Recalling the first 10 days

Morgen and Sonne were born on Saturday, May 14, 2011. The were delivered via c-section due to my becoming seriously ill from severe preeclampsia. Their daddy travelled with them from the OR to the NICU and it wasn't until today when I saw another baby come into the NICU with her daddy that I even considered what he had experienced. After seeing how scared and unsure this dad looked I knew how lucky I was to have Eric as my husband.

We were fortunate to have spoken with a NICU doctor prior to delivery so we would have an idea of what to expect upon arrival in the NICU.

Over the last ten days both girls have been intubated and subsequently extubated. They have feeding tubes through which they are fed breast milk every three hours. They are hooked up to various monitors which track their heart rates, respiratory rates, pulse ox (measure of amount of oxygen in their blood). They started out on a fairly heavy duty breathing apparatus called CPAP and both have trasitioned from that to a VapoSteam and are now down to simple nasal canuoles with supply them with some oxygen, but isn't pushing any air into their lungs.

Since they began feedings both have been regaining the wring lost since birth. Morgen is still a few ounces below her birth weight of 3 lbs 11 oz, but Sonne has actually surpassed her birth weight on 2 lbs 10 oz by a whole two ounces.

We have been able to hold each girl on a daily basis since their third day in the NICU. There is something truly wonderful about being skin-to-skin with these little beings. We worry about them so and when they are laying again out chests it's as if all the worry melts away and we are just there in the moment with our daughters. The doctors and nurses all talk about the benefits of skin time for the girls but no one mentioned how beneficial it would be for us as well.

Today I practiced nonnutritive nursing with the girls. Our lactation consultant said I'm a natural, which was nice to hear. She was also fairly positive that Morgen would have latched had her feeding tube not been in the way. Sonne rooted around a bit, but was having a bit of a tough day so we transitioned to skin-to-skin so she could be more restful. Our homework is to practice every day with the assistance of the nurse on duty. We have our next appointment with the lactation consultant next Tuesday.

All in all, the girls are doing well. Both have a ways to go before they can come home which is tough for us. All the same, we can wait. They are in such amazingly capable and caring hands in the NICU. We feel very fortrunate to have such wonderful caregivers for our girls.