Drew Gooden and Doc Brown

What do these two have in common? Each has a Keegan twin with similar hair patterns.

Drew Gooden, power forward for the San Antonio Spurs, with the reverse “soul patch.”

Leo, power forward for the Keegan family, and his reverse ” soul patch.”

Doc Brown, brilliant (if mad) scientist from “Back to the Future” and his creative styling.

Matt, who although you can’t see it well here, gets the whisps flying in just that certain way.

Soon this too will fly away with the rest of that long black hair I worked so hard on in utero, but for now we enjoy these strange patterns of male baldness, and I promise, boys, not to take the lint roller I use to clean your play areas to your heads, although it has been tempting.

Road Tripping!

And what a journey it was! Babies are great company on the road. They occupied us just enough to make us feel useful, and were peacefully sleeping the rest of the time. We must treasure the days before “The License Plate Game” and other diversions are necessary.

1 stop on the way down . . . isn’t it lovely?

I guess “No Services” means “Not even a freaking picnic table for you!!”

What you can’t see here – the flies, ew. Bad parents, bad bad bad.

Made up for this on the way home when we stopped in Monticello and found the greenest lawn we could find. Just so happens it was in front of the county courthouse/ jail. Bad parents, bad bad bad.

As usual, the fellas are no worse for wear, the best babies we have ever had!!

Both the guys got to have a bottle with their GiGi – Great Grandmother! Such special days!

We think Gaga was a little shocked at how big they have gotten since he saw them last! Thanks for all the bottles and good lovin’ Gaga, Netnet and Juice! We think their lovin’ arms are the ones that encouraged them they can start sleeping through the night. Score? 2 to 2, and never on the same night, but who is counting? We are soo proud – and getting more rested every day.

Aunt Julie, the biggest sucker for babies around!

Matt matt matty matt, matty matty matt matt (and cousins – yum yum!).

Cousin Maggie could be the third twin (triplet?!), at ~12lbs. she is probably right between Matt & Leo. Notice she is the only one cooperative enough to look at the camera. Love you Mags!

And the first golf balls of the year were hit WAAAYYYY into the lake. Must be summer – so where is the sun?!

First Days at Home

We arrived home to our house – done! Beautiful! We are so comfortable and Mom & Julia civilize it more each day. We are getting to open our wedding gifts all over again – what a treat! These chairs are where they boys hang out downstairs. We love the chairs and get to gaze at the boys all day long.

Matt’s first bath!

And into some cozy booties knit by Aunt Julia, we think they look like moon boots on those chicken legs!

Leo’s turn!

More moon boots.

The view from my bedside. This cosleeper (kind of like a pack n play but up higher and converts to a pack n play later) is perfect for the twins. (And c-section recovery). They stay close through the night always turn their heads toward each other (Doc says I have to shift them to avoid FLAT HEAD – yikes, who knew about that?!).

We are the happiest family! Check out our cloud chair – we are gliding the days away! Thank you Daddy!

Hospital Days

The proud Grandmothers!

And Grandfathers!

Dr. King worked hard to get these babies into this world  healthy, big, and strong!

Leo, up close and personal.

NetNet & GaGa looking proud.

A tired and proud papa!

It’s time to go home, we had a great stay, learned a lot, and met so many nice people.  We are thankful to everyone who took such great care of us!

Having a Kitchen . . . I Mean, Babies.

Okay, here it is, but I’m not wearing a very tight shirt. Maybe next week when I feel truly pitiful, which I am certainly closing in on.

Going off the anti-contraction medication (Terbutaline) as of tomorrow if all measures well with the babies. Their size, if the weight I am carrying up and down these stairs is any indication, is significant. I foresee no problems in that department.

Which is why I guess we need this very big crib?

A very special thanks to all the Keegans for this, and its twin, which all measurements indicate will also fit into this room. Dan is becoming more impressive and handy by the minute in this crazy house in these crazy times.

Meanwhile, I have found the advantage to having a huge belly. The contractors are terrified of me and have worked ahead of schedule to finish the kitchen. No, I’m sweet and I serve them coffee and lunch, and they are still terrified of me and probably some movie-version scene-to-come of my water breaking and giving birth in the back of one of their vans.

The granite is gorgeous – nice job Mom!

The “It Works” list? Everything! We are picking backsplash and paint.

Meanwhile, up in the bat cave –

Notice we even have matching bedspreads for all our nannies to come! Practically paradise!

Tomorrow I will also test our new Flip Video camcorder – stay tuned to see if I can actually upload video. Right now I’m a little disappointed it is not automatically downloading to my ivideo but to their provided software. Otherwise seems like a nice handy little thing that will NOT be in the birthing room, but around to capture smiles, giggles, etc.

Will This Start Twin-fights?

We’re actually bypassing the nursery. For now, all we have is a couple of car seats (thank you Amy!!). We’re moving on to when our children are in kindergarten. We figure it will all be a blur until then anyway.

Plus, we need somewhere for guests to stay. Please, guests, stay.

Folks, what do you think of this? Will it be a source of great usefulness (boy on top, boy on bottom, boys on bottom?) full of options? Will it be a source of fighting? “The top is MINE” “You ALWAYS get the big bed!”? Or, the answer we want to hear: this looks like a great solution!

And, more immediately, will guests think we are nuts presenting them with BUNKBEDS!!! (they do unstack!!)

Help us, experienced parents!

Embracing Bedrest

I hesitate to write about bedrest and risk boring the world with how limited/boring my world has become.

Perhaps I can turn this into a challenge to stay current, read the paper regularly, share good books/movies/tv (as so many have generously suggested) and to entertain with stories of what looks/feels like sea monsters roiling in my belly.  (Seriously, I half-expect a scary alien head to pop out at any moment and yell at me, that’s how volatile things are getting).

So, here is what I have read so far: Lots and lots of magazines, and “Catcher in the Rye.”

I had never read it. It was fun, I had one of my sister-in-law’s high school copy, complete with doodles.   I’m not sure I liked the story itslef that much.  Even when not on bedrest I can can read about a book a week, and this little book took me 2 weeks.  What I did like was visiting lots of Manhattan spots I have been missing.

I have also been listening to a few books:

Everything Is Illuminated – Foer. Had to quit this one, hated.

Run – Patchett – Good story, liked it.

The Reserve – Banks – This I loved because it was set in the ADK mountains and had me dreaming of dark lakes and guideboats.  The story’s genre is a little hard for me to put my finger on, it’s kind of a thriller and kind of just a story of some screwed up folks up north.  It had a lot of loose ends for me and ultimately wasn’t that satisfying, but I just loved dreaming of all those trees.

Onward:

Next in line: A gift from great mommies.  This is turning out to be one of the best sources for practical information to date.  Thanks S&S!

50-yard Line

Halfway there at 20 weeks.

Feeling lots of little kicks and nudges.  Doing lots of comfort reading about pregnancy, but clueless as ever about what to do with these little guys once they arrive.  1 crib or 2?  Daycare or nanny?  Time for me to hit the pavement and do some research before the pavement can’t support my weight anymore.

16+ Weeks

But I’m going to show you the week 15 picture, since I actually combed my hair and put on something besides sweatpants for this one.

I know if it wasn’t for the amazing invention of the ultrasound machine, we would still be totally in the dark about the twins.  I’m so thankful to live during these times . . . and you don’t hear that very often these days!

Preoccupied x2

Thing 1

Thing 2

We’ve been a little preoccupied here.  Here is some of what we have learned in the last month:

• Likelihood of having twins increases after age 35
• You can’t tell if they are identical or fraternal unless you do genetic testing, but identical twins are very rare.
• Our twins have separate placentas.
• As of this week, they are about the size of my palm.  OMG!!