Friday, March 16, 2012

Big Brother to the Twins


My sister A had her twins three months early. They arrived unexpectedly and very rapidly on Saturday. The larger of the two boys was 2 lbs 6 oz and the smaller was 1 lb 14.9 oz. They were immediately transported to one of the stellar Children's Hospitals we have here in the Twin Cities. A followed as soon as she was released from the hospital (the babies were both breach and delivered via C-section).

Our family visited the babies on Monday (at least I did - Tim stayed in the car and the girls stayed with Grandpa and K at the Ronald McDonald house).



A arrived on Tuesday. She called me that evening and asked if I would like to take K away from the hospital. He had been doing well since both sets of grandparents had taken turns caring for him but now they were gone and Mom and Dad were obviously distracted.

So on Tuesday, the girls and I drove down to the hospital and picked K up and took him to the Minneapolis Sculpture Gardens.



He has a little push bike (two-wheels - something new to me) that he zoomed all over the place on. When he wasn't on the bike, he was running.





One of the famous landmarks here in the Twin Cities - the giant cherry on the Spoon Bridge.




When we were in this sculpture room, K started running a loop inside the square of benches - he ran, and ran, and ran, and ran, and ran. My Mom says he will do that sometimes. He came up to me, dripping in sweat, and told me he was nice and cool now and started running again (it was a record breaking day - we smashed the old record high of something like 64 Fahrenheit by nearly ten degrees).



See K peeking?


I was a bit worried when we picked K up - he is very attached to his parents and I was afraid we were going to leave the hospital with a screaming child. However, he was as good as gold the entire time.

A told me last night that there is a service provided at the hospital to help older siblings adjust in situations like this. Yesterday, they were explaining to the social worker that Aunt Melissa had come with his cousins and took him to the park. K piped in saying "and I was very happy!" It did this aunt's heart good to hear that.

The Ronald McDonald house are kicking them out today. They plan to return home today, depending on when they leave the girls and I may go down to visit them. The twins will have to stay at the hospital until at least the beginning of June. Consequently, we may have house guests on and off over the next few months.





Below is a view from the parking garage at the hospital.

9 comments:

  1. I will be keeping your sister and new nephews in my prayers. What a blessing you were able to keep that energetic kiddo happy for an afternoon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful post! Your girls look so happy to have a chance to keep their cousin entertained. Looks like a wonderful day without a care in the world (for K). Perfect! Hope you give us an occasional update on the twins and how the family is doing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Praying for your sister and new babies. Praying that God's perfect Will will be accomplished. Hugs and blessings, Cindy

    ReplyDelete
  4. Will pray for the neonates. How precious they are when so tiny but I know all about this as CC was 2lbs and in the NICU for 10 weeks and being a RN made it worse and I had worked in the NICU before. God is faithful and even in the worst disaster will be there for them. I clung to Him every day-I wrote every little detail about her on a calender. When she came home she was 4lbs. That was 20yrs ago and I am sure they are much better at caring for the babies now. I last took care of babies in 1986 prior to CC's birth. I will earnestly hold all of you up in prayer. olive

    ReplyDelete
  5. You're such a good auntie, Melissa! So kind of you to care for your sweet and energetic little nephew like that. I hope all goes well for the twins. I'm sure your sister appreciates all your help during this difficult time. Certainly keep us posted on their progress.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hope your sister is recovering and the twins continue to get strong. It sounds like they have good care, I will keep them in my prayers. I am most certain caring for your nephew was such an enormous relief. Please keep us posted on the situation.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a blessing for your little nephew to have that chance for a really good run about. Praying for your sister and her new little ones and for little K too. Hugs.

    Oh, and love the spoon bridge, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Those precious babies and all the families will be in my thoughts and prayers. Hope you keep us updated on their progress.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh, wow.
    Much prayer for three boys and an aunt!

    ReplyDelete