The first few days were the roughest and blurriest. Thank goodness I was in the hospital for those days and could see them whenever I wanted. We had a large influx of family and friends coming to see the babies. I spent as much time in the NICU with them as possible but would also have to go back and forth to see the visitors that were coming by. I was incredibly exhausted. Grayson was hooked up to so many wires. He had a feeding tube and a breathing tube. We weren't able to hold him for the first three days of his life. That saddened me the most. Avery was doing much better. She was hooked up to monitors but did not have the breathing tube or feeding tube. I was able to breastfeed her on day 2 and we were able to hold her immediately. The babies were in side by side rooms with a door adjoining the two. That made it so much easier to spend the time back and forth with the two of them.
I was incredibly emotional on the third day when Grayson was finally stable enough for Kevin and I to hold him. I think we both had tears of joy and sadness for what that poor little boy had to go through. He just looked so much weaker than his sister. We were told that white males always came into the NICU a little behind the others and Grayson proved this true. On his 5th day he was finally strong enough to have his feeding tube removed and I was able to see if he would breastfeed. My little fighter was definitely a strong feeder. He latched right on and fed like a champ. At this point I was feeding the babies separately because Grayson was still hooked up to other things that prevented me from feeding them together. Due to feeding every three hours (from the start time) I was pretty much feeding Avery, feeding Grayson and then heading up to my room to pump and back down to start all over again. I'm not really sure I got much if any sleep the first few days. It was a holiday weekend so on Tuesday the guests slowed down a little. On Wednesday I was discharged which I was dreading. Even though the babies weren't in the same room with me it was so much easier to go from my room to theirs within the hospital. I cried when I got discharged knowing I wasn't going to be able to take the babies home with me that night. So- I took my stuff and posted up in the room for the rest of the day until I had to go home that night. They wouldn't let you sleep in the NICU. The next morning my mom took me bright and early back to their room where I spent all day until I had to go home again to sleep a little. I repeated this cycle the entire time they were in the NICU. My mom was there to help that first week bringing me back and forth, getting me food, doing laundry etc.
The following Monday February 27th my mom was leaving and Kevin's mom Kay was arriving. On that same day the babies were doing so well they moved us from the NICU to the step down NICU. This was more of a hospital room where the babies could be in the same room...thank goodness. This made it so much easier on me when feeding. I was also able to spend the night with them :) I was one happy mama. At this point the babies were off of most of their monitors and were working hard to regulate their temperature. Every time we took them out of the isolette we had to take their temperature. If they were 97 or above two consecutive times their isolette temps could drop. We were slowly working their isolette temps down to 27 degrees Celsius. This seemed to take FOREVER. Once they reached that temp they could go into an open crib. If they held their temperature for 24 hours in the open crib that meant we got to go home. I was told not to get too excited because some babies have a hard time with that and have to go back into the isolette. On Wednesday night February 29th Avery's isolette temp made it to 27. She was able to go into an open crib :) I decided to go home and rest that night since she could be coming home soon and I knew I would need to try and get some good rest. Kevin was in Richmond for work so I told him to come on home to prepare to at least bring our baby girl home. The next morning I arrived back at the NICU to find that Grayson had caught up to his sister and made it to an isolette temp of 27. He was moving to an open crib as well! Now were were praying they regulated their temperatures in the open crib and would be able to go home the next day. Sure enough my little super stars did so well and we received the good news that they were going home TOGETHER on Friday March 2nd. We couldn't be more excited. Kevin's mom met us at the hospital to take pictures and soon enough around 3 that afternoon we were headed home. It was such a special moment for our little family.
We drove home (extremely carefully and slowly). As we arrived at the house we saw two HUGE storks that Kevin's Aunt Rose and Uncle Shawn had delivered for the arrival of the babies. I loved it...Kevin thought it was tacky but loved it too haha. Kevin's mom and Aunt Rose were at the house to take pictures of us coming home and settling in. They stayed about 30 minutes and then left us to settle in as our new family of 4! We were over the moon in love and happy. I think we all 4 (and Ellie) settled onto the couch and took a nice nap!
No comments:
Post a Comment