NICU Life - Week 1

It’s been 6 days since our boys arrived. As you probably figured, they are spending their time at the hospital NICU and will be there for 3-5 more weeks due to their prematurity. When you look at the specific challenges that come with prematurity, there are pretty much 4 categories: feeding, respiratory, neurological, and cardio. 

·  Feeding - at birth, they were both fed thru an IV (sugar, protein, fats) and began trophic feeds of breast milk through a tube that goes into their tummy to stimulate digestion. Since then, Carter has advanced to eating my milk alone and is continuing to increase his feeds. Logan is still relying on both, but he's getting weaned off the the IV. We are beginning to try eating at the breast, but their jaw muscles are just going to need some time to get stronger. Learning to suck, swallow, and breathe at the same time is a major milestone.

·  Respiratory - they are breathing on their own, but all their respiratory support is designed to help their lungs stay open and make breathing less of an effort so they can use more energy on gaining weight. Still, we have made baby steps in the right direction, advancing from a large scary-looking device called CPAP to a nasal cannula which looks like 2 little tubes going into their noses. Occasionally, preemies forget to breathe (this is called apnea) because they wouldn't have to do that if they were still in utero, so to help them remember, they get small doses of caffeine. 

·  Neurological - the effects of prematurity on the brain will not be fully known for a long time. Things like cerebral palsy and autism get diagnosed later in life when preemies are not hitting their "adjusted age" milestones (they are 8 weeks premature, so their adjusted age is -8 weeks and will be 0 when they are 8 weeks old). However, we do have an ultrasound of the brain scheduled for Sept 13^th at 34+1 which will tell us if there is any bleeding in the brain.

·  Cardio - the main issue with heart prematurity is occasional decelerations in the pulse (this is bradycardia). Sometimes, they are caused by apnea (forgetting to breathe), sometime the baby just gets too comfortable in their sleep and needs to be patted or rubbed to get their heart rate up.  This is a typical preemie issue and is a prime example of why there are 2 babies to each nurse at the NICU - they really do need extremely close monitoring before they grow out of these issues.

Before they can come home, they don't need to be a certain weight, but they do need to 1) maintain their body temperature on their own, 2) suck/swallow/breathe without help for 8 feedings a day, and 3) breathe room air. As of now, all the issues I explained above are typical and expected - nothing is permanent as far as we know today. But it’s a lot to take in for new parents and comes with a heavy emotional toll.  We have been so lucky to have a ton of support around us - from you guys, our families, from my moms of multiples club, and from the hospital preemie group. We also have an amazing team of nurses who take care of our boys. They are all extremely diligent and treat each child as if they were their own. All the nurses have commented that Logan and Carter are equally feisty and will be a lot of fun down the road.

I am sure within a week, the lifestyle of daily trips to the NICU will be second nature for us. For now, we just have to celebrate the baby steps we have made & put one foot in front of the other every morning. We are optimistic that our little guys are fighters and will soon be coming home with us. Each day is a milestone when it’s your child... 

We now get why people told us that life of a NICU parent is a rollercoaster – you have good days and you have not so good days with setbacks.  Two steps forward, one step back. One would think that in a way a parent of a NICU baby would get to “rest” more, but while we don’t know any different, I can tell you that this is the most testing time of our lives.

I made it my priority to establish my milk supply as soon as possible and thankfully that hasn't been an issue. I continue to impress all the lactation consultants that come to visit, but it comes at a cost of pumping every 2 hours around the clock.  M has been my main caretaker this entire time and frequently got up at night with me to help. Even now at 5 days postpartum, he still has more on his plate than ever. It’s almost like we’re dealing with all the same challenges of parenting as other people, but our family is still not 100% complete. It will be that way until the boys get to come home one day when they are ready. With NICU babies, there is also the separation anxiety of coming, going, calling nurses for updates, etc. I am tired of hearing everyone from nurses to doctors to case managers telling me that my risks of postpartum depression are greater than other people. It’s not something I can control and we will need to be strong for them together. 


Logan has dirty blonde hair and Carter has dark brown hair. Both of them have deep blue eyes.