MerryMommy

Leave them here for weeks? I never thought I'd say this: NICU Nostalgia I spent months praying that my babies would make it full term enough to come right home with me. The thought of leaving them in the hospital and spending days or, worse, weeks commuting to be with them was unimaginable. I always said "I just don't want to have to leave them in the hospital." I had the picture perfect idea of what our first days as a family of four would look like. None of those daydreamed visions involved watching my babies through isolette portholes, with feeding tubes in their noses and IVs in their tiny little arms. The Neonatal attending doctor came to visit me in recovery a couple hours after the boys were born. I remember him coming in and beginning to rattle through the medical needs they had, what sorts of treatments they would receive, and what NICU policies were. I remember that  he said those things, but I don't remember what they were. I sat listening to a bl...

How much is one gram? Wow, really, a dollar bill? He gained 10 dollars! My appreciation for the metric system blossomed in the NICU. I can't recall a time when I really needed it before, but it soon became the highlight of our day. Each night at the 8pm feed we would get to strip our little peanuts down and weigh them.  Their night nurse wheeled the scale over.  We checked last night's chart so we knew the number to beat.  We g ently plopped a freshly-diapered baby on and watched the red numbers flash before settling... Best case scenario: You gained 15 grams! Great work baby! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you!  That's 15 dollar bills--about half an ounce. It seems so insignificant in our English unit vernacular. But it's a heavy accomplishment for a guy who is burning precious calories learning to eat and maintain his body temperature all day.  Some days the numbers didn't change much from the night before. Those nights the nur...