To Twinfinity and Beyond: Home for a Year!

Just remembering the events of a year ago, brings a huge smile to my face. We were told on May 31st 2010 that we'd get to 'room in' with our boys at CMH the next night, and get to bring our little guys home with us after the doctors did their rounds on June 2nd. Just remembering hearing those words from the team, that we were just a couple of days away from having our family at home really just is a feeling that is indescribable.

It is such a strange feeling, because for the 3 weeks that the boys were inpatients at Childrens Mercy, it almost feels as though when you are there visiting, that your baby (or in our case, babies) aren't really fully yours. I remember having to ask someone if we could get Eli out of his isolette to hold him, or if we could hold Isaac, and how we'd have to move his oxygen tubing, or having to wrap him like a burrito when we were taking him out from under his bilirubin lights. Or anytime a diaper was changed, weighing it to measure the 'output' and making sure it was recorded for the nurses. So, you can imagine our excitement as we were driving to the hospital for the last time on June 1st, as we were geared up to stay the night, and then would load up the wee ones and actually get to take them home with us in the morning. So excited in fact, that Ryan got pulled over and got a ticket. I find this amusing because the route to the hospital is the exact same route that I take to get to work on a daily basis. And, if you know rush hour traffic, it's difficult to speed around here! We did laugh, and we were so excited about getting up to CMH to be with Isaac and Eli, we didn't let it dampen the mood (and I know some of you are wondering, no, Ryan did not drop his dad's name to try to get us out of it!).

In our "hotel room" at CMH.
*Note Ryan's cell phone next to Isaac... Either that's a big phone, or those are little babies!
Eli is on the left, Isaac on the right

The night we stayed in the room with them was pretty comical (as I remember it). We were staying with our boys, alone, for the first time. "How are we going to tackle this?" we asked ourselves. Are we doing shifts, where one of us would take care of them both while the other slept? Would we just be 'assigned' to one of them, only having to get up to care for them? (I should also note, that because they had the same nurse, they were not on the same 'schedule.' Isaac was on a 2, 5, 8 and 11 schedule - (eating every 3 hours), and Eli was on a 3, 6, 9, 12 schedule. You know, since one nurse couldn't be in two places at once). As most people might have already guessed, neither of us really slept at all. What if they cried and it didn't wake me or Ryan up? And we were just so giddy that we were actually going to get to bring them home, I don't think sleeping would have really happened anyway!

A few other things we remember from CMH: measuring their milk in mL's and weighing the boys in grams. Being divided from other patients just by a curtain, there really is no privacy. Wonderful nurses, even if they did wear KU scrubs (and all of the other friendly staff at CMH). Scrubbing in to go back to the NICU. And many other things...

Isaac in the wagon

Then there was packing all of our 'stuff' up to head home. I think Ryan made two trips down to the car with wagon-fulls of belongings before we actually wheeled the boys down in their first CMH Wagon Ride. Eli, that little peanut, only weighing just over 3lbs 12oz, couldn't go home in a regular carseat, but had to have a special "angel bed" carseat. We, along with everyone else, we surprised that Eli was discharged before he weighed 4lbs.

Once we finally loaded everything and everyone in the car, we were off, going about 15mph. I remember thinking there was no way we could go any faster than that. It seemed dangerous!!! Ryan did end up driving faster than that once we were on the highway. We went about a quarter of a mile, and one of the boys made a noise, so of course, we pulled over to make sure they were okay. And they were. On towards home!!!

And here are our two little guys now!!!