Week 35 Babies 2 weeks The warm-up before the race!

Snuggle time in the nursery

Sunday the babies are two weeks old...what? Yowza really??? What a roller coaster the last three weeks have been. As slow as my week of hospital bed rest went the last two weeks have been a time warp. I can't believe their progress and just cannot imagine what it would have been like to still be pregnant and in the hospital, if things had gone differently. We feel things worked out the way they were supposed to because Austin needed me at home and my body just couldn't handle the size of our growing babies. Speaking of body size, my recovery has gone fabulously. I have lost most of the 42 pounds and have around 10 pounds that will probably slowly linger. My waist has also shrunk incredibly, I am really in shock that my skin looks normal and I have one tiny tiny stretch mark by my belly button, man I really lucked out! Who's to say what might have occurred if I went to a further gestation. So anyway, back to the babies :) My mom came up so that Paul and I could go alone to be with the babies together for the first time since we were at the hospital. They both gained weight and are eating like champs. Paul bottle fed Kelsey my pumped milk and I nursed Logan. We snuggled with them and had a mini photo shoot of the babies cuddling together. It's only the 3rd time they have been next to each other, I am sure they miss each other very much and they seemed so content with their heads together. I really cannot wait to have them snuggle with each other at home. Paul and I then went to lunch alone which we cannot remember the last time we ate just the two of us and to be honest we aren't sure it will ever happen again lol. Later in the afternoon my mom and I returned and she held the babies for the first time, it was wonderful! So, all in all it was a very good baby day and with no tears!! I also pumped enough to feed both babies in one pump session, that was really exciting for me that my supply has gone up that much in just one week, I am producing double of what I was!!!

Monday  was an interesting day. For the second day in a row Kelsey would not nurse and I had to bottle feed her. Even Logan was not great and drank a bottle much better. I am starting to get freaked out that they are getting too used to bottle feeds. I am only able to go in and nurse once a day so they are not getting enough practice and I truly hope when they get home that they pick it back up because I really would not prefer to pump just to bottle feed. Our big news for the day is that Kelsey has finally surpassed her birth weight AND has broken into the 5 pound world!! Our growing little girl is being quickly chased by her brother which I am starting to think he is going to catch up and pass her very soon! I didn't get much cuddle time with them today because I had to spend all my visiting trying to get them to eat, I pray that tomorrow goes better so that I can just rock and hold them. My time everyday with them is so limited that its small things like this that mean so much to me and set me up for either a good day or a sad tear filled day. I am keeping my depression at a manageable level but I think it's just a given that moms with babies in NICU go through some kind of Postpartum Depression.

Tuesday Kelsey yet again did not want to nurse. I spoke with the lactation consultant and got some tips on getting her back in the groove which will likely go smoother once she gets home. Logan was a good boy and nursed on both sides again( lucky him). Logan also passed the car seat test as we are preparing for him to come home. We found out today that he would be going home tomorrow as long as he has a good night. I was given some prescriptions for him that I needed to fill for home use and we went home to cross our fingers, hope and pray. I installed a car seat base in each of our vehicles really hoping that I didn't jinx ourselves.

Wednesday morning came and I called the hospital right away to see if it was THE day! The nurse said he had a good night but we needed to wait for the doctor to make rounds before it was official! We took our time getting ready and once my cousin Katie arrived to watch Austin, we headed into the hospital. On our way in, we got the call that Logan is officially ready to come home and to make a pediatrician appointment for Friday to finalize the checklist for discharge. We fed Kelsey, ate lunch at the hospital (which has great food BTW) and then went over all the discharge guidelines. There sure are a lot of things you need to watch out for with preemie babies.
1. No being in public with the babies especially grocery and other stores because there are too many germs and chances to get RSV.
2. Take temperatures often to make sure they are warm enough which includes wearing 2.5 layers(hospital style wrap top, fleece jammies and a fleece halo sleeper)
3.Wake babies every 3 hours around the clock to feed a minimum of 40 ml. ( just over an ounce) even at night, no sleep for us :(
4.No extra visitors besides family and a few close friends and limit exposure to children.
5.Absolutely NO bouncy chairs and swings. They must lay flat at all times besides being held(Esophagus is not mature and airway can be pinched and cause suffocation. We have to wait until they are 10 pounds.)
6. No trips and long durations in the car for the above reasons of being in the car seat too long.
7. No naked photos until they gain an appropriate amount of weight to maintain temps.
8. No sleeping together, in order to lower the risk of SIDS they are to each sleep in their own cribs.
9. Parent vaccinations. We need and grandparents that will spend the most time with them need DTaP and the Flu shot.

Logan coming home

I know their are some more rules for preemies but you get the idea, we are on lockdown until they get older and that also means I won't be working for a long period of time in order to limit germs in our home.
After all was said and done we loaded Logan up and home we came!  The first night went fine because my adrenaline was flowing good and I got about 5 hours of broken sleep.
Austin did awesome meeting his new little brother. He had a huge smile to share and he handed over his beloved duckie blanket to Logan, it was very sweet and so cute that he would make such a gesture.

Austin meeting Logan

GiGi meeting Logan

Thursday the first day home with Logan! I had written out a schedule to follow in order to feed Logan and pump milk for Kelsey. It worked out well and I was able to go in and feed Kelsey at her usual 11:00 a.m. and take her milk while cousin Katie stayed home with Austin and Logan. We had a trickier nights sleep this night because I discovered that Logan is a great sleeper which makes nursing hard. I again got about 5 hours of sleep and in the morning I certainly could tell it was catching up to me. It eure is wonderful to have him home though!

napping with the boys

Friday morning Logan had his Dr. Appt. and we learned that he broke into the 5 pound world. Yay! I am doing my job right and feeding him a sufficient amount of milk each day. Also, aunt Michaele brought my Grandma Margaret and Great Aunt Rosie to meet the babies. Katie and Michaele stayed with Austin and Logan so we could go to the hospital and be with Kelsey. We had a very nice visit and lunch together! I discovered that the boys take a nap at the same time everyday so once our visitors went home I got a nap with them. Tonight I also got better sleep (7 broken hours) I learned to just pump at the night feeds and feed Logan bottles becuase it was more time efficient. I woke up feeling so much better and plan to stick with this until Kelsey comes home and we need to learn a new system. We think Austin realizes that Logan is staying for good. He always goes to his bed at night as if to say goodnight and again in the morning to say hello. He does say baby but more often says mwa mwa which is his baby cry sound meaning baby :)

The men of the family all together for the first time

We might have another thumb sucker, when he finds it, he loves it !

Saturday we were hoping that Kelsey would be coming home this weekend so we did some things to get ready, make her Dr. Appt. and she passed her car seat test. We had also switched to a different bottle (Dr. Browns) because they were having too much trouble with the large nipples on our Tommee Tippee bottles. The Dr. Browns are much better for preemies and they did wonderful. Logan and I had another pretty good night and I got about 6 hours of broken sleep. Up until this point I haven't had Paul help during the night except to attend to Austin if he isn't sleeping well. I can manage one baby, we are waiting for Kelsey to come home for him to be up with me at night. I also got another nap with the boys. Kelsey unfortunately had another spell during the evening so now we are looking at later in the next week...so sad she's not coming home but better she is in the hospital for now :(

Naked baby :)

Kelsey alone at the hospital

As you read this you will notice that the babies are now 3 weeks old but that will be in next weekends post as I have been documenting each week daily.