Finally...

Well, at least we have one baby at home. Last night we brought Saoirse home with us from the hospital. That made three weeks and one day that she was there. We now have a ton of medical appointments to go to. Pediatrician, orthopedic surgeon, ultrasound, ophthalmology (although I am going to do this exam myself. There's nothing wrong. She just needs a routine screening.) and physical therapy.

I think for a first night we did pretty well. She feeds every 3 hours. I stayed up with her to do the 1 am feeding. Gwen got up for the 4 am. I did the 7, Gwen the 10 and so forth. It takes about an hour to get the baby up, get the bottle ready, change her (sometimes once before and once after), feed her, then put her back to bed. I am hoping this routine gets shorter once we have it down better (and when they are strong enough to get all their food from the breast). We'll die trying to feed two children if it doesn't. It is amazing having her here. It is a lot more worrisome too, of course. When I put her down after the 1 am feeding, I tried to sleep. The crib is in our bedroom, and every time Saoirse made a sound, I got nervous, thinking something was wrong, and got up to check her. Obviously, I didn't get a lot of sleep but Gwen and I both managed to get some, as opposed to some horror stories I have heard where babies refuse to sleep and parents stay up non-stop for the first few days. Luckily, Gwen's mom is coming to save the day tomorrow, because once the week starts, it is going to be hard to go to work after these nights of little sleep.

As a policy, the hospital sends all premies home on a monitor. These monitors are not as nice as the ones in the NICU. It is a strap around her chest that checks for breaths and heart rate. If the strap moves, for instance every time you feed her, the alarm goes off all the damn time. It is really a pain and Gwen and I were told that they should be on the monitor for a few months. We'll see about that.

Right now Gwen and Saoirse are napping and it may be the cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Warm fuzzies popping everywhere.

Rowan is still in the NICU but she is doing well. She weighs 4lbs4oz. Her nurse is going to pull her NG tube (tube used to supplement her feedings) tonight. As long as she can gain weight by feeding on her own, and maintain her temp., she should be coming home soon. Which sounds great, but right now having one home while its the weekend seems like a ton of work, so we'll see what happens when they are both here.

I must admit, I really enjoyed having Saoirse all to myself earlier today when Gwen went to visit Rowan. After my initial panic of course. Even still, its hard to imagine one person taking care of two at once.

Thanks for reading. We'll keep you posted.