Ian and Ryan's Story - The NICU Beginning

Now begins the story of my recovery, Ryan’s 17 day NICU stay, and Ian’s 2 hospital stays (65+ days in NICU, 27 days in hospital (not ICU), a PICU stay (6 days)) and other health problems.

Ian with Daddy

Ryan with Mommy

By the next morning, Saturday, I was walking around a little, trying to pump breastmilk as often as possible (not super easy). Matthew had stayed the night and took me up to see the twins as soon as he could. They were perfect. Ian and Ryan were still on CPAP, but later that morning they didn’t need it anymore. Both boys were in little ‘giraffe’ incubator cribs so they stayed warm. They were so tiny! I was allowed to hold Ryan and Matthew held Ian. By now with all of my other babies I had nursed them multiple times and was ready to go home… this time I had pumped multiple times alone in a room, and was only holding them for the first time. I was on pain meds because of my C-Section, and was not ready to go home yet. Everything was so different.

Ian (above)

Ryan (above)

By Saturday evening I didn’t need to use the wheelchair to get to and from the NICU anymore (24hrs postpartum). I was feeling great! I slept at the hospital again that night and on Sunday morning after I had walked down to the NICU to see the twins and then back to my room again (the NICU was a bit of a walk from my room), my doctor came to see how I was doing. She checked me and said my incision looked good, but I had some really bad bruising going down my legs because I was walking so much. She asked me if I wanted to be discharged that day, or the next. I chose that day. I was very happy to be leaving the hospital because I really didn’t think they needed to give me blood thinner shots in my arm anymore, since I was up and moving anyway, and it was hard to pump at the right times, and try be at the NICU at the right times, AND be in my room when the nurse needed to check me and give me meds. My doctor told me to take it easy and she also warned me to be careful when I pick up my 18 month old daughter, Lydia, when I got home. Nicole and Matthew did a pretty good job of making sure I didn’t pick her up though, they practically followed me around lifting things for me and telling me to sit down. I also taught Lydia, how to climb onto the change table herself so I didn’t need to lift her.

Matthew picked me up Sunday at 4 pm after the second church service. It was weird leaving the hospital without my babies. I felt empty, a little alone. Matthew drove us to the church just in time to catch the tail end of the birthday party going on for Opa H. After the party was over, we headed home, put the 3 kids to bed, then Matthew and I headed to the hospital to drop off my pumped milk, and see our twins. Nicole was still helping us which made it easier for us to visit the hospital two times a day. Ian and Ryan were so tiny and cute. I wanted to hold them both and snuggle them for hours, but they were in separate stalls in the NICU. Holding them together would be impossible since their IVs and monitors wouldn’t reach far enough to bring them together in my arms.

We had so much to learn: what all the beeps on the monitors meant, how to change such small babies, how to hold them without cutting off their oxygen, how quickly they got cold, how to operate the beds, what all the IVs were for, when I could and couldn’t hold them, how each and everything affected them (Ian’s heart rate often jumped up to the 200’s when he was angry), learning how to use the hospital pumps, and so much more! I had to learn so much in such a short time while trying to recover from having twins that it was overwhelming. Both of the twins’ mouths had been swabbed every few hours with my pumped colostrum, this way they were protected by my immune system. They also had been receiving breast milk from the milk bank since all I could get out was colostrum, but by Sunday my milk had come in and they could have little bits of my breast milk every few hours. Ian began receiving human milk fortifier in my breast milk to help him gain weight. Both boys had IVs, Ian’s was in his umbilical cord because his hands were too small for the IVs. Since neither of the boys were nursing or being bottle fed yet, they both also had feeding tubes. Ryan pulled his out multiple times while he was in the NICU, he really didn’t like them.  Over the next few days Ryan graduated to an open air crib and did very well, while Ian needed to stay in the incubator crib for the heat and to be under the ‘billi’ light for his jaundice. Matthew and I visited twice a day, once with the kids, and once alone in the evening.

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Ryan with his older siblings Miriam (6) and Dylan (4)

Lydia (1) and Daddy peeking at Ian

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Ryan and Mommy. (Photo credit - Sherene deBoer Photography)

A day or so after I got home a health care nurse came to see me and check my stitches. She gasped loudly when she saw how bruised I was. I explained that my doctor said it was because I was walking so much so quickly after the surgery, but other than bruising it wasn’t damaging anything. My incision looked great. 5 days post-surgery I stopped taking my pain medication because I noticed that I produced more milk while not on the pain meds (a good reason to keep a pumping journal, which I did). At a week and three days old the twins were transferred to different hospital with a less intense NICU because they were doing so well. By 1 week and 4 days old neither of them needed an IV for fluids or nutrition anymore, and Ryan was starting to take some milk from a bottle. All the echoes, X-Rays, ultrasounds and various tests came back great. Things looked promising. Ian was 2lbs 8oz, Ryan was 4lbs 1oz. We had had many visitors those first 10+ days. We also had many meals made for us and lots of offers for help. At this point I was feeling really great for being just under 2 weeks post-C-section, rolling over in bed was much easier, and I was able to walk around and do most things as much as normal. Although my babies weren’t at home yet, I still had to wake up at night – I needed to pump every 4 hours for 30-40 minutes day or night to keep my supply up. Driving back and forth to the hospital and home again, trying to pay enough attention to all 5 kids in 2+ different places, having no real schedule for anyone, and just trying to recover from a C-Section was stressful and tiring. I wasn’t able to nap during the day, so the sleep I got at night was all I got. (I was usually home from the hospital at 11pm or 12am, went to bed, pumped at 3 or 4am and was up again at 6am to get the older kids off to school.) I’m sure I would have gotten more sleep and had a more relaxing time if everything had been alright, and my twins had come home with me on day one.

Sometime early August we had found out that the school our children were going to attend (grade 1 and Kindergarten) wasn’t going to have a bus driver for our route. We lived 20-35 minutes from the school and it was the opposite direction of the hospital our twins were at. We had no family or close friends that were able drive both our kids every day to school. We asked around for help with this in our school and church community. Just before school started I was in contact with two of our neighbors, one of whom I had never met, they had heard from one of our mutual friends (Dana) about our transportation predicament. Those two women and one of my friends (Laura) offered to drive when they could. They were a big help! During the school year it turned out that we would have intermittent bus service, usually never knowing from one week to the next if we would have bus service at all, so besides those first few weeks, we were never able to make any firm plans with anyone regarding school drop-off and pickup. I was usually scrambling around trying to find a ride for the kids, or I would pick them up myself while trying to pump, feed and change the other kids in the van. Those were VERY hard days. Some of the biggest help came from that same friend (Dana) who had found those two ladies to drive our kids when they could. Dana also organized meals for us during the week so I didn’t have to cook supper, which most often I didn’t have time for. Those drivers and meals were MUCH appreciated!