Home Away From Home

Tayden's chest x-ray today looked good.  They didn't see any fluid or haziness that would be a cause for concern.  His breathing was fast a few times today, but overall it is much better and at a normal rate.  We were able to hold the babies for many hours today which was very nice. The bottle feeding went okay.  The babies are taking some from the bottle and then getting the remainder of the formula from their feeding tube.  Both babies were awake for over an hour just looking around and looking at us.  They definitely have distinct personalities.  Tayden is very laid back like Tim and Brooklyn is more like me.  We have our own little corner of the NICU and it has become our home away from home.  We are able to dim the lights and rock the babies just like we would do at home.  Tim and I spend the time they are asleep talking about how hectic and great things will be when we bring the twins home.  We met a set of parents tonight that had twin boys this past week born at 25 weeks.  We welcomed them to the NICU and gave them some of Tayden's clothes that no longer fit him.  I watched from afar as the mom said goodbye to her babies (she was discharged this evening), my heart aching for her as we are all too familiar with the journey they have just started.  We have been so blessed to have such an amazing group of people taking care of our babies.  The doctors and nurse practitioners are great, but the nurses are phenomenal.  We trust them completely and have formed friendships with many of them that will continue long after we walk out of the unit for the final time.  Today was just another glimpse of how wonderful it will be to bring them home and it gets harder and harder to leave the hospital without them.  Hopefully we only have a few more weeks of living in Keller while our hearts dwell inside Baylor.