Been a little busy!

We got to room in with Sophia on Friday night.  We got our little girl right around 7:30pm and hung out in the room all night.  She was a sweet little thing and cried only when hungry, and right on cue about every 3 hours.  We would feed and change her and she would go right back to sleep.  About an hour after we would put her down, the NICU would call and David would go feed Annabel, who was still in the NICU.  It was a fairly sleepless night, me sleeping in a labor and delivery bed (not the definition of comfortable!) and David sleeping on a hospital love seat (even worse!).  We loved every minute of it, though, and every time we would wake up to a crying baby, we would smile and say "can you believe we have our baby?"  I gave Sophia a pep talk before I put her to sleep telling her to eat well all night so she could MAYBE come home tomorrow.  The feeding champ that she is, she of course ate super!  The nurse came in around  2am to check her vitals, and everything was perfect.

Sophia after a feeding at the hospital

Mom holding Sophia on our first night alone

The NICU called at 7am the next morning for Annabel's feeding, and I got up for the day, too.  David was gone for almost an hour, and I had no way to contact him since I couldn't leave the room with the baby.  At about 8am, he burst into the room and shouted "Rise and Shine! Our babies are coming home!" I was confused and asked if he meant just Sophia, and then he explained to me that there was a new neonatologist on today who looked at Annabel and said she could come home--she was in her car seat doing the test to make sure she didn't have any de-sats (drop in oxygen levels) in the car seat for 90 minutes.  The doctor basically determined that our pediatrician could track the same things that they were tracking (weight gain and feedings) and there was no reason for the girls to be separated.  We were shocked, obviously!  There had been absolutely no mention of Annabel coming home anytime soon.  (We did later find out that there was another mom in labor with twins, who also had chicken pox, and they were already at their max capacity, so that MAY have had something to do with her early release.)

Everything has gone perfectly since they arrived home!  I was pretty worried about Annabel's ability to take in enough food since she had struggled to do so in the NICU, but she has been amazing! Here and there, she will take only half of her bottle (maybe twice since she came home), but then other times, she will demand more than what we give her, so it has all evened out!  We are using an iPad app to track all of the feedings and diapers, and the girls are right on track with taking what they need to and also getting rid of what they need to.  Both girls are on small amounts of oxygen, so we have tubing all throughout our house, but it's been no big deal.

The girls checking out their living room!

 The first afternoon we came home, my dad was arriving from New York, so Lauren and my  mom left us alone with the babies for a few hours.  We decided to put their cosleepers up in our room (basically two bassinets, one on each side of the bed) and take a nap with the girls.  We got all settled in, both girls settled in and sleeping with about 2 hours before their next feeding was due.  We got in bed, and David and I remarked at how crazy it was that "we did it" and here they are, home with us.  As soon as we closed our eyes, little Sophia started crying! Both of us opened our eyes and looked at each other and grinned...here we go!  We ended up having to feed and diaper both girls again and wound up with about an hour of sleep, but we were deliriously happy, as crazy as that sounds.

We hadn't told anyone that both girls came home instead of just Sophia so that we could surprise my dad.  They came in and both girls were still sleeping in their cosleepers in our room.  We brought him in the room and I picked up Annabel to show to him.  He remarked that she looked so much bigger than in all the pictures and then said "Hi, Sophia!"  We all giggled and he asked why we were laughing, and I told him that it wasn't Sophia... he looked around and saw little Sophia in the other cosleeper and was so thrilled to see that both girls were home!

Grandpa meeting the girls

We took them on their first outing today to the pediatrician visit, and our girls are thriving!  We were admittedly a little nervous because the NICU nurses repeatedly warned us that if the girls went home and then didn't gain weight, they would end up back in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit).  Annabel weighed 5lb 10oz, which is above her birthweight, and significantly above where she was when she left the NICU, and Sophia weighed 4lb 14.5oz, which again, is significantly above her discharge weight and above her birthweight!  The pediatrician told us they were perfect babies.  We agree!  (As a side note, nobody has been able to hear Annabel's heart murmur since a day before she was discharged from the NICU, so we are crossing our fingers that it has closed.  We have an appointment with the pediatric cardiologist in 4 weeks for a follow up.)

The girls checking each other out at the doctor's office

Now we are just enjoying our time with the girls and getting used to their schedule.  We still have to feed them every three hours, whether they like it or not. I have to give a great big shout out to my awesome friends in the neighborhood.  They have been providing us with delicious meals since the girls have been in the NICU, and it has been an absolute lifesaver.  We are so, so grateful for them and for everyone who has reached out to help during this time (including our parents and Aunt Lauren, who have also been lifesavers!)

Annabel

We will continue to update the blog as we love to have a record of our girls, and we are so glad this is no longer a means of communicating about how our girls are doing on their NICU journey, and instead is now going to be documenting their journey at our home!