twinks and dinks: Day 1- 9

Day 1

Kim and I'd like to introduce you to our two new baby girls.

The baby formerly known as Twinks: Sadie Chuan-Hua Wang, born 7/21/2011 at 6:44am, 6 lbs 4 oz, 19"
The baby formerly known as Dinks: Rilka Chuan-Mei Wang, born 7/21/2011 at 7:04am, 5 lbs 10 oz, 19.5".

Kim was a real trooper. After we arrived at about noon on 7/20, Kim worked until 3am 7/21 when the real pushing started. After pushing for about 3 hours, we were moved to the OR where Sadie arrived first. And since Kim wanted extra credit, she delivered Rilka via c-section shortly after. Mother and daughters are doing great. Rilka is in the NICU for some further observation after making some great progress with the excitement of her birth. Sadie is hanging out in our maternity room already wrapping dad around her pinky. Kim is on the mends impressing the doctors and nurses with her recovery time. Ben has made lots of friends at the hospital cafeteria.

We are excited to share this news with you and we can't wait for them to meet you. Thank you all for your support and well wishes. Sadie and Rilka are so lucky to have you in their lives. More pictures to come shortly.

Day 2

Twinks is back in the room, nursing with Kim right now. It is an amazing feeling to pick her up and look into her eyes. I can't keep my eyes off of her and she seems to be alive with energy. She seems to be lazy with the feeding... probably like my brother. I changed her diaper yesterday... it was the first diaper I've ever changed. And despite watching Josh and Ryan all these years, it took me like 5 minutes and about 20 wipes to get her "clean". And to my surprise, it wasn't as gag-inducing as I thought it would be.

Dinks is still in the NICU and making awesome progress. She may get her breathing tube out of the way soon. Her breathing rates are down and her blood gasses look pretty good now. She is the most beautiful baby and is moving around with a lot of vigor. I think I tickle her when I touch her feet and she likes to grab my finger. "pull my finger dinks." She's opening her eyes pretty frequently and has really soft hair.

Kim is on some good painkillers. She is starting to feel pretty good... but is moving around. Bonding really well with Twinks. She had a chance to visit Dinks for a litle bit last night.

Just changed my second diaper. Takes me 2 min now and about 5 wipes. Maybe there is something to this parenthood thing.

Day 3
Mom: Kim seems to be feeling great. She's way back on her pain meds and she is out and about, walking around, visiting Dinks in the NICU... all good stuff. Her scar looks great and the multitude of physicians and nurses have been fantastic in helping us out. While dad snoozes away, even while Twinks is crying, she, while recovering, tends to the little ones.

Sadie is just a bundle of love. She is more awake than on Day 1 and 2. She has learned to latch on to mommy and is quite the sucker. We've got her on some supplemental formula as milk is coming in. Sadie has a really cute lower lip quiver when she cries... I can't help but laugh and smile at it whenever I see it, probably to her frustration, as I stop actually tending to her needs. See attached image to see how we get her to stop now.

Rilka is like an LA celebrity. She's getting some fake-bake in the NICU, and she wears some sweet shades, just to knock out some more bilirubin. Check out the attached image. She's taking some food/formula/colostrum. In fact I got to feed her today, which was super great. She is also super feisty! She is going to be a handful soon, and definitely when she's a teenager. Looks like she's going to be at the NICU for at least 7 days as she is on a course of antibiotics and the docs will want to complete the course before she leaves. Her breathing has been good and she's been doing really great.

Dad (still weird to hear that): I went home... to feed the cats, take the trash cans in, clean the litter box, and get kim a bubble tea. Amazing. It was nice to take a break from the hospital, eventhough every story I heard on the radio reminded me how much I missed the girls. A story about lost romance became a story about what would I do without these two thing in my life, whom I've known for really only 2 days. Still, I have to say that doing the small little "chores" were so nice to do. Kick me in the butt if I forget to help get Kim breaks to do the small little things.

Hope all is well with you! I'll try to keep you posted... although I think that once Rilka gets her feet under her, it's going to get a lot more crazy soon.

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Both girls are free! We're taking them both home tonight.

Big milestones today!

Girls had their first night at home together!
Rilka had her first pediatrician visit and weighed 5#10oz and she got a good thumbs up from Dr. Chang.
Sadie got remeasured on her weight and clocked in at 5#13oz. 2 ozs in 2 days! Good job Sadie!
Sadie's umbilical cord fell off at the doctor's office!

And the pictures from today: