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.