As you know from the THEY'RE HERE!!!! post, the delivery went great. After delivery however, my body went into shock. I started to shake and could not stop. They had given me medicine (don't ask what it was!) to help regulate my body, but I swear I felt like I was going to die. It took about 3 1/2 hours for me to settle down (in the mean time, Charlie had been seeing to the babies and taking our family that had come to the hospital in and out of the NICU) and once I was stable, they wheeled me over to see the babies. What an incredible experience!
The next 3 1/2 weeks seemed to fly by. I was released from the hospital on 11/26, 5 days after the arrival. Since Charlie's base is only a few blocks from the hospital, he would go up before work, during lunch, and after work. I took a few days to gather strength and recuperate, and before we knew it, every day was spent in the NICU. We didn't do a great job at keeping track of their daily accomplishments, but they were sure making them! The nurses and doctors were amazed at how well they did and at how quickly they were advancing.
In order to come home, there were certain milestones they had to reach, and they were able to reach them all within 3 1/2 weeks. First was to maintain their body temperature outside of the isolette. Slowly the nurses would increase their feeds and lower the temperature inside. Pretty soon all the "tops were popped" on the isolettes and everyone was in open cribs. They also had to remember to breathe. Often times preemies are born with what's called apnea of prematurity, which basically means their nervous and muscular systems aren't quite developed and so they forget to breathe, causing the blood oxygen level to fall which then slows the heart. Whew! That was a mouthful! Anyway, this wasn't an issue with anyone, so that was already checked off the list. The other milestone they had to reach was to eat all of their feeds by mouth while still gaining weight. By December 6th, everyone was ready to start bottle/breast feeds. At this point they had reached 35 weeks gestation and were developing the coordination of suck, swallow, breathe. We were excited and started counting days until they could come home!
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| Addison |
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| Mason |
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That pretty much sums up the stay in the NICU. We were/are sooo thankful for all of our favorite nurses that took such great care of our miracles and that we had such a smooth journey in the hospital. Here are some of our favorite pics!
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| Mikayla |
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| Andrew |
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And finally, on the way out on our last day, we wiped their names off the board...FOREVER!!!!
In order to come home, there were certain milestones they had to reach, and they were able to reach them all within 3 1/2 weeks. First was to maintain their body temperature outside of the isolette. Slowly the nurses would increase their feeds and lower the temperature inside. Pretty soon all the "tops were popped" on the isolettes and everyone was in open cribs. They also had to remember to breathe. Often times preemies are born with what's called apnea of prematurity, which basically means their nervous and muscular systems aren't quite developed and so they forget to breathe, causing the blood oxygen level to fall which then slows the heart. Whew! That was a mouthful! Anyway, this wasn't an issue with anyone, so that was already checked off the list. The other milestone they had to reach was to eat all of their feeds by mouth while still gaining weight. By December 6th, everyone was ready to start bottle/breast feeds. At this point they had reached 35 weeks gestation and were developing the coordination of suck, swallow, breathe. We were excited and started counting days until they could come home! 
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