Go gamecocks

Last night was the first Carolina game of the season. As such, Smith and Addison had to help mom and dad cheer on the team from the comfort of our own home!

Addison proved that she is her mother's child by not being interested in football...at all.

Smith, however, really seemed to get into it, although he did tucker out pretty early on.

Smith showing his gamecock pride. Notice the BOOTS.

See...Addison could not care less about the team and its goings on.

I don't know why, but this picture just looks like I caught them at a tailgate bender. They're screaming, dancing, having a large time. Maybe its because there are a few pictures of Mom and Dad flo

Smith sure did get stressed out watching the game. So did Dad. I think Smith handled it better by passing out than his dad did by yelling and screaming at the TV.

Still alive

We're here and we are still alive.

Daniel had his first trip out of town on Monday - Wednesday. Krissee's friend Ashley came down to assist mom in the well-being of the Daybies (and Mom, via some great meals from Trader Joes. We need one of those in Columbia!)

Here's Ms. Ashley conquering the double feed!

Weekend - Do what you want to do!

I think EVERYONE got the choices of who likes the children with socks and hats and who likes them more natural! Yes, Krissee is the proponent of the coverings, and I prefer to let them run around like crazy redneck children with no socks or hats!

This entry has no theme or funny, just wanted to show some pictures of the Daybies!

Here is Dad getting some much needed snuggle time with 'em!

The last photo shoot in this chair was such a success, we of course had to do it again!

And finally, what do you do when its 8 PM, your babies have been fussy for hours, and there is no end in sight? Take 'em for a walk in your nifty Zooper Tango stroller!

Vice presidents ain't got nothin' on us

Everyone check out the below post of the twin's first visit from Carter. While I had the time, energy, and idea, I wanted to go ahead and post this entry as well. See....a dry spell for a few days, and then presto, two entries in one day. You never know what you're going to get here at the Smith and Addison Day show. Consider this entry a very special episode!

First off, an incredibly sweet picture of my baby girl. I include it only because I had one extra picture of Smith in this entry and we want to make things as fair as possible (at least now!)



There is a big debate raging currently in the Day household, and the only way to settle it is to pose it to the masses,

Which is cuter...socks and hats or no socks and hats (we mean in general terms, not these pictures specifically). Bonus points if you can identify the correct parent with their opinion.

(he looks like such a little gangster in this picture.)

A visit from Carter and Mom

Some of our closest friends have a son just two months prior to Smith and Addison's birth. Carter's mom Amber got to come by today finally after battling a cold last week with Carter to hang out with the twins and Mom.

(And yes, Carter is in the upper percentiles for his age, and Smith and Addison are a good two months younger than he is).

Its been a long standing joke that Carter and Addison would be star-crossed soul mates. Addison looks to be getting an early start by rubbing up on Carter's legs. Smith seems unconcerned with his sister's reputation and is catching some must needed rest.

Come back soon Amber and Carter (and Scott if you're letting him out of the house these days).! We can't wait to watch our children grow up together and be perfect little angels for the next eighteen years.

Two Week Checkup and PIcs

The two week checkup was a rousing success. Ms. Addison was up to 6 lbs 5 oz, and Mr. Smith had a whopping 8 oz gain to make it to 6 lbs 4oz. I'm thinking that he is tired of his big sis beating up on him.

The entire checkup was good, and the docs said that these were beautiful babies ande to keep doing what we were doing. (And I"m sure that pediatricians don't go around telling their patients that their children are beautiful, so I feel incredibly honored that ours would give out such a rare compliment!) He did mention that it'd be best to avoid crowds for 6 more weeks. I wasn't planning a weekend bender at the local pub next weekend or anything, but I kinda thought we'd be able to start venturing out a little bit more. But its a small price to pay for healthy babies!

Finally, I've been slack on the pictures, so I wanted to post some here.

How can this not melt your heart? Seriously.

Some folks have asked how the doggies are adjusting. The answer? OK. They're certainly feeling neglected and curious, but they're taking it in stride. They're not allowed in the nursery, but they like to push the envelope as much as possible!

These moments are actually rare, where we actually get to just sit and hold the babies. Mom had a go of it the other night, and I think all three of them felt very comfortable!

Lastly, I took these two pictures just before we left for our two week appointment. I want to make sure we get plenty of single shots as well as those of them together. Daunting task!

Father of the year

(Before I get into the meat of this, we've got our two week old checkup this afternoon. Expect all the details, and maybe a few new pictures afterward!)

In the "our life is an open book" vein of this blog, here is the twins feeding plan: Krissee fully intended to breast feed, but the smaller size of the babies coupled with the practical realities of feeding two babies at once have forced us to use bottles. Krissee is pumping and we're on a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of breast milk and formula. Its working out great and seems to be a win/win for all parties (meaning mom isn't strapped to a baby all day, we know how much they're feeding, and Dad gets to help!)

So, Krissee pumps, and its my job to make up bottles once a day. At this point, they're eating about 3 oz. at every feeding (which is every 3 hours), so every night I'm making a breast milk/formula cocktail. Just call me a mixologist. For those doing the math at home, thats 24 oz of each, for a total of 48 oz needed to fill all 16 bottles. For those who are in the know, that's twelve scoops of formula.

On Wed. night, when I'm making the formula, I did the unthinkable and got distracted. Was that scoop # 7 or #8? Figuring that it wasn't a big deal, really, I erred on the side of caution and went with the lower number, cause, babies need nutrients, you know? I completed the formula mixing and went on to my next task, never giving it a second thought.

Thursday, we were fighting what we thought were sick babies - lots of mucous that made feeding take an hour. Their poor little mouths were filling up with this thick pasty stuff. They weren't finishing their bottles. All in all, not a Day was happy.

Last night, after struggling with the 7 o'clock feeding, it was time again for me to make the bottles. As I'm getting ready to do the formula, it dawns of me...I may have put too much formula in the day before. Too much powder = thicker liquid = harder to swaller = less intake.

So, I ensured that the correct amount of formula was placed within the mixing cup, poured some bottles, and anxiously awaited the 10:00 feeding to see if it was better.

Y'all...it was flawless. BOth babies ate their entire bottles in approximately 30 minutes. We put them down and they slept soundly. We fed them once during the night (as we have been doing for the past few days), and it was pretty darn flawless as well. As was this morning's feeding.

DSS, I promise not to make this mistake again. I promise.

(Note to self - Determine what twelve scoops equals in a measuring cup so that I don't have to keep track of counting, because in my altered state of mind, counting to twelve is apparently pretty darn taxing. God help us all when they increase the amount of formula!)

At home with Smith and Addison

Well I haven't had much time to post on here since the babies were born but I have read all of the comments during my marathon labor and I just want to say thanks everyone for your support and well wishes. It warms my heart to read all of the kind things everyone wrote.

I just wanted to say hi and let everyone know I'm still alive just crazy busy. Today is one of my first full days alone with Smith and Addison. Daniel and I did the 7:00 AM feeding together and then he went downstairs to work. So its just me and my sweet babies and we are getting along just fine. There isn't much time for anything else other than feeding and changing diapers but I have to say I absolutely LOVE it. Even though I haven't had a shower yet today and I'm still in PJ's at 1:00 in the afternoon I've never been so happy. They are so precious and I still can't believe they are mine.

Honesty

Before any of our faithful readers get the impression that we're without any hiccups in our attempts to raise these two babies who have recently invaded our home, I wanted to point out some of our massive panic attacks of the past week. These are by no means the ONLY such attacks we've experienced, but I want this to be an accurate portrayal of our family life.

I'm blue da ba dee da ba die

Some dear friends sent us a beautiful flower arrangement in the hospital. These flowers arrived in a blue flower vase. Fast Forward a week or so, and the flowers are wilted, so the flowers get tossed, and the vase gets put in the dishwasher.

This vase, unbeknown to us, was a painted vase, and proceeded to chip and color everything in our dishwasher blue. Under normal circumstances, this would be pretty annoying. However, add in the fact that our entire bottle supply was ALSO in the dishwasher at the same time, well, there you have a near disaster. We spent a few hours trying to clean 'em up, but finally decided that no amount of scrubbing or boiling would ever make us comfortable with feeding our babies out of blue speckled bottles. So Dad got the very special privelage of going to Wal-Mart on a Friday night at 10:00 PM to purchase new bottles.

Got home, Grandma (Ann) helped us sterilize everything, and we were back in business. Crisis averted (kinda).

Moral of story? : Don't put colored vases in dishwasher without first checking to see if it is a painted vase.

My little scavenger(s)

So remember when I wrote about our dog Allie, and how she likes trash?

Well, she hit the motherload yesterday morning.

There was a bag of dirty diapers sitting in the laundry room, ready to be taken out to the trash can. Dad had gone downstairs to work, and the dogs were in for breakfast and general inside time.

A little while later, I returned back upstairs to refill the coffee cup, and was greated wtih the smell of baby poo. I thought this to be odd, since the nursery with the diaper champ is a good little ways from the kitchen/office area. Upon further exploration, I discovered that my nasty little girl (allie) had found her own little corner of heaven right in our laundry room.

I'll spare you the picture, but I DID get one, just for posterity sake.

Cleaning that up was super-duper fun.

Moral of story: Don't 1) Leave bags of dirty diapers accessible to your nasty little dogs and 2) Don't let your dogs be nasty little dogs.

Day Birth Day

Its been a busy few days here in the Day household. Everyone continues to do well, and we're just settling into a routine. Dad went back to work today (boo), but paying the mortgage is an important job too!

Our friend Jenn wrote a commemorative poem summarizing the birth experience that we live blogged just days ago. Her blog requires authorization to read, but she welcomes new visitors! For those who don't have access, I've asked her if I could reprint the poem here, and she gave me permission to re-post (Thanks Jenn for the awesome recap of the experience!) :

Day Birth Day

(a very special poem commemorating the birth of Smith and Addison Day, twins, born August 1, 2008 @ 2:07 and 2:36 AM)

(Congrats to Daniel and Krissee on the birth of their first children)

They went to the doctor; she said, “let’s go;

It’s time to start the Smith and Addison Day Show!”

The doc hooked Krissee up to an IV

To start the contractions they’d yet to see.

An hour later contractions were regular;

Aunts, uncles, and grandparents began to gather.

Smith said “Come on, sis!” But Addy said, “No way!

I’m not quite ready to meet the world today!”

So they settled back in to that comfortable womb

And their faithful doctor left the room.

Daniel sighed; he was ready to rock!

But it turns out his daughter has her mother’s clock.

***

The Days rested all night so they wouldn’t be worn

When it was time to start again the very next morn.

They wakened early; Krissee fixed her hair and face

Before everyone got ready and got back into place.

The contractions got going; the water was broken.

Then, finally, the word “epidural” was spoken!

After all, in Daniel’s words, “Contractions don’t look fun!”

Krissee agreed, and then she happily went numb.

After several more hours, day turned to night

But the twins still weren’t ready to come into the light.

The epidural wore off, and pain crossed Krissee’s face

As the docs prepped the O.R.—just in case.

Then finally the babies decided, “It’s time!”

And Addison headed on down the line.

Not wanting to wear his poor mommy out,

Smith waited 29 minutes to follow A’s route.

“5 lbs. 11 oz.” read Addison’s scale;

A nurse declared, “2 ounces less weighs the male!”

They bundled them up—one in pink, one in blue

Then showed ‘em to family and now to you, too!

Thanks Aunt Heather

Aunt heather came and stayed with us for a few days. She did lots of things to help us out around the house, so that Mom and Dad could focus all their energy on the Daybies.

Here Aunt Heather is giving Smith a feeding. Our babies sure do like to eat, a lot and often.

Filling up the bottles for one day sure does take a long time. Not only does it take time to FILL the darn things, but washing, drying, making formula isn't super quick either.

Best of all, Aunt Heather scrubbed our floors. We certainly don't make our guests do this, but she insisted! I don't think anyone has done this in our home, but the floors certainly look phenomenal. This is actually a double edged sword, wherein I'm happy she did this, but also kinda mad. Happy, because our floors look great; Sad, because now I'm going to have to do this on a regular basis to keep the floors looking good.


Thanks again, Heather. To our future helpers, the bar has been set pretty darn high.

Q&A

Welcome to the first installment of what could turn out to be a regular feature: The Smith and Addison Q&A. You send us your burning questions, and we answer them.

Q: Colly from Charlotte, NC writes" Don't jaundice beds look like little mini tanning beds....?? Can we see??"

A: Yes, Colly, jaundice beds look like mini tanning beds. We're starting early! Here is a picture of the twins in their beds, which were placed in their pack and plays.




Q: Jenn from Anderson, SC asks "What could be worse: her dating or her hating you?? "

A: At this point, it may be a toss up.

Q: Schmitty from Carlsbad, NM asks " what do the doggies think of the daybies?"

A: The dogs are adjusting. They're doing a lot of sniffing, but other than that, they really aren't all that aware of the daybies. At this point, I think they're just glad to be home and have us home!

Q: Carissa from Charlotte, NC chimed in and queried "I don't think I know what Smith and Addison's middle names are?"

A: Their full names are Mary Addison Day and Smith Chapman Day.

Jaundice levels were better today, so they're off the beds. Hopefully we'll get the complete for real all clear tomorrow!

If I just lay here

This would be the picture I was talking about yesterday. My heart melts.

Went back to Dr...Addison is a whopping 6 lbs and Brother is still at 5 lbs 8 oz. Jaundice levels had decreased substantially, but they were ordered another day on the beds just to be sure.


Aunt Heather came in this afternoon to help take care of Mom and Dad so they can focus all their energy onto the Daybies. She has, however, managed to sneak in a little baby loving in between tasks from slave master Krissee.

My babies continue to be happy and healthy, and that's the best news I can share.

1 Down, 6569 to go...

(quick math lesson, since folks rarely seem to get my subject lines - 18*365 = 6570)

We got home yesterday (Sunday) around noon. Babies and mom are doing great. We quickly settled into a a routine and so far the babies sugar level is staying pretty high, despite repeated attempts to steal it all from multiple people.

Aside from a little jaundice, everything is going great. They're laid out in their jaundice beds now, and hopefully our pediatrician will give us the all clear tomorrow.

A few quick observations from Dad:

• My little girl is not allowed to date until she turns 45.
• A successful diaper change requires the proper preparation of all needed materials.
• Full nights of sleep are the stuff that unicorns and fairies are made of.
• I'm not entirely sure that the previous sentence made sense.

Auntie Ame came to visit today, and she got some great pictures. Unfortunately the computer is acting up and I'm ready for bed, so you'll have t check it out tomorrow.

You. Better. Work.

So, we played model todays. Our kids sure can work it.

http://www.palmettohealth.org/bodyIframe.cfm?id=252

(Here's the link to the official, professionally taken photograph. But we can't have them all dressed up and not use daddy's photo taking skills, which are far superior to his bow-hunting skills).






Yep, thats our Boy and our Girl! The quilts behind them were made by Krissee's Granny Coy (GreatGranny Coy to Smith and Addison). Each one is handmade and its super special. Every great grandchild has received one, but and I think Granny Coy worked her poor fingers to the bone once she found out it was twins!

So, one major topic of the past few days has been who they each look like. I've posted the earliest pictures I have of each of us as babies. You be the judge!




Mom and Babies are doing great. Babies have a little jaundice which may limit our ability to go home tomorrow (Sunday). We'll know more after our pediatrician's visit at Dark 'Thirty tomorrow morning.

This entry has taken all day to write. I just think that's good information to pass along!

Everyone wants a picture..here it is!!

Thanks

For all the support and excitement over the past few days.

Mom, dad and babies are finally settled, and its time to sleep for the first time in what seems like nine weeks.

We are asking that if u plan on calling or visiting, please do so later this afternoon (after one or two+.

They're here

Both came vaginally, and they're awesome.

She came at 2:07, 5 lbs 11 oz, 19 and a half inches.

He came at 2:36, 5 lbs 9 oz, 19 and a half inches.

Mom did awesome, and babies are great. I'm standing in nursery while the nurses check em out.

We're

Pushing