Our First Journey in the NICU

"August 18, 2023 I went to my weekly doctors appointment for my twin girls at 35 weeks pregnant and found out I was 4cm dilated. My doctor sent me to labor and delivery where I found out I was contracting every 10 mins. After hours of being connected to the monitor I was told that I was only dilated to 5 cm so I was being moved to the antepartum room. After 3 long days of still contracting on and off, I was being sent home because I didn’t make any progress. I went home and after 2 hours of being home and getting my kids ready for school, I started contacting again, this time only 3 mins apart and was rushed back to labor and delivery. When I made it my contractions slowed down to 5 mins and after hours they went back to 10 mins. My doctor came in and told me I was being sent back to the antepartum room. I spent a long week in that room, not able to walk around or do anything but lay in bed because they didn’t want me to contract more. The goal was to keep my twins in until I was 37 weeks. However, on August 25, 2023 my contractions became stronger so I was hooked back up to the monitors for almost 3 hours when they discovered that every time I contracted my daughters had a dip in their heart rates. I ended up having to give birth an hour later after finding out the news.
I gave birth to 2 beautiful baby girls at 36 weeks after pushing them out vaginally with my second baby coming out breeched. They both had to go too the NICU and I went back to my postpartum room alone. The next day I got a tubal ligation that ended up being very painful after surgery so the next morning they scheduled me for a CT scan.

While I was in the NICU seeing my girls for the second time I was told I had to go back to my room immediately and was told the news that I had 2 blood clots, 1 in each lung. This made my stay even longer in the hospital, I was very depressed and in excruciating pain. I was told I have to take Lovenox 2 times a day for 6 months. 5 days later I was discharged and went straight to the NICU and stayed with my girls until 9.8.2023.
It was a long hard journey, something I’ve never had to experience ever in my life after giving birth to 4 other girls. Everyday I was exhausted, depressed, and stressed out! The only thing that kept me strong was having the thought of taking my girls home and seeing my other kid’s reaction finally. I dealt with a lot while being in the NICU from sleep deprivation to my girls on and off losing and gaining weight, not drinking full bottles, and having to constantly drink through they’re feeding tube which made our stay even longer because they had to go 48 hours with eating on they’re own while gaining weight.
Everyday I didn’t know how long we were going to be in there or if they were going to show progress. I didn’t sleep for 48 hours to make sure I was up for every feeding and every time they got weighed to make sure they were showing progress. After praying everyday, and having a nice long conversation with members of the Project NICU team, by the grace of God my babies did it! They finally started drinking on their own every feeding from bottles to breast and also gained weight while doing so! Now, at this moment while I tell y’all our story, my beautiful baby girls are next too me still eating, still gaining weight, and sleeping peacefully at home in their beds.

I also want to give a thanks to the two members of Project NICU for their encouraging words and telling me their NICU stories while also keeping me company in my room. I greatly appreciate y’all too! the small things matter the most and at that time y’all made me feel like I wasn’t alone." NICU Twin Mom, Dariana