Mingle Bells
07-10-2006, 08:08 PM
Jacob and Joshua were born at 29 weeks and 6 days. They stayed in the NICU for exactly 5 weeks. You can read about my pregnancy and birth story in their respective forums :D
They weighed 3.4 and 3.5. They were intubated for 2 days, on CPAP for another 2 days, and then went on room air :hyper They did have a few issues with jaundice, like most preemies. Jacob had a UTI at 14 days old. He got very sick and ended up being put back on the vent for 2 days. That was tough. They didn't know why he was sick at first. They drew blood, they got a urine sample, and they did a spinal tap :( Poor baby was so sick, he didn't even care what they were doing to him. So he got better as soon as the put him on antibiotics. Joshua had staph show up on a culture they did on his umbilicus. So they put him into isolation for the entire 5 weeks they were there :roll This is the same Staph that is on everyone’s skin. But they get concerned because of how vulnerable preemies are. The dumb part was that I was nursing both of them, and only Joshua was in isolation. I kept trying to tell them that they needed to put Jacob in there too, as I was cross contaminating him every time I went between the two of them. But no :roll (Still mad about that, can you tell? :lol )
So for 5 weeks they worked hard on getting their tiny bodies to keep up with body temp and eating and breathing.
They were tube fed for the first 4 weeks. I pumped so they at least got EBM. I also nursed them a few times everyday, as tolerated by them. They didn't nurse like champs until they were about 2 months old.
Everyday Cracka and I would get to do their cares when we came up. I was there pretty much all day. He came up right after work. We would stay until bed time usually. I'm tired just thinking about it :newmom We got to change them, feed them, take their temps... Kangaroo care was THE BEST :luv For anyone that doesn't know what it is : The baby gets undressed to just a diaper, and they lay under a blanket on your bare skin. It's amazing. They are so calm, and peaceful :luv They got to do this every day as long as it didn't tire them out. It was always a balancing act with their eating/temp control/sleepiness... The last night they were there, we got to room in with them. This was the first time they got to touch each other since the womb :cry It was so special. I nursed them both through the night and was dead the next morning :lol That was our first taste of life with twins :lol
The NICU can be summed up by comparing it to a roller coaster. Lots of battles to fight, and lots of battles to win. We had a few scary late night phone calls from the NICU. That's the worst. But everyone turned out just fine :luv
They weighed 3.4 and 3.5. They were intubated for 2 days, on CPAP for another 2 days, and then went on room air :hyper They did have a few issues with jaundice, like most preemies. Jacob had a UTI at 14 days old. He got very sick and ended up being put back on the vent for 2 days. That was tough. They didn't know why he was sick at first. They drew blood, they got a urine sample, and they did a spinal tap :( Poor baby was so sick, he didn't even care what they were doing to him. So he got better as soon as the put him on antibiotics. Joshua had staph show up on a culture they did on his umbilicus. So they put him into isolation for the entire 5 weeks they were there :roll This is the same Staph that is on everyone’s skin. But they get concerned because of how vulnerable preemies are. The dumb part was that I was nursing both of them, and only Joshua was in isolation. I kept trying to tell them that they needed to put Jacob in there too, as I was cross contaminating him every time I went between the two of them. But no :roll (Still mad about that, can you tell? :lol )
So for 5 weeks they worked hard on getting their tiny bodies to keep up with body temp and eating and breathing.
They were tube fed for the first 4 weeks. I pumped so they at least got EBM. I also nursed them a few times everyday, as tolerated by them. They didn't nurse like champs until they were about 2 months old.
Everyday Cracka and I would get to do their cares when we came up. I was there pretty much all day. He came up right after work. We would stay until bed time usually. I'm tired just thinking about it :newmom We got to change them, feed them, take their temps... Kangaroo care was THE BEST :luv For anyone that doesn't know what it is : The baby gets undressed to just a diaper, and they lay under a blanket on your bare skin. It's amazing. They are so calm, and peaceful :luv They got to do this every day as long as it didn't tire them out. It was always a balancing act with their eating/temp control/sleepiness... The last night they were there, we got to room in with them. This was the first time they got to touch each other since the womb :cry It was so special. I nursed them both through the night and was dead the next morning :lol That was our first taste of life with twins :lol
The NICU can be summed up by comparing it to a roller coaster. Lots of battles to fight, and lots of battles to win. We had a few scary late night phone calls from the NICU. That's the worst. But everyone turned out just fine :luv