New Beginning

To be honest, it was a rough night. We need a better workspace for James's care, and we're not in a routine yet, so everything took a long time. Fortunately, the boys were fantastically good; Matthew was starving when we got home from the hospital, but then slept really well, and James slept all the way home but then enjoyed sitting with us or watching his mobile. I was worried that it was going to be really stressful for him to be away from the only "home" he's ever known, but as far as I can tell, he's just really interested in all the new surroundings.

And the whole flu thing was really stressing me out; the NICU doctor said "just use good handwashing", but realistically, with two babies at home, keeping every blanket, burp cloth, pacifier, etc., separate and washing our hands in between the two of them every time is just not going to happen. We were trying (and still are), but on top of all the other demands of twins, it's crazy-making.

And then James threw up pretty much his entire feeding this morning, which was of course the one with all his medications in it. I gave him a bottle just a little while ago, though, and so far so good with keeping it down.

We went to the pediatrician today (note to discharge coordinators: did you really have to schedule the appointment exactly at James's feeding time?), and she was great. She reassured us (me) that they'd seen a lot of mild cases of the flu, that any exposure for Matthew had probably already happened, that they were on call after hours, and that at the first sign of a fever or illness they'd give him Tamiflu. So hopefully I can stop worrying that giving Mattie the wrong paci will be a death sentence. (Once again I have made a wonderful first impression with medical personnel by crying through the entire hour-long appointment.)

We're so glad that James is finally home, but in retrospect we maybe should have waited until this morning. The doctor called us with the news of the possible discharge late enough that the hospital pharmacy couldn't fill our prescriptions in time (and "just running out to another pharmacy" isn't exactly a simple matter with a new high-needs baby coming home, especially since two of the meds have to be specially compounded, and it was close to 8 PM by the time we were leaving), and since James has the flu Mike had to assemble a second crib at one in the morning (because we had been planning to have them in the same crib but didn't want to put the boys in the same one just yet). But when the doctor called and gave us the choice of last night or tomorrow, it didn't feel like much of a choice; what kind of parents would we be if we just left him there? I'm a little sad that his discharge was on a cold rainy night when almost no one we knew was in the NICU to say goodbye to (though on the bright side, one of Matthew's primaries was there on the night shift and one of James's favorite nurses came by to hold him before he left), rather than on a nice sunny day like today. I guess I'll just add it to the list of things that didn't go as planned with this whole experience.

So we're stressed out right now, but we're still very glad James is home, and we're looking forward to getting in a better routine so we can actually spend more time enjoying the babies instead of just trying to keep up with their needs.