December 11, 2017-December 13, 2017
From this point on, I won't write about every single day in a new post. Many of our days ran together in their details, so I'll be including more about our emotional state and some specific events that happened on some of the days.
I mentioned in the last post that we lived and breathed care times. Blake actually saw Eli and Evie at pretty much every care time those first few days. That was why he was already upstairs when I was able to go up Sunday night. We didn't know that I was going to be able to go up to the NICU, so he was surprised to see me. The babies had their care times every three hours, so we were able to see them eight times a day during those early days in the core. The core is organized differently than the rest of the NICU because the babies inside are the most at-risk. So, care times were very strict and we planned our lives around them.
Monday morning I was able to get up and walk around the halls with my mom's help. I know many people have bad experiences recovering from c-sections, but I didn't think it was that terrible. I don't know how much of that was that I had been in so much pain before delivering that this was almost pleasant and because I was determined to see Eli and Evie as much as I could. If I was still relying on a wheelchair, that meant that I had to rely on someone else being available to get me upstairs to the NICU. I was still ridiculously swollen, but I was able to walk more and more throughout the day.
Those first few care times were painful - emotionally and physically. My feet were so swollen that none of my shoes fit and standing for the length of care times was painful and exhausting. My blood pressure was still high, but better than it had been with the help of the two medications I was taking. It was emotionally difficult watching our tiny babies be moved so very carefully so as not to misplace wires and IVs. Both Elias and Evelyn developed jaundice and received phototherapy. The tiny eye coverings were sized for preemies, but you could still only see their tiny noses with the cannulas and their little lips and chins.
Eli received surfactant his first night in the hospital because he was not producing enough on his own. Surfactant helps keep the air sacs in the lungs open; a lack of surfactant makes it hard to expand the lungs, take in enough oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide. Both Elias and Evelyn were able to start receiving milliliters of milk through their NG tubes at this point.
Tuesday morning, the 12th, I was up and moving and feeling better than I had been. My blood pressure was gradually getting better with the medications, but I was still very swollen (and would remain so for the rest of the week). I was hoping to be discharged, but that was not going to happen until my blood pressure completely stabilized. The most important thing about Tuesday was that we got to do skin-to-skin, or kangaroo care, for the first time. I did kangaroo care with Evelyn and Blake did kangaroo care with Elias this first time. For the duration of their time in isolettes, we switched off which of us held which baby skin-to-skin. I was still pumping around the clock and we were given some information about what it would look like once I was discharged from the hospital. Because we would have a long-term NICU stays, they let us keep a room at the hospital as long as there were rooms available. We struggled with this, because we wanted to be close to the babies, but we would definitely get more rest staying the night at home. Our poor pupper was also super confused by everything going on and needed some love. We had actually already decided to have Blake sleep at home each night (from Sunday night on) so he could get some sleep and Zoe would have someone home part of the time.
Wednesday, the 13th
Blake and I had discussed his work situation. The most likely scenario, according to our NICU nurses, was that the babies would be home about their due date - which was February 23rd. We wanted Blake to be able to take some time off once the babies were home, so he went back to work on Wednesday, December 13th. Blake was able to use his lunch break time to do kangaroo care with the babies. He came to the hospital before and after work and spent every lunch break with the babies from then until Evelyn came home on March 28th.
My blood pressure was finally stabilized and I was discharged mid-afternoon on Wednesday. So, we moved our stuff from the room I had been in for eight days and headed to a new room. Because I hadn't been home in over a week, we decided that for at least that first night, I would come home. Leaving the hospital that day was so incredibly hard. I was leaving my babies. They weren't coming home with me. It became very real at that point. When we got home, I loved on my Zoe. I actually wrote about this in a post earlier this year, but she sniffed at the staples and looked at me like, "What happened?" I avoided a chunk of our house for weeks - because there were baby things everywhere.
I mentioned in the last post that we lived and breathed care times. Blake actually saw Eli and Evie at pretty much every care time those first few days. That was why he was already upstairs when I was able to go up Sunday night. We didn't know that I was going to be able to go up to the NICU, so he was surprised to see me. The babies had their care times every three hours, so we were able to see them eight times a day during those early days in the core. The core is organized differently than the rest of the NICU because the babies inside are the most at-risk. So, care times were very strict and we planned our lives around them.
Monday morning I was able to get up and walk around the halls with my mom's help. I know many people have bad experiences recovering from c-sections, but I didn't think it was that terrible. I don't know how much of that was that I had been in so much pain before delivering that this was almost pleasant and because I was determined to see Eli and Evie as much as I could. If I was still relying on a wheelchair, that meant that I had to rely on someone else being available to get me upstairs to the NICU. I was still ridiculously swollen, but I was able to walk more and more throughout the day.
Those first few care times were painful - emotionally and physically. My feet were so swollen that none of my shoes fit and standing for the length of care times was painful and exhausting. My blood pressure was still high, but better than it had been with the help of the two medications I was taking. It was emotionally difficult watching our tiny babies be moved so very carefully so as not to misplace wires and IVs. Both Elias and Evelyn developed jaundice and received phototherapy. The tiny eye coverings were sized for preemies, but you could still only see their tiny noses with the cannulas and their little lips and chins.
Eli received surfactant his first night in the hospital because he was not producing enough on his own. Surfactant helps keep the air sacs in the lungs open; a lack of surfactant makes it hard to expand the lungs, take in enough oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide. Both Elias and Evelyn were able to start receiving milliliters of milk through their NG tubes at this point.
Tuesday morning, the 12th, I was up and moving and feeling better than I had been. My blood pressure was gradually getting better with the medications, but I was still very swollen (and would remain so for the rest of the week). I was hoping to be discharged, but that was not going to happen until my blood pressure completely stabilized. The most important thing about Tuesday was that we got to do skin-to-skin, or kangaroo care, for the first time. I did kangaroo care with Evelyn and Blake did kangaroo care with Elias this first time. For the duration of their time in isolettes, we switched off which of us held which baby skin-to-skin. I was still pumping around the clock and we were given some information about what it would look like once I was discharged from the hospital. Because we would have a long-term NICU stays, they let us keep a room at the hospital as long as there were rooms available. We struggled with this, because we wanted to be close to the babies, but we would definitely get more rest staying the night at home. Our poor pupper was also super confused by everything going on and needed some love. We had actually already decided to have Blake sleep at home each night (from Sunday night on) so he could get some sleep and Zoe would have someone home part of the time.
Wednesday, the 13th
Blake and I had discussed his work situation. The most likely scenario, according to our NICU nurses, was that the babies would be home about their due date - which was February 23rd. We wanted Blake to be able to take some time off once the babies were home, so he went back to work on Wednesday, December 13th. Blake was able to use his lunch break time to do kangaroo care with the babies. He came to the hospital before and after work and spent every lunch break with the babies from then until Evelyn came home on March 28th.
My blood pressure was finally stabilized and I was discharged mid-afternoon on Wednesday. So, we moved our stuff from the room I had been in for eight days and headed to a new room. Because I hadn't been home in over a week, we decided that for at least that first night, I would come home. Leaving the hospital that day was so incredibly hard. I was leaving my babies. They weren't coming home with me. It became very real at that point. When we got home, I loved on my Zoe. I actually wrote about this in a post earlier this year, but she sniffed at the staples and looked at me like, "What happened?" I avoided a chunk of our house for weeks - because there were baby things everywhere.
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