We named you Avery Jo (baby A) and Zoey Marie (baby B) and you were born at 11:30ish pm on September 14, 2010 measuring 2 lbs 14 ounces & 15 1/2 inches long and 3 lbs 4 ounces & 16 1/2 inches long, respectively. Once delivered in the operating room, you were rushed to the NICU with your daddy. From what I heard, those next few hours were CRAZY....perhaps I'll have your daddy add a post with the details someday soon.
Avery
Zoey
The NICU, despite the efforts of the staff, was a pretty scary place to be. It was always a little dark in the room, machines and wires were everywhere, and in our particular case, it was very, very busy there (like a war zone, as your daddy put it, on the night of our admission). While our luck at the time seemed absent, we learned that neither of you needed to be intubated with a tracheal ventilator but instead will only need to be ventilated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). The CPAP machine looked like fighter helmets on you but luckily they were only temporary (two or three days) before oxygen assistance was provided via a regular nose cannula.
Zoey
Avery
In addition, you were provided an IV through your belly button to transfer necessary fluids and a feeding tube through your nose and into your bellies. You both were jaundice so you spent a few days under a billirubin lamp with tiny little glasses to protect your eyes.
You lost several ounces in weight while learning to tolerate feedings rather than relying on your umbilical cords. Zoey, you, in fact, lost about 1/2 pounds before being able to tolerate feedings. This was one of two moments where I cried at the NICU. You looked so frail and we were worried that you might have a digestive tract developmental issue that may require surgery. Luckily, the x-rays came back as normal and it took just a bit of creativity to get you back on track with tolerating your food. Eventually, you once again became the bigger of the two and maintain that status to this day.
Zoey
Avery
You lost several ounces in weight while learning to tolerate feedings rather than relying on your umbilical cords. Zoey, you, in fact, lost about 1/2 pounds before being able to tolerate feedings. This was one of two moments where I cried at the NICU. You looked so frail and we were worried that you might have a digestive tract developmental issue that may require surgery. Luckily, the x-rays came back as normal and it took just a bit of creativity to get you back on track with tolerating your food. Eventually, you once again became the bigger of the two and maintain that status to this day.
Something that I became very fond of after I was released from the hospital was Kangaroo Care. I was able to do this every day with each of you once the CPAP was removed and you were no longer showing symptoms of jaundice. The skin-to-skin interaction was so calming and you both seemed to really love it too. My favorite and most memorable day in the NICU was when I got to hold both of you at once.
Avery, Me, Zoey
My least favorite moment, was when I learned I had a staph infection on my chest near my left arm. One of the NICU nurses instructed me to immediately get it checked out by a doctor. Once I did, the results came back as MRSA, a serious staph bacteria known to occur most often in hospitals. It is highly contagious and results in isolation of hospital patients. We were quarantined into our very own isolated room of the NICU because it was later learned that both of you tested postive for MRSA as well. The worst part of it all was Avery, you got sick from the infection. You showed a fever and clear signs that you were not feeling well. When I got to the hospital to find you outside of your isolette so the nurses could keep a better eye on you, this became the second time that I completely lost it and broke down in tears in the NICU. I felt incredibly guilty for passing this on to you and it was upsetting to learn that you had to go through extensive and invasive testing to be sure that the infection was only limited to the skin. The nurse practictioner had to pull out some spinal fluid to test for meningitis which was not a very pleasant procedure as you can imagine. How frightening that was but luckily the infection did not spread to the brain or spinal cord.
Not quite as dramatic were other little moments that were equally memorable like the time your daddy was finally allowed to hold you. This came once the very delicate IV was removed from your belly buttons and relocated to an arm or, as weird as it sounds, your head.
Zoey, Greg, Avery
Greg & Zoey
Other milestones were just as exciting, like removing your feeding tubes and learning to bottle feed and burp you. Another was the time when you first wore an actual outfit instead of just being swaddled in a diaper. You finally looked like real people, albiet really tiny people.
Avery
Zoey
And when you wore your very own preemie outfits from home.
Zoey
Avery
Also, the time that the grandparents got to hold you as well as your first baths.
Zoey & Grandpa
Grandma & Avery
Of course, nothing was more exciting than the day you were discharged from the hospital and were finally transported to your real home! Avery and Zoey, after 6 long weeks in the NICU, you came home on October 29, 2010, just in time for Halloween!
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| Avery on Halloween |
We want to thank everyone at the NICU for all of their excellent care they provided our little girls. We will never forget you: Andrea, Sandy, Amy, Shelby, Ruby, Jane, April, Liz, Lisa, Tiffany, Sara, Cheri, Judy, Nancy, Mark, Ann, Maggie and John.
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