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.