first impressions

The boys, evidently, subscribe to the theory that sleep deprivation is an important part of parenthood.  And they wasted no time.  Alla's water broke on the morning of the 6th, taking away our opportunity for the pre-delivery sleep-in.  We gamefully arrived at the hospital, got Alla admitted, and were told some 30 minutes later, that the water break could not be confirmed.  Nor denied.  CIA would be proud.  Fortunately, our OBGYN was in the house and said that we may as well get the boys out earlier.  Delivery started at 10:30 and at 11:01 we were introduced to baby 1, followed by baby 2 at 11:03.  The boys, for their part, clearly stated their opinion of the whole operation by arriving butt-first, both of them.

The rest of the delivery went uneventfully, as did the post-op.  The difference in opinions was evident early, as baby 2 was rather chill throughout the process, while baby 1 was having none of it, and protested loudly.  There is even a difference in feeding styles: baby 1 consumes the food quickly and vigorously, but if he looses interest in the process, he is simply done.  Fortunately, he is mostly interested in both items on his menu.  Baby 2, on the other hand, takes his time - sucks thoughtfully and deliberately, living by the rule "easy does it", or the Russian equivalent "тише едешь - дальше будешь".

Baby 1 also likes travel and extra attention.  To that end he deliberately dropped his body temp by a mere 0.1 C below the threshold (cool 36.5C), which landed him 4 hrs of (OBSERVATION ONLY) in NICU, in the company of several nurses.  Following the observation, the ladies figured out the ruse and sent the young player unceremoniously back to his brother.

At the moment they are both happily snoozing, having consumed some milk from mom, some formula from the bottle, and pretty much all the sleep from both of us.