What My Heart is Made Of...: Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Happy Birthday to the first time, very proud father!!

Family photo at birthday dinner. Taylor really looks comfortable, just dangling there!

Scott's beautiful birthday cake, which may have been dropped...

Here's how we spent most of Scott's birthday

The first thing I must do is apologize. This is going to be a very long blog post...it's been a while!

Today, June 7 is Scott's birthday. This was also supposed to be the date we scheduled for the girls to be born. Well, they obviously decided that was a bad idea and had wanted to spend Daddy's birthday by hanging out with him at home and relaxing, not meeting him for the first time in the hospital! I can't even begin to imagine how big I would have been if I'd gone 3 more weeks!!
Scott decided to spend his birthday just hanging out with his girls at home. It was a very relaxing and quiet day. The girls even got full body massages, lovingly given by their very own mother! I'm sure Scott will be waiting for his all day since it is his birthday! Grammy Margie took us out for a birthday dinner at Provino's Italian Restaurant, where Aunt Kristy and Uncle Jason joined us. It was a nice time. His birthday next year will have to be much more exciting...it'll be the big 30!

It's definitely been a couple of weeks since I updated the blog but it seems like the days just blend together so I haven't really taken the effort to update. The time that the girls have been in our life is already flying by and I don't want to miss a single second of it. I just want to stare at them all day thinking that if I continuously do that, there's no way they can grow before my eyes. Yet, that is exactly what they've been doing. They had their 2 week check up last week and both of them are in amazing health and have gained more weight than required. Emily is now at 6 pounds, 4 ounces and Taylor is up to 7 pounds! While she seems really big now, she's now just the size of a regular newborn! You can definitely tell a very distinct difference between the two of them when you hold them. They have very different personalities as well. Emily is much more demanding with her very high pitched squeals and Taylor is very laid back. Those squeals can be very piercing in the middle of the night but I still think they're so cute! :) We each have one that fits our looks and our personalities. It's interesting though, because at times, they are identical. Especially when sleeping, they end up in the same exact poses at the same exact times.

Identical Twins!

We're doing pretty good with our schedule. Most of the time, they are within an hour of each other in wanting to eat and at times are even eating at the same exact time. This is extremely helpful for the night feedings when every minute of sleep counts! Somehow, we're already able to get 4-5 hours of sleep at a time! The doctor had said not to wake them up to eat unless it's been 5 hours and there is no way I'm going to argue with her. I will wake one up though, once the other has woken, to keep them on the same schedule. With the girls putting on all the weight they need, there is no reason at this point to wake them up any sooner than that. Most nights, we're just feeding them around 11pm, 2:30am and 5:30 or 6am. I can totally live with that!! The doctor also said to keep them up longer during the days so they start to realize the difference between day and night, so we're trying not to let them sleep more than 3 hours at a time during the day. There's only been one very rough day/night since the girls got home and that was just this Sunday when I got Mastitis. I had a fever of 102 and Scott was not home for over 12 hours, working on a new rental house that we purchased. My mom had to take care of the girls for a couple feedings because I was shaking so bad from chills that I couldn't move. Scott made up for it on Tuesday though by him and my mom taking over all baby duties while I slept off the fever and fatigue from 11:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (with him waking me up twice to pump). It was wonderful and the first time in over 3 weeks that I stayed in bed for more than 3-4 hours at a time! Luckily that did the trick, and the Mastitis went away. Hopefully we won't have to revisit that again!

The girls have had some great visits so far with friends and family. Our good friends have all come to get to know the girls and hang with us, play games, and help out with anything we need - Misty and Bill, Kristy and Jason, and Tony and Fiona.
My cousin Brandon and his girlfriend, Kremena were able to stop by for a night on their tour of the South during their visit from Germany. So glad they could make it to visit us!

Getting our exercise at a local park

Me, Brandon and Kremena

Great Uncle John was also able to stop and meet the girls on his way back to Alabama from Rolling Thunder in Washington, DC. (Which sounds like an amazing thing to see - 400,000 military/veteran motorcyclists on parade through D.C. for Memorial Day!) As one of my most favorite people in the WHOLE world, I'm so glad he was able to fit us in his schedule and meet our daughters!

Uncle John proudly showing off his great nieces

My dad's brother David and Minako Ahearn and their kids came over Sunday night for a visit and brought us dinner. Interesting enough, he is the one that married us and now the girls were born on his birthday! Hopefully that's a good sign!!

Me and Taylor with the Ahearn family

I must say that parenthood is suiting us just fine! Having two babies that we have created is just an amazing feeling and every time I look at them I just cannot believe that they are mine! There are so many things constantly running through my head now and all of it is about them...What will they look like in a month, 6 months, a year, 3 years? How much will my hear sing when the smile at me? How will I handle going back to work and leaving them for whole days? Will they be nice to each other? Will they stick up for each other? What type of people will they become? Will they be compassionate towards others and animals? Will they be confident in themselves? Will they give in to peer pressure when they grow up? There are just SO many questions that I will have the opportunity to find the answers to as this amazing journey continues. And the best part is that it's just started!
Finally, how do I accurately put into words the gratitude and thanks that I feel that the man whose birthday is today is the only man I could ever ask for to be the father of my children? He is caring, responsible, loving, honest, strong willed, opinionated, compassionate, and knows that he is the luckiest man alive to be these girls' father!
Again, Happy Birthday, Love! With the birth of your daughters, may this be a birthday that you never forget!!