Spinach of the Week: Semicolons

I've decided to let the English teacher loose. I'm going give anyone who cares to read it a little weekly grammar lesson on a common mistake. I'm not here to judge. I just suspect people are less likely to correct someone's ongoing mix up "your" and "you're" than they are to tell them when there's spinach in their teeth.


My students always think punctuation is a breeze, and for the most part it is.  Then they see this...

;

...and they get a little nervous about the punctuation quiz.

They don't know what it's called or how to use it, and that's probably true for most adults as well.  Here's the lowdown.  It's a semicolon and it's used in these main situations.



I.  Say you have two complete sentences like these in which one is directly related to the other:

Sophie is afraid of the good camera.
She cries when she sees it.

You can combine those sentences in one of these ways.

1.  Sophie is afraid of the camera, so she cries whenever she sees it.

(a comma and a coordinating conjunction: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. 

NEVER USE JUST ONE OR THE OTHER.)

2.  Sophie is afraid of the camera; she cries whenever she sees it.

(JUST a semicolon)

II.  You can also use semicolons instead of commas when listing items in a series if those items are long and/or contain commas already.  Here's what I mean.

On our road trip we visited Detroit, Michigan, Denver, Colorado, and San Francisco, California.

At first glance this looks like six locations (especially to the geography-challenged).  Instead of separating them with commas, you should use semicolons to avoid confusion.

On our road trip we visited Detroit, Michigan; Denver, Colorado; and San Francisco, California.    

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Happy birthday, Uncle Nick!

Mike's brother Nick and his wife Molly were in town over the weekend for Nick's birthday, and we were thrilled to introduce them to Sophie and Michael on Friday. 

On Saturday my mother- and father-in-law threw Nick a party, so we spent the day there again, this time with more friends, family, and food!

We're currently transitioning Sophie and Michael to napping in their cribs rather than sleepers or Boppys in the living room at home.  We're also starting to space their feedings out to four hours apart (up to 3.5 consistently).  Things had been going ok at home, but the changes in addition to the excitement of those two days really threw off their daytime sleep. Sophie and Michael were pretty fussy on both days.

Even though they weren't totally themselves, it was a fun to share them with many family members and friends for the first time. 

Sophie and Michael's outfits were a gift from the principal and secretaries at the school where I teach. 

Below is Nick, the birthday boy, and his wife Molly.

Kids at Gail and Mike Sr.'s parties always want to play this vintage arcade game down in the basement.

Grammie and her poopsie!

If Michael ends up a hockey fan, we'll know why.  Uncle Nick had a good chat with him.

How bad was the recovery?

Any woman expecting multiples knows there's a good chance she'll be having a c-section.  Knowing that, one can't help but wonder how painful the recovery will be.  That unknown can cause some anxiety when all you want is to care for your new babies without extra obstacles.  Here's how it went for me.

(If you're not interested in details such as gas and bowel movents, skip this entry.)

Birth Story Part I

Birth Story Part II

Birth Story Part III

Recovery:
Day 1 - My surgery had been at around 11 a.m., and I was numb until the evening when I started to feel some pain in my abdomen. I stayed in bed and kept on top of my meds. Not being able to eat or drink anything other than ice chips for the entire day was difficult, especially since I had been perpetually thirsty since my second trimester.  Luckily I was passing gas very easily, so I was allowed eat that evening and didn't feel the discomfort I've heard a lot of women experience when the gas backs up.  The whole time I was in the hospital, Mike, my mom, my mother-in-law Gail, and the nurses brought the babies to me for feedings and changed their diapers as needed.

Day 2 - My nurse made me walk to the bathroom first thing in the morning. I needed her help and moved very slowly. The pain was an unpleasant pulling sensation around the incision that forced me to hunch over a bit and made standing and sitting back down difficult. I spent the rest of the day in bed and had to stay on top of my meds because I did feel pain as they wore off. Some nurses asked me if I wanted them when it was time, but most of the time it was up to me to request them. That evening Gail wisely encouraged me to walk around L&D, so Mike took me on a stroll. I had to move slowly but a little faster than I did that morning. I was only able to walk for 5-10 minutes before feeling tired and some pain, but I could tell moving around was helping to loosen that pulling feeling.

Day 3 - Getting out of bed was still tough, but it was easier than the day before, and I took a shower completely unassisted. Changing into my own clothes and doing my hair and make-up helped me feel more comfortable and like myself again. I voluntarily got up to tend to the babies a few times as well, still shuffling slowly.

Day 4 - I felt a lot better walking around and getting up and down. We left the hospital mid-morning.

I continued taking Tylenol-3 and Advil at home.  I didn't take it on a shedule, just when the pain returned, eventually not needing it anymore (two weeks or so).  Bowel movements were really painful, but they got better once I got off the meds.  I also took my prenatal vitamins, DHA, and iron supplements as I had during my pregnancy. My main discomfort once I returned home was from the incision itself which felt like any healing wound but really not that uncomfortable. I kept my clothing loose, rested as much as possible, avoided the stairs to the basement, and didn't lift anything heavier than the babies. The incision was sore for about a month with some occasional twinges of pain in the weeks after that.

I felt really good for the most part, fully able to care for the babies, and was grateful to Mike for being such an involved dad and caring husband, allowing me to get the rest I needed.  Afternoon visits from my mom and Gail in the two weeks after he returned to work helped to ease me into moving even more actively during the day.

Go to Those Notorious First Few Weeks

Stopping Time

I talked to my mom about this when the babies were only days old, how I keep trying to soak up moments but I never feel like they fully absorb.  I breathe in Sophie's sweet milkbreath and cuddle her fuzzy head in my neck, kiss on Michael's cheeks until his gummy smiles tire out, trying to memorize with my senses in a tug of war with time. 

July 4th 2010

Their faces filled in, their legs got longer. Newborn diapers made way for size ones.  The zipper sleepers, snap t-shirts, and flannel blankets they wore in my first memories of motherhood have faded from use and are becoming mementos.

I didn't write down the dates of their first smiles or rolls or giggles.  I delayed in taking pictures documenting each month's progress. I'm not keeping baby books and don't kid myself about starting scrapbooks. But I'm not beating myself up for giving my type A tendencies a rest for these first months. I've chosen to spend my time eliciting the smiles and giggles and embracing growing limbs rather than seeking out measurable details to spell out in ink.  I'm proud of myself for that.

Now that the keepsakes are piling up I do plan to go out this week for decorative boxes where I can store hospital bracelets, touching notecards, envelopes of ultrasound photos, and some clothing.  I might also buy blank journals where I can start listing trivia based on pediatrician print-outs, Facebook status updates, and other breadcrumbs back to the beginning...but only if I find the time during naps.

Eating and sleeping and pooping, oh my!

I'm a schedule person, a teacher with carefully thoughtout lesson plans and back-up plans for when there's extra time or if an activity bombs (and a pretty good sense of when one of those is likely).  I go on vacations having done my research, prepared with efficient but flexible daily itineraries full of well-reviewed restaurants and off-the-beaten-path sights. When Mike and I announced that both Sophie and Michael were on their way, friends and family commented that my love for organization and routine were going to serve us well.

With singletons, parents are encouraged to follow the baby's lead, feed on demand, and never wake the baby from sleep.  For twins, even their pediatrician will encourage you to feed them both when one is hungry, even if that means waking the other.  Otherwise you never get a break and will certainly end up desperately sleep-deprived, divorced, and a tad cuckoo.  Within Sophie and Michael's first days in the hospital, a loose schedule of diaper changes, feeding, and napping developed and repeated every two hours. 

The babies were home for only a week or so when I started wondering if our two-hour cycle needed some enhancing to serve Sophie and Michael better.  Since they were becoming alert, I wondered if I should I try to stimulate them more with singing and chatting instead of aiming for so much sleep.  Were there any habits I should avoid to get us on our way to sleeping through the night (STTN)? 

During Sophie and Michael's naps I found myself on the multiples message board that helped me through my pregnancy.  My immediate concerns and focus had changed from tips for prolonging the pregnancy and relieving discomfort to MoMs discussing daily routines and sleep training.  Many emphasized that crying it out (CIO) isn't the only option out there. (I was surprised to learn that "Ferberizing" is a real thing, thinking it was just something the writers of Modern Family made up.) MoMs often recommended the following books:

Secrets of the Baby Whisperer
Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child
On Becoming Baby Wise

I borrowed these books from the library and found that they shared similar philosophies and encouraged getting started from day one.  I took away the following principles:

1) Babies need lots of sleep for brain development.

2) Sophie and Michael will sleep better at night if they nap regularly during the day.

3) A routine of eating, playing, and napping will help us on our way to STTN.

4) I should watch for subtle signs that Michael and Sophie are getting sleepy while they play.

5) Being awake for more than one or two hours can make them overtired and too upset to nap well.

I took these ideas and structured each day around them, enjoying the somewhat predictable waves of wakeful play and naptime.  Once they started eating every three hours, Sophie and Michael would eat (20 mins), I'd change them (5-10 minutes), and then we'd play until one of them started showing drowsy signs (20-30 minutes).  I'd put them down for naps, and we'd play some more if they woke before the next feeding time.  At that point the cycle started over.

We're currently in a stage of transitioning from feeding every three hours to every four (currently at 3.5) and napping in cribs.  This is to help get them to drop the one feeding left at night, to nap three times a day, and prepare them for napping in cribs at the child care center next month.  Since they're rolling from tummy to back now and are approaching four months old, we're going to have to work on sleeping without Swaddle Me's or Miracle Blankets soon too.  I'll likely detail those changes in upcoming posts!

I tell people when there's spinach between their teeth.

I've decided to let the English teacher loose.  I'm going give anyone who cares to read it a little weekly grammar lesson on a common mistake.  While we all pretend we don't care about errors on FB, in texts or casual emails, you know you feel at least a teensy bit superior to someone when you discover a recurring mistake in their correspondence.  We all make goofs, this English teacher included, and I'm not here to judge.  I just suspect people are less likely to correct your ongoing mix up "your" and "you're" than they are to tell you when there's spinach in your teeth. 

So let's start with that one.

your = it shows possession

Example: Your belly is huge!

35.5 Weeks (two weeks before delivery)

you're = contraction of "you are"

example: You're going to have some cute babies!

Sophie and Michael - 3 weeks old

Photo by Alison Claire Photography 

To check your usage, just try replacing the word with "you are" to see which one fits.

You are belly is huge!

See, it doesn't work, so you have to use "your."

The opposite is the mistake I see most often, using "your" all the time.  If you can replace the word with "you are" then "your" is incorrect.  Watch out for that one!

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She did it!

I finally got to see both babies roll yesterday.  After Michael showed me his new skill in the morning, Sophie did it for the first time that evening.  Mike was making dinner but came out to catch the very last moment of her first roll. 

I also took the babies for a walk around the neighborhood yesterday, the first time without Mike.  I was feeling a little cooped up and also wanted to get a light work-out in, so we braved the heat for about 45 minutes, chatted with a neighbor, and returned home to find these in the mailbox.  They're a little big for Sophie, and the seller offered to make them smaller for her tiny feet, but they're too cute for just one occasion (baptism).  A little room to grow is a good thing.

He did it!

Weirdest thing.  When Mike and I were discussing this week, what meals we'd have on which nights and so on, I told him I had a dentist appointment scheduled for Tuesday.  Turns out, so did he, one hour before mine. 

This actually worked out really well.  Mike went to the dentist right after work, and I brought the babies with me about 30 minutes later.  We knew the whole office would be excited to see the babies, especially the receptionist.  When Mike's appointment was over, he and I traded car keys, he took the babies home, and I got my teeth cleaned.  We couldn't have NOT planned this any better and purposely scheduled our appointments for January the same way.

I called Mike on my way out about what carry-out to bring home, and he told me that while he was playing with the babies, Michael got tired of tummy time.  I knew what he was saying: Michael rolled over for him.  I was happy Mike got to see it before me since he feels like he misses a lot while he's at work.  Still, with all the time I spend caring for the babies, it felt a little unfair not to get that payoff.  First Michael rolls over when I step out of the room, then he does it while I'm at the dentist. What's the deal?

As if he knew how much I wanted to see it myself, Michael rolled over for me this morning...twice!  Mike said his movement was very controlled yesterday, but it appeared almost accidental this morning.  He looked a little disoriented and started crying like, "Why the heck am I on my back now?  Who did this?"

Sophie looked like a little pro at holding her head up this morning and is starting to shift her weight a bit...shouldn't be too long for her now too!

Rollin', rollin', rollin'...watch that baby (almost) rollin'...

On Friday I brought Michael out from the nursery and set him tummy-down on a blanket in the living room.  I went back to the nursery for Sophie, returned, and found Michael smiling up at me...on his back.  This all transpired literally within thirty seconds.  I called Mike to tell him about Michael rolling over and not to feel bad for missing the milestone.  So did I!


Michael hasn't rolled again (and Sophie is still mastering holding her head up), but this is video I filmed right after his magic act.  You can see it's likely to happen again soon.

Wanna hear something cute?

Yesterday Mike was sitting on the loveseat holding Michael, patting his back, getting him to take a nap.  They both fell asleep.  When Mike let out the inevitable snore, Michael giggled in his sleep so heartily that it woke Mike up.  It was one of those moments I wish I just happened to be filming.  You'll just have to trust me that it was freakin' adorable.

Michael has giggled a couple of times consciously, but the ones in his sleep will just melt your heart.  He's such a happy little guy.