Twins First 24hours after Discharge
After an emotional 15 days in the NICU, we were all ready to go home and commence what is to be, the rest of our lives! The drive, which would normally take 4-5 hours, took more than 6 hours. Me made it home after a few complications along the way; a rainstorm right when it was feeding time meant we took a highway exit instead of a rest stop (none in sight), parked in a school parking lot, and did everything with closed doors and very limited car space. Nonetheless, we were so happy to be headed home and took it all in stride and did a pretty good job, if we must say so ourselves. We survived the trek and made it home, just in the nick of time... FEEDING TIME, that is!
We have arrived!
We ran inside with both babies, under another rain storm, and immediately had to prep bottles for feeding before their timed-bodies would lose it! It was definitely a struggle trying to figure it all out on our own, where everything was, or wasn't, and the exhaustion from the drive really ran our energy to the ground, but we managed. Both babies were on a 3-hour feeding schedule from hospital, so as soon as we were done with one feed, we had maybe an hour-and-a-half to run around and prep the house before it was time to feed again.
Time to setup.
We had to setup both upstairs and downstairs- changing stations, diaper caddies, bassinets, baby brezza formula machine (we were gifted a second one a few weeks in for upstairs as well) and pull out pampers and diaper rash creams (Desitin Max was our main one here because of all the complications their delicate skin developed while in the NICU) and all the miscellaneous items they would need regularly. We also needed tons and tons of burp clothes and babies can be quite messy while eating and spit up often (check out our Amazon Page, linked below for all our daily baby must-haves). Downstairs we had a pack and play with a built-in bassinet and changing station, which was perfect for the time being, until they would grow out of it. We also had a diaper caddy which held all the essentials and was very convenient for keeping everything tidy in one space. It was definitely a very quick learning curve and one that was very necessary for efficiency, to keep the twins fed and clean and happy at all times. The hospital definitely provided a decent amount of formula (both ready-to-feed and powder) and ointments to start, but with two babies, that would not last very long at all so we immediately made a list and purchased a boat-load of essentials to make sure we never run out! We didn't want to be leaving the house because of the corona-virus so Amazon and Instacart were our go-to's for all purchases and deliveries. As for diapers, we had a decent supply of all sizes thanks to our amazing family and friends who threw us an incredible drive-by baby shower a couple months before, so we didn't need to buy any diapers for the time being.
Time to feed, sleep and change...
The first 24 hours with our babies was definitely a repetitious cycle of feeding, changing diapers and clothing, sleeping, over and over again. When I say sleeping, I mean the babies are sleeping, because Dads got no rest and had to continuously setup and organize for the next session. It was exhausting, to say the least, but an experience we knew was coming and one we were ready for and expecting. No real complaints here! This is what we planned and hoped for, for so many years, so through all the tiredness, we were having the time of our lives. When it came time for Dads to sleep, we each had a bassinet to the side of us, each caring for one baby, and we slept an hour here and there throughout the night. We noticed a couple days in that our babies sleep cycles were reversed from day/night so we had to work on flipping this, so the first night, and until we reversed their schedules, was very rough. Babies were wide awake at night and crying and we were up consoling and soothing our gentle preemies.
We survived our first 24 hours, and did so, successfully, with everyone still alive, just as we had planned (haha)!
Check out this link to our Amazon storefront with great links for baby must-haves and more! https://tinyurl.com/y59w3l7r
YouTube Video
Check out our YouTube video below chronicling our first 24 hours with our newborn twins once we left the hospital. As always, don't forget to like and comment and let us know how what you think, as your feedback is what keeps us going and keeps our content alive!
