at the NICU

This little tour of the temporary stop the boys are taking before they come is for family and friends who want a closer look at where Max and Shoghi, as well the lot of us!, are spending time these days. Last night Celeste was looking through the photographs on my camera and it was amazing to see just how fast the boys really are growing and changing. These two weeks with the boys in the hospital have felt painfully long for their mama, but let's just take a stroll through their progress, before the happy day when we all get to welcome them home.

When Max and Shoghi first entered the scene they were housed in two separate pods... pods being the "units" or rooms that make up the NICU. Pods each tend to hold 4-6 babies and the nurses who care for them. It took about two days to get the boys in the same pod together, their first victory that came right along with coming off the CPAP. Due to security issues in the neonatal center you aren't allowed to visit other people's babies, but Celeste, Korin, Mom and I still ended up befriending another family from our pod those first days, whose baby was about to go into surgery. You can imagine it is a pretty emotional place, sometimes.

Upon entering the unit you spend the first several minutes washing your hands. Especially after a day at work, for me hand washing has taken on a new vigor for the sake of my preemie nephews. Korin was right, shea butter works great on raw hands that have been scrubbed time and time again. I took pictures of this room because, you know, it will be so nice months from now to look back on the blog archives and stumble upon them thinking, "Wow. Remember that!?".

While they were still in their earlier pod the boys had just *delicious* light in which to take pictures. Oh, it was so nice. Somewhere between week 1 and 2 they moved pods again. At least now they have a little stereo that plays lullaby's for them, but the light in there is just nowhere near as tasty. After they moved down the hall they began sleeping in the same crib, which was their move after a warmer (covered bed) and the original glass-sided beds they had straight after delivery. My pictures since then have been mainly at night or in low light, which I already mentioned. Even since my last post, Max's gavage (feeding) tube has finally come out, too!

Celeste also chanced upon a meeting with the dad from our other pod whose child was going through surgery about a week ago. Such a pleasure to see him happy and rested, letting us know that his baby was doing just fine. On occasion you get these windows into another family's challenges and successes, undoubtedly humbling moments of fellow people in such vulnerable states. We are watching the days pass and counting them down until the twins come home (Lord knows we all are), but meanwhile everything that we have seen and experienced in the hospital has been exceptional in it's own right.