stranger than fiction

I am writing this entry late, because this is weird enough to share at this hour.

We left the girls at 4:30 pm this afternoon to do some errands. Today was really the first day we got to see Ava's face, because of all the CPAP equipment. We noticed that the two girls shared some commonalities, such as eye color (brown) and a somewhat similar nose (unfortunately for them, like their loving father had when he was a lad), but that was about it, other than them sharing a striking cuteness factor. Needless to say, we could tell them apart. Ava was slightly heavier in the cheeks, her coloring was different, and her hair was slightly lighter.

Today was also the first day they were put in the same crib.

When we returned from our errands at 7:30 pm, I thought the nurses were playing a trick on me, because Harper was laying in Ava's spot. They assured me that no, they had not moved the girls, because in order for them to keep them straight, they always keep the babies on the same side of the crib. As you face them from above, Ava is on the right, and Harper is on the left. What I saw when we returned was that Harper was in Ava's spot, or so I thought.

It turns out that while we were gone, Ava somehow changed into Harper's image. It was one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. I was slightly dumbfounded, so much so that the nurse mocked me for being a weirdo. Not the first time someone has leveled that charge at me.

So, I took some pictures. You should notice a difference between the girls in the first pictures (reverse order, though), the differences are fairly obvious. Afterward, they seem like identical twins.

To end the evening, Kelly and I got to lay with the girls on our chests, as we have been fortunate to do for the past few days, if only for an hour a day or so. When we finished at around 11, the nurse placed the girls in the crib facing one another. They STARED, even though we know their eyes don't focus properly, if at all. The nurse then moved them from the ward they were in to a new one farther away that is set up for improving preemies, like ours.

When they got to their new destination, they had both started sucking on their hands. Neither of them had done so up to this point. Not only that, but they had the exact same fingers in their mouths, and would not take them out. They looked like a mirror image of each other.

I know this is probably some temporary phenomenon, but it was WEIRD.

I also like the picture where Harper is whispering something to Ava. There will likely be much more of that in the future.