I've been going back to the NICU to see the kids again. My first day back was Saturday. Blake and Jared are in the open plastic cribs that you see typical newborns in. They have a lot less wires attached and their color seems better in general. They've been sleeping like angels...
Today the doctor said they may be coming home as soon as two weeks from now (i'm convinced it'll be more like 3wks)! Truth be told,we were a bit taken aback. Of course we're excited too, but the twins are tiny and are still getting half of their feeds through a tube. They seem so fragile...Jen and I both said "Can't we all stay here longer?". It's funny because that's how we both felt when we had Dylan - on the day we were discharged we asked, "Can we stay another day?". They laughed at us.
Today when Jen was feeding Blake, he had a desat episode. His blood oxygen level gets low because he forgets to breathe or he does shallow breathing. The alarm goes on and if the level gets in the low 80 / 70's you have to pull him off and rub his back and wake him up so he starts to breathe again. He also turns bluish. I finished his feed with the bottle and it happened again. It's not uncommon for preemies to desat, but it is unnerving to see your baby turn blue. Thankfully it doesn't happen too often. Jen just got back from the NICU this very moment and said the night feeds went great!
We should feel more confident and we will by the time they come home - we've taken care of a newborn before. But this will be different and require more attention, care and of course worry. The nurse said, "(when you take them home) these aren't babies you can feed while talking on the phone. You have to watch them, pay attention to make sure they're doing okay." Jen and I will have to refresh our CPR and learn the techniques for bottle feeding these little guys. Over the next few weeks we'll be in preemie care bootcamp! Exciting.
The nurses took some pix of the twins after their bath w/ their fuzzy hair dos. Enjoy.
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