As the title suggests, we have a baby home now. We were both convinced it’d be Mallory that would come home first. Meanwhile, nurses kept saying it’s always the little ones that seem to pull ahead. Instead, it was Taylor in the middle that hit all her milestones—defying all expectations, which is pretty on-brand for our little family these days.
We’re about to find out what all the lack of sleep fuss is about. That should be fun. Of course, once you’ve emotionally prepared yourself for three babies, one sounds kind of easy. The good news is I hear NICU babies are the best sleepers. And boy, if that isn’t the case. She sleeps through everything, plus she’s got a sleep schedule programmed into her. That said, it hasn’t even been a day yet. So, maybe I’ll eat these words. We’ll see.
In all honesty, the journey out and home was pretty uneventful. They did the discharge, which amounted to some instructions and next steps. Then we put little Taylor in her car seat, and she fell asleep. We loaded up and drove home in our sweet new van (more on that later), she continued to sleep. Once home, we had lunch while she slept. A friend described this part as “paperweight mode,” which was spot on.
How they’re all progressing.
The girls are still holding to their A to C, big to small system religiously. Let’s take a look at some sweet stats.
Mallory: 5 pounds, 9 ounces. She’s gained a pound in the last couple of weeks. Actually, spoilers: all of them gained about a pound. She is currently learning to do her bottle feeds with mixed results. That’s basically all that’s holding her back from coming home.
Taylor: 5 pounds, 8 ounces. She’s up about a pound as well. She took to bottle-feeding like a champ. She actually finished her first two, fizzled out for a week, then got the hang of it full time. It was an ill-timed brady episode that delayed her arrival home. Otherwise, she would have been home nearly a week ago.
Hannah: 4 pounds, 7 ounces. She’s got the spirit but struggles with her bottles. Hannah has also taken to rolling on to her right ear, folding it over. It doesn’t look too bad in the above image, but trust me, it’s getting messed up. Typically it’s straight-up folded in half. They’ve introduced a donut pillow now to keep things in order, and to avoid flat a spot on her head. Luckily the puking has faded somewhat.
NICU vibes.
At this point, the girls are just learning to bottle feed. That is more or less all that’s left. Of course, I think Hannah resets her brady timer every other day. That should be frustrating for her come home status. However, she’s only once finished a bottle. So, it’ll be a minute no matter what.
Mallory, on the other hand, just needs to get her act together and finish her bottles. She’s making progress, but it’s slow progress.
Otherwise, things are pretty chill in the NICU. Turns out the girls are an easy assignment to have. While that’s great for their prognosis and whatnot, it does result in a revolving door of nurses. Every day we get to meet someone new. It’s not a big deal, but it is tough learning a new person’s systems and preferences knowing you’ll just reset tomorrow. On the upside, I now have a wide variety of tricks to use since everyone has their own way of doing things.
Random stuff.
There’s something about the different beds (if you can call them that) that Mallory and Hannah are in. Let’s take a look.
So, there’s the bar. Let’s see what Hannah is kicking it in.
As you can see, the two simply do not compare. Also, those drawers on the rolly carts make the baby flinch every time you close them. Actually they don’t close. They just slide into a groove. Ok, I do understand that the one Hannah is in can tilt. That tilt is needed to reduce spit-ups. But still.
We did our first swaddle bath with Mallory this week. Turns out those are exactly what they sound like. You bathe the baby, but they’re still in a blanket to keep them warm.
Back to that van I mentioned. We went ahead and pulled the trigger on that. Honda Odyssey. It’s a van.
So, girls, when you’re older and complaining about that lame van…I mean, I’m not saying it’s your fault. But I’m not not saying it’s your fault.
And with that double negative, let’s close this one out and wait for another baby to come home.