Teratogenic Event

I recently wrote a textbook chapter on twins with my mentor, whose expertise is multiple gestation. In doing my research for the chapter, I came across the theory that identical twins are a "teratogenic event." "Teratogenesis" essentially means that something goes wrong during embryonic development. For instance, certain medications that cause birth defects are teratogenic. I had certainly heard and read of this theory before, and truthfully, as an obstetrician I believe there is some truth to it. I really do believe it is not a "normal" event. However, as a mother of identical twins, I just really consider it a miracle, teratogenic or not. Truly amazing that an embryo splits between days 1-12 after conception, and TWO (in theory) IDENTICAL beings come into existence. Crazy, right? The only animals that have identical twins are armadillos, who have identical quads and octuplets. Identical twins have much higher rates of birth defects, premature delivery, in-utero death, infant death -- you name it, identical twins are at higher risk. I personally have multiple additional obstetric risk factors for badness and we had multiple complications during our pregnancy with the twins.

For years after Rose & Lucy were born, premature and growth-restricted but ultimately healthy, I could not look at them without consciously thinking, "Damn, we are so lucky. I can't believe these little girls are here and doing FINE." In fact, I've only recently been able to look at them or think about them WITHOUT thinking consciously how grateful I am that they are here. I don't really want to stop thinking that every time I look at these sweeties. These kids are beautiful, sweet, smart, spunky, funny, adventurous souls. Just plain rockin' kids.

Roro, sweet girl

Lulu

This is what I got after asking Lulu NOT to "pose"

She just can't not pose.

Quintessential Rosie

Love these girlies!

Dunkin'

We have a Saturday tradition in our house. Well, that is, if tradition means that you do it about once a month, sort of whenever you feel like it. We get up early, let Sheref sleep in, and we drive to Dunkin' Donuts for "breakfast." Yeah, yeah, not very healthy. Whatevs. We bring Sheref a coffee, get me a coffee, and get Munchkins for the kids. Munchkins are what we in my day used to call donut holes. We usually get 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 glazed. My skinny Minnie girls can put back a 25 pack of Munchkins in approximately 25 seconds, and I'm only slightly exaggerating.

Since Jinjin has been home, usually I just break off a few little bits and give them to him. Today I decided he was ready...for a...WHOLE MUNCHKIN. Or 2...or 3. Let's just say he kept up with the girls!

"Dude, I can't BELIEVE you never gave me one of these before!!"

"Yeah, chocolate. That's what I'm talking about."

Elle-belle

Lulu ravaging her chocolate donuts

Sweet Rosie

Donut Saturday was a success...

The Biblical Cord

There are a lot of really funny things about being a doctor. No, seriously, there are. One of the funniest is the way some patients mispronounce or misinterpret medical terms. I'm really not trying to be disrespectful or make fun, but come on, sometimes it's just plain funny. We have one patient, who, when her asthma acts up, calls to request an "al-booty-trol" refill (albuterol). Patients tell us about the "fireballs in my Eucharist" (fibroids in my uterus). There are more examples, but I'll stop.

The one mispronunciation/misinterpretation, though, that I actually prefer to the correct term is "Biblical cord." What a great term to describe something (pregnancy) that really is a miracle.

A normal "Biblical cord" has 3 blood vessels in it. There are 2 arteries, which are very small and thick-walled, and one vein, which is larger and has thinner, more flexible walls. All the vessels are enclosed, protected, in thick white tissue which is called Wharton's jelly. A perfect umbilical cord is thick and uniformly spirally coiled. Every time I see a normal umbilical cord, I think how perfect and beautiful it is. It is also, as are most things in nature, perfectly designed to do its job. The vein takes oxygenated, nutrient-filled blood from the placenta to the baby. The arteries take the deoxygenated, "used-up" blood back from the baby to the placenta, where it circulates through the placenta, is oxygenated, and then flows back to the baby through the vein. At birth, after the umbilical cord is clamped and cut, these vessels close up fairly quickly. Neonatologists often utilize the vessels, particularly the larger umbilical vein, to place IVs to give sick or preterm babies fluids and medications, but the IVs have to be placed fairly quickly after birth, before the vessels close.

I had really never thought about the fact that the closing of these vessels must leave a small scar. My girls all have "innies," as do I, so I don't know that I'd ever paid attention to the inside of a belly button. Mr Jinjin, however, has an "outie," and I noticed the other day that he has 3 small marks in the inner aspect of his belly button. These must be the scars from the closing of his umbilical vessels soon after his birth.

This was sort of a revelation to me. Despite all my years of medical training, it had never once occurred to me that the closing of these vessels leaves a scar, and I just love this fact. Three marks that prove you were born, that are visible proof that you were once connected to another person. And especially for Charlie, who has no conscious memory of his birth mother and whose parents don't really have any specific knowledge of her to share with him, I sort of find poignancy in knowing he bears these marks of his connection to her.

(I'm also laughing now, imagining that everyone (like all 4 of you) who read this post will now go look at every belly button in your household to see if you can see these scars...)

13 Things about Jinjin at 13 Months

Yes, I did just post "12 Things...at 12 Months" in the quite recent past. However, I posted that on his last day of being 12 months old. Since he is now well into month 13, I say this post is fair game!!

1. He is starting to sleep more reliably in his crib. Not that I mind co-sleeping (I secretly actually kinda like cuddling with him all night), but we get far higher quality sleep with Charlie in HIS OWN BED.

2. He still drools like crazy. See the drool waterfall in the picture above?

3. He has just this week turned a corner as far as his attachment to me goes. I've heard lots of adoptive parents say that their new child preferred one parent over the other at first, to the point of not wanting to be anywhere near the other parent. Charlie was never like that. He has always come to me, never cried or anything like that, but he definitely preferred Sheref. Which is very expected and logical if you know our family dynamic (umm, Sheref = nicer than me:) and the fact that Sheref went to Korea to pick him up, so it has never really bothered me or hurt my feelings. That said, it has been delightful the past week or so that he actively wants me, lights up when he sees me, tries to get my attention, etc.

4. Akin to #3 above, I feel like his sense of humor is really coming out more the past week or so as well. You can tell he is trying to do things to make us laugh, which is both endearing and hysterical.

5. He loves blueberries.

6. He hates raw mushrooms. Yeah, I know, so does every single child in the world. For some reason, Sheref thought Jinjin might be different, so he gave him some last night.

7. He has a cute gap between his front 2 teeth.

8. He has rockin' hair. My plan is to grow it into a spiky sort of modified mohawk (a very toned down mohawk...but spiky on top). This might be a bad plan. We'll see.

9. It's hard for me to imagine when he wasn't part of our family.

10. He still hates all liquids besides milk.

11. Jinjin loves his nightly bath and lotion/baby massage routine.

12. His transition to "school" has been very very smooth. He goes every day from 8-1pm or so while Sheref is at work. He is the only child in the room who doesn't walk (the kids are 12-24 months), but he is already a school superstar! His teacher texts Sheref daily with little updates, which is really sweet of her. They tell us he actually did a little disco dance that made all the kids laugh yesterday when they put music on. I can picture exactly what they mean (if it indeed happened) and he learned it from LUCY.

13. He made us his first "artwork" at school this week -- they let the kids dip grapes in paint and put it on colored construction paper, something I would NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS let a classroom full of 1-2 year olds do, so kudos to them for their bravery and high tolerance of messiness. Charlie's little paint circles are PERFECT. They tell us he made it. Yeah, whatever. Still, it is going in his scrapbook. That is, when I get around to actually making said scrapbook.

Man's best friend?

I am currently mad at Willie (our Yorkie), for reasons I won't mention here, lest you think less of the little guy. Charlie, however, LOVES Willie, and the feeling is mutual. Willie seeks every opportunity to play with Charlie, and Charlie watches out for Willie's interests as well.

Hi Mom, just eatin' my dinner.

Mmmmmm, dinner? Meat and potatoes, you say? Looks yummy.

Psst, psst. Yo, Willie, over here.

You got it?

Yup, got it. Thanks buddy.

Oh, let me give you more. Mom hasn't caught on yet.

Again

And again...

Charlie did this for a week or so with EVERY meal. It was pretty funny, because he obviously knew he wasn't supposed to be doing it. Every time we would say "Charlie, no" he would immediately stop and straighten up in his chair, looking very serious...temporarily at least. He did this for about a week, and perhaps (?) due to us telling him NOT TO FEED THE DOG OFF THE TABLE, he stopped. Poor pooch is back to dry dogfood only...

Bathtime for Jinjin

We had heard from Jinjin's progress reports when he was in Korea, and also directly from his foster mom that he loves bathtime. However, the first few times I gave him a bath, he HATED it. Probably had to do with my child hair-washing technique of just dumping water over the child's head to rinse...

So, after 2-3 episodes of traumatizing the poor child with bath time, I started just washing his hair in the sink, with him lying on the counter, head over the sink (i.e. no water in the eyes!), and then bathing his body in the sink after the hair-washing.

After about 2 weeks of that, I figured we'd give the bathtub another go. Probably due simply to the fact that he had by then adjusted to us and felt more comfortable, he LOVED it. He loves to splash, loves to grab at the water flowing out of the faucet, loves to pull the plug to hear the water start to drain.

I love my bath!

Hi Mom!

Sweet little Charlie hand...

12 Things about Jin-jin at 12 Months

I've seen this theme (12 things at 12 months, 13 things at 13 months, etc) done on other people's blogs, so yes, I'm stealing the idea. These are the sort of things one forgets as the years go by, so for posterity...

1. He has the cutest "crinkle-nose" smile when he smiles big. I remember this smile from one of the few pictures we had of him prior to meeting him. Every time I see the "crinkle-nose" smile now, I always feel grateful to have him here with us.

2. He looooooves, like freakin' LOVES Puffs. I'm not even going to tell you his record for most Puffs consumed in a single sitting.

3. He clearly got the pediatricians' "Back to Sleep" memo. I have never seen this kid sleep or even lay on his abdomen or side.

4. He loves milk, and won't drink any other liquid.

5. He says "mama" all the time. As far as we can tell, it has no specific meaning. Mama in Korean means food, but he doesn't use it in that context, nor does he use it to refer to me. Nonetheless, it's pretty funny when Sheref tries to prompt Jinjin to say "Dada:" "Say Dada, say Dada..." "Mama."

6. Charlie loves our dog Willie.

7. Charlie loves his Little People toys.

8. Unfortunately, so does Willie.

9. He purposefully drops food off the side of his high chair for Willie. It's both super cute and a little bit annoying!

10. He likes to have his neck tickled. It makes him laugh -- so cute!

11. He loves watching video and looking at pictures of his foster mom, and Sheref's meeting at Holt at which Sheref "got" Charlie. Seeing his foster mom doesn't seem to upset Charlie at all. In fact, he really enjoys it.

12. He is a super awesome kid!