Unthinkable but couldn’t be helped?? Due to a lack of rooms, space, other babies already in place, our twins were not placed side by side in the NICU. Not only were they not placed side by side but they were placed in different rooms, different hallways, and locations within the NICU. It took us several minutes to get from one twin to another. This made it very difficult on my husband and me to give needed time to both, especially with trying to help with feedings.
They ate at the same time and my husband was still having to work which made me choose which twin to hold and feed. It was horrible….It would take 1 hour to feed one of the twins, because I had to go around all their electronical hookups, swaddle, unswaddle, swaddle, diaper changed, take temperature….feed, burp, and put back. Then I had to walk back to my room, the 10 minute hall-walk, call the nurse and spend 30+ minutes of my own recovery time with shots, tests, trying to eat, drink as much fluid as possible for pumping, and put my feet up to try and lessen my swelling so I could be fit for another hall walk.
Right after having a baby, most mothers dream of holding their babies for hours. In our case, the more we picked up or held our babies, the more calories they would burn. Every calorie and ounce of weight added to a preemie is extremely important. So for their well being, we had to limit ourselves to only picking them up right before and during their feeding. Since both twins ate at the same time, this is why I had to always choose a twin to hold and feed. It saddened me greatly to limit my love, time and care between the two boys. Even just having to limit my time holding them at all was extremely hard!
Oh Beth! I never knew this happened to you. I wish you would have called me. This is horrible. We always have twins placed in the same room, even if it means moving another baby to a different room. Their feeding times are always spaced 30 minutes apart. That is unacceptable! How on earth did you get any rest? Please call me when you get a chance so we can catch up.
Thanks Stef…it was horrible as they were apart from me and apart from one another. Mostly just being able to split the time to see both was hard due to them being split and so far from one another within the NICU. I didn’t rest…I’m so tired these days, I think my body is still trying to catch up on sleep from those days plus sleep loss from nightly feedings now :zzz