The babies are coming home

As many of you know, the babies are coming home today. We are extremely excited to have them home and to introduce them to our friends and family. Although the babies are strong enough to leave the ICU and come home, they are still premature and fragile. We have to be extra careful to protect them from getting sick over the next few months, especially during cold and flu season which ends in early May.

The greatest risk to our babies is an illness called RSV. For adults, children and full-term babies, RSV is typically not any worse than a common cold. For preemies, it is much different. It is a serious virus that is VERY easily contracted and it poses major risks (pneumonia, bronchiolitis, and other more serious complications, some fatal). Our babies have all of the the highest risk factors for contracting serious RSV - they were born at 30 weeks, were multiples and had low birth weights.

RSV is spread through physical contact, through the air via a cough or sneeze, or picked up via touching an infected object. Since it can live as long as 6 hours on your hands and up to 12 hours on objects, you can see how difficult it is to prevent exposure. It is very easily spread, especially from child to child, and studies have shown that other infants pose an even higher risk at spreading RSV from one infant to another.

You might ask, “Can’t they just fight it off and it will build up their immune system? Kids need to get sick, right?”. The simple answer is no. Since our babies were 3 months pre-term, they did not acquire the necessary immunities to fight off infection. If they acquire RSV, they would very likely be re-hospitalized and develop other serious complications.

To protect the boys from RSV and other illnesses and complications, we ask that all visitors do the following:

- When you arrive to the house, please wash your hands for at least 1 minute (sing the long version of happy birthday twice) and then use hand-sanitizer as needed before touching or holding the babies.

- Please refrain from coming over if you are currently sick, if you live with someone who is currently sick, have been in contact with someone who is sick, and/or if you have not been symptom-free for at least 5 days.

- If you smoke, we ask that you refrain from smoking 30 minutes prior to visiting because the babies' lungs are very sensitive. Our pediatrician strongly recommends against any passive and second hand smoke exposure, so if you plan to visit please bring a separate, smoke free shirt to change into and wear at the house.

- If you are parents to a baby or toddler, please either refrain from bringing them to the house during RSV season or please be certain that they are not sick and have not been sick for at least 2 weeks and we may ask that they wear a mask in the house or near the babies.

Thank you all so much for all of your love and support thus far and we appreciate your understanding as we try to do what is best for our boys.

Love, Mike and Leah