Update from the incubator.
August 25th, 2005 by Jim Clark
The kids are now officially 1 week old and doing fine.
The Clark Kids
Here's where you'll find all the posts about the kids, starting with the most recent entry and going all the way back to their conception.
Pronunciation: “en-”I-(”)sE-’yü, ‘nik-(”)yü
Function: abbreviation
neonatal intensive care unit
N.: a special care nursery that uses advanced technology and trained health professionals to care for sick and premature newborns.
Note those keywords: sick and premature. People seem to be forgetting this part. We’ve been getting a lot of requests from people who want to “come by and see the babies”. While we appreciate the sentiment, we’d rather not entertain visitors right now while the kids are in the NICU. They’re in there to stay warm and gain weight. We want less exposure to other people’s germs, not more.
We understand everyone’s desire to see them. We really do, honest. Their own mother would like to see them, but she’s been confined to her bed because her blood pressure is so high, so even she can’t see the babies right now. And that’s a special type of torture right there.
So, until she can see her own children again, neither can you.
Thanks in advance for your understanding.
There’s a first time for everything.
August 20th, 2005 by Jim Clark
I got to feed my daughter for the first time today.
Holding this fragile little child is both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. Am I holding her right? Is she burping or coughing or what is that? Is that a hiccup? Wait, she looks like she’s uncomfortable, is this normal?
Then she looks up at me while she eats and my heart melts. I realize she probably can’t really focus well on what she’s looking at, but I like to think her reassuring gaze was meant to make me shut up so she could finish eating in peace.
A day in the life.
August 19th, 2005 by Jim Clark
It’s been 24 hours and the kids are doing great. They’re breathing room air on their own and are feeding from a bottle. Not bad for 33-week preemies.
My son sleeps a lot and is a pretty quiet guy. I’m sure that will change soon enough.
My daughter is very vocal and does not hesitate to let everyone know when she is unhappy.
Mom got to hold her son today…
…and her daughter.
This has been a fantastic, exciting and surreal experience. Everything is new to me. Here I sit across from my wife, typing away in cadence with the unfamiliar steady slurp of a breast pump.
My kids were born today.
August 18th, 2005 by Jim Clark
What started out as the wife’s weekly routine OB visit turned out to be the birthday of our twins.