NICU Part 2

Life has gotten a little busy since we brought the kiddos home so this post is a month late, but better late than never... right? Besides these picture are so cute I couldn't help but share them. The second part of our NICU stay seemed to last forever. When the girls were 5 days old they were doing well enough to get transfered to NICU 2. They stayed in NICU 2 for 25 days. I didn't think it was ever going to end and Andrew didn't think the hospital was ever going to let us take our babies home, but they eventually did. Once the girls learned how to eat on their own they were cleared for discharge. Eating on your own seems like such a simple task especially when the only thing you eat is milk, but it's quite the task when your only 34 weeks gestation. The girls hadn't learned the skill eat suck swallow before they were born so they had to learn it outside the womb in the NICU. This simple task took us 4 weeks to master. 4 weeks of going to the hospital 25 min away from home every day at least once. I got very familiar with the drive from home to the hospital. All I have to say is I am glad this part of our lives is over and we finally have our beautiful girls home!
Enjoy the pictures!

Family Picture - The girls were 1 week old

Adelyn 1 week old - Notice the hair color? I think I got my red head!

Emmalyn 1 week old

Twins, but definitely not identical 

Grandma came to visit!

After a few weeks I got tired of the boring hospital atire and I decided to spice it up a little with a bow for the girls' hats.
Adelyn 2 weeks old

Emma 2 weeks old with her bow

This smile fills my heart with joy!

Adelyns first bath

Andrew giving Adelyn her first bath

The girls got tired of lying on their backs in their cribs looking up at the boring hospital ceiling after a few weeks. They really enjoyed their bouncers! 
P.S. I love Adelyns face in this picture!

Andrew being a good dad holding Emma. He's such an amazing dad.

The girls sure are daddy's girls
Andrew and Adelyn

After 2 weeks the girls made it out of their incubators and into open air cribs
Adelyn in her crib

Andrew filing Adelyns nails

Grandma came to visit again!
Grandma and Emma

This time Grandma brought Aunt Kristine to visit as well.
Aunt Kristine and Adelyn

Peek-a-boo... guess who!
This is how I found this little girl one day. Emma loves her face covered

Both of Adelyn's ears are like this...  not sure what happened. I think she ran out of room inside me when her ears were developing so they are both smashed down.

Cute little Adelyn - 3 weeks old. I just love her!

Sweet Emmalyn - 3 weeks old. Look at those big blue eyes!

The nurse said they were crying and she didn't have time to hold both of them and give them the attention they wanted so she faced them towards each other and let them entertain each other. It must have worked because when I got there they were as happy as could be.

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit

Grandpa and Adelyn

Grandma and Emma

Emmalyn
I gor anxious to dress up these cute little girls

Adelyn

Emma
Thanks Izzy for the bouncer, it was a life saver! The girls spent  hours every day hanging out in these when we weren't able to be there to hold them.

It's time to go home!!!! Car seat test to make sure they continue to breath while in their car seats. They sat in there hooked up to their monitors for 90 min. They actually enjoyed it.

Waiting to be discharged. No more monitors and wires hooked up to the girls!

Emma - All ready to go home!

Adelyn - Ready to go! Andrew made their shirts (He bought tiny white onsies and ironed on the ctrl c, ctrl v) and I made their skirts. Finding cute clothes small enough to fit them was a challenge so we took the task upon ourselves. 

Headed home all buckled in. Now the real adventure begins!
We had no clue what was in store for us at this point. Had we know we may not have left the hospital.

The Newborn ICU Part 1

Emma and Adelyn have been in the NICU for 26 days. Adelyn got some fluid in her lungs during delivery, nothing too serious but she had to be on oxygen for about a week to help her breath. Other than that they are healthy, they are just preemies and they have to learn how to eat. The first few days they weren't eating anything (doctors orders - they were very grumpy during this time but I can't blame them) but on day 3 the doctor put feeding tubes in their mouth down to their stomaches. They slowly started increasing the amount of food they ate (it started at 5ml's and slowly increased form there). Once they were able to handle having food in their system we started bottle feeding once a day then twice a day, then 4 times a day, etc. until they reach their goal of eating 2oz every 3 hours. It has been a long long long frustrating road, but they are doing great and today they got the feeding tubes taken out and they are eating all on their own. SO here are some pictures of our journey through the NICU. Be prepared for a picture overload :)

Adelyn 2 days old. She was on a nasal canula to help her breath

Small little Emma compared to my hand. 2 days old

On day three I went to check on Adelyn and I found her like this. I broke down crying. The doctor had told me that Adelyn was struggling to breath with the nasal canula and she needed more help so he put her on a different oxygen tube. It was really hard to see her like this and to see her working so hard to breath, but she is a little fighter and after a few days on this she was able to switch back to the nasal canula.

Her crazy looking oxygen mask and feeding tube in her mouth.

Since she was on the oxygen the nurses didn't let us hold her more than once a day for only a few min so we just got to watch her lay in her incubator. 

Adelyn under the lights with bean bags around her head and legs to comfort her and make her feel like she was being held since we couldn't hold her. 

Emma under the lights. 

Both girls had IV's in their arms to give them supplements to help them grow. Emma's veins were so frail the IV kept blowing out and her arms and legs didn't have anymore good viens they could use so they put the IV in her head. This is the second time I broke down in the NICU when I walked in and saw her like this.

IV in the head and cool mask for the jaundice lights. 

Once the girls' bilirubin count went down we got to take the lights away and we were able to hold them a lot more. Here is when Andrew held Adelyn for the first time. At this point she was still under the lights, but the nurses let us hold her for a few minutes.

He is such a great dad! She loves him.

Andrew holding Emma. 

Andrew's mom flew down to meet the girls. Notice their arms? Andrew broke his hand and didn't get his wrap off until the girls were a week old, and Grandma Stagg hurt her arm the week before. The funny this is that Emma also had a think on her right arm that looked similar but hers was to help keep her IV in. 3 generations of wrapped up arms :)

Thanks Grandma Stagg for coming down to meet the girls!

Here are some pictures of Emma when she was a few days old. We didn't have as many pictures of Adelyn since we weren't allowed to hold her much.

Emma has been alert from the get go. She is always looking around wide eyed.

This is one of my favorites. A lot of people ask why we gave her such a huge binky, but we didn't. Her head is so little  it makes the binky look big.

Adelyn looking up at her dad who is holding her

She was so happy when she was finally able to be bundled up. While she was under the light she couldn't be bundled up and she got very fussy. She likes to be bundled tight, go figure right? I'm sure its from being so smashed inside me for so many months.

Well that covers the first week in the NICU. I'll do another post later with the rest of the pictures we have from the NICU.