Baby Clell still needs the glow light, but we got it fixed without leaving home. Oh and rebekah bought me a fancy watch for father's day of all things. I actually had to read the manual tofigure out how to set it.

Rebekah is feeling somewhat human today. We warmed up the house and the babies slept until around 4 AM. Then I helped transport them to the couch where they slept on her

Me so tired

last night was the first for me with the new arrivals. And the first at home for Rebekah. Neither of us got much sleep (her less so). The babies kept fussing and the current working theory is that it was too cold. Once Rebekah moved into the other room where it was warmer and put the babies on her chest to sleep, they did pretty good. So, from 11:00 PM to 3:30 AM we didn't get much sleep. Thankfully Mom is here so she was able to deal with Forrest when he got up. Titus had a bad dream and was trying to sleep with us but the girls were keeping him awake to. So he didn't get to sleep until after 3:30 either. Thankfully he slept in about an hour longer. That'll teach the little bugger to sleep in our bed! Sometime last night the anti-jaundice light (which was a pain) quit working. I'm hoping that's a blessing in disguise because that thing was a pain. Hopefully he won't need it anymore. We went in today and got their heels poked. Not fun. they had to get a lot of blood out of a little foot. But the ladies that did it were nice and didn't enjoy it like most of the sadists in hospitals (like you Lisa!).

When we got to the hospital, I had to carry the babies, but I didn't want Rebekah to walk. So, I drafted my five year old to push her. Strong kid. He pushed her up the small hill to the door and around the hospital. It worked out that he got some breaks while we checked in and the babies got tortured. He also did a pretty good job around Sam's club, but I think he was getting tired as he was starting to weave like a drunk driver.

For anybody who's missing rebekah's updates or emails, she hasn't even looked at the computer. All of her energy is going to just recovering and taking care of the babies.

Oh, and I guess the nursing is going pretty well considering everything.

I'm going to try to work a half day tomorrow. Pray that my sister-in-law Amy (my brother Tyler's wife) can come down to help out next week when we lose Mom. Otherwise, it's gonna be a crazy rough week and a half until her Mom gets here.

What I'm listening to right now (because I think it's funny): Secret Squirrel by Marcy Playground (via my awesome Slacker Portable - G1 2gig)

So far, so good.

The babies are adjusting (sometimes loudly) to their new surroundings. Rebekah is being a real trooper (the Dr. even said so) and although her back hurts really bad (as well as her incision) she's toughing it out. Mom is doing a good job helping out and generally keeping a lot of the bad stress away. The boys are doing ok, but feeling a little out of sorts with the new additions. The girls are still oblivious as they are at a friend's house (thank the good Lord for that) but they're coming home tomorrow. I had to make a late wal-mart run to get all sorts of new mom stuff as well as liquid zantac.

A special shout-out to the Varins for their *very* thoughtful card and gift. (psst cindy. I don't send thank you cards so this is probably all you'll get :-)

I'd also like to thank Kathie and Kelly for watching the girls (and the boys one night) without nary a word of complaint.

Also thanks to everybody else for their well-wishes and prayers. We still need baby Clell's jaundice to go away so we can stop using that stinking light and of course pray for Rebekah getting enough sleep.

The babies have left the hospital

but they've got two more shows. One tomorrow and one on Friday. translation: we have the babies home but have to go back tomorrow and Friday.

Rebekah is really tired and sore but happy to be home.

"Today is the greatest day"

to quote The Smashing Pumpkins. The babies and Rebekah should be coming home today. this afternoon probably. I still have to take the girls carseats out and put the babies in. The boys are being pretty good. I think I may take Forrest down with me since he's big enough to be a help. And he keeps asking about going to the hospital and seeing her.

Rebekah has fallen asleep while holding trinity. Clell is snoozing too. Maybe I should take a nap too!

Rebekah is being discharged in a bit. Seems a little sudden, but she gets to stay as a guest. Cheaper for everybody it seems. My mom is watching the boys tonight

now.

Ach du Freakin' Lieber Himmel

ok, so I was able to get somebody to watch the boys. freakin' miracle these days. So, about 1:30 I left for the hospital. I remembered to take the charger for the camera, but forgot the camera. I also forgot to lock the door and get the stuff my wife needed. Yeah, great start. Then I almost fell asleep and drove off the road. So, I finally got to the hospital around two. I promptly fell asleep for a couple hours. What a helpful husband I am! Well, after that I helped with baby Clell (burping) and I fed him a bottle. He had already nursed a lot but Rebekah was trying to get Trinity to nurse some. She was too tired and weak to really nurse, but right before I had to leave she had consumed a bit out of a bottle.

My mom and dad will come down tomorrow (he's just the driver) and Mom will help watch the boys before Rebekah comes home. I will have the boys by myself almost all day, so I may take them down to see Rebekah and maybe take them to the park. Although that usually becomes stressful and stress is one thing I don't need right now. Or is it sleep. yeah, probably sleep I don't need. Stress is good right?

Rough day

well, I'm finally home. Too bad my wife and babies are at the hospital. We had some misunderstandings or miscommunications with regard to childcare for my boys. Since we couldn't get anything consistent I'll stay home with the boys and only go to the hospital when I have someone to watch them. Not exactly what I'd hoped for, but the boys could use some more attention from me. I told them that when Mom came home she'd be able to run and spank them. Maybe that's stretching the truth a bit, but I'm running out of things to threaten them with. It's a little sad that this is the only pregnancy that we haven't had a single solitary visitor. I guess we're not outgoing enough people or something. Nah, that's a little to maudline. I think it's because it was a weekend and everybody was doing things. Man, I'm exhausted. I have some maintenance scheduled for work that I was planning on putting off, but I guess I can do it since I will be home anyway. Not sure if this blog post is a big self-pity fest or not, but I wanted to post something more in depth. At the very least for historical purposes.

To close out this blog post I will leave the main line from a song I heard last night that I thought was neat... "Life is good. Eternal life is better."

rock on freaky bro

Update

Well, the babies are doing better. They had some rapid breathing last night, but apparently that has calmed down. I feel sick (running a fever) but am trying to minimize contact with my wife and babies and using lots of hand sanitizer. Rebekah nursed the babies today which was cool for her. She didn't get to nurse the girls until a long time after they were born. Rebekah is still in a lot of pain, but that's what darvocet is for right? Anway, this is a pretty small hospital in some ways. It's for profit which is interesting. The hospital itself is very nice, but the rooms are fairly primitive. The OR had a manual adjust bed (verses electric). I had to move so they could raise the bed up some more half-way through the operation. Then, they wouldn't let me stay w/ Rebekah after the babies were out. I had to leave. That irritated me. Then, to make me even more grumpy, they said I couldn't see her for an hour after the surgery. That's when I made clear to somebody (hey, they asked) that I was displeased and they might want to move away. Since they didn't, I voiced my complaints and she got an exemption so I could at least be with Rebekah in the recovery room. But the people have been pretty professional, and that's the most important thing (professional implies competent and courteous).

Anyway, I've got a slow connection on my cell phone that I'm sharing via wi-fi to my laptop so we have some communication w/ the world.

babies names are Trinity Pearl and Clell Peter.

not much news is good news.

Ugh.

Nothing is quite as enjoyable as breaking into your house after your wife has twins.

My sister-in-law took my key to lock up since I was going to stay @ the hospital. At my wife's urging I came back home to sleep so that I would be rested. I think this was selfish on her part because I'm an uber ogre with stress like this (just joking... about her being selfish). Yeah, so I came home and didn't realize until I pulled in the driveway my predicament. I ended up breaking in through my basement. This would normally concern me with regard to burglars, but I have guard spiders.

Oh, you want to know about the babies?

Trinity was 5 pounds 4 ounces
Clell was 6 pounds 7 ounces? something like that. don't even ask me about other dimensions. mama and babies are doing fine (so far). They're still early so if they decide that breathing is on their own is too much work (I know it is for me) then they may have to be transferred.

ok, i'm out. night night.

Favorite quotes of the day

"We need our users to not be dumb." --by RL

"I have four kids w/ two in the chamber." --by me

"I don't care whether I'm a good influence or a bad influence, as long as I'm an influence." --by me

Life sucks sometimes

Our mail lady who has been here twenty years just got laid off. Once again, I'm bummed.


Rebekah has been having really strong contractions today. She see the doc, so hopefully we can get a C-section date.

How do you know?

I had a friend ask me a while back "How do I know that the Bible is true?" He wasn't talking about the miracles or anything that specific, but rather what makes it true and other holy books wrong. I'm probably getting this nutshellisation (look Mom, I made up a word!) wrong, but since that's how I remember it, I'll go with it rather than put this off longer. Well, since picking apart every other religion out there would take waaay too much time (and I'm lazy) let me tell you why the Bible is true.

1. Because I said so. 'nuff said.


Ok, not really. I actually had pondered this myself some before Juan asked me so let me start over...

1. All archeological evidence regarding anything in the Bible is to the affirmative or at the worst, indeterminate. There have been arkies (i'm tired of typing that other word. too long) that have disputed everything from the flood to cities locations to peoples existance. Yeah, they've been proven wrong.

2. Historical evidence. The Bible, if nothing else, is a great book for history because it has been shown to be incredibly accurate. In fact, it predicted the last layoffs at work and mentioned some tall godlike fellow being let go. Naturally, I thought that I was doomed. Apparently, I'm not the one they were thinking of as they let my boss go instead. Ok, not really, but if you are interested I can get you some examples. They're freakin' amazing how they line up with history. Actually, the layoffs joke was about prophecy and that comes later. I'd change it but i'm too lazy.

3. Prophetical evidence. Ok, insert prophecy joke here. Ok, now that you're done laughing or confused (since I really am quite godlike in some ways), I must continue. Some theologist/historians think that Daniel was a historian and lying about the book because he predicts the rise and fall of four(?) empires. Maybe so... but there's no evidence to that end. How about Christ's sacrifice for our sins? Oh, it's mentioned about a trillion times in the old testment in Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel and other spots. In fact, the only major bit of prophecy that was entirely left out was the Church age. But God had his reasons for that which I won't bore you with.

4. Simple sanity/continuity. The Bible says that it was written by "... holy men of God spake as they were moved by the  Holy Ghost." II Peter 1:21 (methinks). Ok, there are 60 books of the Bible. Written over the span over at least 1600 years by 40 different Authors. Do you think they all put their heads together to write some farce? If so, that was a freakin' miracle all its own.


Ok, that's some reasons. I hope it's enough to get you thinkin' Juan old boy. I got more, but I need to send my kids to bed.

Sometimes it's really nice...

to have your boss(es) recognize that their actions have reactions and then see them act to remediate said actions. Could I possibly be more vague? :)

35 weeks

So, most of Rebekah's buddies know this and most of mine don't care that much but Rebekah hit a milestone this week. So, I guess if she goes into labor she can go to the normal hospital instead of going to the further away and pricier one in Boise. Current stats are: baby clell is 5'7 oz. and baby trinity is 5' even.

Easter Madness

The Grant Ballard family had a wild and wooly easter. We had an all day event at a friends house. We'd never been over there as a family but it went well. Forrest and Titus played with a couple other boys that were there and rode bikes, played in the dirt, and blew bubbles. Lots of bubble blowing. Probably violated some EPA ordinance or something, but we'll keep that just between us. The girls roamed around and participated in their first ever easter egg hunt. They picked it up quickly and had the hardest time getting the egg in the bag (darn walmart plastic bags). To be honest, it was actually quite amazing how "peacful" it was. I use quotes because it's kind of like peace in the middle east or any combat zone. It's just a slower pace of war and violence. There was little fighting between kids and for the most part, I didn't have to discipline very often because the kids were good at playing together and had lots of different things to do. There were a lot of adults to generally keep the kids in line so I wasn't constantly going around playing policemen. The girls did really well, and didn't even get a nap today. Yeah, they had had it by the time we got home (around 7) but were really good pretty much the entire time. And they got to hang out with another pair of twins that were 3 years old. Rebekah did pretty well. No contractions since this morning. She just showed me a bump on the bottom of her belly. I guess from the Ultrasound she found out it was Trinity's bottom :)

34.5 weeks!

just a wee bit scared

Well, I took Rebekah to the doc today. We tried to get the babies monitored, but they couldn't find Trinity. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't seem to find her. They even got an ultrasound machine (an old one) and tried. Finally, they got her Dr. and he could find the baby with the ultrasound, but they still couldn't get her monitored with the little fetal monitors. So we finally went over to where they had a good ultrasound and the expert did all sorts of measurements. That lady didn't seem to have any trouble with her better equipment, but we were pretty scared for a bit. The ultrasound turned out ok, but the girl is smaller than the boy and they don't like to see that. So, now  Rebekah has to be monitored twice a week to make sure that Trinity isn't in distress. The good news is that both babies are over 4lbs with baby Clell almost at 5lbs. So, the stress has increased a lot, but the babies both seem to be ok and that's good news. The ends is in sight, but unfortunately it looks like it's gonna be a bumpy landing.