NICU Day 81: Claire is Coming Home!

DH will be bringing Claire home this afternoon -- a day I never thought would actually arrive! We got the intense walk through of all of her oxygen equipment yesterday, and the rest of her NG feeding tube supplies will arrive today. I had many moments yesterday where I was feeling incredibly overwhelmed by what is to come (with a few associated break downs) -- not to mention the burden of responsibility now that we have NG feeding tubes and oxygen to contend with, on top of no longer having the reassurance of the NICU safety net.

I go through that with every major change -- happened once the girls were born, before Paige came home...all par for the course! Speaking of Paige, we haven't had to use the NG tube with her once (in fact she pulled it on Friday!), and she's been eating upwards of 25% more than they were feeding her in the NICU. She's also decided that cluster feeding from around 11:30 PM until 3AM is a GREAT idea. Of course. She gets the late-night snacking thing from dad (otherwise, she's a mirror image of my side of the family. Lol). 

My parents are amazing (and quite excited about their first grandchildren) and have offered to be on hand day and night in the short term as we get a handle on the new routine -- and then longer term as-needed.

The biggest challenge we'll likely have in the short term will be the separate feeding schedules (particularly at night) -- we can't really feed Claire on-demand just yet, since she's not 100% PO, so that will be a bit tough, but since she's gone from 10% to 50% PO over the course of the past 2 weeks, hopefully we're close with her, as well. 

I will say, after all of this, the perks of the girls coming early include (I have to find a bright side somewhere!) -- 2012 tax deductions (obvs), being 100% physically healed after my c-section, and having nearly 3 months to pump like crazy to get my supply up to where I am now. I really have no idea if I would have kept up with BF/pumping had the girls come home with me -- I was SO frustrated for so many weeks there in the beginning. But, now I just pump and bottle feed simultaneously, which works splendidly.  

Let the fun (chaos) begin!