5 years ago.

I want to write about how much fun we had last night downtown amidst the chaos marking the end of the DNC. I want to talk about how cool it was to meet so many great bloggers at the Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash, and I want to gush a little bit about how awesome Mile High Mamas is. But, I’m going to put that off for the moment, because I don’t have Paul’s pictures from his camera, and he took some good ones. So, wait for that, I guess. I do have a few pictures from my camera up on Flickr if you want to see.

What I’m going to write instead is a little of what I wrote about today on How Do You Do It? The big kids’ birthday. Yep, Pablo and Mallory are turning five tomorrow! Five! It doesn’t seem like their birth was just yesterday or anything, but it sure as hell doesn’t seem like it was five years ago.

I had no idea what I was in for five years ago today, which was also a Friday, as we headed across town to welcome our little babies to the world. We grabbed lunch at Le Peep before we went to the hospital, and Paul told everyone there that we were about to go give birth to twins. Our food reached the table surprisingly fast.

The delivery was uneventful, and except for Mallory’s blood sugar being too low, the kids were born very healthy. They were born at 12:16 and 12:32 a.m. on Saturday the 30th, and I didn’t get to hold Mallory until Sunday night at 8 p.m. I cried and cried when I finally got to see her in the NICU – I missed her so much! We didn’t know if we’d be able to take her home, since the NICU nurses told us the rule was that she had to be maintaining her blood sugar and off her IV for 24 hours before we could leave. I’ll never forget our precious doctor, Howard Corren, telling the nurses, “They know what they’re doing. I think we can let them take these babies home and love them now.” It had only been about 15 hours, but he was kind enough to bend the rules for us.

It was cold and rainy that Labor Day weekend, and it seemed like it went from hot summer to chilly fall during those couple of days while we were in the hospital. And it was a good indicator of how quickly time would pass for us from then on. Those were crazy, terrifying, amazing, wonderful, horrible days. We got little sleep and I struggled with PPD for months. But what precious days they were. Thank God I took so many pictures, because I honestly don’t remember some of it – we were just too sleep deprived, just getting by day-to-day in survival mode. Oddly, it was ten times easier when the little girls were born just 17 months later. I guess we knew what we were doing by then.

And now, we have kindergarteners! It goes by so fast.

Possibly Related

• August 30, 2010 -- Seven Years.
• January 18, 2010 -- The Itty Bitties Turn Five
• January 18, 2008 -- Happy 3rd Birthday, Little Girls!
• July 25, 2010 -- Kayley on her Birthday
• July 25, 2010 -- My baby is FIFTEEN today!