The Scarths: Pediatric Unit

Here are some pictures of the rooms we stayed in here in the 5th floor.
This place was actually amazing. It makes me sad to know that most of the time it is used for little children that have terminal illnesses, or the like. I am so blessed to know that when my little ones were released they will grow and develop and hopefully live a full life.
Each room had its own little bathroom with a shower (thank goodness...I was getting pretty stinky after a few days!)
They also rolled me in a hospital bed since I had just gone through major surgery. That I once again felt so blessed to be able to stay in the hospital in a bed that made me much more comfortable instead of having to go home and leave my little ones by themselves.

Even with being in the hospital surrounded by nurses and doctors, I have to admit I felt so very alone. Two little babies who were hooked up to all sorts of monitors. These monitors went off all the time because something was not within the normal range. So what would always seem to happen was I would just get to sleep and one of the monitors would beep. I would wake up freaking out that something bad was happening, and within a few seconds whatever it was would right itself and the beeping would stop. augh! This was so terrible. There were a few times where the beeping didnt stop, and the nurse had to come in and do something such as change the iv bag, or turn up the heat in the isolette, or something. But there was not ever a time where it turned out to be something that was wrong with one of the girls that didnt right itself quickly. It still made my heart race and my nerves get frayed each time it happened.
They had to do a car seat test on each of the girls before they could release them. This was to ensure that they would not have respitory failure on the way home because of the position they were in. So the first one to go throught this was Emily. they put her in her car seat and then put her in what I refer to as the jail. This was awful! So they put them in the car seat for double the time it took you to get home and kept them hooked up to monitors to check to see if everything was in the clear. She passed with flying colors, but looked so uncomfortable in that car seat that I just wanted to get her out! But I left her in there for the hour that it took. She passed and said they were going to go get the doctor to write up the release papers. The nurse came in and started to unhook all the monitors and I had to get her dressed in her own clothes! Not borrowed ones. By this time even though the monitors drove me crazy, I had gotten used to looking at the monitors to reasure myself that everything was alright. Now Emily was in my care, and I had nothing telling me that she was ok. No monitors telling me that she was still breathing, that her heart was still beating, that she was warm enough...ect. I.was.terrified. I knew that she was going to have something go wrong. They teach you all these things in the hospital when you have preemie babies and I just knew that I was going to do something wrong and I was going to loose one of my precious babies.
I emotianally lost it that night. They released Emily and Ben had to go home to take care of some things, so I was by myself. As Ben was getting ready to leave, and we were signing the release papers for Emily, I started to cry. I was trying so hard to hold it together but I just couldn't. I cried for all the guilt that I felt, I cried for the fear that I felt, I cried for so many things. Ben was starting to freak out since he had not ever seen me cry. He was feeling really bad, but he had to go. What he was going home for couldnt wait. I cried all night.
This was the night that they had to move me since they were expecting to have a blood drive the next day in the large room that we were occupying. So here I was alone. Having to now be fully responsible for Emily. The nurses could not help me with her since she was released. So I was crying and trying to take care of Emily and Ana and having to get together all my stuff to move rooms at 3am.
I did not sleep at all that night. Which I am pretty sure made my crying worse. The nurses were great, and they were being very kind to me that night :) In fact when Ben came back the next day, it was afternoon, and I still had not fully gotten myself put back together. The nurse stopped him and told him that I had had a really rough night! I dont know how we do it sometimes!
On a normal night the girls ate every 4 hours, but I was pumping every three, so I seriously got about 45 minutes of sleep between each feeding. It was rough! Plus that, we had to check so many things since they were preemies. We had to check their temperature at each feeding, and we had to pretty much force them to eat whatever they had stipulated for that night. This was the hard part. You felt so bad that you were pretty much forcing food down these poor tiny little babies who would not want that last little bit, but you knew that if they didnt eat it, they wouldnt gain weight and then they would not get out of the hospital sooner. I had to call the nurse in quite a few times because I couldnt get one of the babies to drink all that was alloted. Then these girls took forever to burp! You would sit there for sometimes 30 minutes just trying to get them to burp because there was no way you were putting them back to bed to spit up what you had just forced down them! Needless to say, feeding time was an ordeal! I loved these little girls, but it was so hard to only be able to hold them when you were forcing milk down them and trying to get them to burp. There did not seem to be any joy in holding them. Then you had to put them down to sleep so that they could relax and grow!

Mom and Dad came on Saturday to help us with the girls and we had been told that they should be released by then. Emily was actually released on the 7th so she was staying in a little crib by my bed while Ana was still in the isolete. I think the hardest part was the unknown of when we would get out. They would tell us that we should expect to be released on Thursday, then Ana had weight loss. So they changed it to Saturday. Then they changed it to Monday.
So my parents wanted to come once they were released to be able to help us at home. But we didnt know when to expect that. so they came in on Saturday afternoon. Mom stayed with me that night and helped with the girls. Then they wanted to go visit my Uncle who had brain cancer and was not doing so well. So they drove to Vancouver to visit him and his family. Coming back on Sunday night late. We got released Monday afternoon.

They had a under the sea motif and each room had bright colors and little fish mosaics on the walls and floors.
They moved us three times based on the girls need. The first was just temporary until they got the room that they wanted us in ready. The room they had us in first was the main room that they did events and such things like blood drives, but it was right by the nurses station and since they had just upgraded us from the NICU they wanted us close to the nurses station.
They actually had run out of room in the NICU the weekend the girls were born. There were 6 sets of twins, and the baby that got us kicked out was a baby born at 27 weeks who needed the constant nurses care much more than my girls did. So they moved them out of the NICU a little faster than they wanted, but they were full to capacity and my girls were the least critical.

The had a family room which had a kitchen, a big screen tv with a dvd player, a washer and dryer and a play area. in the "reception" area, they had a huge fish tank and tons of waiting areas. They had a pretty big playroom on one end inside the actual wing. They had a "refreshment area" for the "guests" of the hospital with all sorts of things from apple juice to Popsicles. hot chocolate and coffee and bottled water. Also food for little ones.

When we left, they provided us with 4 cases of premixed formula and 4 cases of powdered formula (all the high calorie kind for the girls...which is super expensive)
With the promise that if we sent in a card they would send us another 2 cases. It was quite a while before we had to buy formula especially since I breastfed the girls until they were 10 months old. Most of what we used up to that point had been to supplement my milk with high calorie stuff. (apparently I needed to eat butter and lard, but just couldn't do it, so instead put a teaspoon of high calorie formula in bottles of breast milk)

Needless to say, even though the time I spent in the hospital has been so stressful and I have been distraught many times, the blessings we have had have been so numerous.

My digs. They asked that if you brought your own pillow that you put it in a bright case so they would know not to launder it with the others. And anyone who knows me knows that I have a problem with pillows that are not my own. So I had to bring mine for the hospital stay!

The girls digs. Once Emily was released they actually brought in an isolette for Ana

Chillin under the Bili lights Emily on left Ana on right (notice the A and B above them)

Ana in her Isolette once Emily was released

The car seat test

Emily in her crib. Released to my care. She still could not regulate her own temperature very well, hence all the layers.

Ana having kangaroo time with Ben. Ana just LOVED her Da and anytime he would hold her close like this skin to skin she would settle right down and sleep. Sometimes Ben would sleep too! Seriously how much would this make you love your husband!