Friday, October 20, 2006

Joy & Pain...Its Like Sunshine & Rain...

Allie and Brooke have been moved. Mom walked into our girl's NICU apartment to find it completely empty. They had been moved into the Baby Steps side of the nursery during the middle of the night. Kind of like when the owner of the Baltimore Colts moved the team to Indianapolis. Out of the blue, no clue, no warning. Baby Steps is where they send "feeders and growers." Both girls are feeding from 1 bottle a day. Over the next several weeks they will learn to take all 8 feedings a day by bottle. And they want at least one parent there for each bottle feeding...every 3 hours!!! And remeber folks times that by two. Matter of fact, times everything else for the rest of our lives by two. Two cribs, two tuitions, two cars, two weddings...you get the idea. This is a big step for our girls. Cautious, but big! They are now in a less stable environment...much more like home will be...and a lot less sterile. We have seen many kids "graduate" to Baby Steps and now we are all neighbors again. Our girls are the cutest, but don' tell the others!
Mom N' Dad and Grandma took the infant CPR and discharge class. Did you know that your mouth can cover an infants entire face? It can. I wonder if I could fit Brooke's full head into my mouth?...HA! If you have kids and have never taken a first aid/ CPR class I would recommend it. You learn a ton of useful stuff. I hope and pray that I never have to use these skills but I want to be prepared if that time comes.

Mom overheard one of our NICU friends tell the nurse today that she was taking her girl home soon. She has twins, a boy and a girl. Her girl is ready to go home the boy will stay a while. So much emotion flowing both ways if that were to happen to us. Joy and sorrow all in one. But we are both use to that now. I could not imagine taking one of our daughters home without the other. We already had to leave the hospital once without them. Maybe one girl can fly under the insurance radar so they can be sure to go home together.

We have a while yet to go. So that is enough homebound talk for now.

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