Well this is not that type of internet site so I will not tell you how it really began; I will start at a more appropriate starting point. Seven months ago the Mansfield Willners doubled in size. In a matter of several minutes it went from Lori and me to: Lori, me, Aidan and Madelaine. That is right, on September 18, 2007 Lori and I welcomed our twins to the world at 8:31 and 8:32 am...although with the C-Section I am not convinced that there was a full minute between their birth times.
In all honesty, Lori and I were very nervous; not only were we becoming parents for the first time, but there were 2 of them and they were 7 weeks early. So we both had a lot on our minds as we drove to the hospital at 12:45 am...in fact Lori reminded me that I needed to call the wall board guy to cancel for the next day, isn't she great!!! Even with all that was going on Lori was still trying to be as organized as humanly possible.
So back to the births! We had been told that this blessed day was going to be sooner than originally expected due to the fact that they were twins and a minor issue with cord blood flow, but we had no idea that it was going to be this soon. Just the day before we were told to expect it soon, but we still thought we had a few weeks to go. Maddie had other thoughts though. She had had enough of being in the womb and wanted to head out to greet the world....Aidan wanted to hangout for a little while longer but when Maddie decided to head for the light he decided to tag along. Although he really didn't have a choice.
So after spending about 6-7 hours at the hospital in a labor room, Lori was wheeled into the operating room and I joined her shortly after. Lori was great and I have never been more proud of her. She was calm the entire time...she was a rock! As I said we were both very anxious, based on them coming early we knew that they would have to spend some time in the Neonatal Intesive Care Unit (NICU). The question would be; how healthy would they be and how long would they need to stay there.
So at 8:31 Lori and I heard the first crying sound; it was our Maddie. Both of us had the same thought...'crying is good'. Then moments later we hear the second crying sound, Aidan. We both knew that was a great sign so we immediately felt a lot better. It would be a few weeks later that crying would take on a less reassuring meaning. At birth Madelaine Mae weighed a whopping 4 lbs. 1 oz. While Aidan James weighed 3 lbs. 7 oz.
Aidan James Willner
It wasn't as bad as it looks. He was "hooked up" like this for 1/2 day and it was only a precaution, he was actually breathing on his own.
So we briefly got a chance to meet and hold the babies and then they were wisked away to the NICU. Going in we knew that this was a real possibility. The reason we were so anxious about the NICU was that we wanted to have them with us (of course) and for twins in the NICU there is generally one that progresses faster than the other one - so they often do not come home at the same time. Both of these facts made us anxious about the NICU. Thankfully the NICU nurses were simply awesome. Lori would go there in the afternoon and I would stop by on my way home. That way we gave them a dinner time bottle then went home together. We did have some tender moments and had our first family photo taken.
We had been told to expect them to be there for 7 weeks, they said that most babies go home around their due date. As it turned out Maddie and Aidan did so well that they were released after only 9 days!! When they were released Maddie was 4 lbs. 7 oz. and Aidan was an enormous 3 lbs. 12 oz.. Yes Aidan was not even 4 lbs. yet when we took him home. In fact we needed to buy special car seats that would accomodate them, as the ones we had were too big. Below is a homecoming picture, their Vermont teddy bears (a gift from their Uncle Jon) were bigger than they were.
I will not bore you with the day-to-day details. But it has been 7 moths now. Maddie was 15 lbs. and Aidan was 15-1/2 lbs at their 6 month check ups. They are doing great!! Maddie is close to crawling and has 2 bottom teeth ready to poke through at any moment. Aidan is a little behind, but is working on crawling and has some teeth coming too. All in all Lori and I can't complain. There are trying days, especially for Lori since she is a stay at home mom, a job that is not appreciated enough....especially with twins. Aidan and Maddie are doing great and have brought us an amount of joy that can not be measured.
Here are some more recent pictures so that you can see how they have changed. I promise future posts will not be as long...stay tuned!!
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