June 25, 2006

By now, you've probably figured out that the girls are home. Otherwise, I would have posted something here! But between feedings every three hours, sleepless nights and trying to keep a toddler entertained, writing has sort of become an elusive pasttime. I have a few minutes now that the girls are fed and Devin and Todd are downstairs.

We started this whole process with the rooming-in experience at the hospital. Personally, I think it was a huge waste of time. I mean, I understand that the situation is different because the girls are preemies and because there are two of them. But really, the only difference is that I was up every three hours to feed them. Otherwise, I may as well have been at home. There was nothing significant about the event.

I was up at 8:00 on Friday morning and, after feeding the girls, I jumped in the shower and got dressed so that I could be ready for discharge. I was ready to get my girls home!

And then I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

With NICU discharge, you have to jump through a lot of hoops before they let you go. I needed to see the respiratory therapist, the physical therapist, the lactation consultant, the doctor and the nutitionist before I could even get the paperwork started.

And, of course, this is a hospital, so each of these people are own his or her own schedule. I was hoping to be out of there by 11:00. We left at 4:45.

It was fun, though, in that Dad, Jean and my stepsister Amanda all came to the hospital to see the babies. They stuck around for the discharge (Todd was there too, of course) and it was this big celebration as they wheeled me out of the room with my two pink bundles in my arms. Dad got lots of video -- It's so awesome.

We arrived home around 5:30 and shortly thereafter, Dad, Jean and Amanda arrived with a full party of fun -- balloons, pink plates, napkins and forks, champagne, etc. ZZ showed up with a seven-foot-tall inflatable stork for the front yard and Dad put out a sign that once read, "It's a Girl," but that he modified to say, "It's Girls!" The entire Devins/Buller/Mylar/Pruetz family dined on Pei Wei and celebrated the twins' homecoming.

The dust cleared a few hours later and it was just me, Todd, Devin and the girls. It was so nice to have the whole family together at last.

The past couple of nights haven't been easy, but did anyone expect differently? Around 4:00 this morning, after only a few brief moments of sleep here and there, I told Todd, "Let's put them in separate cribs and see if they are more comfortable apart than they are together."

Sure enough, with one in the pack-n-play and one in the bassinet, they slept much better. No doubt they love to be together, but they scootch around too much to be comfortable right up on one another when they sleep.

So now I type, bleary-eyed and hazy, but living and so happy to have all three of my kids (wow!) at home.

As soon as I get a little bit of sleep, I'll type more. Remind me to tell the story of our first night at home with the girls and how their apnea monitors, all seven of our smoke detectors and our intrusion alarm all went off at the exact same time. It's a real hoot. :)

With love,
Erin