Mr. NICU

Eleven days ago we welcomed our twins (10 weeks early) into the world.  They are beautiful babies and are thriving in the NICU.  And I promise I'll tell that story on the blog at some point, but today I have to focus my attention on my husband.  He could use the attention!  No, in reality, I am just in awe of him and need to take a moment to reflect on how he survived the last couple of weeks.
It all began the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  I was admitted into the hospital for the second time in the last month for contractions and cervical changes.  One second it's business as usual, and in the next second our lives are turned upside down.  What began as a one day hospital stay turned into four, which turned into us being told I'd have to stay for the next two weeks.  (Turned out the twins had other plans.)  While I spent my days in the hospital, Rick had to figure out what to do with Charlie.  First he stayed home, then we brought in a friend, and finally we summoned his mom for a couple of days.  Thanksgiving week is especially busy for Enterprise, so Rick's work schedule was jam packed.  And yet he still came to see me every day and brought Charlie in tow.  Those days were tough for everyone, but he never complained.  I can't say the same for myself!  When it became clear I would be spending Thanksgiving in the hospital, Rick was undeterred.  He cooked the entire meal himself (most of it Wednesday after leaving the hospital at 8:00 PM that night).  Thursday morning he brought me homemade pumpkin muffins and we watched the parade.  He took Charlie home for a nap, cooked a turkey, and returned that afternoon with a Thanksgiving feast!  Nurse after nurse commented on how hard it must be for my husband since I was in the hospital and he wouldn't have a warm cooked meal.  Little did they know, he's the amazing cook and did it all despite our situation!
That night it started to become clear that the twins may decide to arrive sooner than expected.  And of course, come Friday they made that perfectly clear.  They were coming.  Ready or not.  Because it was Thanksgiving weekend, we had very few friends in town, and zero family.  Rick's mom had returned home early Thanksgiving morning and my mom wasn't scheduled to arrive until Sunday.  Luckily she made the decision to come Friday afternoon instead.  That still didn't help when I called him at 6:45 AM to let him know we were having babies that day and he better get here stat if he wanted to make it in time.  He woke Charlie up, gathered his things, drove him to our friend Suzanne's house, and made a beeline for the hospital.  He arrived a little after 8AM at the babies were born via c-section at 8:52 and 8:53.
Now the real fun began.  I always have to make life more difficult than it is meant to be, so while he was tending to the babies and learning about life in the NICU, I was hemorraging and getting 5 blood transfusions.  Now he had a two year old at a friend's house, premature twins in the NICU, and a wife about to bleed out in recovery.  My recovery was going to be a process that took a few days so Rick spent them schleping back and forth between the NICU and Labor and Delivery.  Of course these two units are not only on different floors but technically in different hospitals joined together.  The walk took at least five minutes and three elevators to complete.  I remember the first time he wheeled me (it was way too far of a walk) from my room to the babies room, I was so lost and couldn't believe he had been making this trip over and over again.  Not only had he been going back and forth himself, but once I became wheel chair mobile, he had to get me to and from successfully while maintaining my schedule and getting me back in time for my assessments and meds without missing Care time for the twins.  Are you exhausted yet?  I think I'm still processing how hard this must have been.  And let's not forget finding time to spend with Charlie!
By the time I first met the babies Rick had become a NICU pro.  I dubbed him Mr. NICU.  I will never forget the flood of emotions that overcame me watching him take their temps, change their diapers, and switch out their oxygen monitors.  Because I was in a wheel chair and could barely stand up, I couldn't do anything but watch.  This was heart breaking for me as a mom.  Most moms get to immediately hold their children and begin nursing them, while it had been a day and a half and I was just now meeting them.  All I could do was stare at them through a plastic case while Rick tended to them.  It would have been easy to fall into despair and I almost did.  It was hard.  But, it was also amazing and heart warming to know that my husband was in total control.  I couldn't believe how confident he was with these tiny little humans.  Once I was up and about he taught me how to do everything for Care time which happens every three hours.  This is when you can touch the babies, change their diapers, take their temps, and they get fed.  He knew what every beep of the monitors meant, what their temp range should be, and pointed me in the direction of the coffee maker.  He was a pro.
Once I was released, we spent the next week going to and from the hospital.  I couldn't drive or carry anything so he was my chauffeur and my pack mule.  I also didn't have the stamina to last much longer at the NICU than 5pm.  So he'd drive me home and then head back to the hospital until at least 11:30 every night only to wake up and do it all over again.  And not once did he mention work to me.  If you know Rick, or know Enterprise, that is truly exceptional.  He spent that entire week consumed by the babies and Charlie.  Nothing else mattered.
Monday rolled around and he had to get back to work.  Someone has to make money to pay for this nice long stay in the NICU!  I knew it was going to be hard for him to not see the twins all day and it was.  In fact come 5:00PM that day I got a phone call that he was on his way to the hospital to see them.  The twins were so alert the entire time he was there.  They missed him too.
Tonight Rick has a meeting, but he's coming to the hospital for 8:00 PM Care time.  There's no stopping Mr. NICU.
Charlie, Eloise, George, and I are so damn lucky.