Welcome Home

On Wednesday morning the boys were given the A-OK from Dr. Camp to come home! I had my 2 week doctor appointment in the morning, Ben took Barb to the bus station to head back to Carroll and then we headed home (just in time for the next feeding). The boys were in the hospital for 12 days and we were ready to take them home. I was a little nervous because with them being on monitors there was a sense of security and now the monitors are gone.

It took no more than 3o minutes after walking in the door for our house to be completely taken over by all things baby related......diapers, blankets, a pack-n-play, the list goes on and on. No one warned me about he first night at home. For some reason since the boys had developed a routine over the last 12 days in the hospital I neglected to realize (my own ignorance) that that routine just might be in jeopardy with the change in environment. The boys were pretty fussy at different times and also hungry at different times. They were trying to get on their own schedule rather than the same schedule. Our ONLY chance at survival is keeping them on the same schedule. But - they did much better at the two morning feedings so far as compared to the two nightly feedings on Wednesday night.

I was eating a handful of jelly beans we got as a gift and all of a sudden I thought I had eaten a bad jelly bean. I have eaten a lot of jelly beans in my day so I was surprised but I quickly spit it out in the sink and avoided thowing up. After spitting it out I realized it closely resembled a vitamin. I guess I had opened a bottle of vitamins and popped that in my mouth and eaten it like a jelly bean. My advise - swallow vitamins rather than chewing them...

I ran to Target last night to get a few needed things between feedings. I wasn't there more than 15 minutes when I got a text from Ben telling me to hurry home. I had gone there for some vitamin drops with iron for the boys and they didn't have it. Once I got back home I sent Ben to Walgreens and he came home with the vitamins and the ShamWOW. For those of you that have seen the infomercial (and those of you that know Ben) understand why I was pretty surprised by the purchase but that's what sleep deprivation will do!

The first night at home we slept in the living room with them (they slept in their pack-n-play). And by "slept" I mean we laid out in the living room with them. Until they get better at eating and are more awake when they eat the most sleep possible in between feedings is about 1.5 hours. There were a number of times last night that I said outloud how much more work two must be than one. I don't know of course since these are my first but the biggest thing I see missing is the opportunity to multitask. There is no opportunity to multitask with two...and this is not yet a job for one person! I also think the fact that they are preemies is a big piece of it too - they have to be woken up 2-3 times each feeding to stay focused on the task at hand. And waking them up is much more than playing with their fingers and toes. It starts with a diaper change and taking their clothes off...then they eat a little. Next is a burp and then they eat a bit more. The final wake-up technique is putting their clothes back on and if a final final wake-up technique is needed we lay them back down which usually does the trick. Hopefully once they get to be full term (40+weeks) they will be more awake and eat quicker.

Gus is doing well with the babies - doesn't really seem to care about them....just mainly cares about himself (i.e. when his next walk is, his next belly rub, his next trip outside, his next meal, etc.). 

All packed up in our NICU room ready to head home! Once the boys ditched their cords and own beds it was a lot harder to tell them apart!

On our way home! It was pretty cold out but the sun was shining for the boys' homecoming!

We made it home...NOW WHAT?! We weren't exactly ready for their arrival on the 6th so we had to scramble a bit - grabbed things from their room and the basement and made our new home here in the living room.