Lisa asks for advice, "I am so tired. Cameron is wearing me out!! I am finding that I am so exhausted from spending 4 months in the NICU and now that she is home requiring 24 hour a day care I am even more exhausted...
She has had 11 apnea events since she came home so now she is back on the caffeine...
Feedings are one hec of an event. Sometimes she will take 1 - 1.5 oz and sometimes 2.5 oz. Sometimes she wants to eat every 3 hours, sometimes every 4. Sometimes she will take only 1.5 oz for a few feedings in a row and then she will want 3 oz. She has gained weight since she has been home and the ped told us to let her make her own schedule...
I love Cameron and I love having her home but I am so overwhelmed. I have actually been having anxiety attacks!! She is such an angel but is so much work...
Oh my goodness - people just want to touch her!! I feel like I am that Viper Car Alarm - "Warning!! Step Away From The Baby!!" and then I sputter all those different alarm sounds."

Penny adds, "...we went through the same things when Chloe came home. She was always the best baby while she was in the hospital but once we got her home she was just a grump...
Imagine spending 4-5 months in one place and then suddenly you are in a completely different place and you don't know why...
Anyway just wanted to let you know that you are not alone. Just give things a little bit of time. Oh and I usually don't get a shower until mid afternoon!!!"

Lynn offered, "I tried to do it all, ALLLLLL that the twins entitled in there daily routine, and then the normal house hold items, laundry (ours & the twins), cooking...
Finally my husband said, to me "God let us bring home these twins, and now he wants us to take care of them" We can't do it all, we will eat carry out for the next 10 months if necessary...as for the laundry....ours will get done eventually....from now on the twins are our first priority" If he hadn't given me this support, I don't know what I would have done...
We kept charts, we documented everything!!!!!! We tried to stay on a routine just like the NICU. And I don't see ANYthing wrong with it. Having two, it waaas the ONLY way to even try to be organized!!!"

Jan includes, "As hard as the NICU stay was for our family, I have to say that coming home was SO INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT. I was not prepared for the level of difficulty. I called the nurses at one point and said "Were they always this rowdy and I just didn't know?"...
Coming home from the hospital was definitely a weak link in the NICU support system. We were trained, inserviced but no one really talked about the emotional load that came home along with the twins...
They are no longer babies that require hospitalization, but neither are they regular healthy newborns"