Doctors visit - revisited

(The girls dressed to the "nine". Me, in mid-sentence, holding my baby babes, w/my list of questions & concerns. Discussing w/SueAnn the girls' feeding schedule and my concerns that Mary-Gail is not eating and throws-up (I recorded the times and amounts for each feeding on an Excel spreadsheet). The tedious task of redressing Mary-Gail will all her cords - her Leeds kept coming off, so we put bandaids over then to keep them on.)

Today we're going to see our Pediatrician, Family Nurse Practitioner, SueAnn. She's awesome. She holds the girls, sweet talks to them, plays with them. She want to see what they can do, instead of just asking me if they can sit up. She wants to see them do it. This reminds me of the first pediatrician visit we went to....

It was February 23rd. The girls had been home exactly one week after being in the NICU for 3 months. I was nervous taking them out especially since Mary-Gail was still on oxygen and her apnea monitor. Her monitor was set to alarm if there were no breaths for 20 seconds. Well, she had alarmed that morning, and I was in hysterics. For some reason, Tony couldn't come with me, so I called my dad to see if he could come. "Of course!" he said.

Dad came over and I had the girls dressed in their cutest outfits (because we're the Kemp Kuties). Dad connected Mary-Gail's portable oxygen tank and stuffed all the cords into the apnea monitor's bag. We left for the doctor's office - with only 3 minutes to get there on time.

We sat outside the doctor's office because I was afraid of the girls getting coughed on or breathed on, or even starred at by other parents. The doctor's office was behind - about 40 minutes they said. When we brought the girls in, the MA told us to change them into a clean diaper and bring them out to be weighed. OK. I'll just get my diaper bag....

...no diaper bag. I didn't know I was supposed to bring one. I was having serious anxiety right then. Plus, I was a germ-a-phobe and didn't want my babies bare skin to touch the exam table, so I had Dad lay their blankets across the table. We were still in preemie diapers, and the office only had diapers for 8lbs and up. Our first visit was a nightmare. I didn't have any bottles, and the girls were hungry and crying. I had just bound myself after dealing with two back-to-back plugged milk-ducts and my breasts hurt. Oh it was just awful!! But I can look back on it and laugh and myself. I now always carry a diaper bag and extra formula. I'm still a germ-a-phobe, but not as bad as before. I learned that the girls will live, and they have.