Better nights, rough afternoon

We have been very lucky (hope I'm not jinxing anything) that the girls have been sleeping really well for the past few nights.  We are working hard to keep them on a very consistent schedule and it seems to be working.

This afternoon was a rough one though.  The day after we returned from China we brought them to the doctor and they tried hard to draw blood, but were unsuccessful.  That was really hard.  Well, today was our return appointment to try again.  The poor girls knew what was coming when we went into the examination room.

It was brutal.  Lucia went first while I held her.  Since they couldn't find a vein they started going for arteries. It was awful.  After trying a few times the physician gave up.  She was inconsolable.  Stacey took her turn holding Clara who screamed even harder.  Eventually they got it to work for Clara.  Meanwhile I was holding Lucia who had begun to relax.

After getting the sample from Clara, the doctor turned to me and said, "What if we give it one more try with Lucia?"  Stacey and I looked at each other and kind of said yes, but I realized that having watched the procedure with Clara I was getting light-headed.  I said to the doctor that we could give it another try, but I thought I needed a minute.  One of the techs looked at me and started to get worried.  She took Lucia from me in case I had fallen over.  I thank my father for this trait.  Anyway, I wasn't in too bad shape and Clara and I took a break in the waiting area while they did round two with Lucia.

Ironically, Stacey is the one who has the hardest time with anything medical.  Knowing this, after the doctor gave up on Lucia the first time, I offered to hold Clara too since I thought it might be easier for me than for Stacey.  She reminded me later that a few years ago when she was having surgery, and about to go into the operating room, that she asked the surgeon exactly what she would be doing during the procedure.  I nearly passed out that time too.  I guess there is a pattern.

Here is a photo of the girls that I took just before we gave them a bottle tonight before bed.  The bibs came with some outfits we purchased in China.  We thought they were pretty silly when we bought them, but it turns out they have actually worked perfectly for absorbing the overflow from the bottles.  Their vigorous eating can be messy.  If you look carefully, you can see their band aids - poor kids.