Triple Good News

Last night was another wonderful night of firsts for me. There were some other firsts as well yesterday, and today brings forth yet some more. Let me tell about them; the bottle, the feedings, and the hold.

Well, I'll begin with yesterday afternoon first. Sam & Amelia were bottle fed for the first time yesterday and did amazing. Amelia took her entire bottle and Sam took some of his, not all probably because he was still full from breastfeeding where he was thought to have drank more than his sister. Now, you might be wondering why this is a good thing if they're already breastfeeding. The reason it's a good thing is because it allows them to be able to take more food by mouth instead of through their tubes, which means they're that much closer to coming home. It also means that now they will be getting fed 4 times a day by mouth, we're shooting for breastfeeding 3 times and bottle feeding once. So that means even more time up at the hospital for Jenny, probably 11am, 5pm, and 11pm will be the breastfeeding schedule. Crazy. However, all this is really good news because, again, it means they are quite rapidly approaching discharge. That will be so amazing. Oh, so the first for today is that Jenny started the 3 feedings this morning.

My first was that I held them both together for the first time last night. They were wearing their little clothes and looked like real babies. I held them each like a football, Amelia in my right arm and Sam in my left. I held them out in front of me and just stared and smiled and laughed and was a completely silly goofy dad loving every moment of looking at his kids. They were pretty much oblivious to the nostalgic moment that was happening, Sam had his eyes closed and was hitting his sister in the face and Amelia was just laying there like nothing new was happening, she would occasionally take a little peek with one eye as if to say, "What is all this fussing about?" I don't think I really fully had gasped that I have TWO babies until that moment. TWO! What a blessing they are, so different and unique and funny and cute and squeezable (we can actually squeeze them a little bit now). Oh that was so much fun. I have visions of me pedaling home from school and laying down on the floor and having them crawl all over me. I can't wait. I know a lot of hard work awaits, along with sleepless nights and horrifically stinky diapers, but trust me, all that is better than being in the NICU. Lots of people tell us, "Just wait 'til they come home, you won't sleep again", etc., as if we would rather them be hooked up to tubes and wires in the hospital and that we'll regret they they were born or something. Give me a sleepless night and stinky diapers, bring it on, just get us out of the NICU! I must say again that the NICU experience has been, overall, an experience that will not sour in our memories because we or the babies were treated poorly, not at all, just that your babies are not supposed to spend their first two months in the hospital.

So, we look forward to their homecoming, which is fast approaching, and can hardly wait. To actually think that we will be able to wake up with our babies under the same roof, feel the summer warmth together, and just be with them always seems like a dream, a wonderful, wishful dream. If ever I get to a point where I start to think about them getting in the way or stifling some plans, I will only have to revisit this time when our babies weren't with us and I can be instantly reminded how great it is that they are able to get in the way and stifle plans, because they'll be home where they belong.