Week two was surprisingly calm.  We still had a couple of nursing visits, an equipment download, one long appointment, and a few visitors, but in general, we didn’t make taking care of 3 kids look nearly as hard as we had been.

We’re getting in to a routine.  The bottle making and washing, baby changing, cord moving, laundry washing is all second nature now.  I think it would be weird to me not to have to move cords out of the way for a diaper change now.

We’ve settled down a lot.  The first few days every alarm seemed scary.  We are used to the beeps, and have now grown comfortable that the boys are in fact breathing, just shallow.  We sound like NICU nurses yelling “it’s fine” to let our fellow house nurses know this isn’t really an event.   We also don’t panic every time one of them spits up, or makes a weird face, or grunts.  🙂

I’m flying solo on occasion.  Monday and Friday I was on my own with the boys all day.  We have gotten very comfortable and while not much else gets accomplished, make the day work without any glitches.   I even tackled baths for both boys on my own.  It took me 3 days to set up, and because I did them by the warm fireplace, I was sweating.   When I finally finished, they were two months old, and I felt 10 years older.   But it got done.

The “big” event this week was their outpatient follow-up on Wednesday.   Mima and I left around 9:15 am with the babies and all of their goodies on board.  We got home around 6:30.  It was a long day.  BUT…it was also a good day.

 

I liked everyone we met.  The Neonatologist, Dietician and PT will be the ones we see going forward.  We didn’t spend much time talking about the future for these boys.  For now we just assessed that they were eating right, growing well, and overall adjusting well to being home.  We discussed future appointment plans including Opthalmology, Audiology, Neurology, and Endocrinology.  They analyzed their monitor information and confirmed no serious cardiac events had occurred.  We felt sure of that, but it was a relief to have that confirmed.  As a result, we’re letting them be off of the monitors when we are home and just hanging out during the day.  We walked away with some additional PT ideas to help the boys with a few things.  (I’ll post a separate Developmental post another time).  Perhaps the most useful takeaway was learning that the boys tummy issues are likely being caused by their medications.  We’ve had some pretty fussy evenings and nights, particularly for Nolan.  Turns out their seizure medications (which were weight adjusted / increased as we left the hospital) can cause constipation and gas.  Isn’t it funny that with all that we have been / will be faced with, right now our biggest worry for the boys on a daily basis involves a diaper?  Isn’t that always true of babies?  It all comes down to…well you know.

Week 3 we will have one nurse visit, but otherwise just family time.  We’re having family in for two different Thanksgiving dinners, so look for some photos after the dust has settled!

And here are pics of some of this week’s cuddlers: