Juergensen Family Blog

Kate and Sabrina arrived on October 7, 2007! Despite our best efforts to write about them in a timely fashion, shortly after they were born, we went into survival mode which is why there is such a delay. Deb was recovering from a combo natural and c-section delivery. Kate arrived after 20 hours of labor, then Sabrina decided to move around in the extra space left by Kate and went breech. Sabrina was delivered via c-section 40 minutes later.

Kate and Sabrina are fraternal twins, and we are so thankful for both their similarities and differences:

• First the basics. They were born very close in size, with Kate at 6 lbs 3 oz and Sabrina at 5 lbs 10 oz. This was especially a relief for Deb, who always feared one being smaller. As of their 2-week appointment, the gap had narrowed to 2 oz. They are also born within an inch in height, with Kate at 19 inches and Sabrina at 19.5.
• Even better, they are both mellow babies. At first, they seemed to sleep around the clock (in blocks of 3-4 hours), and mostly cried when they were hungry. This is quite a difference from Zoe, who cried around the clock. Even now that they have realized that crying gets attention, they are easily consoled by being picked up. Often a good burping solves the problem.
• On the sleep front, they are both sound sleepers. With Zoe we oiled every door and avoided creeky stairs to preserve her delicate sleep. With Kate and Sabrina we make any noise we want, and regularly walk through the nursery, emptying garbage, putting laundry away, etc. Kate had a 9-hour sleep night before the 1-month mark, but is not terribly consistent. (Yes, that is 9 consecutive hours.) Sabrina’s record is 7 hours, and fortunately she did it on a night that Kate also did 7 hours. We’ve learned that with twins, your own sleep is only as good as the weakest link.
• Kate and Sabrina both have smiles that make your heart melt. John would dispute whether these are real or not (vs. being caused by gas), but a smile is a smile and it doesn’t really matter to Deb what the cause is as long as it is directed yiour way. Their grips are also improving, and they have both (unintentionally) held a bottle, which is a useful skill when you’re a twin that often has to wait for her sister to finish eating.

We are also thankful for their uniqueness:

• Kate tends to be the more mellow of the two, though on certain nights when she doesn’t want to go to sleep I question why I think that. Sabrina on the other hand can work herself into such a frenzy when she is hungry at night that she travels quite a distance in the crib and has ended up kicking Kate on several occasions. We will be putting them in separate cribs as soon as possible. Fortunately when Sabrina is fussy, she is easily consoled by a binky.
• Kate has very soulful eyes and she loves sticking her tongue out, so I think of her as a loving puppy dog. (In the early days she also reminded us a little of Yoda.) We think she is a sandy blond, but it is difficult to tell until more hair comes in. Sabrina is definitely a brunette, and I think of her as a miniature Audrey Hepburn (who starred in Sabrina) because of the name, and because she has delicate facial features. Sometimes she looks around, taking it all in, and I wonder if she wants to trade her crazy family in for a new one. She reminds John of young Frankenstein and he has many nicknames for her, many of which he won’t share.

One final similarity is that we love them both dearly. They also get equal kisses from big sister Zoe.

Before we get to the exciting news of the twins arrival, it is time for a long overdue update on Zoe. The twins arrival has me focused on queueing (more on that later), and for most things I feel first-in-first-out is the fairest method. This means that the update on Zoe which is overdue should not be bumped in priority because something newer or bigger comes along. So, as we approach Zoe’s 2nd birthday, here is what has happened in the 18-24 month time period:

• Puzzlemania – Over the summer Zoe developed an obsession with puzzles. She would do the same puzzle over and over again, dumping the pieces out and putting them back in. We kept purchasing more difficult puzzles, and she would slowly but surely master them, including a 15-piece puzzle with no pictures, and her 26-piece alphabet puzzle. Naturally we wanted to believe that our little girl was exceptionally bright, but the lack of any speech to accompany the puzzles made us believe she was perhaps just mathematically bright.
• Family Vacation – In July we took what will probably become one of the first of many trips to the Jersey shore. We rented a house 4 blocks from the ocean, with a grill in the fenced-in back yard. (Sadly Mom got sick the afternoon before leaving, so the first 3 days of the vacation were spent recovering and wondering if this was the way the rest of the pregnancy would be, or if it was just something she ate.) The vacation was very relaxing, and we discovered Zoe is a city girl. Getting her to stay at the beach 30 minutes or to walk in the sand was a challenge. Yet she was fascinated with the hose in the back yard, almost like a kid playing with a fire hydrant.
• Big Girl Room - When we returned from vacation, John spent the next 3 weeks painting Zoe’s new room, with beautiful results! With the twins arrival only a few months away, time was running out to transition Zoe to her new room. We were nervous about the transition, but it helped that she loved going into the room to explore, and that on vacation she had successfully slept in an inflatable toddler bed, i.e. not her crib. Soon the big night came and went with no sleep disruptions, leaving Deb very happy in the morning.
• Daddy – In the last few months of the pregnancy, Zoe switched her attachments from Mom to Dad, following him everywhere and sometimes crying when he left the house. It was quite an adjustment for Deb to go from being her number 1 parent to someone she seemed indifferent to. (Perhaps this is an exaggeration, but that’s what it felt like.) Now that things are settling into a new routine, Zoe’s affections seem equally divided, with the cats getting the lion’s share and Mom and Dad splitting the remainder.
• Nature Walks - Zoe loves to take walks around the neighborhood. At first navigating the sidewalks was plenty of fun, but now that Autumn has arrived the leaves, chestnuts, sticks, acorns, berries and other elements of nature along the sidewalk are like treasures to her. One morning she was in a fast walking/running mood, so we walked all the way to Whole Foods and back, which was a 1-mile journey. Street training is one of the few things that have gone exceptionally well. When she comes to a corner, she either turns the corner (Mom’s training) or stops and holds her hands up waiting to be picked up (Dad’s training). It has been a lot of fun, and good exercise too.
• Talking – All year we have eagerly looked for signs Zoe was going to start talking, ready to imagine words where they really don’t exist. After many attempts, Deb decided to relax and not worry about it until she turned 2. Fortunately, Zoe started using nouns at 21 months, saving us a trip to the speech therapist (the pediatrician’s recommendation, not ours). Her first word was “shoes”, followed closely by “keys”. (Hmmm… what does this mean for her teen years?) Not surprisingly, these are a part of our nature walk ritual – she says shoes and gets her shoes, and then says keys when I get my keys. The list of words has expanded: light, hot, shake, socks, jacket, stick, rock, cup, walk, and recently a long overdue “up”. When friends were watching Zoe during my hospital stay, they told us she said “all done” and “no”, when she didn’t want to have her face wiped. This was rather interesting, because I’ve been saying “all done” for months now with no repetition or interest on Zoe’s part, yet she pulled it out with others and in context.

(More later on toyless fun, and eating or the lack thereof.)

That’s it for now. I’ll conclude by saying though the tantrums have definitely hit a point that would be considered terrible, these are offset by extreme joy and big smiles at the smallest of things. Overall it’s a really fun age, and Zoe is a very happy girl.