Overnight there was a big outpouring of support and prayers to Ann’s own Facebook post about the babies being born. I was able to go home and see the kids that morning; I could tell Fiona had been pretty worried. Teague was really clingy to me at that phase and he seemed kind of angry that we’d been separated so long. Rhys and Meagan were pretty unphased by the panic of the previous day, but were excited about the babies. I showered and changed and went to IMC to see the twins. They seemed a bit better, but they were still hard to get a very good look at since they were covered in tubes, monitors, and bandages over their breathing tubes and eyes. I stayed for over an hour, initially listening to the nurses explain what was going on and how they were doing. I kept hearing the phase “very sick babies”. Even though we were having a free service take the twins’ picture “just in case” the worst happened, I was no longer worried about their survival and while the nurses remained pretty noncommittal I could tell they weren’t worried about it either. Lucy and Denise came to see they twins and got to spend a little time there too.
I got back to Ann and she seemed to be doing a lot better. She was still pale, but since watching her eat her breakfast with a will before I left, I felt pretty optimistic that she would recover quickly. She was super anxious to get to see the babies. The next day, Friday the 25th, she was allowed a short field trip to go and see them. We got to see what rounds were like where the entire medical team gets together and they talk about all the numbers and progress for every specialty. Ann was delighted to see the twins, but our contact with them still had to be somewhat limited. I had to keep reminding her not to stand too long (she was getting around in a wheel chair for the first few days). She posted this after the visit: I got to see my babies today and touch their little hands and fuzzy heads. They are so small but are improving every day. I'm might have overdone it a bit but now I get to rest. Sorry I'm not responding to everyone's posts but know that we feel the strength from you and that it makes a difference to us and the girls. Thank you.
She was released the next day and got to go home and rest. We of course went again to see the babies, they had both been extabated and appeared to be gaining some strength. The next day was a very difficult one. One of the nursed noticed some discoloration on Brigid’s tummy. They took an x-ray and determined that she had some type of perforation in her intestine (NEC or SIP). So the hospital decided to send her to Primary Children’s Hospital via ambulance. So we waited at home to hear news about what they were planning to do. We knew that the usual treatment would be bowel surgery. Thinking about how very small Brigid was, this weighed on me quite heavily. I went into my closet to pray for a while. After a time, I felt an assurance that not only would Brigid be alright, but that there was nothing wrong with her. When we heard back from the hospital, they were unable to find the same symptom in the x-ray. They decided to wait and keep checking, three days they thought before she’d be able to return home. She even pulled out her breathing tube somehow and was able to breathe room air.
In the next few days we were able to hold both babies and change their diapers. Denise and Kevin stayed with us until Sunday and Lucy stayed ten days. I was pretty careful with Ann to make sure she got some little exercise and a whole lot of rest. We went to see the babies basically every day. Tara got to start breastmilk feedings through a tube that went down her nose after just a few days and she did pretty well from the beginning. She struggled a bit more with breathing on her own. The blood and goo from aspirating and swallowing blood at birth kept passing into diapers and also had to be sucked out of the lungs. They were on and off the UV lights during the first couple of weeks. Visiting both babies was very time intensive. If we wanted to be with each baby for 45 minutes a day, it took us five hours from leaving our house to returning. More often than not, Ann wanted to stay longer than that so our days were kind of killed. When Lucy left, the ward and other friends and neighbors started bringing in dinners. We definitely got a lot of attention in our time of need.
After ten days, they finally started feeding Brigid. She seemed to do ok at first. Each feeding was really only a teaspoon. With Lucy gone, I started watching the kids about every other day and Ann would go in on her own. This would actually take longer since when I drove her I would drop her off and park the car and then leave before her so I could get the car and wait for her by the exit. I wanted to be with the babies, of course, but more than anything I wanted them to get better and come home. I felt that spending time with their mom was the best way to do that. A bunch of my folks came to stay with us around this time: my parents, Wendy and her daughters. We also had Fiona’s birthday party. Despite the situation with the babies in the hospital, we still let her have friends come over and go to the movie etc.
Brigid had a real struggle in mid-March. She wasn’t digesting her milk and was becoming somewhat lethargic. She got into a phase where her oxygen level was unsteady and her red blood cell count was very low. We sat through rounds with the medical team as this was discussed and they patiently explained everything to us. What was decided was not to give her another transfusion, but to wait and take no more blood from her and also to go ahead and increase her feedings. This actually turned out to be the best thing. After about a week, she had turned a corner and was finally digesting her breastmilk and her levels had risen with the help of some medicine. At last on March 22nd, after just over three weeks, Brigid finally returned to IMC much to our relief. The problem was that since she had only done so-so with feedings up to then she had gained very little weight while Tara was packing it on. We knew she might stay in the NiCU for a long time.
We kept going to the hospital, I kept trying to work but had a hard time getting much done during this time. We finally bought our new van in late March because our Town & Country only had seven seats. Ann would get babysitters from the ward to watch the boys and Denise would come down a lot so that I could work and she could see the twins. We had a lot of people help us. The babies kept doing better and better and gaining weight. They got to the point that they really just had to gain a bit more weight and learn to keep themselves warm. The nurses were all amazed at how much milk Ann could pump. We froze it and stocked the babies’ freezer and our own freezers were jam packed with it. Around this time I was able to take the other kids to the hospital and we climbed a snowy set of stairs (almost a fire escape) to the window of the babies’ room. They got to see the twins through the glass, but it was a trying experience for me.
Teague was a tough kid to watch for many of his babysitters. His worst offence was the day before my birthday. He was up playing with Rhys and their cousin Gregary in their room when he slipped away without Denise noticing. He got in the bathroom, clogged the toilet and started flushing away. It was soon just running steadily. It flooded that bathroom and leaked down to our hall bathroom and then leaked into our basement. The carpet was soaked. At first I thought we’d have to replace it, but after a lot of shopvac’ing we rented a bunch of carpet fans and ran them solid for four days. They finally were nice and dry. Not quite the thing we needed with everything else going on.
Tara got to come home in mid-April and in reality, although we were thrilled, it was harder to have one home and one in the hospital than it was at any other phase. Luckily, Karalee came up to help us during this time and took some of the pressure off. Brigid started doing really well once Tara left. She was off of oxygen within a few days and started taking her full feeds. We started hoping she would be able to come home too. She gained weight steadily but was still less than four pounds. Tara was almost six pounds when we brought her home. At long last on April 22nd after two months in the NiCU, Brigid came home. We took in Banbury donuts to the staff and went through the release process. It took a while, but we were finally able to bring her home. Lucy had actually come back by that time and we went straight to the doctor’s office to get Brigid’s weight checked on their scale. Unfortunatley, they can’t do this for new patients, so I waited in the car with Tara for like an hour while they got Brigid in for a regular appt and then checked her weight. It was a huge relief to park in the garage and carry the babies together into the house.
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