15 days in the NICU

Shortly after Emma and Ellie were born, they were taken to the NICU, where they spent the first 15 days of their lives. Emma had some trouble breathing at first and needed to be under an oxygen hood. Ellie, of course, was TINY and had to be in an isolette to keep warm for about the first 10 days or so. They both spent some time under the bili lights to get their bilirubin down...all fairly normal stuff for babies born a little early. Most of the time in the NICU though was spent learning how to eat and growing a bit. They were fed intravenously the first few days and then got breastmilk down their neotubes (tiny tubes that went down their noses and into their stomachs). In addition, I worked on nursing them every other feeding. Before and after nursing they were weighed, giving an estimate of how much milk they got from me. This process was very stress-producing for me! After nursing, the remainder of milk that they needed for the feeding went down their tube. When they got stronger, we started giving a bottle on the feedings that I wasn't there to nurse and slowly they stopped needing the neotube at all and were able to get all the milk they needed from me or a bottle.

Having babies in the NICU is hard. It is easy to forget that they are your babies when someone else is doing the majority of their care. While I was still in the hospital (about the first week or so), I went to the NICU when I could to visit and the nurses brought them to me to nurse for every other feeding. After I was discharged, Andy and I went to visit first thing in the morning for a few hours, in the afternoon and again every night right before bed. In between visits, I napped and pumped...a very exciting life!

We tried to be as involved as we could with caring for the girls, as this was the only thing that made those long, hard 15 days a little easier.

I gave Emma her first bath,






































and Andy gave Ellie her first bath,


















we held them a lot,































we watched them sleep,
































and sometimes slept with them,
















we shared them with family and friends,





































































and we fed them and changed their diapers as often as we could.

Finally, Dr Anderson, the girls' wonderful pediatrician, said we could take them home. The girls had to pass their car seat tests (sitting in the seats for 4 hours attached to monitors which ensured that they wouldn't stop breathing on the way home!). We got a lot of instructions and well-wishes. Emma weighed in at 6 lbs 3 oz. on her last day in the NICU and Ellie was 3 lbs 14 oz .

Here we are just before loading them into their car seats...See how happy I am? Despite the wonderful care we recieved while in the NICU, I have never been so glad to leave somewhere in my life!