the 2nd and 5th percentiles on the growth charts (for various measurements), and Tille was off the chart small for a couple measurements.  Our next appointment is in a couple of weeks, so hopefully they'll show slightly better growth.  I weighed them a few days ago and Hattie was 7.8 pounds, Tille was 7.2 pounds.  So they're getting there!
We're getting used to the new life.  I can't believe it's been 7 weeks since anybody in our house got more than 4 hours of sleep at a time (probably longer, since neither of us was sleeping well for months before the babies came).  I didn't have any expectations for how hard it would be to have two newborns.  I knew it would be hard, but I didn't imagine it any certain way.  So far it's been manageable.  As long as I know the girls are fed and clean, it doesn't stress me out too much for them to cry.  But still, so often I'll be feeding or burping or soothing or diapering, and I think how much easier it would be with just one. We go for a lot of walks and I sit on the couch nursing ALL DAY LONG!!!  But these girls are super cute.  In the past week or so, they've started being really smiley (when they aren't crying).  Hattie is always really smiley first thing in the morning.  Tille smiles more later in the day.  They love cuddling, but they also really like facing forward and just hanging out on our laps.

We've also moved into our new house and are getting nice and settled.  The view is amazing.  The mountains turn pink, gold, red, and yellow at sunrise and sunset.  They're so pretty!  And with all the fall colors, the scenery is even better.  Our ward here seems really awesome so far.  Our first week at church, tons of people came up and introduced themselves after church.  This past Sunday was our 2nd week (since general conference was last week), and even more people came and introduced themselves.  A couple hours after church, one of the bishopric came over to our house.  He just lives two houses away and told us anytime we need anything we can call him.  And his daughter would love to help with the babies.  The ward already has a set of twins and a set of triplets, all about a year old.  This guy's daughter has been a big help to the triplet family, and she said she can totally help with twins.  Nice!  A few hours later there was another knock on our door.  It was a lady from the ward (who I think I met our first week).  She remembered we lived somewhere on this street, so she went around asking people if they knew which house we're in.  Eventually she landed at our door, and she brought us dinner. So nice of her!  So yeah, this ward will be pretty cool.
Here are a few pictures of the babies:

Tille likes to pose for the camera

I was putting Hattie to bed and saw Tille sitting like this.  I hurried and got a picture, but when I checked about 10 minutes later, she was still in this position.  It must be tiring to sleep with your arms straight out and tensed.

The girls love their baths.  They'll dangle their arms and legs over the little hammock part of the tub into the warm water in the tub and just be so relaxed.

This is our view.  Not bad!

The girls love their cuddles.  I'm still figuring out how to go from this position to standing up, carrying them to their room, and putting them in bed without dropping anybody.

Caught mid-sneeze

The girls are pretty good at tummy time. Each of them has even rolled over completely a few times.

She had a rough day

Babies!

I've been wanting to post this for a long time, but my computer has died and I can't get it to work, so I'm finally giving up and using Matt's computer.  Here goes.
Sometime around the middle of July, my Dr, Dr Cracroft, put us tentatively on her c section schedule for August 23, 5pm.  She said we could always move the surgery based on how uncomfortable I got, but she didn't want to go much later because one placenta usually can't support two babies much past 36 weeks, and she didn't want to go much earlier because the babies were still developing inside.  August 23 would put me at 37 weeks, 1 day, which she was comfortable with.  37 weeks is generally considered full term for twins, so I was good with that day as well.
It was weird to have a date set.  Pregnancy was super easy for me, so it was kind of terrifying to think of having two new little people completely dependent on me and Matt.  But it was also nice to know that at some point my heartburn would end and my skin could stop stretching and itching.
I kept going to my weekly appointments where I got to hear each baby's heartbeat and see my contractions, and Dr. Cracroft would check for signs of preterm labor.  Sometimes my blood pressure was high, sometimes it was normal, but in general, everything kept looking good.  On August 22 I was sitting at work and the Dr's office called to say they had rescheduled me for 12 pm on the 23rd.  That's when things got real.  I know it was only a 5 hour difference, but suddenly it seemed like I needed those 5 hours to be ready to have major surgery and to be a mom.  I hadn't been super nervous up to then, but I had major butterflies in my stomach the rest of the day.
On the 23rd, Matt and I woke up and I actually felt a lot calmer.  Matt went about his morning normalcy, like checking emails, mowing the lawn, and taking the garbage out, and seeing his calmness helped me calm down.  I packed the diaper bag and my bag, and then paid bills and did some other computer stuff.  It was kind of a normal morning.
About half an hour before we had to be to the hospital (we had to get there 2 hours early to check in), we started loading the car and putting the car seats in.  Then we said a prayer and went to meet our kids.  At the hospital, we were taken into a pre- and post- op room, and I was given a hospital gown.  Then I had the normal non-stress test, so the nurse could see if the babies were doing ok.  I was having contractions every few minutes, and I was feeling them, but I wasn't in labor or anything.  The babies were good and just hanging out.  At about 11:50, Matt put on his hospital scrub outfit thing, and we walked down the hall to the operating room.  I got up on the little table, and Dr. Cracroft came in.  We chatted about nothing in particular while the rest of the team filtered in.  Everybody (except me) was super calm.  The anesthesiologist turned me over on my side and gave me a spinal block.  It was magical.  Within a minute or so, everything from my chest down just felt warm and fuzzy.  I couldn't move at all.  I saw the doctors moving me around to get me positioned, but I couldn't feel a thing.  Somebody put up a little curtain so I couldn't see what was going on, and Matt took his seat next to my head.  I started feeling a little nauseous, so the anesthesiologist gave Matt a cotton ball soaked in alcohol to hold in front of my nose.  It smelled awful, but it actually helped me feel a lot better.  Then Dr Cracroft said I might feel a little pressure as they cut into me and took the babies out.  I was laying there waiting to feel that pressure when out of the corner of my eye I saw them passing a baby to the NICU team waiting behind me.  I didn't even know they had started.  But Hattie was out.  She was white and gooey, but awfully pretty.  She came out completely silent.  I could hear the NICU nurses working on her, but she didn't make a noise.  I must have been too caught up in the moment to realize this was kind of scary.  The nurses were acting calm, but Matt told me later that they were nervous.  I asked him if she was ok, and he said she was, and then he asked if I could hear Tille screaming.  Sometime while I was watching Hattie (less than a minute after Hattie came out), Dr Cracroft had pulled Tille out and handed her to another NICU team in the next room over (there was an open window between the two rooms).  She was screaming her head off and kept screaming for several minutes.  Dr Cracroft got me all put back together while we were watching Hattie and listening to Tille, and I still didn't feel a thing.  Evenutally, Hattie's team got her to cry a little, and I got to hold both babies for a minute.  One of the nurses or doctors (I was pretty out of it) took our first family photo with me holding the babies and Matt holding me, and then Hattie was taken down to the NICU to recover, while the rest of us went back to the post-op room.  I have no idea how long we were there.  I think we ended up going upstairs to the room where I spent the next few days, and then Matt went down to the NICU to see Hattie (he might have done that before we went upstairs).  Anyway, eventually Matt came back with Hattie.  Her blood sugars had been low when she came out, so her NICU team had done whatever it is they do to fix that, and then she was well enough to join us. One of the nurses gave us the babies' stats: Hattie was 5 pounds, 5 ounces, and 19 inches, born at 12:29pm.  Tille was 5 pounds, 2.2 ounces, and 18 inches, born at 12:30 pm.  Smaller and closer to each other than I expected.  Over the next few days, the babies and I had our vitals taken several times a day, and the babies got all their first tests done.  Hattie passed the hearing test on her first try, Tille didn't.  The audiologist told us she probably just had fluid in her ears (common with c sections since the fluid doesn't get squeezed out during birth) and we should just keep her ears uncovered to dry out.  She got retested the next day and passed just fine.  Then they did their car seat tests, where they had to be able to sit upright in their car seats and maintain good oxygen levels on their own for 1 1/2 hours.  Tille passed on her first try, Hattie had to do the test twice.  But she passed.  They were also getting their blood sugars and temperatures tested often.  I think the first day or two their blood sugars were teetering on the edge of low, and their temperatures were consistently low.  But it was never so bad that they couldn't stay in our room.  Each baby took a couple turns under the heat lamp in the nursery.  That was super cute.  They would sprawl out in just their diapers and soak in the heat, and look as contented as anybody has ever looked.  We stayed in the hospital the full four days available to us, mostly just to get all the nurse's help we could.  I was up and walking just fine the next day (getting in and out of bed was killer, but otherwise I felt great).  The babies were completely healthy.  We probably could have gone home sooner, but we weren't in any rush.
On our last day in the hospital, one of the last things I needed was to get my staples removed.  Everything I had read and heard said I wouldn't even feel the staples coming out, and they're way easier than stitches.  So I didn't even think about it.  Two nurses came in and the one who was going to remove the staples said she was a little nervous because it was only her second time.  The other nurse watched as she tried to pull out the first (of 18) staples.  It was horrible.  It felt like she was trying to pull out my scar with a pair of pliers.  She said that first staple was tough, so she moved on to the next.  Same thing.  So she went to the other end of the incision.  Same thing again.  After a few minutes of trying, the other nurse took over.  It hurt even worse and she couldn't get any staples out either.  So they called in another nurse, who they said was really good at taking staples out.  Her attempts didn't hurt as badly, but she couldn't get any out either.  So they called in another nurse.  This went on for a while.  Eventually, I had 5 nurses from the recovery floor, 2 labor/delivery nurses, and one OBGYN doctor trying to get my staples out.  They all said they had never seen staples so hard.  One of the nurses managed to get all but 5 staples out, and I didn't feel those at all.  But the 2 staples on either end, and one in the middle were just super stubborn.  One of the other nurses managed to get all but the 2 on the ends.  And then the OBGYN started trying.  She numbed my skin (I could still feel the staples tugging inside though). She said over and over that she had never seen anything like this.  Turns out, the stubborn staples had gone in funny.  They're just like regular staples, where the ends go in and kind of curl up just a little bit to hold their place.  But these ones, instead of just curling up a little bit, had wrapped around each other, like a key ring.  The Dr had to spin them and spin them until she got them out.  She let me look at them, and they really were wrapped around themselves a few times in perfect circles.  It was horrible.  But it was over.  The nurses left and Matt and I packed up all our stuff.  And then one of the nurses (the poor nurse who had first tried to get the staples out) came in and made sure we knew how to work the car seats.  Turns out we didn't, so she gave us a quick tutorial, and then she discharged us.
 And just like that we were on our own and completely in charge of keeping these two brand new people alive.  So far it's been pretty good.  They take turns keeping us up at night, and they take turns being super poopy and not at all, and we've gone through more diapers in 2 weeks than I expected to use in a month, but we're all getting used to this new life.  Matt's super cute with them.  Like, super super cute.  It's pretty great. And Hattie and Tille are the cutest babies ever.  Even accounting for my bias.

Hattie being super quiet when she was first born

Our first complete family picture

The family after a day of resting

Tille on the left and Hattie on the right.  Their first few moments at home.

They're so tiny!

Matt's a cute dad