The Trip Home

Somehow, merely two days after they were born, the hospital deemed us qualified to be discharged for the trip home with these two newborns. What!#@^?  How is that possible? Jon joked with a couple nurses asking which one of them was coming home with us. But alas, we would soon be on our own. By the time we left the hospital, our dads had flown back to their respective homes but our moms were still with us. Looking back, there is NOOOO way we could have done the trip home on our own. Thanks moms!

Here's the trip that lay before us:
Close to 3 hr drive from hospital to hotel near Minneapolis airport in Minnesota
1 Night in hotel followed by airport shuttle from the hotel to Minneapolis airport
1 Non-stop flight from MSP to PHL
Park n'Jet Shuttle from Terminal B to parking lot
Drive home

So, we put these tiny babies in carseats and felt like we were going to crush them under all those straps and buckles! Jon went to get our rental car (for which he had also perfectly estimated the amount of days needed when we first got the car the prior Tuesday) and we were off with our moms behind us in a 2nd car.

Photo courtesy of Joe Martin (zoom in on Jon's face - that is a recurring theme)

Given the frequency of early feedings, we knew we would not make the whole drive without a pit stop. Sure enough the babies began to stir about 2 hours into the trip and so we had our first feeding and diaper change at a random Subway and gas station parking lot. It was not ideal because the back seats of cars are slanted and prove challenging for diaper changes. There may or may not be baby urine stains on that back seat. 

We made it to the hotel just fine and Henri and Evelena were all set up with a pack and play. Once they were situated Jon and his mom had to return the rental cars to the airport and then take the shuttle back to the hotel (after stopping at Target for more formula and Preemie diapers for Henri bc he was still under 6 lbs).

We were able to get adjoining rooms which was super convenient for the middle of the night feedings. After lunch at the hotel, in which Jon couldn't stop checking that the car seats were secure in the slings the waiter had provided, we boarded the shuttle. Fortunately, we were the only passengers.

If you've read all our blog entries, or simply if you know us, you know we've had A LOT of travel issues. So the flight portion of the program was the one that we were most nervous about. And when we say "we," we really mean Jon because he cannot hide nerves. We arrived to the airport without issue, rolled our 2 luggage carts up to check in counter and dumped 5 checked bags off to lighten our load. 

But then we had to approach the dreaded security line. It's inconvenient as an adult traveling by yourself and now we had two newborns in car seats plus all of our stuff. They are too young and precious to be exposed to the grumpiness of airpot security processes! This picture pretty much sums it up.

We were able to relax (at least Rachel was) once we got to the gate. Jon was a little frustrated that not one American Airlines employee asked to see a form the website said we needed to fly with newborns and which took forever to acquire. Grr!

Ironically, given our history, the actual flight was the best part of the whole trip. That is because we decided to fly first class. It was the only way we could all sit together on the flight we wanted and honestly, it was not that much more expensive than coach. BEST DECISION EVER. It's amazing how being handed a craft beer minutes after sitting down and having delicious food even by normal food standards can lift one's spirits. Henri and Lena even got wings! Who knew they even still did this? It's going to be difficult going back to coach.

Throughout the whole journey, Henri and Lena were superstars. They just slept. Fortunately, stress is not contagious at this stage. On the flight, we held them in our arms for the first hour and a half. Then, once they got fussy we executed a perfect "Grandma hand-off" for the feeding.

We arrived in Philly on schedule and the rest of the trip went smoothly. Really, the trip couldn't have gone more smoothly. At long last, after leaving the hospital around 1pm on Thursday, we pulled into our driveway around 930pm on Friday. We were home. At last.

The Hospital Stay

Evelena and Henri were born on Tuesday, October 3rd. We were discharged on Thursday, October 5th. Our time in the hospital was a blur of feeding them, changing their diapers, and just staring at them absolutely in awe of how perfect they were. We were so grateful that they were healthy. The reality that we were now parents was something for which we continually had to pinch ourselves.

(note the stork leggings in the above photo which have been with us throughout the journey!)

You'll notice that sleep was not really among our activities in the hospital. Here's a picture of the whiteboard in our hospital room to help us keep track of which baby did what...

Each diaper change is indicated in the left column by first name initial as well as abbreviation for the, um, variety of diaper contents. Each feeding is similarly listed in the right column. So yeah, not much sleep. But honestly, even when they were asleep it was so hard to calm ourselves to the extent that every little noise they made didn't startle us and send us to their cradle wondering if everything was ok. It was. Fortunately, we had a lot of help from our parents and the occasional professional diaper change by a nurse.

Perhaps the biggest storyline of our time in the hospital was Jenna. I will not share specific details because it is not our story to tell. As far as we knew, everything went well with the C section and after the surgery she went to recovery while we went with Henri and Evelena to give baths and feed them. Later that afternoon, Jenna was back in the room next to us along with her family but she was still very weak from everything that happened that morning. So she was not up to holding them quite yet.

Later on that same day, we noticed Jenna was no longer in the room and found out that she was taken back into surgery Tuesday evening. We were definitely worried bc obviously our hope is that everything would have gone totally smoothly. We rallied everyone we knew to pray for her. We were so concerned for her and for her family. We had grown so close over the last several months and so whatever struggle they were going through was also our struggle. Jon received word from Joe late Tuesday night that Jenna was stable. We had no idea how serious it actually was but we are SOOOOO grateful for the medical staff that got her through the night.

One of the things that was so meaningful to us during our hospital stay was the love and generosity we received from Jenna and Joe's families. Joe's sisters and mom, Jenna's sisters and mom, all came by our room to visit and check to see how the babies were doing. Even as Jenna was going through what she was going through they all wanted to hold the babies and extend their love to them. We were overwhelmed by their warmth toward us. One of Joe's sisters gave us 2 beautiful quilts she had made. We all shared many hugs and tears.

By Wednesday afternoon, Jenna was up for a visit and so we enjoyed sacred time with her and her family.

That 2nd night, we took the nurses up on their offer to bring our babies into the nursery so we could sleep. We knew we needed sleep for our trip back home which would begin the next day so sleep sounded pretty good. In addition to monitoring them and checking vitals, they also did a super-cute photo shoot which among other gems was this photo:

The nurses picked up Henri and Evelena around 11:30pm and we woke up around 6am, which felt like a winter hibernation. We both decided we missed them and so walked in a sleepy stupor down to the nursery to pick up our children. We had a pediatrician visit later that morning and everything looked good for discharge. Kind of crazy to think that somehow we were qualified to be leaving with these two newborns.

Around 11am or so on Thursday, we shared goodbyes with Jenna and Joe (sorry to the nurse who witnessed some serious ugly crying). We exchanged gifts, words of gratitude, and hugs that couldn't possibly say or express enough. This was not how things had played out in our heads going into it. We were hoping we'd all be leaving the same day. That made it additionally difficult beyond how hard it already would have been to say goodbye. We are forever connected to the Martins and are so thankful we were brought together for this journey.