Little Hailee should be coming home tomorrow. She was supposed to come home last week and couldn’t at the last minute because of an apnea spell, so we are hoping and praying that everything goes well today and tomorrow. We think that she has just been holding off so that she can come home closer to when her sissy does J Hannah is doing well, just not quite ready to come home because of her continued difficulty with feedings. She is taking about 6 out of 8 feedings through bottle now, so she is getting there. She does choke sometimes and then her oxygen level goes down. Term babies do the same thing, they just aren’t hooked up to a monitor so you don’t know it. Because our girls are hooked up to monitors, the nurses and doctors can’t ignore the spells. Paul and I are so sick of the monitors beeping! Paul swears that before we leave the NICU for good that he is going to drop kick a monitor into the wall. I feel like I hear the beeping in my sleep! It’s not just our girl’s monitors we hear all day, it’s all of the babies! There are about 50 babies in the NICU right now, and the beeping is LOUD…so you can only imagine!
We are so excited for our friends and extended family to finally meet our little ones! It is so hard to have these sweet, adorable little girls that no one has been able to see and hold! Not even Leah or Ryan have held them yet (only parents and grandparents can hold in the NICU). As we are sure we will be having many visitors over in the next few weeks, we just want to make sure that everyone knows they should feel well before coming over. I hate to be one of "those" moms, but it is very dangerous for a premature baby to get sick. A preemie's lungs are the very last organ to develop. They don't have nearly as many air sacs as a mature baby's lungs do. Their airways don't have as big of openings, so it is easier for mucus to close them off completely. If one of our girls would even get the slightest cold, it could send them right back to the hospital. A mild cold or illness to one of us would be a serious illness to a preemie. They would pretty much definitely get RSV and could get pneumonia very easily. The last thing we want is to go through one of our girls getting sick. So please, if you have even the smallest sore throat, cough, cold, runny nose, etc, please wait until you have been well for a few days before visiting. I have heard of preemie moms making everyone that comes over wear masks which I think is a bit extreme, but we wanted to put it out there so that everyone knows the dangers associated. We trust that people will make their best judgements when coming to visit the girls for the first time and for the next few months. We are happy that flu season is almost over and hopefully warm weather is on the way!
Sorry, I don't have any new pictures to share! Tomorrow and throughout the weekend we will take lots of Ella and Hailee! As excited as we are to have Hailee coming home, I hate leaving Hannah in the NICU alone. I'm sure I will be crying on our way out the door for both reasons...bringing one home, but leaving one there. We plan to continue to visit Hannah as much as we can. I will most likely leave for the NICU as soon as Paul gets home in the evenings and can stay with Ella and Hailee. We are really hoping that Hannah can come home next week or the week after at the latest so that our family can finally all be together!
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