Home At Last

WE ARE HOME!!!!

Friday was a very busy and stressful morning.  There were so many different people to talk to, so much information to be given, paperwork to go over and sign.  And all of that on top of getting ready to take these 2 little girls home.

It was very overwhelming.

I had all these pictures in my mind that I wanted to take to try to remember some of our last moments of being in the NICU.

But when it came time to leave it was just too overwhelming, stressful with too much going on.

So here is the 1 picture that we took as we were leaving

I loved seeing this quote every time I walked into the NICU.

Colette in her car bed.

Naomi in her car bed.

The girls sleeping at home. Colette on left, Naomi on right.

The girls sharing a swing. Naomi on left, Colette on right.

Close up of the girls in their swing.

How do you feed 2 girls at the same time?  Have them help out.  Naomi's bottle resting on Colette and Colette's bottle resting on my leg.

Two tired and tuckered out girls after finishing their bottles. 

We are all tired but so far things are going well.  

I set up this blog to document my pregnancy, hospitalization stay and the girls birth and stay in the NICU.  

Now that we are home and all doing well, I will not be updating this blog anymore.

I will be going back to my family blog.  I'm not sure how often I will get around to updating it.

But I will try~

http://korbyandjenlee.blogspot.com/

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this.  Thank you for all the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers and all the support.  

We are so blessed to have these beautiful girls in our lives!!!!

Going Home

The girls are now 5 weeks and 5 days old!  

Naomi weights 4 pounds 11 ounces and Colette weights 4 pounds 10 ounces!

THEY ARE COMING HOME TODAY!!!!!!!!

TOGETHER!!!!!!

I am writing this post from the hospital "hotel" room.  Korby and I spent the night in a private room just down the hall from the NICU with both girls.  They wanted to make sure that we were comfortable with the oxygen equipment that Colette will be coming home on with our nurse easily available in case we had any questions, problems or concerns.

Everything went well except for the fact that I didn't sleep more than 1 hour all night!!!

A glimpse of what the next year will be like~

Hard, but worth every second of it!!!!

I don't have a lot of new pictures of the girls.  It has been really busy the last couple of days when I have been at the hospital.  The girls care team (doctor, nurses, dietitian, social worker, etc) have all been spending a lot more time talking to me during rounds about what to expect each day and when the girls go home. There have also been a lot more people coming around to talk to me about different things.  I have had to learn the "recipe" to fortify the girls bottles.  I have had to learn about car beds (the girls are too small for their normal car seats). I have had to learn about Colette's oxygen she will be coming home on.  I have had pass off CPR for infants.  I have had to watch car seat and purple crying videos.  

It has been busy.

I did still manage to get some pictures of the girls~

I like this picture of Naomi because even though she is still so tiny and thin this makes it look like she kind of has a little chub to her cheeks

Colette is soooo.... much wigglier than Naomi.  It is a LOT harder to get a picture of Colette where it isn't blurry.  She is wiggling in this picture too, but I like her tongue sticking out and smiling!

Colette was off of oxygen for about a day before they decided to put her back on~ she just wasn't doing well enough.  

It was so fun to see them together without anything on their faces (except for the stickers on Colette's face).

In order to go home, the girls had to pass a car seat test.  They had to sit in the car seat they would be coming home in for 90 minutes and not have any problems with their oxygen or heart rates.  

They are both too small for "normal" car seats.

Instead they will be coming home in car beds that we have to rent from the hospital.

Here is Colette during her car seat test.  It will be a while before she is big enough to ride in it.

It's not a great picture, but I keep forgetting to get a picture of Naomi's hand.  She has a large red mark on her left hand.  It will fade after a year, but for now it is the only thing that we can use to tell the girls apart.

The girls will get discharged from the hospital later this morning.  I will hopefully post pictures from today soon.  If not, I am sure you will all understand that I will be busy trying to figure out how to be a mom to 6 kids all at once while getting next to no sleep at all!  

Wish me luck!

1 Month Birthday!

It is hard to believe the girls are already 1 month old!

In some ways it feels like they were just born yesterday.  At the same time it feels like they have been in the NICU forever!

The NICU has gone down on their baby count, so the girls are on opposite sides of the room again.  But here is one more cute picture of them together.  It is pretty random when it happens, but Naomi has found her thumb a couple of times~we will see if that sticks.

Naomi on left (pink) Colette on right (purple)

I am bummed I didn't have these dolls when the girls were first born.  But starting from 1 month I am hoping to take their pictures with these dolls to show their growth.

Naomi on top with her doll and Colette on the bottom with her doll.

 Colette is now 4 pounds 6 ounces and 17 1/2 inches long!

Naomi is now 4 pounds 7 ounces and also 17 1/2 inches long! 

Naomi has been doing really well with her oxygen and was showing signs that she didn't really need it anymore.  So the other day I walked into their room and this is what I saw~ Naomi without her nasal canula!!!  It was so fun to be able to see one side of her face with no tape/tubes at all!!!  

She must have realized how nice it is to not have tubes constantly stuck up your nose.  Because later that night she pulled out her feeding tube and was sleeping peacefully without anything sticking in her nose.

*She stayed off of her oxygen for almost 24 hours.  They have since put her canula back in.  She is on the smallest amount possible.  Since they aren't super close to coming home, they figure she might as well have it and do really well than struggle even a little without it.  

Together..... for a Moment

The girls will be 4 weeks old tomorrow and I will post more pictures and information then.  

But a quick post on a great day today!

When I walked into the room this morning this is what I saw~

They have so many babies in the NICU right now that our girls had to "double bunk."  That means that we are sharing the room with another baby for the time being.  

While this might upset some parents to have to share a room with another baby/family I am quite excited about it.  

It means that our girls get to finally be together~ or at least close to each other!

Which also means that.........

I finally got to hold both babies together for the 1st time!!!!!!!!

Here they are laying side by side on my lap.  Naomi is asleep on the left and Colette is awake on the right.

It's a busy Saturday, so I will tell more about it in the next post.

3 Week Update and 1st Bath

The girls are continuing to do well.  A phrase that we hear a lot in the NICU is 

"They are acting developmentally appropriate for their age."

Basically, the are doing exactly what the doctors and nurses would expect 3 week old babies that were born at 32 weeks to do.  

Naomi is now 3 pounds 13 1/2 ounces.

She loves to nurse.

She is soooo..... close to not needing her extra oxygen.  She has been staying right around 22-25%.  

21% is room air.

She does well with her bottles most of the time.  But just inconsistent enough to keep her from progressing to the next feeding stage.

She is maintaining her own body temperature.  

They will not move her out of her isolette until she is more consistent with her bottle feedings 

because it actually will use up too many calories for her to be in an open crib.  And they want 

those calories going towards eating better.  

Isn't that crazy that just hearing more noise, feeling drafts, and being in room air would burn 

enough calories to be worried about?!?

I wish I had that problem :)

Colette is 3 pounds 12 ounces.

She also loves to nurse (although she is a little slower to get a full feed).

She is not quite as close as Naomi with her oxygen needs.  She is still up around 30% (which is developmentally appropriate for her age).

She doesn't like her bottle quite as much as Naomi, but she is gradually getting better.

She is maintaining her own body temperature.

She also has to do better with feedings before they will move her out of her isolette.

Overall, the girls are doing awesome!!!  Colette is just a half step behind Naomi in a couple of things, but both girls are healthy and growing!  

Onto fun stuff~ their first bath!!!

Naomi bundled up in her blanket in the "whale" tub.  They keep them wrapped up to help them feel more secure and to keep them warm.  

Again~ they don't want them wasting calories on arms flailing around, 

getting too cold, or crying too much.

The nurse was nice enough to take pictures, so I could do the bath.

She was pretty darn comfortable in there~ she was almost falling asleep!

Sweet girl!

Once Naomi was done with her bath, she got bundled up in 2 warm blankets.  

Nice and clean~ with a new pink bow in her hair!

Now for Colette's first bath!

Korby brought the kids up so that they could be there.  They really haven't been able to do anything to really bond with these girls yet.  So, it was nice to have them there to feel like they are a 

part of these girls lives.

The nurse wasn't able to get as many close up shots of Colette since the kids were all around the tub, but I'm still glad they were there.

You can hardly see Colette, but she is in the tub.

Colette getting her arm washed.  The nurse kept calling it their "Spa Day."  They got to soak in a jacuzzi, get a mini massage, be lathered up with lotion, and they got their hair done.

Sounds like a great day to me!   

Colette bundled up in her warm blankets.

Here is Colette after her bath, but before she got her new purple bow.  I will have to make sure to get a picture of that next time I go.

This was the first time that the kids have been able to touch their sister!  Crazy that after almost 3 weeks, they would have to ask a nurse if they could touch their sister's foot for the first time!

Maybe next time they come they will be able to touch Naomi.

*Notice the Elmer's glue on top of the isolette.  That is what they use in the NICU to keep 

bows in the girl's hair!  

A Little Info and a Lot of Pictures

Every single day I am amazed all over again at how well the girls are doing.

Every single day I think about how horribly things could have gone wrong, but didn't.

Every single day I thank my Heavenly Father for these two little miracles.

Naomi now weights 3 pounds 10 ounces and Colette weights 3 pounds 9 ounces. 

They are both closer to 4 pounds than 3 pounds!

They have both moved up to Stage 2 with their feedings.  This means that they are now working on taking 4 of their 8 feedings in a 24 hour period orally~ either by breast feeding or bottle.

Naomi is doing great with both.  

Colette is doing okay.  She is a very pokey eater, so it sometimes takes her too long to finish an oral feeding, which means they have to give the rest through her NG tube.  They don't want them to spend more than 30 minutes on a feeding because it uses up too many calories to make the feeding worth it.  

They are both still on supplemental oxygen.  

Naomi is using a little less than Colette, but they are both steadily working their way off of it.

They are both starting be awake for longer periods of time.  It is most noticeable that they are staying awake after a feeding.  It used to wear them out so much to nurse that they would immediately conk out, but they are starting to be able to stay awake after now.

I am going up 6 mornings a week and 6 evenings a week.  I have already figured out that I need a break from the NICU.  I would never get tired of spending time with my girls, but it is very draining to spend so much time in the NICU.  

Korby goes up about every other day~ either on his lunch break or in the evenings if we have a baby sitter. 

I did a little calculating this afternoon.  Between all the times that Korby came to see me during my hospital stay and now between the 2 of us coming up to see the girls~ we have driven to the hospital 71 times as of this morning!

Thank goodness we are only 15 minutes away!

Ok, enough info~ here are the pictures!

Naomi

Colette in newborn jammies.  I don't know how well you can see from the picture, but she was swimming in them!

Colette holding mom's finger

Naomi

Naomi letting mom know she is ready to eat!

Colette letting mom know she is ready to eat!

Since the girls are so small, they are not eating as much as a normal full term baby.  However, my body didn't get the memo and I am accumulating quite a stock pile of milk.  This is the freezer in the NICU.  Most babies have 1 bin~ as you can see we have 4!  The nurses have told me I will not need to bring in any more milk for quite a while~ which is now causing our freezer at home to become quite full of milk also!

Naomi sleeping so sweetly

Naomi~ I put her to bed all snuggled up and within a couple of minutes she had wiggled her foot out

And talk about wiggling out~ this is what she looked like later that night.  She had completely wiggled half her body out of her blanket and her jammies!

The nurses were all calling Naomi Houdini this night because after wiggling out of her blanket and jammies, she also somehow managed to wiggle her way over to her port hole and was sticking her arm out of it!

***Disclaimer: The port hole was only opened while the nurse and I were standing right by her isolette.  
They are normally closed.  

Sideways picture of Colette

Colette getting ready to go to sleep

Naomi

My absolute FAVORITE way for babies to sleep~ bum up!  And it is extra cute when there is a big heart on the bum, too! (Colette)

And for my sister Mary, and for myself~ here are some pictures of the NICU in general.  

Naomi's half of the room.  If you expand the picture you can see her little head in there somewhere :)

Colette's half of the room.  You can also see her, but you have to look close.

What the room looks like when you walk in the door.  

The "Scrub In" station.  My arms are starting to get really sensitive to all the scrubbing.  I have to do it pretty gentle or my arms get really red and irritated.

Sorry~ sideways!  Here is the sign for entering the NICU with the call button to get in.  I also need to get a picture of Korby and I wearing our NICU parent badges.