Homecoming 2: The Re-Returning

The phone woke me just before 7:30 this morning. Four weeks ago I was still waking up before 7am, but ever since the twins came I’ve been letting my sleeping habits take a much-needed slide. I was too slow to answer the phone, but I heard the message as the answering machine recorded it. The NICU was on the other end. The twins were ready whenever we could pick them up. The day I had been awaiting for over three weeks had finally arrived, the day when I could cut the NICU identification bracelets off my wrist. It was also the day the twins could come home.

Right after breakfast, we passed Abbie off on a neighbor, pretended not to hear her (Abbie) scream as we left, and sped through snow flurries to reclaim our boys. Our neighbor had a doctor’s appointment at 10am, so we had to hurry, but that was okay because Abbie had a doctor’s appointment at 10am as well.

We arrived in the NICU for the last time, hopefully ever, and began collecting our belongings. Some of our things we had brought from home, like clothing, stuffed animals, and at least three different cameras. Other things the hospital gave to us as we left, like diapers,* formula,* and assorted personalized holiday decorations as their stay spanned two major holidays more or less.

With all possessions precariously loaded on a cart and all children tightly strapped into their car seats, we rode the elevator back downstairs. I ran to the car to pull it up to the door, the whole way fighting snow flurries that were suspiciously thick for supposedly amounting to no accumulation. Aided by a nurse, we packed the car and secured the boys as quickly as possible, finishing just in time for the car’s heater to warm the cabin to “tepid.” We drove away, beginning our lifetime as the sole provider to three children.

Abbie took the major life change surprisingly well, or at least she did once she calmed down after we rescued her from the neighbor. I feared that she might resent the attention we must devote to the twins, but so far she enjoys taking advantage of our divided attention by misbehaving when there isn’t a darn thing we can do about it. The dog seems happy about the twins, which is a welcome change from the panic-fueled submissive wetting we saw when we brought Abbie home. The cats seem upset, more so than usual, that we didn’t learn our lesson with the first child.

I’d say so far, so good. No major fights yet. Of course we haven’t tried sleeping at night yet.

By the way, thank you to everyone leaving comments. I read and appreciate all of them, even if I don’t respond to most of them. You’ll understand if I’m a little short on time.

* Thank you.