Celia & Isabel: October 2011

I am sitting here drinking a cup of coffee (with Almond Milk in it but we will get back to that later) thinking about how incredible it is that our NICU stay is now behind us. After 133 days in the NICU, Celia came home on Thursday, September 1st. After 151 days in the NICU, one day short of their 5 month birthday, Isabel came home on Tuesday, September 20th. Leaving the NICU for the final time was such a weird feeling. Along with being overjoyed, Sam and I strangely enough also felt some deep sadness. The NICU had become our home away from home for so long and we had formed such incredible relationships with the nurses over that time. But we soon started to realize that our children were not supposed to live in the hospital, we would continue those relationships outside of the NICU and that our "normal" life was finally going to begin.

Celia, born 1 lb, 4 oz, came home weighing 7 lb, 5 oz. As of yesterday, she is up to 9 lb, 3 oz and 19 1/4 inches long. Isabel, born 1 lb, 5 oz, came home weighing 7 lb, 11 oz. and as of yesterday is up to 8 lb, 8 oz and 21 inches long. Both girls came home on Prevacid for their reflux, 2 diuretics for their pulmonary hypertension, 22-calorie fortifier and a multi-vitamin. At times, it feels like we are still in the hospital with all of the bottles, syringes and measuring tools in our kitchen. Isabel also came home with an NG feeding tube. For follow-ups, Lia still goes to the optometrist for her ROP (stage 2, zone 3 in the left, all clear in the right and the left is still expected to fully resolve on its own), and both girls go to physical therapy, the pulmonary hypertension clinic, get lab work and frequent visits to the pediatrician.

Milestones - we are already reaching them! Lia first rolled over from tummy to back on September 11th and Isa did the same on October 1st. Isa smiles all the time and is so good at focusing, looking at you in the eyes and following things. And this isn't a milestone, but after a very difficult first few weeks home with Lia (crying non-stop, very irritable, fussy beyond belief), we discovered both girls have a milk protein allergy (found by blood in their stools) and were having bad reactions to the cows-milk based formula we are supplementing. We moved them to a hypoallergenic formula, stopped adding a milk-based fortifier in the breast milk and I cut out dairy & soy from my diet ... and it has made a WORLD of difference. I do miss that cheese though!! This allergy is something the girls should outgrow and I can start enjoying that pizza & half-n-half in my coffee again around 9-12 months of age. Speaking of age, this is something we are always asking. When are the girls considered their chronological age (close to 6 months) and when are they considered their adjusted age (2 months old)? And when strangers ask, "Oh, are they newborns?" how much do we get into the story? Answers are, we need to go by their adjusted age for everything except for immunizations, and to those strangers we nod and say, "Yep, they are newborns."

The girls are so different from each other. Isabel continues to be our laid back lady - she is so content and can entertain herself easily. Celia is still our little nut - she is very determined and wants what she wants immediately or all hell breaks loose.

The girls are getting better at sleeping and understanding days from nights. It took a lot of trial and tribulation, but we have our bedtime routine down (bath, breast milk bottle, sound machine and low lights and down around 10 or 11 pm) and last night the pulled together a 6 hour stretch! During the day we try to get tummy time in, move around from swing, to bouncy, to crib and back through rotation and are taking advantage of the Indian Summer going on in Chicago right now to get all the fresh air we can before winter. I never could appreciate until now how incredibly hard it is to have twins! Being out numbered is hard, and adding in all the little extras for us (feeding tube, meds, doc appts, etc.) brought Sam and I to the decision that I would resign from my sales position at CafeMom and become a stay-at-home mom for a few months while we get everyone on track over here. While I consider this more than a full time job, I am excited to be the primary care taker of those ladies during the day and help them to grow to happy, healthy and smiling little girls.