Three New Family Members

I'll make this quick (for reasons that will soon become clear): About six weeks ago, we welcomed three new members into our family.

Two of them are the identical twin boys with whom we had been pregnant for the past several months. Yes, you read that correctly--we had twins AGAIN. No, it does not run in the family; we're just lucky (ha ha). Here are the facts:

Baby	Name	Time	Weight	Length
A	Christian James	12:26 PM	6 lbs, 11 oz	19 3/4 inches
B	Gabriel ("Gabe") Joseph	12:27 PM	6 lbs	18 1/2 inches

And yes, you read that correctly too: Even though they're identical twins, one was over an inch longer and nearly a pound heavier than the other at birth. (That trend is ongoing, by the way; Christian continues to be noticeably larger than his brother.)

Gabriel and Christian Bourdier

Christian and Gabe, like their sisters, arrived a little earlier than expected. Unlike their sisters, however, Christian and Gabe had some health problems--namely, hypoglycemia, apnea, and bradycardia--which required them to spend several days in the NICU. Once these issues were resolved, Christian and Gabe were welcomed home by their grateful parents and adoring older sisters.

As I likened my first experience with newborn children to open water swimming, I liken this one to bicycle riding: you never really forget how to do it. The feed-sleep-diaper cycle is about the same as I remember it, although many aspects of this experience are not the same, the most significant of course being the two four-year-olds we also have to take care of (and in case you're wondering what that's like, it's every bit as maddening as you might imagine). Hence, the ever-increasing scarcity of time mentioned earlier.

The new Bourdier-mobile

So who is the third new member of the family? That would be the Honda Odyssey minivan that we purchased just days before Christian and Gabe were delivered. Why did we decide to purchase a new vehicle so suddenly? We discovered that it was simply not possible to fit the car seats needed for two four-year-olds and two newborns (plus a stroller) in the vehicle that we had. So here we are, suburbanites with a minivan and a house full of kids. I guess this makes us an official American family. (It also makes us crazy... and tired... and apathetic... and much more appreciative of alcohol than we ever were before.)