Sebi and I went for a stroll to get some breakfast supplies while mami and Lucas slept a bit more.
My perspective.
Apologies to those itching for new pictures. It’s safe to say we’ve had a busy, hectic, beautiful and at times, a frustrating week. I was lucky enough to get a week off of work to help establish a routine and get some good bonding time with the boys.
The boys took a couple days to show us their true colours. They continue to be sweet babies, but they aren’t afraid to cry for a couple hours in the middle of the night to keep us on our toes. Here are some pictures of some of the sweeter moments.
On our second day home we took the boys to their first party! Our awesome friends got together for a Mexican themed potluck but Lucas and Sebi were the main attraction.
At only 10 weeks old they are already getting girls to fight over them. Above Margo and Andrea have Lucas and Sebastian respectively. Overall it was a successful first outing, with just a minor hiccup around packing the wrong nipple with the wrong bottle. Not bad for our first outing.
Even Rodnie joined in and got to know Sebastian while I gave Lucas a bottle.
At long last Lucas was discharged, one day shy of ten weeks. This hasn’t been what we imagined having our first children would be like. It’s safe to say we’ve had our ups and downs since these guys have entered our lives, but if this is what we had to do to get such beautiful sons, not just one but two, then it was well worth it. Every challenge we’ve faced has simply made us a stronger family.
Now, about Lucas’ trip home.
Lucas received the same royal treatment as his brother. We started with a tour of the estate followed by dinner; during which I assembled his throne.
Sebi, Analia and I hit the town earlier today to pick up some meds, sleeping wedges and get a bite to eat. His first car ride went well, uneventful, the way it should be.
He got the grand tour of his new home and even took his bouncy chair for a spin.
Sebi’s bags are packed and he’s itching to blow this popsicle stand.
It’s not the ideal situation, but still exciting… Sebastian is being discharged today!
They don’t have any reason to keep him there any longer and they could use the space for another sick baby, so they decided yesterday that Sebastian would be discharged to our parent room with us. That means he can stay with us at the hospital still, but he is our responsibility. If we need to leave, he needs to come with us.
Hopefully it is just a few more days until Lucas can join him, but in the meantime I think Lucas—judging by his picture above—is pretty stoked to have all the cute nurses to himself.
Lucas continues to show no symptoms of being sick or in pain. Actually, both boys are doing great. They are the cutest things in the world. Chris and I could just watch them for hours. They make us laugh constantly. Sebastian actually peed on his face this morning. That was pretty hilarious!
So they started Lucas on a medicine called phenobarbitol. He’ll be on this for 5 days before going in for a HIDA scan on Wednesday. According to the nurse practioner often just being on the phenobarbitol is enough to clear things up and lower his bilirubin. Let’s hope this is the case for Lucas cause that would be the best case scenario. Aside from that the GI consult gave us a list of 11 diagnosis related to elevated liver enzymes and hightened bilirubin to prepare us for what could be. So I guess we’ll be kicking around the hospital until atleast Wednesday.
This place has seriously become ‘our’ (maybe I shouldn’t speak for Chris, maybe just ‘my’) home. The nurses our family. They constantly ask us how the boys are doing and when we’ll be getting to go home. They stop in at bedside to see how they are doing and those who haven’t seen them since the first couple of weeks are always so impressed at how big they have gotten.We roam the halls at 3am in our pajamas as we relieve Sebastian from his gas or ease Lucas to deep sleep. I will miss it here and hopefully drop by someday when the boys are big to say hello to all those people who took care of them and helped become healthy baby boys! Can you tell I’m ready to say sayonara to the NICU?
So the good news is that yesterdays upper GI xray came back negative for malrotation. However, the doctors continue to investigate why Lucas has increasing levels of conjugated bilirubin. They have consulted with a GI specialist and we are waiting for them to come by and take a look. They also as of today found bacteria in his urine. The doctor is “thinking about it.” So this is also a waiting game. They aren’t too concerned because Lucas isn’t showing any signs of infection or sickness. They are just trying to cross their t’s and dot their i’s which Chris and I are very thankful for. However, discharge date keeps being delayed and the 4 of us are ready to go home! Keeping our fingers crossed we get answers soon.
We will be home soon and our NICU 2 plus months will be a distant memory.
Yesterday at rounds we were told that unfortunately discharge may not be until after the weekend. The doctors are waiting to consult gastroenterology and surgery for Lucas. After blood work came back showing that Lucas’ unconjugated bilirubin is not lowering but increasing they decided to do further testing. Yesterday an abdominal ultrasound was performed showing the possibility of malrotation of upper intestines. Today the ultrasound will be followed by a barium test to definitely confirm he has it or not. Further blood work and urine samples have been done and we are waiting for those results. Luckily, Lucas seems to be doing just great. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by any of the poking or proding. He’s been such a great champ. Look at him posing for the camera. Haha!
The boys yesterday also got their first rounds of immunizations. They did great. A short loud cry from the sting but quickly recovered. I think mom shed more tears than they did.
