abbababy

We'll take a brief break from telling the story of the twins' birth to share something wonderful. We brought the boys home from the hospital yesterday evening. They were physically fine, but the doctors were concerned about Rowan because he had become quite sluggish and had trouble staying awake to feed. They said it could be that his bilirubin levels were getting a little high, which makes him really drowsy. The way to get his bilirubin levels down was to make sure he ate a lot -- which was nearly impossible because his bilirubin levels were getting high. A classic spiral.

When we got him back to the condo, Morley and I were still having a heck of a time waking the boy up to feed him. To stimulate him a bit, I decided to unswaddle him and lay him on his tummy on a blanket. Rowan stirred a little bit, but not much. My Aunt Dana who had driven to Dayton that afternoon from her home in Virginia suggested that we put Daniel on the blanket next to him.

Wow. Rowan snapped awake. He and his brother were fascinated with each other. Daniel reached out and started feeling Rowan's face and Rowan sucked on Daniel's fingers. I had never seen Daniel so animated since the few minutes following his birth. The twins played with one another for quite a long time -- and both of them stayed awake for over three hours and ate like they were starving.

Seeing the two of them looking at one another with wonder, it made us realize that Daniel and Rowan had never really seen one another before. In the hospital, they were always tightly swaddled in separate bassinettes. Since we brought them home and introduced them to each other, they've been like completely different little people: active, hungry, and loud. We couldn't be happier.

Tim (a.k.a. Daddy)