Boys Are Doing Great

I'm sorry I haven't posted, we've been busy preparing for our babies to come home!

Nolan was taken off the gavage tube Friday night, and has been doing great ever since. It was like he needed a reminder that it was his job to eat for himself, and he did not want that tube in! So he began eating again.

They were both a week without caffeine on Monday. Monday, the neonatologist who was there when I delivered wanted their pulsox (pulse oximeter) put back on. They had taken them off on Monday, I think. It's a little band around their foot. The doctor said that they don't necessarily need them on anymore, because their numbers were always 99 or 100, but when they had bradys, it helped to have them on the pulsox to see if it effected the brady level. So, really not a setback.

Nolan and Brooks have been doing a wonderful job with their feedings. I am so proud of what big boys they are becoming. The speech pathologist has been checking in with them since last week. I met with her again yesterday so she could observe me actually feeding them with a bottle, to see if I had any questions and to make sure I knew how to watch their breathing. (Thank goodness for all that daycare experience with my mom!) She said they were doing so well, especially considering their gestational age! They are learning to take breaks while feeding on their own, meaning they know when they need to stop to take some breaths, which is big for babies only 35 weeks! Sometimes they need to be reminded, especially Nolan, but they really do pretty great on their own.

They keep telling us they'll be home soon, and that they'll give us "some" notice, but we just don't know when yet. One of the nurse practitioners told us yesterday that even though the number of bradys they've been having has gone down, they are still having enough to need to be there.

This hospital won't send babies home on machines anymore, which really, I'm kind of glad about. I would not want to have to rush back and put my babies back in the NICU because something happened at home. I know it still COULD happen, but I'd feel better with them coming home as healthy as can be.

Every nurse has been telling us discharge stuff. The biggest thing being to limit exposure of the babies, which I know will be hard because everyone wants to see them. Their immune systems are not strong enough yet, and we have to be careful about people touching them, and they told us to keep tons of antibacterial soap around.

They told us to bring their car seats in and receiving blankets, for the car seat test. So 1 car seat is there and ready to go. They told us to start collecting lots of the necessities- newborn diapers, newborn clothes (our big boy Nolan was never really in premie sizes!), burp cloths, blankets, wipes, all the fun stuff. They also had us sign the consent to have their hospital pictures taken, which they are taken on discharge day in the NICU.

Shane and I are trying to get things ready at home. It's exhausting trying to do things at home, and live at the NICU. I really think it will be easier once they are home. I'm getting tired of people saying "oh, it's only just beginning" when they ask how I am, and I say I'm tired. I know I'll be getting up all night long, I'm already doing that to pump. I know I will be busy all day, I already am. The biggest difference will be that I won't be sitting in a hospital 6 hours a day on top of everything else, or sitting in traffic to get to the hospital. And poor Shane can actually go directly home after work for the first time in months.



A Somewhat Bitter Side Note (which follows the above comment I get from people AND brings out my sarcastic side that I always get in trouble for, so I apologize):

When I was looking up a link for the pulsox, I found this little site about what not to say to premie parents:

http://www.inspire.com/groups/preemie/discussion/what-not-to-say-to-a-preemie-mom-parent/

I understand where a lot of women are coming from on here. There are some things people have said that I know I probably give them my "are you stupid?" look, but honestly, what's important are my babies and how well they are doing. I'm not going to let what ignorant people say bother me, I have more important things to worry about.

The other thing, I think, is that people don't realize you've heard the same things over and over. It doesn't bother you the first, second, or fiftieth time, but maybe the hundredth time, it really gets to you. In my case, it would be the "Why did you have to go to inpatient?" or "why did you have to deliver early?". I don't mind answering this to most people, but people I am close to- I've explained the situation, I've sent you research links in emails, I sent you a link to this blog, if you haven't been paying attention to those things, maybe you don't deserve an answer at this point- and believe me, I won't give you one.

Oh and the other funny one I get is, "...and you'll have 2 of them!"  Yes, thank you...I didn't notice.

:)