Wednesday was the girls appt for a weight check and their RSV shots. Emma is now 7 lbs 12 oz and Mady is 9 lbs 5 oz. They are doing so well with their gains! We discussed the girls reflux issues and I explained that Emma sometimes has a color change around her mouth when eating. The doc said she wanted to talk to a colleage about that, just to make sure it wasn't an issue. At 3pm, the doc called me and wanted Emma to be admitted to Children's. I left Madelyn with my parents and met Christian there. I have left my girls before, but never to take one back to the hospital and never over night. We got admitted and in our room by about 7pm. They put all Emma on all those monitors we hoped we'd never see again. They monitored her all night, especially during feeds looking for any signs of Apnea or trouble breathing. While she did exhibit some of her usual reflux issues, all her vitals remained great. In the morning a speech therapist and feeding specialist met with us and watched Emma eat. We discovered what I sort of all ready knew, she's not a great feeder. She takes several sucks before she actually gets enough to swallow which tires her quickly and aggravates her. She also has to take several minutes of deep breaths to recover. They had us thicken her feeds with the rice cereal again and upped her Zantac dose. It took several tries for us to find the correct nipple, nipple opening and rice/formula combination to find what worked best for her. Then she had a great feed. When we ready to go home though, she cried through an entire feeding and turned color. Again, her vitals remained great. So, we know she has trouble eating and is uncomfortable or in pain while eating. They are hoping the Zantac will help this as well as the rice helping more of her feedings stay down in her belly. They also want me to keep her elevated as long as I can after eating.
It was so hard to be without Madelyn all night... you'd think I would have enjoyed what it might be like to only have one crying baby :) In a bizarre coincidence, a friend of mine that I met online in a infertility forum, whom I had also met in person once at Magee, ended up being our room mate. Crazy! Her adorable son Jack was diagnosed with failure to thrive :( Hopefully they will get a simple answer for why he isn't gaining weight and they will be able to go home soon.
Madelyn has had a few bad feeds as well, so I just talked to the doctor and we are going to up her Zantac dose as well. She slept at Grammie and Pap-paps last night and had alot of fun. They finally got a dose of what 1/2 of nights are like at our house.
On to the good news... Emma and I were playing in her crib at the hospital and she smiled at me! She's been smiling for weeks in her sleep, and showing signs of excitement, but this was her first genuine smile!
Today we are trying to clean for Grandpa M's visit tomorrow. We got a little behind since we weren't home yesterday, so hopefully the girls will give me some time today to get caught up. Oh, and I'm sure this was a fluke, but the girls did one 4 hour and one 5 hour stretch last night!
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