Gooooo Team

Infants are tough. Yup I said it, cause it's true. Twin infants are times 4 tough. And twin infants, one with a heart defect, are fun and tough-er-est.

It's not the logistical, no-sleep tough that gets to you though. It's months in the NICU, infant heart surgery, a whole team of medical professionals that many times I can't keep straight that becomes the toughest. I don't want it any other way, I don't wish for "different" kids. I just wish for more time as a family, more time with the twins and more time to do our own thing.

Let's back up, mmkay? At 12 weeks preggo (and rarely keeping food down), we were told Twin B had increased thickening of the neck. It was right on the border of being a concern so we decided to run a chromosomal test. Everything came back a-ok. So I ate more cheerios and ginger ale.

Week 20, the day after Christmas, we were going to find out if these crazies were boys, girls or monsters. I was going with monsters. That conversation was side-stepped as they noticed Twin B's heart was on the other side and turned around. Yup definitely monsters.

Less than a week later we were working with Boston Children's Heart Center and discovered that Twin B had more than a silly placed heart. To put it simply, all the pieces of his heart were there but the piping was a little off meaning un-oxygenated blood would be delivered to his body when he was born. It was "fixable."

Writing it makes the process sound simple and clear cut. It was not. There were no guarantees and we knew months out that our norm was not everyone's norm.

So reached out to some of our closest friends and family. From medical professional friends to those who spent time at Children's Hospital to those who just "got it." This is our core team, the people we work with that can't prescribe a single piece of medicine to the boys, but provide our little family with something much more important.

And that is how we keep moving forward.

It's Fallfutiful

I made up a word. It's fall and beautiful in one perfect little word. We can now add that to the dictionary.

The twins went apple picking with their Aunt Jess

Anywho, back to fall. So last fall I had 2 beans in my belly (weird, but true) so I wanted nothing to do with fall flavors. The thought of pumpkin or apple or butternut squash sent me running to the bathroom. Seriously, no good. This year I'm doing and eating everything fall.

Hence the pumpkin ravioli fiasco of Saturday night.

Ravioli. Cooks quick. Great for busy mamas. EXCEPT not for twin mamas. There should be a disclaimer on the package. Mamas with twins walk away from this fresh, local pumpkin ravioli. 

Luckily I bought 2 packages. Cause the first package was cooking and I turned away to wash a bottle that took me 30 seconds longer than I thought and all the pumpkin filling exploded and boiled off into the water. I shed a tear. The beans let out a shriek. It was because of the ravioli not because of poop, I swear.

So feel free to substitute the ravioli with any sort of pasta because if you overcook regular pasta it's a little less of a fiasco. The idea with this meal is you really don't even need the onion, garlic or much seasoning because all the flavor is coming from the fresh sausage. It's genius. Seriously, genius. Okay maybe not, but it tastes really good and you can make it while two babes watch Spiderman from the living room floor (NO, we would never ever let our 6 month olds do that. Never. Okay, maybe just once. Or twice.)

Cheater Pasta
Ingredients
4 fresh pre-made sausage links with any of your favorite flavoring (I used Whole Foods pepper and onion chicken sausage - so good)
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, diced
3 handfuls of baby spinach
3 Tbsp GOOD olive oil
salt + pepper
1 package of any ravioli or pasta you'd like

Directions
*Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan
*Sautee your onions and garlic over low/medium heat
*Meanwhile cook pasta according to directions - DO NOT WASH BABY BOTTLES AT THE SAME TIME
*Remove casings from the sausage and place the sausage in your non-stick pan
*Using a wooden spoon break up the sausage and let it brown on both sides
*Once the sausage is cooked turn the heat to low and add your spinach if you have some on hand
*Drain your pasta
*Place the sausage and veggie mixture over pasta and viola - dinner!

Don't Be Late

Oh and don't forget to update your blog. Anyway back on topic...

I hate being late, like really dislike it. Just thinking about being late stresses me out. I feel anxious if other people are late. I’m sweating right now.

So apparently my babes hate being late too. So much so they came 7 weeks early. I can’t blame them – they didn’t want to miss Easter or Marathon Monday (the 2 best holidays). They showed up early to party. I forgot to wear my party shoes so the nice nurses gave me some socks (side note: when they tell you to pack a hospital bag and leave it in your car I suggest you listen)

Meet Lou 

And Dean

I only now realize how scared we should have been and how peanut-sized they were. We don’t have other babes, we didn’t know. So we trekked along and have some stories to tell.

But first let’s discuss baby jeans. I die. (Hospital gowns, not as cute)

Oh remember when this was just a food blog? Yeah, now I just make food for the week and food for babies. It’s kinda the same thing, but a little quicker and different. And it tastes really good (the baby food especially). It’s okay, one day I’ll open my own coffee shop – you know in my spare time.