Life in the NICU

Adrian and his daddy, together for the first time

Nolan and his daddy, together for the first time

Man, I am really bad at blogging!

So it's been exactly 3 weeks and 3 days since the twins were born and they are doing better and better every day. Adrian just hit the 4 lb mark and was moved into an open crib. Nolan is right behind at 3 lb 14 oz and should be in an open crib just like his brother in the next few days. They are getting closer and closer to coming home! I can't wait!
Life in the NICU is stressful, to say the least. There are so many things to learn. We've had to learn what alarm means nothing at all and what alarm means PANIC! Luckily we've only heard the panic alarm a few times and it wasn't even necessarily a time to panic. It just meant that one of the boy's heart rates and oxygen level dropped for just a second and then came right back up. It's pretty common with preemies but I'll admit that I hold my breath each time it happens.
Although the boys are doing great, we have definitely had some scares with both of them. At first they thought that Nolan had entire pieces of vertebrae missing in his neck and were worried that his spinal cord was unstable. They immediately scheduled and MRI at Primary Children's Hospital but it wasn't for a week after the initial scan. That meant that poor Nolan had to be put in this special wrap that didn't allow him to move. Needless to say, we were also unable to hold him. It was so hard not being able to hold our baby but the worry and unknown were the hardest. I don't think I slept that whole week. Finally, on December 7, he had his MRI done. A few days later we found out that his vertebrae were fully formed and that his spinal cord was stable. What a gigantic relief. We did learn that he has some fused vertebrae in his neck but we wont know what that'll mean for him in the long run until he grows more. I really hope that it grows properly and doesn't cause him any problems. His neck moves better and better every day, so I am extremely hopeful that he will be a normal boy and will be able to do anything he wants to.
Then there's the scare with Adrian. I received a call one day a couple weeks ago from the charge nurse at the NICU. She told me that they did an x-ray of Adrian's lungs because they were worried that he had an infection. She said that his lungs looked fine but the x-ray showed a hole in his intestines. The second I heard this I lost it. I was hysterical. The charge nurse continued to tell me that they were going to take another x-ray but if it was as bad as they thought, he would be rushed over to Primary's for surgery and that I should get to the hospital as soon as possible. Luckily my dad was here to take me. It was the longest car ride of my life but we finally made it. Billy had arrived there right before us and was at the sink washing his hands when we walked in. He told me that he was just informed that the x-ray came back negative and that there was no hole but Adrian did have an infection in his tummy and they needed to do some other tests. I was still extremely worried but so relieved that he wasn't as sick as they thought he was. Later that day all the tests came back negative. He had an upset tummy but all they ended up having to do was give him antibiotics and take him off feedings for a few days. The strange thing is that later that night, Nolan's belly did the same thing. They weren't worried about a hole but they took the same precaution with him and took him off feedings as well. A few days later they were both back to normal.
What a scary few weeks. I am so glad that my little guys are doing so much better. They are even starting to breast feed (sorta). They just need to be able to eat on their own and then they can come home. It's still a long ways away but we are slowly getting there!