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| Jayde smiling away |
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| Quynn smiling with Mom |
Monday, November 14, 2011
Priceless Smiles
Some days we all get caught up with the burdens of life. We forget and lose track what is most important to us. We worry about things that won't happen 80% of the time. Even when life is at it's darkest hour, there is a beam of light. My beam of light comes from these two photos. I hope this brightens everyone's day as well. We sometimes forget, how much a smile can make a difference.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
You know you are a new parent when...
Nothing can really explain the full extent of what it means to be a new parent, especially to twins. To help explain, I have come up with a list: “You know you’re a new parent when....” Here it goes, from the man’s perspective :
You know you are a new parent when:
1. You don’t know when you’ll get 8 consecutive hours of sleep again.
2. You also don’t know when business hours will re-open for intimacy. It’s what got you into this mess in the first place so you can forget about it.
3. You’ve had thoughts of feeding your kid alcohol so they will fall asleep.
4. It’s the first time you’ve used the closed captioning on your TV.
5. You finally understand why shaking baby syndrome exists.
6. First thing you look for at the mall are the family washrooms and elevators...along with Gymboree and Baby Gap.
7. You start to notice how many lazy people use the elevators with you. I’d love to tell them “Your legs don’t look broke.”
8. You wanted to destroy that $200 baby monitor you thought was so cool.
9. You get pissed off at putting those tiny cotton mitts on your kids hands because it never fails to get caught in their fingers.
10. Being pooed, peed, and vomitted on are common events. Smelling like that all day is also common.
11. It is acceptable to shower every other day, or two, or three.
12. You’ve put food in the microwave, only to find it still there the next day.
13. Baby Enstein is bigger than any of your Biggie Smalls, Lady Gaga, Led Zepplin CDs. Heck you’d probably go to their concert if they had one.
14. You feel like a freak show when people at the mall go out of their way to see your twins. “Hey George, come here, bring little Katie, they have twins. I should have a coin jar and charge for admission.
15. The only batteries you buy now are D batteries.
And there are many more examples but time is luxury now. To wrap it up, here are few pictures of the girls
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| A couple weeks old |
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| Brix swears he didn't make them cry |
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| Chilling with Mom |
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| Chilling with Dad |
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| 2 months old |
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Life Transformed
The birth of our twins and the emotions that go along with it, cannot be described. It has to be experienced. You have to be in the room and submerge yourself to what is going on. It's a powerful experience that cannot be reproduced by words. This experience is once in a life time.
The birth of the twins may be best described by one of my favorite movies, Apollo 13. The original mission was to land on the moon but after an oxygen tank explodes and cripples the landing module a new mission emerges. During this time the crew back on Earth frantically try and bring the Odessey safely back to Earth, not knowing if the heat shield was damaged by the explosion. If in fact the heat shield was damaged, re-entry into the atmosphere would burn the Odessey and it's crew of three.
In our story, Odessey is our twins and our mission is to have the twins arrive safely into the world. The oxygen tank that explodes is the breaking of the waters, which happens on Aug 25, 9am at the hospital. The doctors and nurses are the crew members making our goal possible. The outcome is unknown, like the heat shield was for Odessey.
Our story begins at 9am and progresses to midday where contractions have regular frequency. Like the Odessey, Neilynne during this whole time is monitored. Sensors connect to fetal monitors that detect the heartbeat of the twins. It also detects and graphically charts the intensity of the contractions. By 2pm, the contractions get stronger and the medical crew decide on a possible epidural. The anesthesiologist is called in and the needle is inserted. Pain subsides temporarily.
The mission goes on as planned. By 5pm. maximum dilation is achieved and Neilynne is asked to push. She pushes hard and progress is slow. Nurses have told her she is making good progress. At 6:30 the doctor checks and tells us otherwise. "Nope, she's not moving the kid." The epidural is turned down to give more feeling to Neilynne's lower half so she can push better. She continues to push for another 3 hrs. Their arrival is imminent, the mission hitting a critical point. The doctor now orders us to all move to the procedure room.
I watched the nurses wheel Neilynne into the OR room, I followed close behind. We enter the OR room, brightly lit, and the feeling of coldness surrounds me. Shiny, cold metal birthing tools are also laid out onto the table and counted. Neilynne gets transferred onto the operating table with stirrups at the end. "I'm sorry but we have to put you in stirrups." The doctor says and begins the birthing procedure. A suction is brought out and inserted to assist in the arrival of baby A. I stood by Neilynne's head watching the doctor work at her feet. This is the part where Odessey begins it's re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
For the next 30 min, it's the moment where baby A and B will arrive. Will they be okay? Will they be able to use their lungs for the first time? Are they going to survive? There is silence in the room and communication goes blank. All I could think of in my head was:
"Odyssey, this is Houston. Do you read me?"
"Odyssey, Houston. Do you read me?"
"Odyssey, uh Houston. Do you read?"
With one final yank from the doctor, a human being emerges, head first, purple and blue in colour. She has thick black hair and resembles her father. Within seconds she is whisked away into another room. Two mins later baby B arrives feet first and is also whisked away. She too looks similar to her twin.
The moments after, the placenta is delivered, and Neilynne is shaking on the OR table. Minutes go by and still no word from the nurses and the babies. The doctor continues working on Neilynne when the door opens and a nurse enters with my daughter (baby B) in her arms. "Do you want to hold your daughter?", she asks. "Yes." I respond like a little weakling, barely able to speak. I held my daughter for the first time, an undescribeable feeling. Her eyes looked straight into mine, not blinking but purely focused. The gush of feelings that occur next correspond to when Odessey re-enters the atmosphere and over the radio we hear,
"Hello, Houston. This is Odyssey. It's good to see ya again."
Nothing can come near to describing the feeling but I thought that was the closest. At that moment, I knew things were going to be all right. Even though baby A did not join our family till 1 hour later because she was under observation, I knew she would be all right, and she was. Baby A is a striking image of her father.
By now, the names have been revealed but to make it official, we welcome into the world:
Aug 25, 2011
Jayde Mackenzie Leung - 5lbs 13oz @ 21:49
Quynn Riley Leung - 5lbs 1oz @ 21:51
I also want to make it official, I can eat chips again!!!!! And I'm making up for some lost chip time, believe that. Thank you everyone for all your support, we really appreciate it. It has been crazy with two newborns but, I wouldn't change it. They are a blessing and a miracle.
The birth of the twins may be best described by one of my favorite movies, Apollo 13. The original mission was to land on the moon but after an oxygen tank explodes and cripples the landing module a new mission emerges. During this time the crew back on Earth frantically try and bring the Odessey safely back to Earth, not knowing if the heat shield was damaged by the explosion. If in fact the heat shield was damaged, re-entry into the atmosphere would burn the Odessey and it's crew of three.
In our story, Odessey is our twins and our mission is to have the twins arrive safely into the world. The oxygen tank that explodes is the breaking of the waters, which happens on Aug 25, 9am at the hospital. The doctors and nurses are the crew members making our goal possible. The outcome is unknown, like the heat shield was for Odessey.
Our story begins at 9am and progresses to midday where contractions have regular frequency. Like the Odessey, Neilynne during this whole time is monitored. Sensors connect to fetal monitors that detect the heartbeat of the twins. It also detects and graphically charts the intensity of the contractions. By 2pm, the contractions get stronger and the medical crew decide on a possible epidural. The anesthesiologist is called in and the needle is inserted. Pain subsides temporarily.
The mission goes on as planned. By 5pm. maximum dilation is achieved and Neilynne is asked to push. She pushes hard and progress is slow. Nurses have told her she is making good progress. At 6:30 the doctor checks and tells us otherwise. "Nope, she's not moving the kid." The epidural is turned down to give more feeling to Neilynne's lower half so she can push better. She continues to push for another 3 hrs. Their arrival is imminent, the mission hitting a critical point. The doctor now orders us to all move to the procedure room.
I watched the nurses wheel Neilynne into the OR room, I followed close behind. We enter the OR room, brightly lit, and the feeling of coldness surrounds me. Shiny, cold metal birthing tools are also laid out onto the table and counted. Neilynne gets transferred onto the operating table with stirrups at the end. "I'm sorry but we have to put you in stirrups." The doctor says and begins the birthing procedure. A suction is brought out and inserted to assist in the arrival of baby A. I stood by Neilynne's head watching the doctor work at her feet. This is the part where Odessey begins it's re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
For the next 30 min, it's the moment where baby A and B will arrive. Will they be okay? Will they be able to use their lungs for the first time? Are they going to survive? There is silence in the room and communication goes blank. All I could think of in my head was:
"Odyssey, this is Houston. Do you read me?"
"Odyssey, Houston. Do you read me?"
"Odyssey, uh Houston. Do you read?"
With one final yank from the doctor, a human being emerges, head first, purple and blue in colour. She has thick black hair and resembles her father. Within seconds she is whisked away into another room. Two mins later baby B arrives feet first and is also whisked away. She too looks similar to her twin.
The moments after, the placenta is delivered, and Neilynne is shaking on the OR table. Minutes go by and still no word from the nurses and the babies. The doctor continues working on Neilynne when the door opens and a nurse enters with my daughter (baby B) in her arms. "Do you want to hold your daughter?", she asks. "Yes." I respond like a little weakling, barely able to speak. I held my daughter for the first time, an undescribeable feeling. Her eyes looked straight into mine, not blinking but purely focused. The gush of feelings that occur next correspond to when Odessey re-enters the atmosphere and over the radio we hear,
"Hello, Houston. This is Odyssey. It's good to see ya again."
Nothing can come near to describing the feeling but I thought that was the closest. At that moment, I knew things were going to be all right. Even though baby A did not join our family till 1 hour later because she was under observation, I knew she would be all right, and she was. Baby A is a striking image of her father.
By now, the names have been revealed but to make it official, we welcome into the world:
Aug 25, 2011
Jayde Mackenzie Leung - 5lbs 13oz @ 21:49
Quynn Riley Leung - 5lbs 1oz @ 21:51
I also want to make it official, I can eat chips again!!!!! And I'm making up for some lost chip time, believe that. Thank you everyone for all your support, we really appreciate it. It has been crazy with two newborns but, I wouldn't change it. They are a blessing and a miracle.
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| Chips vs Baby |
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| "Sorry kid, I aint sharing these chips" |
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| Tagged and ready to ship out |
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