Scottie and Nell had a little trouble remembering to breathe on their own. The day we were supposed to leave the hospital this amazing nurse, Christina did a car seat check and Scottie stopped breathing (they had gone down to 4 pounds some ounces so had to have new preemie car seats). They were declared borderline preemies and admitted to the special care nursery at Sibley for a week where they were started on caffeine and put on monitors. I was discharged and the first night at home I cried because it felt so weird to be in the house all alone without any of my four children. They I slept. Each day I would call the nursery the minute I woke up to see how they were doing (they had their own room and a nurse with them all night so even though I was nervous I knew they were getting better attention there than even I could give them). Then MJ would drop me off, I would go up on crutches or in a wheel chair, and spend the day in the nursery, nursing and pumping and holding the babies. Then MJ would pick me up for dinner and take me home. I loved the nurses–they were so helpful to me and so amazing with the girls. They taught me a lot about feeding twins, breathing, cpr etc.
Everyone in the hospital would see me and say “Are you the woman with the twins and the broken foot and the 1 year old and 3 year old at home?” It was really sweet.
By the end I didn’t want them to leave the nursery because I would miss the nurses and be afraid of taking care of them on my own. They sent them home on these apnea monitors. There were ledes teamed to their chests and the monitors went off if they stopped breathing. So loud. If they go off you go to the baby and touch her to alert her to start breathing. And if they didn’t start you would give CPR (never had to do with N&S). They go off all the time. So loud. But all their alarms are false. We see a doctor at Georgetown who specialized in this. At first I would get nervous when I heard the sound but I could used to it. I sleep upstairs with the baby nurse downstairs and each time I hear the beep I run down to see if they are fine which they always are.