All safe on the homefront

On Monday, at last, The Boys were released from hospital after an exhausting week trying to split my time between home, the hospital and the office. Guess what came last? As result I had to work late on Wednesday to make a deadline and my planned leave for next week will not become a reality. We have a crazy week ahead of us in South Africa, with a public holiday on Sunday (Freedom day - commemorating our first democratic election) which means that Monday is a public holiday. Then on Thursday (1 May- labour day), we have another public holiday and the Friday have been declared one as well due to the co-incidence of two public holidays ( Good Friday and Human rights day) falling on the same day on the 21st of March. The whole of RSA thus have a 2 day work week and H.and I both obtained leave for the 2 days to do some decluttering at home. I've been looking forward to this for weeks, and now, well, I guess I will have to deal with the idea and get my butt going next week to try and catch up. Just part of being a mom and I guess I must be grateful that I was able to spend the week with The Boys at the hospital where a lot of other working moms might not be able to.

The whole hospital experience has been quite a shock. It was absolutely heartbreaking seeing them with tubes and stuff around them and so tired and sick. During my pregnancy with The Boys my biggest fear was dealing with tiny prem babies after a 3,5 kg first born and all the stress involved. I therefore made it my utmost target to get as far as possible with the pregnancy - I was paranoid in following doctor's orders to the T. I think all moms of multiples will know the feeling as you count every week towards a new target. My stunning gynea gave us a list of target dates following from 26 weeks onwards with expected weights and time in NICU. To our huge relieve we were blessed and The Boys were delivered at 37 weeks weighing a whopping 3,02 and 2,92kg respectively. This may not sound big for the parents of singletons, but for twins this is quite and accomplishment, and my joy was doubled when they came home with me after 4 days in hospital, standard time for a C-section delivery in South Africa. Therefore no NICU, no tubes, healthy big babies! And then last week. I almost felt cheated out of my perfectly healthy kids - you can tell we have been very lucky with The Little Miss' health - only been on antibiotics twice in her life.

The nursing staff has been extra special and helpful - we will certainly deliver flowers to them when we go for a check-up next week. I am just completely exhausted by the whole experience. By Friday last week, the boys were out of danger for the first time and they were placed next to each other in one crib. The absolute joy as little L kept touching C's face was something I will remember my whole life. It must be very special to have a best friend that came with you from day one of your life and before in the womb.

BTW - have you seen the National Geographics DVD "In the womb - multiples"? It is so special to see the interaction of multiples before birth. Unfortunately The Boys have completely lost their routine in the hospital and are refusing to sleep at night and are taking non-existent wee little naps in the day. We are working extra hard to get them into routine again and I am using homeopathic medicine to help them to calm down and sleep. The Paediatrician has also subscribed medicine to help with sleep as he is worried that they will not recover sufficiently if they don't sleep properly. Funny how I now don't worry as much about them sleeping through as I did before they got sick! Priorities change from being irritated about my own sleep to worrying about their health.