Saturday, October 30, 2010

Baby Name Rejects for Twins: Gene and Jean

PROS:
We both have great-uncles named Gene who were twins. Zeke would only have to learn how to pronounce one sound. We could say this: Gene, why can't you be more like your sister Jean? Conversely: Jean, why can't you be more like your brother Gene? Zeke could say this: Hi, I'm Zeke. This is my brother, Gene. This is my sister, Jean. Shopping for jeans with Gene and Jean. Shock value.

CONS:
Announcements over the intercom at school, athletic events, etc. Inevitably, they will be some who refer to our children as the Jeans (Genes?). There may be other Jeans or Genes in the same class at school, which could make an already potentially confusing situation untenable. Jean could be made fun of for having Gene's genes. Gene could be made fun of for wearing Jean's jeans. Life is long; shock value is short.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Still Waiting!

Throughout the pregnancy, I had a special feeling that Oct. 28 was going to be the big day the twins would arrive. The 28th was Tom's dad's birthday and Tom's grandpa's birthday, and also our niece Jessica's birthday. Since it is a Lewandowski family tradition to have your birthday the same as another relative, we thought it would be perfect. (Zeke and cousin Natalie share a birthday, Tom and his sister Karen share a birthday)

Well, Oct. 28 was a very special day, but no dice on going into labor. Instead we welcomed the arrival of two other special people, my parents. They'll be staying with us for the next 10 days to help out with Zeke and hopefully a couple other little babies too! This weekend, you'll find me driving over every set of railroad tracks in town and eating lots of spicy food!

Wish us luck- we'll keep you all posted!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Grandma's Got a Brand New Hip!

Today, Grandma Jean got a brand new hip! Originally scheduled for a hip replacement surgery tomorrow, we all had arrangements made, dinner at home tonight planned, and a bag would be packed in the morning. Then, we received a call from the hospital this morning at 10:30 asking if there was any way she could be at the hospital for surgery by noon. Aghh!!! Luckily, everything came together perfectly, and Tom drove Jean out the driveway at 11:40, arriving just in time for a nice hip replacement surgery this afternoon.



Her doctor is considered to be the best in the area, and he said the surgery was a success. We were happy to be able to visit with Jean after her surgery this evening and she is doing very well so far. She'll spend a few days in the hospital, and then move to a rehab facility for some physical therapy and TLC.

For now, all is good and we can all be thankful to have missed our sleepless night of anticipation. By the time she should have been in surgery tomorrow, she'll be up and walking around instead. Pretty soon, we expect her to be practicing for a Dancing With the Stars audition!

In the meantime, your thoughts and prayers for an easy and speedy recovery are appreciated!

Zeke Drives

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Glassware @ the Foundary

Tom has got a thing for glassware. Maybe you could call it a problem. When we registered for wedding gifts he spent an unusual, perhaps troubling, amount of time handling the glasses, fondling the tumblers. Now he works for a company that sells glassware, among other things, and he's pretty excited about it. One part of his company specializes in members-0nly short-term sales events.

Click the banner below and sign up to see some glassware Tom is really excited about. You'll receive regular emails from the Foundary with more great deals on glassware and all sorts of awesome things for the home. Thanks for your support. These are the people who pay for the diapers.


...still no news on the twins. Everything is good, but we're still waiting.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Baby Name Rejects for Twins: Star Wars Edition

Luke and Leia Lewandowski: Rejected

Star Wars is one of the best and most important things ever made by a human. Everyone knows that. Arguably the most relevant set of boy-girl twins in the history of the Galaxy, we thought long and hard about naming our twins Luke and Leia. We consulted the Force.

However, the L-L-L alliteration with this set of names was just a little to spastic for our tastes. I'm sure the Force will be with our twins nonetheless.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

The Nursery


We were up late last night putting the finishing touches on the nursery. I sucked the dust out of this room's every crevice, then went to town with a bleach rag and a bucket of Spic & Span. I've cleaned before, but this was like instinctual cleaning, primal cleaning. Karine finished sewing the bumpers around midnight. She sewed the bumbers, curtains, changing table skirt, crib sheet, and crib skirt in a forty-eight hour frenzy of hormone-induced craft euphoria.

Then we turned out the lights and sat on the couch and waited. Nothing happened, so we went to bed.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Zeke is ready

Twinfants!!!

Don't get too excited. I'm just writing the word here because I think it's a good one. That's what we'll have pretty soon: twinfants. It's fun to write and say. Twinfants, twinfants, twinfants!

Now we just need to find ourselves some names.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

No More Shitbags

Sorry for the colorful language. But a shitbag is a shitbag. We've been using them to dispose of dirty diapers for years. Hanging them from doorknobs and drawer handles like a couple of barbarians. No more. We've never used a Diaper Genie before because it seems like a ridiculous thing to own. You know what's ridiculous? One hundred and fifty diapers a week. That's a lot of shitbags.

False Alarm

Last Saturday things got pretty wild around the ranch here in Omaha. I was set to play my fourth gig of the week and Karine was having contractions, like seven minutes apart, and Zeke had green snot streaming from his nose and he was not happy. To make matters worse, the Nebraska Cornhuskers were in the middle of breaking like two million hearts by dropping four guaranteed touchdown passes. Like, the ball is in your hands. Squeeze it. Touchdown.

We called the doctor's office and spoke with a nurse. She was nice. Very competent. She told us to monitor the contractions and hang in there and come on in if they didn't go away. The crucial question for us was this: would they try to stop the labor process if we went in? Would they give Karine the shot like they did last time, the one that made her heart beat fast? No, they would not, she said. It was go time. Which meant that we were in the early, early stages of some normal-type birth scenario, where you wait until the contractions are painful and like four minutes apart, then you head on in with your little bag full of slippers and Nerds candies and stuff.

So, I went ahead and went to my gig. With Karine's blessing. We remained in constant contact via cellular telephone, and I was ready to split in a jiffy should the need arise. It was pretty fun. How 'ya doing? -- the people at the bar asked. Pretty good, I said, I think my wife is going into labor with twins. That was pretty fun. I had some nice conversations start out that way. My musical partner was very excited, proud even. And then the Trans-Siberian Orchestra came into the restaurant. And they liked the music and left us an outrageous tip. So I'm glad that I went.

And then I got home and the contractions subsided and now we're just waiting patiently. Mostly.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Cramming for Finals

I've been a having a reoccurring dream since we left Honduras. I'm in school. Sometimes high school, sometimes college. Usually, it's a class I more or less like, German or physics. I love them both, but they're the type of classes where you can't really goof around when it comes to studying. You can either conjugate heiraten or you can't. You either know how to measure the flight speed velocity of an African swallow or you do not. In my dream, I am unprepared for the quiz or discussion of the day. I have that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I know that if I'm called on I'm just going to sit there and stutter and look stupid and not know the answer because I didn't study.

You don't have to be like a high-caliber psychoanalyst to figure out what's going on here. Many parents, I'm sure, have similar bad dreams. Here's the good part. (There's always got to be a good part). When I wake up the first thing I feel is relief. Because I am not in school anymore. The test I didn't study for existed only in my imagination. And the real-life tests are actually mostly fun.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Changes

Each of us in the family are preparing for the arrival of our new little ones in different ways. We've had some excitement over the past week and a half. Here's what we've been up to:

Karine and the Twins news:
Last Monday night, I ended up going into the hospital for a few hours. I had been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions for about 6 hours straight. These are the kind of contractions that don't hurt, but completely tighten your abdomen. It's normal to experience some, but if you have more than 4 in an hour, you are supposed to call your doctor. I did, and he told me to head to the hospital to get some help stopping the contractions. After determining I was having the BH contractions every 2-4 minutes, they gave me a couple shots in the arm and sent me home with a prescription for some medicine to help control the contractions. This is the only sign of pre-term labor I've had so far, and the doctors assure me that it is completely normal at this point in a twin pregnancy.


Now, a week later, I've reached the 34 week mark. By 34 weeks, most babies are clear of any long-term health issues. They may spend a couple extra days in the NICU, but overall, they will be as healthy as a full term baby eventually. I go in for another appointment this afternoon to confirm that everything is going well. I'll continue to take medicine to keep contractions at bay until 35-36 weeks and then the doctor has said he'll take me off of them and the babies will be welcome at any time! It's crazy to think that in just 2 weeks or less, I could be heading into the hospital and coming home with 2 more babies!

My doctors did send me home with strict instructions to stop all lifting- including helping Zeke into his crib, high chair, etc. and to sit or lie down as much as humanly possible (while caring for a 20 month old!) Because of this, our little boy has had to make some big adjustments this past week...

Introducing our newest BIG BOY... Zeke!
His favorite words this week have been "Big Boy". We (well, Tom) scrambled to finish Zeke's new bedroom setup, complete with a toddler bed that Zeke can climb in and out of. I didn't want to jinx our luck by announcing it too early, but after 5 successful nights and daytime naps in the big boy bed, I think it's a go! He's so proud of his new big boy bed and room. Every time I go to get him after a nap, his first words are "big boy!" It's pretty sweet.

Another new change is that Zeke has started school! I know that most people don't start their 1 and 1/2 year olds in school, but we had been hearing about this wonderful toddler program through one of the neighborhood elementary schools. It's supposed to be pretty difficult to get into, but since we live in the district, we were bumped to the top of the waiting list and the next opening was ours! Zeke will be attending "school" 2 days a week and started today.

The toddler program functions like a pre-school from 9-11:30 with circle time, music, art, snack, centers, and all sorts of learning fun. He has the option of staying all afternoon for lunch, naptime and afternoon snack as well. To start, we'll just bring him for the morning, but it is a comfort to know the option is there. I think that it will be great for him to have his own special place to go and interact with other kids and teachers a couple times per week. (And give mom a break, too!)

When I dropped him off, the first toy he went for was a baby doll. I'm encouraged that he's so fond of babies, but will need to work with him on supporting the head. :)

As is tradition, I took Zeke's very first "First Day of School Picture" this morning. Here is my big boy!
And as for Tom, well, he's just busy being a good husband and dad these days. He works so hard to help us all when he is home and support us through working his day job as well as playing music at night. As I type, Tom is making the journey from Owatonna, MN back to Omaha in his 1996 Honda Accord Wagon.
Thanks to Doug and Kirsten for taking good care of the car for the past 3 years while we were living in Honduras. While this car has seen a lot of miles, we're hoping it will survive the journey back to Nebraska and be a good second car for our family. Anyone reading our blog today should say an extra little prayer for Tom and the car, and that they both make it back home safely!

***Update*** The doctor appointment went well- no new news, and Tom made it back to town! We are so happy!