Fear of Heights

Do you have acrophobia? Hopefully not if you want to play tennis here.

Hospital Observations

The Missus and the babies are doing well, though it appears that they're never going to let her out of the hospital. The doctors are talking about keeping her there for the duration, which may be another twelve-to-fourteen weeks. Since I've been spending so much time there, I haven't been able to blog much, but I did have a few observations about the hospital.

With my pregnant wife bed-ridden with my twins, I guess I'm a bit of a pig, but I am somewhat disappointed that the "candy-stripers" at the hospital aren't cute young things, but grumpy octogenarians. The lady who pushed the Missus to her room in a wheelchair must've been born in the Coolidge administration. I wanted to take over for this lady, but I was afraid she'd hit me with her cane!

These not-so-spry gals have taken over the gift shops too. It took me twenty minutes to buy a magazine, even though three old biddies waited on me. One of them was trying to look up a code for the computer, another was trying to punch in the numbers and the third was walking over to get a bag like Tim Conway playing the grumpy old man on the old Carol Burnett Show. (I'm showing my age there.)

A cool thing: one of the residents there is named Dr. Lizardo. Dr. Lizardo! I've only seen him once, so I didn't have a chance to see if his first name was Emilio.

Two Steps Up and One Step Back

A quick recap of a very eventful week.

This past Monday, we had an appointment for a sonogram at the hospital. "Speed and Trixie" have officially replaced "Frick and Frack," since it was confirmed that we're having a boy and a girl. The babies are developing well and everything looks great with them.

However it was discovered that the Missus would need to have a surgical procedure done, and now has to be on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy. This is not uncommon with twins, but we thought we would have a lot more time, since we were only at about twenty weeks. The doctors would like us to get to at least thirty-four weeks, so we have over three months to go.

We checked into the hospital on Tuesday. The surgery went well and Linda is fine, but we're not sure when or even if she'll be sent home. She's in the hospital "indefinitely," according to the surgeon. The ward she's in (the High Risk Pregnancy Dept. at Inova Fairfax hospital) has a bunch of women carrying twins staying there long term, so there's a really good chance she'll be there for the duration.

This is both good and bad. Bad, because she'd really like to be home, but good because they keep a good eye on her there. Logistically, it's good too, since they deliver her meals and there's always someone there. It will be tougher if she comes home, because she'll still be on bed rest, but there won't be anyone around for her--I'll have to go to work sometime.

We're focusing on the positives--the babies are fine, the Missus is fine, and she's getting the best care available. We'll worry about everything else later.

Slippin' and Slidin'

I work in an area with no windows, so when I came out of the building last night around 5:30 I was shocked to see about two inches of snow on my car, and it was still snowing. When pulled out of the parking lot, the main roads looked pretty good, so, as usual, I headed for the ferry.

The trip was okay until I got to that stretch of road west of Poolesville. This is usually a very nice drive through Maryland farm land. Last night, it was like driving through Siberia (a relatively warm, Americanized area of Siberia that is.) Huge flakes of snow were pelting my car, and the road quickly became white and slippery. Visibility was tough: it's always dark along that stretch, but when I turned my high beams on, all I could see was snow blasting past my car. I felt like I was Han Solo jumping into hyperspace. (Non-geeks can ignore that last simile. Or is it a metaphor?)

To get on the ferry, you drive down a fairly steep concrete ramp. Last night I didn't drive so much as slide down. I heard my Automatic Brake System bumping away uselessly. The lady directing people kept pointing for me to go right, but I kept sliding left. As I made it on to the ferry itself, I regained control and managed to not hit the lady and make it to the right lane.

Getting off the ferry was also a problem. I watched as large SUVs and 4-wheel-drive trucks slipped and slid going up the ramp on the Virginia side. When it was my turn, I zoomed up the ramp and was able to stop in time from smashing into concrete. I made it home okay, but it wasn't the most fun commute.

Maybe I'll feel differently when Speed and Trixie are here, but for now: I hate snow!

Speed and Trixie??

Since the Missus works in a hospital, she has easy access to various baby-related technology. Yesterday, she listened to the babies' heartbeats through a Fetal Doppler. (Actually this isn't very exotic technology and you can, if you wish, get one for your home.) The nurse said that everything sounded just fine. One baby's heart rate was faster than the other, and according to the nurse, this meant that one was a boy and one a girl. I was skeptical, but the nurse had ten years experience at this, according to the Missus.

We're scheduled for another sonogram on Monday when we find out for sure. But it looks like "Frick and Frack" will be replaced by "Speed and Trixie." For more info about those names, check out the official Speed Racer website. Very cool.