Monday
morning Matthew went back to work, our two oldest kids Miriam (6yrs) and Dylan
(4yrs) went to school, and Nicole, my Mom, Lydia and I went to visit Ian in the
hospital. While we were there Ryan’s hospital called Matthew at work and told
him Ryan was ready to go home. What? Ryan had passed his car seat test
overnight and was ready to be picked up. Matthew called me and told me. That
was a shock! I wasn’t ready yet… I didn’t have any clothes that would fit him,
his bed wasn’t ready. We left Ian’s hospital, went to the mall, picked up some
cute preemie clothes, and went to Ryan’s hospital to pick him up. This was the
first NICU discharge I had ever been at and didn’t realize it would take some
time. While I was waiting, I randomly met a friend in the hospital who was
visiting a mutual friend who had just had a baby. I had time to say hi to both.
Then went back to Ryan to see if he was ready. During the discharge exam the
doctor mentioned that Ryan had a slight heart murmur, and that I would need to
book him a hearing test soon after he was discharged. Other than that he was a
healthy preemie. Ryan was discharged weighing the same as his birth weight –
4lbs 6oz, the smallest baby I had ever taken home! We arrived home just before
the kids came home from school.
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| Ryan ready to come home! |
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| Daddy feeding Ryan his first bottle at home. |
The next few weeks are a bit of a blur. I didn’t keep a journal so it’s hard to remember what
happened when. My Mom flew home to Manitoba shortly after Ryan came home. Ryan did well at home, and
grew like crazy! He was a content baby and slept lots. He loved the car seat
which was a real blessing since we took him to the hospital at least two times
a day to see his twin Ian. Most people are able to keep their newborns home for
a week or more before ever having to go out. Our little 4lb Ryan was a trooper!
He never did get sick with more than a cold. Ryan must have had a pretty good
immune system since hospitals are places you usually want to avoid because they
are so full of germs! Every time we entered or left the hospital I used the
hand sanitizer to slather onto most of the stroller so both Ian and Ryan
wouldn’t get sick. I also usually changed all of Ryan’s clothes before going to
the hospital since I often let the twins nap together in Ian’s bed in the
hospital. The doctors and nurses often took pictures (with permission) of our
precious twins snuggling. Even if they were placed not touching each other in
the crib, they would wiggle till either Ryan had his hand on Ian’s head, or
they were holding hands with each other. Twins have such a special bond! I was
finally able to hold both of my babies at the same time about 3 weeks after
they were born. I was SO happy! Lydia grew up very quickly since she was now
the middle child of 5. She did a great job of taking care of Ryan and Mommy
while Miriam and Dylan were at school. Miriam (gr1) and Dylan (K) did great in
school, which impressed me quite a bit, I had expected them to both be doing
rather poorly since I wasn’t really able to help them much at home. All three
kids did have a few emotional issues due to a prolonged lack of attention, and
high stress environment at home, but they did quite well considering everything
that was going on. Nicole stayed with us
until the end of October. This helped me so much, as she would clean, cook, do
laundry, and babysit etc.
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These boys loved their daily snuggles
Mommy holding her twins together for the first time <3 o:p="">
Ian’s IV in his umbilical cord didn’t last for long, so they
had to shave some of Ian’s hair and put the IV in his head. A thoughtful nurse
saved the hair from Ian’s first haircut for me. Ian had half a mohawk for a
bit, his hair looked pretty crazy till he came home and I could trim it a
little. By the 18th of September, Ian was 3lbs 2oz and Ryan was 5lbs
7oz. Both were gaining steadily. Ian was
transferred from the Stollery NICU to the Royal Alexandria Hospital NICU around
the 25th of September because he was doing so well. (The Stollery
NICU is for very sick babies, and those waiting for surgery) Ian’s large
incision didn’t heal well, since
he was so small and his ostomy bag didn’t stay on for much longer than a few
hours most days. The poop from the ostomy sometimes leaked into the incision,
and often when they changed the ostomy bag they ripped open the incision a
little. Ian was so small the ostomy bag barely fit between the incision and his
stoma.
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| Crazy hair! |
Snuggles
during daily naps in the hospital (Above)
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First family photo – This was taken around the twins’ due date.
October 4th came and went uneventfully. That was
my due date. Now the twins were 6 weeks old. Ian was slowly gaining and we
hoped we could take him home, ostomy and all in a few weeks. We continued to
visit Ian twice a day, and came with the kids on Saturdays and Sunday mornings.
I was still pumping every 4 hours, and taking care of a newborn, all while
trying to keep up with 2 kids in school, a 1 year old, housework, meals etc. I
was very thankful Nicole was still around to help! A very crazy schedule became
reality for us. Thanksgiving came and went. Finally on October 21, 2013 we were
allowed to take Ian home! He was 2 months old and 4lbs 3oz. Now Ian was the
smallest baby I had ever taken home!
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| Ian and Ryan – both finally home. |
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| Nanny (Auntie) Nicole feeding Ian his first bottle at home. |
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| Mommy tandem feeding the twins. |
At home a new
schedule began, although slightly nicer because we didn’t have to drive so
much, it was still crazy around our house. I had to learn to change Ian’s
little ostomy bag, even at 4am sometimes, at first it took me 45 minutes, and
he cried the entire time, most of the time. I felt horrible for my baby, how
much weight did he loose every time he cried so much? How come I couldn’t learn
to do this faster? Was I hurting him, or was he just scared? We visited the
doctor weekly, a dietitian called me for weights, intake and outputs, I was still pumping every 4 hrs. Into Ian’s
feeds I measured extra iron, formula, fats, sodium, and vitamin D. He was also
on nystatin (medication for thrush) from time to time. We now had 3 children in
diapers: Lydia, Ryan and Ian-(peeing). Even with all this craziness going on,
we still had the ‘regular life’ problems. At this time we caught 5+ mice that
had moved into the house in late fall and had been continually invading my pan
cupboard and laundry room, and my live in nanny had to go home. Shortly after
Ian came home we were finally able to have Ian and Ryan baptized. My family
came out to witness the baptism, and my in-laws hosted lunch and supper that
day. When my parents left they took Nicole home with them.
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Nanny Nicole with Ian
and Ryan the day they were baptized.
After Nicole left a friend organized babysitters to come to
my house for a few hours 1 day a week so I could run errands. (The same amazing
lady that had been organizing the meals J).
This was such a blessing since I couldn’t take Ian out because if he got sick
from even the slightest thing he would be admitted into the hospital. For Ian,
even a common cold would be life threatening. Ian’s pediatrician was so worried
about Ian getting sick that for my weekly appointments he had me come to the
office before it was open in the morning, just so I didn’t wait in the waiting
room that was sure the be full of germs. I was instructed to walk right into an
examination room with Ian and wait for the doctor there. My sister-in-law came
over on the mornings of Ian’s early doctor appointments to babysit the kids so
Matthew didn’t have to stay home from work for too long. We loved being home as
a family. Ian seemed happier and we all enjoyed just being together.
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| Tiny Ian with big brother Dylan |
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| Miriam snuggling Ryan |
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| We didn’t NEED 2 of everything J |
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| The ostomy bag changing setup – I would wrap Ian in the spit cloth so his arms didn’t get in the way. Then I used a warm magic bag to warmed the ‘wafer’ (it adheres to the skin better when it’s warm). After I was done changing the ostomy bag I put the warm magic bag on Ian, he loved that. J |
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| Dylan playing with Ian. |
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| All packed up to go back to the hospital. |
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