When the twins were born, they were given apgar scores like all newborn babies. The disadvantage of having a nursing background is that I know a little too much. The babies really didn't cry when they came out and what little crying that they did was very weak. I kept asking, "is the baby ok, is he crying, how is he?" The room was a little quieter than was comfortable for me and I knew there were a lot of people in the room for the babies. The doctor asked someone what the apgar scores were and someone responded, "baby a is 7 & 9 and baby b is 3 & 6". I knew that these are not great scores. You typically want to see a 7 & 9 at the lowest. Apgar scores are based on 5 different things, activity, pulse, muscle tone, appearance, respirations. I knew a 3 & 6 were terrible and baby b was not doing well. The NICU doctor stabilized the babies enough to take them to the nursery. Before heading out of the room, the Doctor gave Jordan to Lynar since he was doing so well and he carried Jaxon and brought both boys to me to give them a kiss and see them before they took them away. They had to put Jaxon on oxygen right away and decided he had to be taken to another NICU hospital at Willow Creek. I got to see each of the boys one more time (or attempt to see them since they were wrapped in blankets and in a transport box). This was the last time I was able to see the babies until I was released from the hospital 48 hours later. It was hard, but I knew that the babies needed a little extra help and it was best for them.
I really want to breast feed the boys and so that night I started pumping and what I pumped, Lynar would take down to give to the babies. He was my courier for a couple days and driving back and forth the 30 minute drive was a little busy for him. Plus, we had to juggle our other 4 kids since my mom hadn't come into town yet. Thank goodness for good friends to help us out during that time. I healed pretty fast this time and getting up was not as bad as my 2 other c-sections. I was left alone most of the time since there was no baby to check on me with and so I was learning how to move in bed by myself and do things quicker than if I had a baby to sit and hold. It had hurt so bad the whole pregnancy to walk that the c-section was a breeze and it felt better to walk.
I was discharged from the hospital on January 23rd in the early afternoon and was able to go straight to the hospital to see my babies. They were hooked to an iv, and a bunch of other wires to monitor them. Jaxon had been on 4 liters of oxygen the first day, then they moved him down to 2 liters and the day I was released they took him off of the oxygen. They were in a big room with lots of other babies, but by that night they moved the babies to a private room where we could have some privacy with the babies and sleep on an uncomfortable bed if we wanted. While I was still healing I did not stay the night so that I could sleep better in my own bed at home and finish healing a little. My mom flew in that night and so Lynar picked her up from the hospital and then came and picked me up. For the first week, we came home late at night and as the nights went on, it got harder and harder to leave my babies at the hospital. I know the nurses would take care of my babies, but it is hard to leave a newborn with a stranger no matter what the situation is. The nurses would encourage me to go home and sleep and get rest which bothered me because I felt like I should be at the hospital with the babies.
The babies were mainly in the hospital for feeding/growing. Both boys had a hard time finishing a bottle and had most of their feedings in a feeding tube. They needed to take a full bottle (which was 55 ml for Jaxon and 42 ml for Jordan) for a full day without having to put any of it down a feeding tube before they could have the tube taken out. Then they needed to go without the feeding tube for 2 days before being discharged. It seemed like they would be there forever since they had a hard time doing this little chore. To finish a bottle took a lot of work for them and for us. It usually took 30 min for such a small amount and they wouldn't even finish it all the way. It seemed like 2 steps forward, 1 step back. We had some great nurses and some so-so nurses and we realized that the nurse made a huge difference with how the babies ate. If the babies had a good day, they would have a bad night because they had over done it during the day.
The nice thing about being in the NICU is that we were able to have the babies monitored so well and I did get a lot of rest knowing that if they had problems we would know right away. Every new mom knows the worry that goes along with a newborn. Another nice thing is that the babies were trained to fall asleep on their own since we didn't hold them much. Letting them sleep uninterrupted was really good for them to help them to grow. One thing we really enjoyed doing was kangaroo care where we would put the babies skin to skin and let the babies feel our warmth. Lynar was able to do this as well and it was fun to see him enjoy this whole experience. I nursed when I could, but it was hard for the babies and so we didn't do it often. I pumped every 2 hours for the first little bit and then did every 3 hours. I was keeping track of every little thing the babies did as much as possible.
Finally on February 2nd the babies had reached their feeding goal of taking everything by bottle and they were able to have their tubes taken out. The next day I woke up and the nurse told me that the babies would be able to go home that day since there was a bad storm coming the following day and they wanted to get me home before it hit. The day was busy getting some OT testing done, circumcisions done, and also getting car seat tests done. We were not cleared to go home until almost 10 pm. THe kids had not been able to see the babies since no kids are allowed in the NICU so they were super excited.
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