8 days in the NICU

All along in my pregnancy the goal for me was to make it to 37 weeks and each baby weighing 5  pounds to avoid the nicu. The boys were MONO DI which means they were sharing a placenta so there was no way my placenta would support 2 babies longer than 37 weeks. I wasn't afraid of the boys being in the nicu I just was trying to avoid it so we would get to bring them home right away. So when we were having a C-section at 35 weeks I knew they would HAVE to go to the nicu due to the hospitals policy any baby born before 37 weeks goes to nicu.

 

I have nothing but great things to say about the nicu. The nurses were incredible!!! They took such great care of our babies. We had a specific nurse that was there in the delivery room and then with the boys for the next 4 days. I think she is the reason the boys did so great. She was so sweet and kind to us and really helped us to learn to care for our tiny boys!!

 

Charlie

Connor

Charlie had to have some forced air due to the fluid on his lungs. He only had the forced air for the first day. He also had to have some calcium in his IV. 

Connor looks like he is on the phone ha!!

Teaching dad how to feed the boys.

We were lucky that we were able to have visitors come see the babies. We could have 2 people join Donny and I at the same time. Grammy came most days before she went to work. Also donnys mom and dad and sister came. My sister and her family came and saw the boys also!!

On day 3 the babies bilirubin levels were pretty high so under the blue lights they went to get rid of that jaundice!!!

 

They responded very well to the uv light and were only under the blue light for 2 days. They had originally told us it would be 5 days but our boys are kinda awesome and only needed the light for 2!!! 

Connor all stretched out.... just like in my belly!!!
 His little feet were permanently in my ribs!!

Charlie... All curled up... just like in my belly!!!!

We came in one morning and saw that the boys levels had significantly dropped!! They were around the 11-15 mark and over night they had dropped to 6.1 and 6.9!!

In order to go home we had to spend 48 hours with the boys in a room all by ourselves!!

It wouldn't have been so bad except the air conditioner was locked at 65!!! It was soooo cold because the boys had been used to the warm temp of the nicu. We had to do every feeding which included checking vitals, temp, weighing the diapers and logging everything every 3 hours. We had gotten so used to the monitors in the nicu so when we were in the room with them we kept making sure they were breathing and happy. Looking back im happy we had to do that rather than just going straight home from the nicu at the time I was annoyed but it was what we needed to do!

Going home!!!! They looked so big at the time and now they look so small in this picture.

Happy boys!!!