Thoughts on the NICU - 1 of 4

Since we are 19 weeks into this adventure with twins, I need to get my thoughts on paper (blogger) about our 5 week stay in the NICU.  We have been home with the boys for 14 weeks now and our world has changed, and it’s definitely for the better.  Our little boys are the sweetest and cutest little boys that I have ever met, but I might be biased.  Now on to my thoughts…

The other day, I was reading the blog of a friend of a friend of a friend.  I got pretty deep into this girl’s blog because she shared almost the same story as me except that she had triplets.  It was pretty amazing how much of the same sentiments that she had that she had put on paper that she somewhat inspired me (without even knowing it) to put my story down.  It was a definite learning process.

• I went into the hospital knowing that I would not come home until I had the babies and also knowing that once I had the babies that would have a stay in the NICU.  I didn’t know how long that stay would be, but I knew that the babies would not be strong enough to make it home with me the day or even a week after they were born.  It gave me a feeling of inadequacy since I wasn’t able to care for my babies on my own immediately.  It’s hard to be a parent or even grasp the concept of being a parent when you aren’t actually caring for your own babies.  
• On the other hand of this inadequacy is opportunity.  We were able to learn so much from the nurses that were caring for our babies that we would not have known if we had been able to take our babies home with us.  I am actually very thankful for the time that the babies spent in the hospital because I was able to make a full recovery from my c-section before they came home.  I’m not sure how I would have been able to care for both babies and recover myself had I brought them home immediately after birth.  Ultimately, I think that the LORD prepared us by allowing us to have excellent nurses caring for Truett and Ellis for the first 5 weeks of their life.
• It was such an eye opening experience to be in the NICU.  We were obviously not the only parents seeing their babies in the hospital on a daily basis.  We actually got to know the two other twin parents while we would scrub in daily.  We could cheer each other on as we each got closer to our goals of going home.  We also got to see some very somber times in the NICU that no one would want to experience.  I will never forget the day that the nurses called me at home to tell me that the NICU was on lockdown and would be until further notice.  I knew that it was because of an incident with a baby that I had witnessed earlier in the day.  When we came back that night and realized that the baby wasn't there, our hearts were heavy for the family.  I give thanks to the Lord for blessing us with happy and healthy babies who just needed a little jump start in life by a stay in the NICU. 

                                         

Stay tuned for the next installment of our NICU stay...