June 8, 2006

Well, it's been another eventful day in the life of the Pruetz twins.

I walked into the NICU this morning at about 9:00 in an effort to feed Gracie. When I was up there last night, she never woke up for breast or bottle feeding, so I was feeling like I had missed out on the daily experience. Hoping she would be awake and ready to eat, I decided to get there for one of her morning feedings instead of waiting until late at night.

As usual, I walked through the doors of the NICU, through the pink room and made a left into the white room. As I peered down the long, narrow room, I noticed that the station where they were yesterday held only one bed. My heart skipped a beat -- one of them was taken back to the pink room again. Why hadn't anyone called me?

Before I could panic, though, I realized that the bed that was in their place was not Faith's or Grace's. It was a boy. Hmmm...I'm certain both of my twins are girls. I am sure I would have noticed by now if they weren't. I mean, I change their diapers daily and all...

A nurse noticed me looking perplexed (it's a normal thing for me) and said, "Are you looking for your baby? We did some switching around last night."

I told her yes, that I was looking for the Pruetz twins and she said, "Oh right this way."

She led me back through the white room and just before we hit the doorway to the pink room, we turned. Hmmmm...there's another room? I was unaware of this. I'd never really taken notice. The door was sort of nestled back behind the front desk and pretty unassuming.

Sure enough, though, there were my girls, just inside the door. Their nurse, Javier, who has been their nurse a number of times, welcomed me to the blue room.

"What's the blue room?"

Apparently, it's the last step on the way out the door. I thought that the white room was the last step, but I guess I was getting ahead of myself. Javier told me that babies are discharged from the white room all the time, but that the blue room was really where most were discharged to go home from.

Well how proud was I? I was beaming from ear-to-ear. My babies are in the blue room... My babies are in the blue room...

Of course, my heart aches for the little ones (and their parents) who are still in the pink room. Like Jadin, who was across from Grace during her first week. Or the little 24-weeker who was brought in when Faith was back in the pink room this past weekend. They have long, long roads ahead of them. It gave me a lot of perspective in just how lucky we have been. Our girls were small, but they're pretty strong and healthy.

I said hello to both of my over-achievers and sat down to nurse Gracie. Luckily, I had called Javier just before I entered the hospital and told him I was on my way. He had The Too (remember -- Faitharoo and Gracie Too = The Roo and The Too) all wrapped up and ready to go. And boy, was she. She was wide awake and looking around with those big, blue eyes that just make my heart sing. I just had to laugh -- she's so cute.

I put Gracie on the Bobby (nursing pillow) and she immediately turned her head toward me. She was ready to eat and instinct was taking over! She nursed for about ten minutes on one side, but started to fall asleep. I switched sides with her, but she was still pretty sleepy, so I gave her the bottle. She took 13 mL and was tube-fed the rest. What a pro!

Afterwards, I Kangarood The Roo and spent some good, quality snuggle time with her. Bliss, as usual.

Todd called from the NICU just a few minutes ago and asked a question I've been dying to hear for three days now: How would you like to come up here tonight to feed Faith?

I was so excited! She's ready to breast/bottle feed! I can hardly contain my excitement! This is one of the final steps before she comes home and it means that she's catching up with Gracie, who has been consistently a few days ahead of her. Now if we could only get her to maintain her body temperature...

So, I'm outta here tonight to go try this whole thing out. I was pretty sure Gracie was ready when we started earlier this week -- she was showing all sorts of signs. I'm not so sure that The Roo is that ready, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up that she'll be as good at this as Gracie right off the bat. But I know she'll catch on. I just need to be patient.

Thanks for sharing in our excitement. We could possibly be only days away from having our whole family together. It just makes my eyes well-up with tears. God is so good.

Blessings,
Me