3 days in the NICU

So, I left off at a pretty traumatizing part of the twins' birth story (stories? I guess they each had their own...). I hadn't really seen them the first 6 hours of their lives and the first time I did see them, I was throwing up and pretty out of it. After I held them for a little bit, I decided I needed to go upstairs and rest. Josh came back and forth giving me updates and I got as much sleep as I could. By 8:00, I was ready to go back and ready to stay a while. I was still wheeled down to the nicu because I was still attached to tubes and iv's, but I didn't care. I wanted to see my girls. I was able to hold each of them for a lot longer this time and felt a million times better. No throwing up, no shaking and I was actually coherent.

The next few days were painful. I wanted to spend as much time with the babies as I could, so I was hardly ever in my room. This proved to be a problem for my nurses because they never knew where I was to give me my meals and medicine. I didn't mind not eating so much, but if I left a 15 minutes gap between medicine taking time, I wanted to die. I think there are two keys to a successful c-section recovery. 1. get up and move as soon as possible and 2. stay on top of your meds. I didn't have a problem at all with #1 because my babies weren't able to be in my room, so I had to get up and see them, but I had a few tricky gaps between doses on my meds a few times and I thought I was going to die. I started to get smart about it though and would go upstairs a half hour before I knew my nurses would come so I would be able to get the pills exactly on time. Yep. I was a total druggie. But really, I didn't expect my recovery to go as well as it did. Even after we all got home, I only took pain medicine for a few days. I REALLY think that moving around so much helped me recover quicker. My nurse even said that c-section moms with babies in the nicu usually recover weeks faster than moms with their babies in their rooms because they have a reason to get out of bed. So, if any of you end up having a c-section(s), do yourself a favor and walk. Even if it hurts like *@$! (which it will) do it. Honestly though, it wasn't half as bad as I expected and I'm actually toying around with the idea of just opting for c-sections for my next kid (don't worry, that wont happen for a loooong time) because my body handled it so well and I know exactly what to expect. Like I said though, that's WAY down the road and I have mini heart attacks when I think about being pregnant again. Anyways, that's my soap box about c-sections.

As far as the girl's stay, it was as close to perfect as any nicu stay could be. In fact, I felt guilty walking to the back of the nicu and seeing these tiny, tiny babies with oxygen masks, hooked up to tubes, monitors. My girls, although they needed some help at the beginning were really in perfect shape. On Wednesday, they came down with a slight case of jaundice and I walked into their room to find this:

Lillian

and Sophie

All I could do was laugh when I saw Lilly in her little face mask and Sophie in her baby straight jacket. Lillian handled her situation surprisingly well, but Sophie did NOT like being put in that body suit. It was super adorable to hear their little kitten cries and they baked under the lights. They only had to stay on them for one day which was awesome because we didn't have to get sent home with the suitcase version. Our pediatrician was pretty shocked that their jaundice cleared up as quickly as it did. Preemies are more prone to jaundice and there are many full term babies who come home still needing the suitcase.

Another thing that was keeping them in the nicu was the fact that they couldn't suck and breathe at the same time. Put anything in their mouth and they'd stop breathing. It was pretty scary seeing their oxygen levels drop and once Lillian's little lips and cheeks started to turn blue because she would not breathe. It was crazy. However, once again they conquered that skill way quicker than their pediatrician imagined and they were giving him less and less reasons to keep them in the hospital.

The nurses in the nicu were interesting. Some were fantastic and others didn't seem to do much. There were times where Josh and I would get into the room and they'd literally take off for an hour or so. We had no idea where they went and sometimes the babies would be screaming bloody murder (and if you saw them in the hospital, you know that I'm joking. Their cries were anything but murder.) or their monitors would start beeping for one reason or another and the nurse would be nowhere. Luckily, not all of them were bad and I'm particularly grateful for the last two nurses they had. The nurse the night before we left helped us bath them and gave us all sorts of tips about handling tiny babies. I was eating her words up because I knew the next day these girls would really be ours and I had no idea what I was doing. Then there was the nurse who had them the day we were sent home. She was equally awesome. She gave us more tips, helped me figure out how to nurse two babies and gave us a TON of free stuff. Tons of diapers, lots of formula, bottles, binkies, blankets, cloth diapers, etc. We had two bags overflowing with goods by the time she released us. It was great!

The first picture of them together. A few hours before going home.

Finally, after passing two car seat tests, watching baby cpr videos, and getting all the paperwork done, we were ready to go home. I couldn't believe that they really were going to let us walk out of the hospital with these two girls. It completely blew my mind. We were excited, scared to death, but I was SO ready to be done with the hospital so I wanted to get out asap. So, we bundled up the girls and b-lined it for the car. :)


The first 2 1/2 weeks home have been great. The first week was very, very tiring, but great. It hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. I keep thinking that all the people who said how hard twins would be were nuts because our girls are perfect. They only got a little fussy when it was time to be fed and once they were full, they usually went right back to sleep. They were still on the same schedule as the nicu had them on, so it was really easy to get both girls taken care of at once. However, week two proved to be a bit more challenging. I'm not the best at keeping them on the same schedule and so their feeding times started to get more and more apart from each other. Even a half hour difference is a BIG deal at 3 in the morning and makes what used to take an hour, take almost two. So, since they're waking up every 3 hours, I don't get more than an 1 1/2 hours of sleep or so at a time. Honestly, it's a little rough, but they're worth it. I'm still hoping and praying that the girls continue to do as well as they have. Besides for some eye infections and them eating like savages (where's Sarah Christensen when you need her...) everything is perfect. Running on borrowed energy and not getting through a successful REM cycle is worth it. We love them. How could you not love these silly little girls though?

Sophie's mastered the Elmer Fudd stare.

And Lillian has mastered being incredibly sleepy.

Yep. We love them.

p.s. for those of you who are my facebook friends, you probably realize that I do a much better job at posting pictures there. Sorry, I even like blogging better than facebook, but it's easier to load masses of pictures over there. I'll be better at blogging. Promise.