It was a typical day for Leslie, she was home with their daughter while her husband Nick was at work for the day. She was 33 weeks pregnant with twin boys and her pregnancy had been going really well, everybody was healthy and thriving. Leslie thought she may have started to leak some fluid so she was preparing to get checked out by her care providers but it didn’t seem like a huge concern, it was mostly just to err on the safe side. She told Nick not to come home but suddenly her bag of waters fully ruptured and quickly called him back. 

Once getting to the hospital Leslie received a shot of steroids in hopes of helping the boys lungs. Labor was continuing to become more and more intense, she progressed quickly. There was no way for the doctors to slow things down to buy the babies more time in utero. Baby A, Ezra, made quite the entrance, he was born so quickly that the doctor had to dive to catch him. Baby B, Jude, flipped breech as soon as his brother was born so the doctors had to do a breech delivery. 

The boys were both in respiratory distress at birth, neither boy let out any cries. They were whisked away to the NICU. Leslie and Nick didn’t get to do skin to skin or any of the other typical things that happen right after you have a baby. Nick went to be with the boys right away which left Leslie alone in recovery for a few hours. When they were all finally reunited, Ezra and Jude were hooked up to all of the monitors and a CPAP to help with their breathing. 

Ezra was able to meet his discharge goals at day 34. Jude is still in the NICU, it’s day 43 at the time I’m writing this. Jude’s goals are related to his oral feedings, decrease in the amount of bradycardia episodes (heart-rate slows too much), etc. 

During this time life has been a whirlwind. They had to decide the best way for Nick to use his paternity leave, which meant he went back to work in order to save time off for when both boys come home. Leslie is juggling having one twin in the NICU, one twin at home, and caring for their older daughter. Leslie is currently exclusively pumping for the boys as she slowly attempts to introduce direct latching. She has been fiercely advocating for her rights as a breastfeeding mother and has had to venture into using tools like a SNS (supplemental nursing system) on her own, without the help of lactation services. 

Ezra and Jude are strong, their progress has been slow but steady. In the few short days since our session Jude has had his NG tube removed and met all of his discharge goals. His official stay was 43 days in the NICU. Now that they are home they are finding their new normalcy as a family of 5.