The Vital Stats

Annika Lucía Knaebel & Luka James Knaebel

Essential birth stats:

Luka James-

Weight: 6 lbs 6 oz

Height: 19 inches

Time of birth: 1:44 AM

Hair: dark to light brown w/ some blond elements

Cute exponential: 10+

Annika Lucía:

Weight: 5 lbs 9 oz

Height: 18 inches

Time of birth: 2:58 AM

Hair: blond, possibly a little curl in it

Cute exponential: 10+

To put things in perspective, their total combined wait is about the equivalent to a Tongan or Samoan singleton, or to two, average sized singleton pregnancies. Whoa. It's a Samoan thing.

Some of our friends and family have given us some baby stuff with Thing 1 & Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss's books on it. Remember them?

But, when seeing them all swaddled up in not just one, but two blankets, like this...

  or this:

André can't help but think they look kind of like a Schmoo:

What do you think? Shmoo 1 and Shmoo 2? Hmmm... 

Well, the Shmoos are both doing very well and are keeping us very busy. Right now our schedule feels about as full as the final round of an all out fight for key battleground districts in a presidential campaign, with only 47 more campaign stops to cover in the final 48 hours of the campaign. I hope we win!

Another way to say that is that we slept about 3 broken hours last night, which was 1 hour less than the night before that. In spite of that, we are putting in our all for these little cuties, and quickly learning everything we hope to need to know to be minimally competent with newborns by our checkout from this five star hotel tomorrow evening, as planned. Ha! There's a plan? We can plan? It sure doesn't feel that way anymore!

In the meantime, Kristin is recovering in a slow but upwards trajectory after her amazing birth effort. She was truly so strong, and it makes my eyes water now as I think of it. Not to over repeat that, but she was awesome. Awesome. It must be a Samoan thing.

And, while we strive to quickly learn and manage the feeding and infant care schedule, we have had some incredible support along the way. Wayne and Diane have been invaluable in helping us with logistics. Sure, anyone can want to hold the babies, but what if helping also means the unsavory stuff, or letting us rest when all they want to do is stay with their grand kids, never leave their side, and rock them  in their laps? Thank you, Wayne and Diane, for everything you have done, for giving us respit from the day to day tasks, letting us rest when needed, and all the other ways you have helped us!

And, then there are our post partum nurse superheroes. Seriously. They make Wonder Woman seem puny in her superhero-ness. They have been so kind, instructive and caring that it's hard to imagine losing their support so soon. 

The approach of the nurses is closer to the dogs in the following video, whereas the American medical system's approach to birth recovery and the length of hospital stays seems more like the cat's approach:

http://youtu.be/VTbbYLvhDSM

But if all continues to go well with Kristin's recovery, we should be heading home tomorrow evening either way, since this hotel is run by the cats, not by the dogs providing the care. 

And now for some long-awaited pics:

Luka. He kind of looks like the scoundrel in "The Princess Bride" that kidnaps Princess Buttercup with the Spaniard and the giant, doesn't he?  "Inconceivable!"

Annika. Practicing her looks for the cover of Vogue? Hmmm... Maybe she's just trying to hear the ocean in a shell, since we've been telling them both about the trip we'll take together to Kauai one day.

Getting a little sun by the window today.

Meeting Aunt Sarah and uncle Jimmy on Skype... See the resemblance? That's right, I agree.

She's totally a shmoo.

Luka on the left, and Annika on the right. It's much easier to identify which one is which in person than in the pics. Among other things, when they are together it's easy to see the difference in their size. 

And, they kind of look like these guys:

 Or, is it these guys?

Remember them? And they just might just something along the lines of the answers André gives on the census bureaus- mostly white with a little brown. Or is it the other way around? Oh well, I guess we'll see!

And now, in the infamous words of Salvador Dalí's Harvard commencement speech, "I shall be so brief, I have already finished." Ha! Yeah, right! But it is time to feed the kids again. Nothing to it: Double latching football hold,simultaneous breast feeding on the "twins' edition," "My Brest friend" feeding shelf thingamahoobie. That's right. I'm telling you, Kristin is awesome. But pictures of this one are not allowed!

Thank you for your interest and continued support. We will try and post more updates as time and fatigue permit.

Hugs and love to all!

They are here - meet Annika and Luka!

We are exhausted but everything is good and they are doing very well! 

It was a busy, hard night. Kristin was amazing and is recovering well. She labored actively from about 10:30 or so until 1:44 AM with Luka; Annika came at just before  3 in the morning.

By the time everything was done and we had been moved from a birth room to a post partum recovery room and settled in, it was almost 8 in the morning. The triage nurses watched them after a feeding for a few hours so we could sleep.

Some pics for you all:

Just after Luka was born. Kristin still had Annika left to go. André continued to help with the delivery for Annika while holding Luka skin to skin throughout that time.

Just after the birth and in recovery in the delivery room.

With Annika in the OR, after Kristin's amazing and Herculean birth efforts. Did we mention she was amazing?

With Grabdma back in the birthing room for recovery. Everyone stayed up to wait on pins and needles until we returned. This is probably sometime between 4 and 5 in the morning.

Luka with tío Yeyo. Sergio was so helpful and patient with us! We couldn't have done this as smoothly without his help!

Luka with Grandpa Wayne. Do you see just a little pride in that smile? 

Sleeping, post first bath and feedings.

Thank you all! We will add more details in the coming days, but don't expect too much for a bit while we re-gather our strength and figure things out and (hopefully) continue to try to rest a bit.

Thank you all for your love! We can't wait for Luka James and Annika Lucía to meet all of you! Lots of love!

It's about 10 PM - off to the OR for delivery

It's happening. Soon. We are getting ready to go to OR. 9 centimeters and baby's head at plus one came quickly! Here we go!

That's the message we weren't able to send last night, as things happened very quickly. 

And they are here now. More to follow. 

The Slow Cooker

When Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jimmy came to visit in the Fall, one of the things we spent a lot of time discussing was the qualities of a good Croc Pot slow cooker.

(This was during the time when we were beginning baby prep, and we were looking at options to make large meals quickly and also options for pre-preparing meals to freeze for when our hands were tied with newborns.)

And this is what we made:

And that's exactly where we are at. 

Sitting on the foundation of our family history, like that Croc Pot on Abuelita Manuela's tile from when André's parents lived in Brazil (and that we now use as a hot pad). Family foundations and slow cooking. 

The Dr. just re-checked Kristin, and it looks like we have a while yet to go. Y "Be patient," he said with no irony to the patient. And so, we wait while this process cooks on low for some time yet!

The family morale team has gone for pizza from escape from New York, with a promise not to return empty handed. It just so happens to be exactly what Kristin wants more than anything else when she can finally eat again after the birth(s). Not one slice, but two. And a root beer. 

In the meantime, we are going to take advantage of this lull and try and get some rest for a few hours before things really pick up.

A hospital update- all good so far

Most of the day has consisting of strong support from our nurses and family, and waiting for more to happen. 

Kristin continues to do well and is managing the contractions well. Contractions are at regular intervals. So far, she is not too uncomfortable but things are increasing in intensity and she'll be having an epidural soon.

In the meantime, I will make sure we can have at least one slow dance to our favorite slow song on our own before she can't feel her legs anymore! But you'll have to guess the songs- there are some things we will keep to ourselves.

After our dance, we will have the epidural placed, and continue waiting and working on this whole birth event. Perhaps the hardest part for Kristin so far has been hearing about or smelling food, since she has not really eaten anything since about 6 PM yesterday. 

André was trying to surreptitiously eat a PB & J that Diane prepped for him, and as he ate it, a few feet away, Kristin says, "that smells so good."

Don't even ask about her reaction to the lunch that Yeyo, Wayne and Diane brought for André- a delicious Reuben. Who said hospital food is bad?!

Kristin thought it smelled so good that the box had to be taken out of the room because it was cruel and unusual punishment to leave it, and she doesn't even eat beef.

Here's a picture from today's hospital watch:

Visiting with mom, dad and Yeyo

The plan is for us to continue in the labor room until she is fully dialated, and then we'll move to the OR for the delivery, just in case -DON'T PANIC ANYONE-she needs a c section or if the little people need a little help in the NICCU, since it's next door to the OR.

Then, after what we hope will be a double vaginal delivery, we'll come back to this same birthing room for a couple of hours before moving to a post partum sweet. S-weet!

Before that, the kids will get a little chest skin to skin time with each of us, then brought here to the room works us and put in the salon hair drier with us in the room:

Here's the new baby pac:

Their heartbeats:

The heartbeat and contractions graphs:

And here we are, a little tired, maybe a little nervous, and mostly excited. Thanks again for all your support!

PS - is anyone setting up the waging pool on when they finally come? The winner gets to buy Kristin dinner! 

Meet our team of dedicated medical professionals...

That's right, Muppets!

Our medical team is wonderful! They are very knowledgeable, kind, caring, empathetic and capable. We met the docs for the delivery this morning. Rest easy, for we have two of the senior-most doctors available, with a huge amount of experience with twins deliveries between them. Their personality seemed dry in all the right ways, but playful too, cooly confidant, and clearly experienced.

But here's the thing: everyone is also so energetic, enthusiastic and animated that, well... they remind us of the Muppets and the Muppet master himself.

And so, meet our dedicated team of medical professionals:

In other news, things are progressing well with the birth. Kristin's water broke this morning, at least one of her waters, anyways, and her contractions are about five minutes apart.

We were both able to get some rest last night, at least as much as you can with two baby monitors and a contraction monitor slapped on you; or sleeping on a couch shelf window settee; or with this guy coming in for samples for the phlebotomy laboratory in the middle of the night:

Thank goodness for competent medical personal! 

And, whenever it gets painful, Kristin's happy place is not a beach sunset or a serene mountain view, it's remembering and envisioning all of the women who don't have our privilege, who give birth in fields while working, who have no access to our excellent medical care or the kind of support we have.

Thank you, Muppets, we are so grateful for you and your enthusiasm!

At the hospital

Well, almost.

A quick selfie before leaving the house.

It's been an amazing help to have Kristin's parents with us for the last 10 days, and we are so grateful to Wayne and Diane for all of their hard work while with us. I thought that grandparents were supposed to spoil the grandchildren, but they've been putting a lot of effort into us too!

They have picked up many of the tasks we were handling solo, including cooking, laundry, shopping and of course helping with Penelope and Buttercup too. 

For those of you who have seen just how obsessed Penelope is  with her orange ball, Wilson, you know that it's a full time job to keep playing with her if you let her have her way.

Enroute to the hospital, we finally were able to talk to André's parents Steve and Evelyn in Mexico, who had called twice today and patiently waited while we scurried around trying to get ready for the hospital. We can't wait for them to be here to meet the kids! It was nice for all of us to be able to talk together in the Fiat mobile phone booth and share in the excitement of the trip to the hospital together with both families.

 Oh yes, and for those of you who know us too well, we were true to form, and pretty much late to our own birthing event. Hmmm... Gotta' work on that. 

There was a lot of excitement and there were some tears at the hospital tonight as we checked in, with the realization of what was coming starting to fray at the edges of our emotions.  But we managed to have some lighthearted fun when we first arrived, surely sparked by our nervous energy.

At the hospital:

1) We found the baby warmer thingy, although it looks more like a hairdrier...

2) Compared bellies

3) And heard heartbeats again, reminding us of why we are here, after all.

(And we're still hearing those heartbeats, even as André writes this, while Kristin sleeps. So cool!)

Once settling in, André went into full nesting mode: unpacking suitcases, putting clothes away, setting up the stereo and mood lighting... Only to realize that this was just the birthing room, and that we won't be here after Kristin goes into active labor. Oops! Oh well, at least the room will feel right while we gear up. 

Needless to say, when we all said goodbye at the hospital for the night, it felt strange to part ways after ten days together and the shared excitement of the tasks related to the pending birth.

On second thought, maybe those are tears of joy and relief now that they can get some rest with us away from the home!

But the artillery has arrived too, to relieve the cavalry. On the way home tonight, Wayne and Diane picked up André's brother Sergio, who flew in for the assist from California. 

His main task is to provide support for the kids should Kristin need dedicated attention during or after the birth. But he couldn't wait that long, and in spite of a long day, and a long drive, after a long flight, he drove out to visit with us and show his love and support.

Thank you all. We are feeling the love tonight with all of the messages of support and kindness from all of our people. 

Rainbow Sightings

Things are happening. We keep hearing reports of double rainbow sightings from our friends.

Here is one from our friend Jodi, reported at about 6:58 PM:

Thanks, Jodi!

And the a winner is...

Some months ago, our friends from CAP put together a shower for us at Jim and Judith's house. At the shower, a friendly waging pool was taken as to when the babies would come.

And the winner is...

Sophie!

Congratulations, Sophie! Nice job! 

Sophie won by picking the latest day possible, the due date. All of us believed that the babies would come at least a couple of weeks early, and here we (finally) are! 

Before the hospital

Kristin and I were able to have a nice dinner tonight at the Firehouse, one of our favorite restaurants, before heading to the hospital.

Enroute home, we stopped to visit with friends Ben, Michael, Margaret and Sophie to go over some final logistics and drop off a key to the house.

They are going to be helping with Penelope and Buttercup while we are at the hospital.

Everyone came  out to wish us well and see Kristin off. Okay, let's be frank, they also came out  to see the gargantuan belly!

Sophie plotting a special gift for the twins with her loot money (see next post!). So sweet!

Thank you, friends! 

Double rainbows - what's in a name?

When we were in New York for the IVF transfer, we had Friday afternoon and the weekend after the extraction to explore the city while the embryos matured before the transfer on the following Monday.

The afternoon after the extraction and insemination, we were in a park watching a storm roll by the East River when we saw a double rainbow:

Look closely. Tilt the screen. Squint your eyes. So, do you see both rainbows? Good! 

What's that, you don't see two? Just believe, then. The effect and the truth behind believing will be the same.

See? This is what it felt like. 

That double rainbow sighting, along with the impression that it was like watching little sparks light up on the ultrasound screen when they did the actual transfer the following Monday at the clinic, are among the reasons we liked the names we chose: Luka and Lucía (Annika's middle name). Both names stem from "light." It's just one reminder of our story. Their story. 

Rainbows. Sparks. Light.

What the future might hold

Just a little rock and roll. In pink. With an owl and a sea horse. Oh, and bottles. Lots of those. Sweet. Oh, the places we'll go, whoever she is!

Everything's blooming

Spring is here! I took these pictures on a walk with Wayne and the critters just a block or so from our home. Everything is in bloom and the sky is crisp and blue! 

Kristin and I had brunch today with Helene and her daughter Hannah in Sellwood. She and her husband Doug have been such good friends, and such helpful familial surrogates in our Portland community. 

As it turns out, Helene is now going through her own parenting moment too. Her oldest daughter who we were with today with Helene is a Senior in high school. She is getting ready to head off to college out of state in just a few months. 

"From this, to this!" Helene exclaimed today as she went from rubbing Kristin's belly to grabbibg her (now) teenage daughter Hannah by the arm and giving her a little squeeze, with just a little sadness and excitement.