Two Completely Different Personalities

While Drake and Leo are identical twins, they have completely different personalities. Drake is the more calm of the two, while Leo is a little fireball.

The differences in their personalities became obvious fairly early in my pregnancy. I felt Leo move weeks before I felt Drake move, even though Drake was quite a bit larger than Leo. After they were born, Leo was doing gymnastics in his little isolette, sticking his little butt up in the air, yanking tubes and wires off with his little fingers and toes, and moving his little legs as if he were riding a bicycle. The little dynamo has been in constant motion during every waking second since his birth! Drake, on the other hand, has always been happy to quietly watch the world around him while he luxuriously stretches his limbs.

Now that they are bigger, we have noticed a huge disparity in their temperaments. When Leo is angry, he wails and hollers to let the whole world know that he has been wronged. It is amazing how much noise a 3 pound baby can make when he is mad! When something upsets Drake, he quietly whines and squeaks, and he doesn't make nearly as much noise as his brother. Drake has thrown loud tantrums, don't get me wrong, but it takes a heck of a lot to eke one out of him.

The babies react completely differently to having full bellies. Drake goes into a deep sleep when his tummy is full, while he makes content meerkat noises. In this picture, Drake is laying on my lap, getting some back rubs.


When Leo has a full belly, he becomes very alert, looking around to take in everything about the world around him. He eventually falls asleep (and makes meerkat noises like his brother), but not until he has completely surveyed his surroundings, wiggled around quite a bit, and ensured that he isn't missing anything exciting. In this picture, Leo is staring at his daddy.


It will be interesting to see how their personalities develop as they grow up. I have a feeling that one of them will be a mastermind who sends the other out to do his dirty work to stir up trouble.

Even though the boys have completely different personalities when they are awake, they both coo during their sleep, and they hold their little bodies in the same manner.


In the photo of Leo, the tube going into his mouth is his feeding tube. He is still getting most of his feedings by gavage (the medical term for the tube). We're waiting for him to get bigger before we start feeding him more bottles, because nippling still wears him out too much. Despite his small size, Leo is great at bottle feeding, in that he coordinates the sucking, breathing and swallowing well, but it requires calories that he would otherwise put towards growing and gaining weight.

Leo had a big weight gain day yesterday, putting on over an ounce and one half. He now weighs 3 lb 4.8 oz. Drake about an ounce yesterday, putting him at 4lb 13.3 oz. Leo is down to having two preemie spells (apnea and/or bradychardia) a day, down from one or more an hour. Drake's last spell was about two days ago. The boys are both doing very well, and they become a little less tiny every day.

Please forgive the poor quality of some of the photos in this blog. The lights are kept dim in the NICU most of the time because bright lights are irritating to little preemie eyes, and we do not use the flash on our camera for the same reason.