Day 41: Last day in NICU!!!

So exciting! It was our babies last day in NICU, and I still found it hard to believe that they are actually handing these babies over to me tomorrow in spite of the several day countdown to that moment. Feeding them is much easier, and Mom has bottle feeding down for both babies just fine. Master Vik has made a colossal weight jump and is just under 2kg by a hair!!! He's got some super chubby cheeks to show for it too...



Those cheeks make me want to kiss and pinch them!

Our nanny Priyanka did not show at 11am as planned, but it turned out to be Dr. Hitesh's mistake who had told her to be at his office at 10am. She was not just prompt, but she had been waiting there since 9am! She stuck around and did a bang up job at the 1pm feeding, then went home and came back for the 5pm. Mom and I decided she deserves to be paid for today because she put in so much extra time. She has been a nanny too many times to name, and has 3 children of her own. Mom asked her and it turns out her husband left her and so she pays $50,000 rupees per year for boarding school for all of them and she works like a dog to pay for it. She makes a lot doing nanny gigs, so she gives that her all. I could tell from the way she handled them that she knows what she is doing, so I may be able to sleep while she cares for them after all.

Tara wondering what life outside of the NICU will be like

It will be rough because until they are both 2kgs we are keeping them on a 2hr feeding schedule, but afterwards will gradually switch them to 3. They also have 5 different oral suspension drops to administer each day so I'll have to take notes and schedule those. I just set my iphone clock to the feeding times.

I've worked my way down all the prep lists, and just finished sterilizing all my silicone nipples so that we will only have to sterilize anything once a day because everything is now pre sterilized. I have enough of the small bottles that my brother supplied me with that we could go two days if we really had to. 


Tomorrow morning we pack up and move to the big room with the extra twin bed and small floor level framed mattress that serves as a giant crib. Dr. Kothiala will loan us some of the plexiglass risers she uses to keep the babies elevated, which we can return before we leave. I've also gotten back my 6 preemie hats that had gotten mixed in with the rest of the baby hats somehow.  I've redone my budget and solved some problems and once we get our new room setup done we'll be ready to go!!! I discussed tomorrow's transition with both babies as you can see, to a mixed reaction.

P.S. As an interesting side note to those who visit the NICU in the future, if you are wondering why there are no suctioning machines, it is because they use manual power! They have a device with a vial in the center to catch the liquid and one tube goes down baby and the other goes right into the nurses mouth! It works just as well, and perhaps even better because you can instantly adjust as needed.