The NICU Experience

The babies have now been in the NICU for 19 days. I can't believe how far they have come, from IVs, isolettes, and feeding tubes to open cribs and oral feedings around the clock. It was so hard at first to accept that they needed to be in the NICU when we wanted to take them home so bad, but now I can see their development and progress I realize how much help they needed.
For those of you who have never had a baby in the NICU this is what I have learned throughout our experience. When the babies were first born we couldn't hold them for too long because they couldn't keep their body temperatures up and they couldn't have to much stimulation or they would lose weight. This is because their bodies weren't ready to be outside of the womb. Their bodies weren't ready to digest food, so they started with IVs and then just a few milliliters of milk. Then as they grew they gradually got more. Whenever I go into the NICU I have to wash my hands and then if I touch my phone or camera I have to sanitize. Babies who are premature have lowered immune systems too and if they get sick it could be fatal. I started out going every 6 hours to visit the girls, then as they became stronger and started nursing more I got to go more often. Now I am going every 3 hours to feed them. They still need lots of sleep and can't get too much stimulation because they need to grow and their brains are still developing.At first I just wanted to know when they could come home, I wanted them to tell me a day, but now I understand that the babies have milestones that they need to meet before they can go home and they have to do that on their own time.
It has been really amazing to me that Kinley and Karter have been so similar, their weights have been within an ounce nearly the whole time, their reactions to new medicines, their billiruben levels, everything so close. The Dr. doesn't think they are identical but they like to do things together. They are already developing different personalities, and they have a little different look, I can finally tell them apart. The girls are so alert and love to look around, Kinley loves to stare at her monitor, she watches the colors and movement, it is amazing. Karter also likes to watch everyone, one of the nurses put pictures in their cribs for them to look at too, they will just stare at them, so funny. All in all our experience has been very positive, the nurses have been so good to be patient with us and explain everything. Also it has been good to visit with other parents who have preemie babies. Having Kinley and Karter in the NICU has definitely been hard. Not being able to see my kids and husband everyday has been really hard, and I look forward to the day when we can take the girls home and have our family all together.