Homeward Bound

They never want to tell you, in the NICU, when your babies are coming home. Nobody wants to make a projection because nobody wants to be wrong, and because everything just "depends" on the babies and what they do or don't do and when. So when they come home it's really sudden. We've known for the last week that they were getting close, but it looked like the end of the week, then the middle, then the beginning, and then we got the call yesterday that they are coming home TODAY!

Brickley managed to suddenly fast-track everything by yanking his own feeding tube out a few days ago. He'd been eating well enough that his nurse decided to take mercy on him and not put it back in, unless he needed it. He proved himself able to eat all his food by mouth for a few days, and so the staff tried to get his brother up to speed. Since they're taking everything by mouth (from a bottle - nursing is a different story), and meeting the other criteria like not having temperature regulation issues or apnea that requires intervention, they get to come home.

We're super excited. It's like having babies all over again - all the excitement and adrenaline and joy of babies. And we're also frantically trying to get our house ready. We've spent the last day doing things we thought we had a little longer to do - cleaning out the nursery-to-be, moving furniture, buying diapers. We even had to buy Seville a bed off craigslist so we can put her convertible toddler bed/crib in the boys' room. I tried to buy homecoming outfits, but couldn't get to a store that sells preemie clothes yesterday, so they'll have to come home in whatever we have (the same thing happened with Seville, and I always wished I'd managed to buy her something. I guess we'll live.)

The babies are both over 5lbs now, so they almost look like regular babies. Almost. Here are a couple final pics of us holding babies in the NICU.

In other news, Jared came in this morning and announced that he had sunk to a new low. Seville, who has eaten nothing but goldfish crackers for a few days, was being inflexible about breakfast (surprise). Jared actually made her "goldfish pancakes," complete with goldfish crackers embedded therein. Gross.

Casualties of Daddy-Time

Seville has had a lot of "Daddy-Time" lately. Daddies don't do as much coloring or crafty stuff, like mommies do...
Daddies are more likely to do something like... say... play with remote controlled helicopters...

...indoors...

...and near their daughters' heads.

(If a brother did this, not only would he be chastised by mom but Seville would no doubt be upset about it. But since Daddy did it, it's all funny and adventurous. sigh.)

Super Short Update

I noticed that it's been over a week since we've posted any updates. In short, here's a bullet list of recent progress:

1) The boys are out of the isolettes and have moved to regular bassinets;
2) They're taking the full recommended volume of breast milk for their age/size;
3) They're receiving a little extra calorie fortification in their milk;
4) Both boys started bottle feeding and nursing on Sunday! they're actually a little ahead of the game on developing their suck/swallow/breath reflex. Oswell drank 20mL (out of 38mL) on his first bottle attempt; Trajan drank 33mL (of 38); and apparently, Oswell did some real nursing last night. Good work, boys!
5) Skye is certainly not 100% yet, but she's making good progress on her own recovery;
6) Seville has her moments, but continues to be a really sweet girl in the midst of all this madness; she's also started talking with excitement about taking care of HER baby brothers when they get home from the hospital;
6) Me - I'm good.