Premature Twins, 3 Months in the Ronald McDonald House & more with Paul Gewuerz – Podcast 275

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Episode 275 of the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Show Notes

Today we continue our father of twins interview series with Paul Gewuerz, father of twin boys. Listen as we explore his twin parenting journey, including:

• Ultrasound surprise of twins after thinking they had miscarriage
• Visiting with a high risk specialist. One baby not growing as fast as other
• Weekly ultrasounds to determine what was going on with Baby A
• At 24 weeks, had to go across state to get MRI so see what was wrong with baby.
• Babies had IUGR
• Checked in at hospital so Mom could be monitored three times a day
• Handling work and insurance when they had to go to hospital
• Dad’s experience during the twin birth at 30 weeks
• Babies were in NICU right away with Baby B intubated for oxygen
• Lived in Ronald McDonald house while twins in NICU for about 3 months
• One baby out of NICU for month before his brother
• Crawling and vocal at this point
• Twins interacting with each other and playing together

Connect with Paul via email.

Get a free month of Paul’s Movement and Meals newsletter here: https://movementandmeals.substack.com/twindad

Podcast Transcript

This is auto-generated so please forgive any mistakes.

Joe 0:36
Today, we’re continuing discussion with another twin dad who shares his experience. From the time they found out they were having twins up to now with their 11 month old twin boys, and they’ve had some crazy ups and downs, getting the boys here healthy into this point of the journey. Plus this twin dad came up with a very clever system to help make sure he’s managing his time with exercise and food wisely. And he shares a resource with you towards the end of the podcast. So stay tuned for that. Today, I would like to welcome to the show fellow father of twins, Paul Gewuerz. Welcome to the show, Paul.

Paul 1:15
Thanks for having me, Joe.

Joe 1:16
Paul, how old are your twins right now. And what’s something exciting about this age?

Paul 1:22
The boys are 11 months and two days old. And I guess an exciting part right now is one of our boys has been slightly behind developmentally than the other one. And they’ve he’s kind of caught up. And they’re kind of in the same phase now. So they’re just playing together so much more laughing at each other. And just, it’s just really hilarious to watch and interact with them both my wife and I with them also. It’s been pretty fun lately.

Joe 1:52
Yeah, that is fun when they have you know, they start interacting with each other and with you, and they’re smiling and playing. It’s not so funny that you ever know 11 months. Let’s rewind back to when you found out that you’d be having twins. What was your family situation like at that time?

Paul 2:08
Just my wife and I and our dog. We had no prior children. And we had been planning on having a baby for a while. So you know, we were kind of caught off guard when they were when we found out it was twins. Actually, there’s a bit of a story behind that when we first found out they were twins. We were actually visiting my wife’s mother who had been diagnosed with lung cancer last the beginning of last year. And you know, we were she was kind of starting to deteriorate a little bit, go downhill with her illness. And we had just found out that we were pregnant, and we’re up visiting her in Montana. And the last night before we left if it wasn’t emotional enough already, you know, us leaving. My wife started having, you know, some issues and we were convinced that we had had a miscarriage and we were pretty much devastated. We didn’t tell anybody obviously, we hadn’t even told anybody we were pregnant. And you know, we got on a plane the next day just convinced we lost the pregnancy, flew back had a layover, a long day of traveling, got back to our hometown and decided to get to the hospital, you know, to get an ultrasound. And we’d been you know, in airplanes and lay overs all day, pretty depressed about the situation. And we got in there, you know to verify and she goes, Okay, are you ready? The ultrasound tech? And like okay, yeah, just go ahead and our head heads hung low. She goes, there’s one and two. And the reaction I believe my wife’s reaction was just seriously that she kind of blurted that out in the ultrasound room, and then we both just kind of started laughing. It was just such an absurd thing to learn. And, you know, it kind of went from a very low low to A shocking new reality that we had to adjust to and then you know, once we kind of got it in our heads that it was twins, we started getting really excited about the the, the adventure ahead.

Joe 4:14
Yeah, that is quite the swing of emotions there. Just 24 hours it would seem. So the twins were a huge surprise for you. So what were some of the things that you decided to do right away when you found out that you were pregnant with the boys?

Paul 4:30
Nesting, I guess, you know, trying to prepare a nursery and everything reading up on, you know, first time parents stuff, twin stuff in particular, you know, finding out where to get to have everything. And also at that time, this is the beginning of 2021 Spring 2021 We had just gotten married the year before, during, you know 20 The summer of 2020. We had a small ceremony with just immediate family so Also, during all of this, we were also preparing our bigger wedding ceremony that we’d already paid for pretty much. And that was actually the Friday after. The story I just told a minute ago was on a Monday when we found out it was twins. And then our big wedding ceremony was that Friday, and we couldn’t share any of this with anyone because it was still pretty early on. So we were also, you know, finished putting the finishing touches on our big wedding ceremony, which, by the way, went off without a hitch. And it was a big, fun party for everyone involved. But yeah, you know, overall, probably normal. First time parents stuff, being shocked, we had to get to have everything and just, you know, getting our house ready for two babies.

Joe 5:41
So how did your wife do with the pregnancy? Or does she have any complications?

Paul 5:44
Pretty typical, she felt not great at first, you know, just couldn’t keep a lot of foods down. You know, some issues with that, you know, after the first trimester or so she started feeling better. And she started looking pregnant, you know. So I should also mention in our story, it’s sort of a bit of a downer, sometimes, shortly after the wedding. And we found out, we actually my wife’s mother actually passed away from her brief battle with cancer, which was very traumatic time, the silver lining there, we were able to tell her before she passed, we were having twins. And the look on her face, you know, I will never forget that she had had twins. My wife’s older siblings are boy girl, fraternal twins. And so we were able to, you know, tell her that and it was, and we told the rest of the family at that time also after her passing. So it was a nice little kind of glimmer of hope, and, you know, life in a dark time, to, you know, just share with the family. Anyway, shortly after that the pregnancy was going pretty well. In August, my wife had had some previous medical issues, nothing too serious. But we’re and with the twins, we were going to maternal fetal fetal medicine, that maternal fetal medicine, kind of a high risk specialists. And they started getting a little concerned in August, that one of the babies was just not growing very well, which was kind of concerning, and they just wanted to keep an eye on it. So we had to start going to get ultrasounds every week or two, I believe, for that month, the very end of August, we went in and you know, the baby had not grown at all really, and they were very concerned at that point. They didn’t know what it was they, they were concerned, it could be a genetic issue with the baby, or, you know, some other problem along those lines, it was very scary. We found all this out the day before our babymoon to Chicago to try. So you know, we tried to enjoy that. But you know, it was kind of weighing heavy on our minds. Going forward from there. We had to start going to get an ultrasound about every week to kind of really figure out what was going on with Baby A. All through August, September. And, you know, they still couldn’t find out much the baby wasn’t growing that much. The other baby was also small, but not considerably for, you know, twins. Finally, we wound up we’re on the western side of Colorado. With guidance from our doctor, we headed out to Denver on the other side of the state to the Children’s Hospital, to have an MRI of my wife to see exactly, they can see much better detail in MRI, what was going on with the baby. So we went out there, you know, we did that that wasn’t a very fun experience for my wife either being uncomfortably pregnant in a tiny MRI tube. If anyone’s ever done that. They know how that goes. But we had a consult with their team of specialists after that. And the good news, I guess was there were no like genetic issues or anything along those lines. What most of the doctors from what they could tell was that it was just a case of IUGR, which is intrauterine growth restriction. So basically, the baby’s placenta had not attached correctly, so he just wasn’t getting good blood flow and nutrients. You know, and that’s just why he wasn’t growing enough and keeping up with his brother. At the time, I think we were at 24 weeks of pregnancy, and they you know, they basically told us, you know, at this stage, we’re not going to be able to save these babies, if they have to come out they’re just not developed enough or they would highly recommend against it. And the other thing to keep in mind is you can’t take one baby out, they’re both gonna have to come out if they have to go in for a C section. So you know, this was just kind of absorbing all this and they said, you know, if we make You make it to, I can’t remember, I think it was 25 weeks, they have a much better chance the lungs develop better and everything if they have to come out by emergency C section. So, you know, we kind of waited and you know, hoped and prayed and kept going to see the MFM doctor’s for ultrasounds, and the baby’s blood flow just kept hanging in there, it wasn’t great, but you know, he made it. And we finally got to that date. And we said, Okay, at this points, we will, as they say, intervene, if the baby starts trending down and take them both out to give baby a chance,

Joe 10:36
just point you didn’t, your wife didn’t have any preterm labor or anything like that. It was all based on the progress that the boys were making, right?

Paul 10:43
This exactly, it was just based on their progress, basically. And she had, she had almost zero issues throughout the pregnancy, she, you know, after the first trimester, so she felt pretty great. She was fine. When we finally talked to the doctors, and they said, you know, we’re gonna have to monitor this baby about three times a day, to check on the heart rates. And you can either check into the hospital three times a day, or just, you know, check in and live in the hospital, which is what we finally wound up doing. And we checked in in the beginning of November 2021. And basically lived in the hospital, my wife, my wife was monitored three times a day to watch baby’s heart rates. So that’s kind of how the tail end of the pregnancy went.

Joe 11:25
Was it still at the hospital far from home? Or was it still in your hometown?

Paul 11:28
Yes, yes. So we left our home on my wife’s birthday, just before Halloween last year. And you know, for we didn’t know what laid ahead, we went across the Rocky Mountains, I, we came from Denver before. So we had family there, my family’s there, that’s where the dog stayed. And my wife checked into the Children’s Hospital in Denver, and I basically slept on the couch in the room, whether, yeah, and we just went forward from there. It’s just a much, it’s a much larger hospital with better, you know, resources and doctors than where we were in a more rural setting on the western side of the state.

Joe 12:05
How did you handle work commitments or commitments back home, when you have to head out to Denver.

Paul 12:11
So fortunately, I am self employed, and I work from home. So I’m as flexible as I need to be my wife. My wife job was great. They she’s highly valued. They’re, you know, she was a team leader. And they worked with us a lot with her, you know, trying to work from the hospital and everything it turned out to be like, it was, we thought she’d be able to get, you know, a decent amount of work done. It was just impossible with the amount of medical nurses coming in and out constantly, her being monitored for an hour, three times a day. And but they were great. And they worked with us. And you know, let her keep her job, basically, and keep that income coming in and, and keep our insurance, which was very fortunate at the time.

Joe 12:59
Yeah, how was insurance situation? Was it helping to cover this extensive care she needed?

Paul 13:04
Yes, actually, that actually went pretty smoothly. I was a little worried going into it, but she had pretty good insurance through her employer. And we didn’t have to worry a whole lot about that. We were very fortunate in that aspect of the whole ordeal.

Joe 13:20
That’s great. How long was she in the hospital, I mean, monitored before the boys needed to be born.

Paul 13:27
So we checked in in the beginning, I believe, November 4, the beginning of November, coming up on a year ago. And it was wound up being a little over three weeks that she was in there. We’d gotten to a point where we had set a date in December to take the boys out at I believe 32 Weeks was what we were shooting for. We had a scheduled C section. What wound up happening was on the 22nd, she was doing her daily monitoring. And the doctor came in and you know, which wasn’t uncommon. And he said, You know, I don’t really like the way the baby’s heart rate is trending. We’re just gonna keep a closer eye on it today. And throughout the afternoon, we started seeing more people coming in and normal and you know, kind of raised our awareness to the situation. And then finally, the anesthesiologist came in to ask my wife if she had any allergies. And we’re like, Well, this is new. We haven’t met any anesthesiologist before. And that’s when the doctor came in. This is about 4:30pm. And he said, Look, the baby started trending the wrong way his heart rates. We’re gonna have these babies out at 530 in an hour. And that was about the forewarning. We had my my mom had been down. Have lunch with us earlier in the day and going on a walk with us. And I called her and I said the babies are coming and she she was on the way home about 45 minutes away and was at the grocery store and she actually wound up just leave Getting her full grocery cart and turning around and coming back to the hospital. And that’s kind of how that all went down. But to your original question, we were there for about three weeks before that whole ordeal before the day that they were born.

Joe 15:13
So the boys made it to about 30 weeks.

Paul 15:17
They made it to 3030 weeks. Yes.

Joe 15:19
Okay, so yeah, the anesthesiologist should probably should have been the right order. The doctor should have told you about that first, but the anesthesiologist don’t mess around, right? They they want all the deets about you and mom and babies to make sure everything goes smoothly. So

Paul 15:35
yes, and he was actually great. He was a very calming presence in the, you know, emergency C section room, the anesthesiologist, we appreciated that a lot. Yes,

Joe 15:46
yeah. When my wife had her C section, I was sitting up by her head and the anesthesiologist was like, right next to me. And my wife said, so he was he was like the only doctor I can actually talk to during delivery because the OBGYN was on the other side of the curtain doing doing her thing. So tell us a little bit about the birth of your boys. You know, what was the experience like for you? How did you How were you able to participate?

Paul 16:10
So like I said, in store before, I’d have my mom come around, I also called my wife sister who lived about three hours away and said, you know, these babies are coming. So she was on the way. At that point, my wife was being prepped for surgery. I got in, you know, my cool scrubs and feet covers and hat and everything. And they took us down to the operating room. And they said here, you wait in this room, and we will come get you in about 10 minutes when we’re ready. And they took her into a room with about 20 people and bright lights. Well, I sat across the hallway and it was I if I had had a blood pressure cuff on, I don’t know what it would have been for those 10 minutes, but it felt more like an hour and a half than 10 minutes. Finally, you know, they got her prepped and they brought me in and it was just like you said I was sitting with my wife who was actually shockingly calm. She was in a very Zen state. And I me and her and the anesthesiologist were there and there were two of these specialist Dobies on the other side of the curtain. And they said, you know they got started. Baby A, the tiny one came out first. The tiniest little cry. And we weren’t even worried they were so tiny. And so early. We didn’t even expect him to cry. It was kind of shocking. Both of us we kind of couldn’t believe it. And, you know, they let me see him. And then they took baby be out. It was also tiny, but not quite as tidy. And he was also crying. And I got to see him over the curtain. At that point, they took me there was like a separate room kind of connected to the main surgical surgical room with some ventilators and they had basically an entire crew for each baby, because they were so small. So they took me over there to see them. And while there’s a crew, about five people checking on them and everything, and they seem to be doing pretty well. They’re breathing on their own, they were so tiny, and everything. Then I went back to my wife, you know, they started finishing that process, stitching her up and everything and I stayed with her. It’s a whole little fuzzy, you know, it’s a kind of crazy experience all this especially with like so little warning of it happening about an hour’s notice. At some point, they took my wife back to the room, and I went with the babies down to the NICU, which was on the other side of the hall we were on. And I stayed with them for a while they stabilized. There’s a lot going on. They’re really tiny that a lot of stuff on and fine when I you know they were stable and good. I went back to my wife who was still recovering from surgery down there and kind of spent the afternoon going back and forth. between her and the babies before she was finally cleared to head down to meet them also. But that time was about midnight, by the time we had seen them. She had met them and we got to you know, get some sleep, get some rest and get some food for my wife.

Joe 19:03
Did she get to see them or hold them or touch them at all in the operating room.

Paul 19:08
They lifted one of Baby B was less of a concern over the like the curtain to see. So she did see them briefly. And then she didn’t get to see them again until a few hours later when I was able to take her in that wheelchair down there to meet him and then we were able to kind of hang out they each had their own rooms at that point in the NICU. You know, just to really watch them and everything. And actually, I forgot to mention baby bee that first night who was less of a concern he actually wound up having to be intubated and had a breathing you know apparatus put down as his little nose. So he actually had a little rougher time right at the get go. But that came out pretty shortly after But in answer your question, yeah, my wife. She got to see them briefly and then a few hours later, and then the following days we were able to you know spend a lot more time with them.

Joe 19:59
He meant No, they were really small. How big were they?

Paul 20:02
So Baby B. Levi, the big one was two pounds, 13 ounces. And Max Baby A was one pound 10 ounces. When he was born, they were so tiny, they could easily they’re kinda like I describe it as one of the kind of skinny water bottles that you get that was about like the shape and size of them.

Joe 20:24
So your boys are born there in the NICU, it seems like they’re stable. What were some of the challenges in the NICU, some things that they had to overcome before they could be ready to come home.

Paul 20:35
So first of all, they were so tiny and so premature as we knew it was going to be a while. So my wife got to stay in the room. We were originally in for two or three days. And then we were released. And we checked into the Ronald McDonald House, which is if anybody doesn’t know it’s a charity for, it’s basically a free place to stay for people with kids in the children’s hospital. It’s a glorified hotel room, and it’s about a mile from the hospital. So we were staying there and bouncing back and forth to the NICU several times a day. So they were born November 22, leave I was staying in stayed in until late January. And Max stayed until the day before my birthday. So February 21, so about three months, all in all, in the NICU. And it was, you know, in hindsight, it’s everything turned out, okay. But they even warned us going into the NICU life, they’re like, this is gonna be a roller coaster, you know, and as soon as you’re like, Okay, smooth sailing, everything’s fine, there’d be another scare or concern. Max, the tiny baby actually wound up having to get an infection around Christmas time, and even had to get like a spinal tap to make sure it hadn’t spread. And you know, they’re very scary moments like that. And then concerns like, Oh, we don’t like his kidney function, or this and that, and most of the things resolved, but it’s, it is a roller coaster. My advice for anybody facing along NICU stay is just strap in, and, you know, stay engaged with the doctors and, you know, they’re very experienced at, you know, getting your baby out healthy and, you know, in a good place. But you know, it was a wild time in life to be living in there. Another challenge with the NICU was Levi got out in late January. And we had him just one baby that we took back and forth to Ronald McDonald house every day for about a month. And that was an extremely challenging time, because it was our first time with a baby on our own. We take him to the NICU everyday and put them back, they left the left that crib in there for him. And then we take him back to the Ronald McDonald House, which is just a hotel room, and, you know, try and sleep there. So we wound up doing shifts early on there. But you know, unlike a house, you can’t even take the baby to the next room or anything. If one person is trying to sleep, we’re just in this small space with our tiny baby, you know, trying to comfort him and feed him and everything. So it was an interesting learning experience for first time parents. Then when Max did get out in February, we were able to you know, they’re mostly healthy. Max was on oxygen when he was released. That’s just because he was so small, they wanted him to you know, not spend calories trying to breathe. And we’re also in Colorado, so our home is at 6000 feet, altitude. So it’s actually a pretty common thing for smaller babies. And that was kind of, you know, our trip through the NICU. I could, I’m sure I could tell plenty of stories and take up all your time all day. But that that’s a rough overview of you know, our experience there.

Joe 23:49
So just like a typical day in the NICU for you. How did you kind of schedule your time in the NICU or out of the NICU with with your son who had already made it out?

Paul 24:02
So once Levi got out, we would both wake up about I started remember now that’s six or seven with the baby six I believe because we would get tried to get all three of us to the hospital by I believe eight was cares when we got the you know, change Max’s diaper and rounds would come around to talk to the doctors and all the nurses and see you know, the kind of game plan and when it changed, we’d sometimes take turns heading back to the Ronald McDonald House to try and get a nap or you know, run short, you know, get food. Any chores that had to be done. And then one of us would take, we would both head back with Levi, before dinnertime, back to the Ronald McDonald House, spent a little time there trying to get him down to sleep. And then every other day one of us would go back to see Max at about 7pm for the nighttime cares And, you know, just spend time with him read to hold him. And finally head back around 930 or 10 to try and get some sleep. And, you know, that was every day for about three months, you know, seven days a week. And that was, yeah, I would say that’s a typical day in the life. I should also mention, actually, now that I think of it, that, you know, this is 2021. And it was still COVID protocols with a lot of these places. So we weren’t allowed, it was only US allowed in the hospital with the babies. And we weren’t allowed anybody in the Ronald McDonald House either, which was an added challenge the you know, my mom or somebody couldn’t come and just help us with the baby for a while, it was basically just us and the NICU nurses with the babies for pretty much the duration.

Joe 25:50
So you’d actually get released and get to go home. I know, I was nervous driving from the hospital to my house. And that was like a five minute drive. So tell us about that. Getting the money back home from Denver back to the other side of the state.

Paul 26:02
Yeah, it was, it was an adventure, we. So we first took the babies to my parents house, which was about 45 minutes up into the mountains from where we had been staying. And we stayed there. I think for just a night, it may have been two nights kind of fuzzy now, in preparation to drive for the big drive, which it’s about a five or six hour drive from their house, to our house. So we prepped and the weather was pretty good, which was fortunate. And we drove over the Rocky Mountains over I-70. In February, like I said, luckily, it was good weather, we didn’t have much snow or anything, we actually stopped to feed the babies because they were eating every three hours. I think at that point in a think it was a Wendy’s on the side of the highway. And I should mention my mom actually came with us to stay with us for a bit. So she was helping, which was a huge help. We made it back that normal five hour drive is more like seven hours, probably seven or eight, we got home to our house. And and this is the real kicker of our ordeal we got home, we’ve been looking forward to it for months after making the drive, you know, and we got into the house turn the heater up because it hadn’t had it set a little low over the winter of since we weren’t there. And we start noticing just mouse droppings everywhere in our house. And I kind of looked around. And I mean, our house had become infested with mice of 100 year old house and we were gone for you know, months, and they’d found a warm place. And I mean, I can’t explain how we were about this. We’re terrified of you know, the mouse droppings in the house. And we wanted to tagging the boys back up after our big seven or eight hour drive and checking into a daze in at about 9pm where we had to spend the nights. And we actually then wound up having to stay with my very gracious friends who live in town here. And they let us stay with them for about a week while my wife took shifts coming to the house to completely rip our house apart, clean everything up set mousetraps and you know, put it all back together. So it was an added week after that before we were finally settled in to the house. So that was a bit of an extended answer on just to drive home. But I just that was just the cherry on top of the whole ordeal.

Joe 28:28
Life wasn’t as crazy, you know, just with twins. So you have to throw in an extra extra level challenge. Wow. So you get the boys home, you’re getting back into your routine. How did things go with like a sleep routine and feeding were able to was wife breastfeeding, and we formula feeding what was working for you.

Paul 28:48
She was not breastfeeding. But she was pumping and we were feeding them almost entirely breast milk. One fortunate thing of the whole ordeal was my wife found that being a great milk producer. So we just recently actually started getting him on on to mostly formula just now. The routine The nice thing about being in the NICU for so long was they were kind of automatically sleep trained. It was such a military schedule in there. So that wasn’t too much of a challenge. You know, they slept pretty regularly. As any twin dad or twin parent can tell you the first couple of months are basically a blur. There was not much sleep. And I’m sure you know the struggle just not a lot of sleep. Dealing with the babies all the time. We were fortunate to have my mom there at first and then Aaron’s father and just family helped out a lot. But yeah, the routine worked itself out eventually it got easier after a few months. But you know, it’s still kind of a blur those first few months at home with the boys.

Joe 29:47
So now that they’re about 11 months, what are some of the milestones they’ve reached at this point?

Paul 29:53
Um, you know, they’re both crawling a lot. They both are very vocal. They like to speak their minds. I don’t know what They’re saying yet, they’ve recently both started standing on things and even walking, you know, with their arm on something lately, we’ve been feeding them a lot. One of them has really taken to food. He loves it, Levi. Max is not so sure that you really liked orange foods I’ve noticed butternut squash, carrots, oranges. Those are two big ones that we’ve had recently. And they’re both starting to sleep a lot more now, which is amazing. You know, Levi has slept through the night, I think four times this week, and I think Max twice. So we’re now taking shifts of who gets up in the night. So we each gets, hopefully an undisturbed night of sleep every other night. And that is an absolute game changer lately.

Joe
Oh, yes. Yeah. Oh yeah. Sleep is, uh, you don’t know how much you, you need it until it’s not there. So yes. I’m glad you’re getting in. Good, good routine there. Have there been any lingering health issues or size differences between your boys?

Paul
Um, so when they were born, like I said, they were about a pound apart, two pounds, 13 ounces and one pound, 10 ounces. And they have stayed one pound apart. Like to this day, um, I think Levi’s about 14 and a half, and max is about 13 and a half pounds. So other than just being tiny, they don’t have many health issues.

They’re pretty healthy. Um, Max was on oxygen for a bit that came off about a month or two after we got home. Actually, uh, max is on thyroid medication. Uh, there was something in the NICU that came up. Uh, his thyroid was hypothyroidism, so it was underactive, which I’m glad they caught cuz it’s very easily treatable.

So he takes a little pill every day. Um, but hopefully he may be able to come off of that in the next six months or so. But other than that, pretty healthy little guys. That’s. That’s the only real issue, which isn’t a huge deal. So Paul, thank you for sharing your story with us so far. If, if listers want to reach out and connect with you, um, what’s the best way to do?

So you can email me anytime. My email is paulGewuerz at gmail.com. Uh, I’d also like to share through this whole ordeal as you or any twin parent knows. Systems are absolute key. And one thing my wife Act and I started doing, which we’ve done before, but it’s much more important now with the twin.

Is scheduling out all of our exercises and meal planning. Um, and I actually turned that into a newsletter called Movement and Meals on the sub stack platform. So it, you basically receive a equipment free quick workout and a dinner plan and grocery list every day of the week. And that’s been huge for staying somewhat healthy.

And uh, so if anybody wants to check that out, it’s movement and meals dot sub stack.com. And , like I said before, those first few months are an absolute blur. Any twin parents out out there in the throws of newborn, preemie or uh, twin babyhood, uh, I’d love to offer ’em a free month of the newsletter. So just go to https://movementandmeals.substack.com/twindad

I’d love to offer a free month to anybody out there listening cause it would’ve been much needed for us at the time. I know.

Joe
Well thank you for that offer. Yeah, and I’ll, for all the listeners, I’ll link up to that in the show notes for this episode so you can check out that newsletter and get your free month because we all need a little bit of help in those early, early weeks and months with twins.

Paul
For sure.

Joe
So Paul, thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. We really appreciate.

Paul
Thank you for having me on, Joe. It was a pleasure.

Joe
Hope you enjoyed that conversation with Paul about his adventures as a father of twins. How they miraculously made it through some challenges, uh, with the health of their boys, uh, with premature delivery, lots of time in the nicu, how they survived being so far away from home, and how they’ve gotten into a good routine from then on out.

Again, I’ll link up to the resource that Paul mentioned in the show notes for this episode over at twindadpodcast.com. If you’d like to share your story like Paul did today, I would love to hear from you. You can reach out to me via email, [email protected], or you can reach out to me on Instagram or Twitter @twindadjoe, and I would love to hear from you.

If you’re still expecting twins, make sure you check out my book, Dad’s Guide to Twins: How to Survive The Twin Pregnancy and Prepare for Your Twins. You can get a copy of this book for yourself over at twindadbook.com.

Thank you so much for listening, and I’ll see you next time.

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