Everything I didn't want to know

Life in the NICU. I'm becoming an expert.

6am get up to alarm and get pumping. The girls need milk. (was also up at 2am)

7:30am leave for hospital (after helping get Reid ready for daycare, having breakfast, etc.)

7:45am arrive and start working with Avery. Temperature, diaper change, check-up and finally breastfeed. Avery gets weighed before and after a feed to see how much she took. She's only allowed to nurse for about 15 minutes-so as not to tire her out. She gets topped up with pumped breast milk to finish the rest of her feed.

8:45am after a quick snuggle with Avery (or even better Grandma is along and can now take her and burp/snuggle her) I head to Morgan to do the same routine.

9:45am snuggle/burp Morgan then put her back as the NICU "closes" for doctor's rounds at 10 so I need to hurry and leave.

10am finish pumping (at the hospital) and head home.

I have until 1:30pm when I head back to the hospital to do everything over again. Usually I go home and eat, do some errands, get Reid from Daycare and put him down for a nap, etc. My Mom comes for the afternoon to look after Reid while he sleeps.

The last two days we have left Reid at Daycare all day. It is going very well and we are so grateful to Ashley for having him stay for "a sleepover" (that's what they call a nap).

The afternoon lasts until around 4:30pm. I go and pick up Reid, bring him home, make supper (not too much work thanks to my mom-in-law) and then Reid and Del are either off to t-ball or outside.

I still have to pump every 3 hours (day or night). Around 8pm Del leaves for the hospital to bottle feed both girls. Thankfully I have lots of milk and both girls are exclusively on breast milk! He gets home around 11pm.

This is the life of having two preemies in NICU. It's tiring but we have a lot to be thankful for. One little baby left the NICU today after being there for 90 days! I'm sure it's parents are thankful to bring him/her home but wow, 90 days!

Avery should be able to come home before the weekend. Morgan is still pretty little and needs to build her sucking endurance. I anticipate her coming home early next week.

It's going to hurt this Mama to have her babies separated but I'm thankful that they're here and know the time will pass quickly.