NICU

 11 days for Oliver and 12 days for Hudson in NICU. That is how many days Jon and I had to go to sleep at night knowing that someone else was taking care of our babies. Thankfully a few of those nights we were just down the hall from them in my hospital room, but the majority of those days Jon and I would have to pack up for the day and leave Hudson and Oliver at the hospital so we could see our big boy at home. 

Hudson was admitted to the unit from the delivery room because of some respiratory problems, with Oliver following about an hour later with the same problems. They were placed on oxygen and CPAP machines (the kind that is used for sleep apnea) among other things. Once their lungs developed enough that they could breath on their own they had to work on eating.

 

At the hospital the boys were hooked up to IV's, feeding tubes, and monitors that made holding them and looking at them the same time very difficult. Thankfully there are specially designated twin rooms so we had a quiet corner of the unit were the boys shared a room and a nurse. We had to wait a little over a day before we could hold Hudson and 2 days before we could hold Oliver, which meant that on my birthday I finally got to hold both of my babies. Definitely the best birthday present ever! It was about a week before we got to hold them at the same time and finally really get a start to try to tell them apart.

Gabriel got a chance to come up and meet his brothers the day after they were born. I kept wondering how he was going to do, because it felt like we weren't able to explain the babies to him in a way he could understand before they were born. He did so well! He was so excited to see them, but understood that he needed to whisper and kept saying "Baby!" and kept blowing kisses to the boys. You could tell he when he got used to the NICU because he started getting louder and running around more. Thankfully eventually we were moved to a smaller unit where Gabriel could act like a big brother and not disturb others too much. Once the twins figured out eating we got to bring them home. Oliver was a little more determined and came home the day before Hudson was released. That allowed Jon and I one night to adjust to one baby before bringing both home.

Having your babies in the NICU is not something anyone would ever want to experience, but we could not have asked for better care for the boys. The whole stay we had nurses and physicians that made us feel comfortable with all the wires and tubes connected to our kiddos and made us confident that they were in the best hands possible. Jon can tell you that I am pretty nit-picky about nurses anyway, but our nurses and physicians were truly the best!  Even better though was getting to have our entire family of FIVE finally home all together!