I'm going to take Jenny's advice (thanks Jenn!) and start a blog so that you
guys can keep tabs on the crazy antics of the Mettee spawn. But in the mean
time I thought I'd share our first public outing experience with you because I
think you guys are all great, care about the boys so much, and can appreciate
how crazy things can get. It's a very different life now.
The Pediatrician said to get out of the house so we made our first trip to the
mall here in Annapolis on Thursday.
Wow, was that an adventure in stress. It only took two hours to get in the car,
and within the first 5 min. in the mall we felt like a neon sign with our huge
really long bright red and black infant carrier stroller. Then the freak show
started when people thought we had normal newborn twins noticed that one had
oxygen and a monitor (looks of pitty), then gasped at the other baby's 3lb size.
One teenage girl said to Drew "Why does he have tubes up his nose?" to which he
answered and then she wandered off telling her schmuck boyfriend how she wants babies.
But there were a lot of "Oh twins! You're doubly blessed!", we like that one
because it's so genuine and sweet. Then there's "Wow, they're so tiny! (insert
startled look here)" or "How old? But when were they born? (insert long story
about preemie birth here)"... Then they have to know their birth weights and how
much are they now, what are their names, two boys??, yadda yadda yadda. One lady
asked the usual questions and when she found out how old they were she just had
to show us her baby girl who's almost the same age and 12lbs for comparison. Our
boys combined weight is only a little over 9lbs. That was really depressing.
But the worst was some woman did a triple take and actually had to come back and
ask if Evan was real. I wanted to reply "No, it was a BOGO at Babies R Us so we
took two of everything...". We felt so weird being an attraction walking down
the mall and into stores. Women and old ladies just couldn't help themselves!
I've heard other moms talking about all this happening, and now it was our turn.
Boy was it really uncomfortable. And we just have to get used to it because
that's our life now.
But there were some good moments and luckily no one tried to get too close to
the boys. We were looking for a family restroom to change the boys and a couple
with kindergarten aged twin boys let us have it before them because they said
they understood we needed it more. That was really nice.
The day ended in my first (and hopefully last) dumb Mommy moment. We went to go
feed the boys their bottles and found out that I forgot the nipples. Panic!!
Luckily there was a high end, very expensive baby store near by that I was able
to buy a couple of Dr. Brown's with slow flow nipples, and some Medela quick
steam bags, and the shop girl let me use their store microwave and VOILA! Clean
bottles. The feeding was only 45min late. But we made it.
After that fiasco we went home. Not going to try that again for a couple more
weeks. I just need to build up the courage. It's very draining and a lot of work to
pull off, on top of mentally taxing. This is not for the faint of heart, just when you
think you have everything thought through your realize you have no idea what
you're doing.
Oh, and everyone assumed that Cameron is a girl just because he's wearing
yellow. We found it funny and plan on putting Evan in something gender neutral
next time to see if people will assume he's a girl too. For those who've chosen
not to know the baby's gender and go with neutral colors, do you feel awkward
when strangers mistake your baby for the wrong gender? No that it's an issue,
but It seemed weird to us because to us Cameron looks like a boy.
Okay, so that's our latest adventure. I will start working on the blog with
more photos this week. Today Drew's parents get to meet the boys for the first
time since they were in their isolettes in the NICU. This should be fun!
guys can keep tabs on the crazy antics of the Mettee spawn. But in the mean
time I thought I'd share our first public outing experience with you because I
think you guys are all great, care about the boys so much, and can appreciate
how crazy things can get. It's a very different life now.
The Pediatrician said to get out of the house so we made our first trip to the
mall here in Annapolis on Thursday.
Wow, was that an adventure in stress. It only took two hours to get in the car,
and within the first 5 min. in the mall we felt like a neon sign with our huge
really long bright red and black infant carrier stroller. Then the freak show
started when people thought we had normal newborn twins noticed that one had
oxygen and a monitor (looks of pitty), then gasped at the other baby's 3lb size.
One teenage girl said to Drew "Why does he have tubes up his nose?" to which he
answered and then she wandered off telling her schmuck boyfriend how she wants babies.
But there were a lot of "Oh twins! You're doubly blessed!", we like that one
because it's so genuine and sweet. Then there's "Wow, they're so tiny! (insert
startled look here)" or "How old? But when were they born? (insert long story
about preemie birth here)"... Then they have to know their birth weights and how
much are they now, what are their names, two boys??, yadda yadda yadda. One lady
asked the usual questions and when she found out how old they were she just had
to show us her baby girl who's almost the same age and 12lbs for comparison. Our
boys combined weight is only a little over 9lbs. That was really depressing.
But the worst was some woman did a triple take and actually had to come back and
ask if Evan was real. I wanted to reply "No, it was a BOGO at Babies R Us so we
took two of everything...". We felt so weird being an attraction walking down
the mall and into stores. Women and old ladies just couldn't help themselves!
I've heard other moms talking about all this happening, and now it was our turn.
Boy was it really uncomfortable. And we just have to get used to it because
that's our life now.
But there were some good moments and luckily no one tried to get too close to
the boys. We were looking for a family restroom to change the boys and a couple
with kindergarten aged twin boys let us have it before them because they said
they understood we needed it more. That was really nice.
The day ended in my first (and hopefully last) dumb Mommy moment. We went to go
feed the boys their bottles and found out that I forgot the nipples. Panic!!
Luckily there was a high end, very expensive baby store near by that I was able
to buy a couple of Dr. Brown's with slow flow nipples, and some Medela quick
steam bags, and the shop girl let me use their store microwave and VOILA! Clean
bottles. The feeding was only 45min late. But we made it.
After that fiasco we went home. Not going to try that again for a couple more
weeks. I just need to build up the courage. It's very draining and a lot of work to
pull off, on top of mentally taxing. This is not for the faint of heart, just when you
think you have everything thought through your realize you have no idea what
you're doing.
Oh, and everyone assumed that Cameron is a girl just because he's wearing
yellow. We found it funny and plan on putting Evan in something gender neutral
next time to see if people will assume he's a girl too. For those who've chosen
not to know the baby's gender and go with neutral colors, do you feel awkward
when strangers mistake your baby for the wrong gender? No that it's an issue,
but It seemed weird to us because to us Cameron looks like a boy.
Okay, so that's our latest adventure. I will start working on the blog with
more photos this week. Today Drew's parents get to meet the boys for the first
time since they were in their isolettes in the NICU. This should be fun!
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