New Pics and Finally Some Video!

Emma

Madelyn

Rough Night

The girls had a rough night, or at least I did... Last night Madelyn's belly was distended so they did an x-ray. It turned out to be nothing. Then they re-did her blood work and she had dropped 4 points since Tuesday. Because of this, she received a blood transfusion last night. We were going to try to find a donor that we knew, but it takes 4 days and we didn't want to hold off. Emma's blood work came back borderline again so they decided this morning to do a transfusion on her as well. It's very upsetting to me to think about my tiny little girls going through this, but we've been told over and over that this is pretty standard and that they are surprised they haven't had to do any yet. Sometimes it can require 2-3 transfusions. This may be what is causing their O2 levels to stick around 35% and Emma's "puffiness". They should be showing signs of change in the next day or so. Emma also got put back into her isolette last night because she was not maintaining her temperature. I am hoping that this will get them moving along a little faster and home to us sooner.

On a totally different note, congratulations to my brother and sister-n-law who found out this morning they'll be adding a baby boy to our family!

Happy 1 Month Birthday!

Our girls have now been in the NICU for 30 days. They have grown by leaps and bounds while they have been there. Hopefully, they will only have a few more weeks there. We are both exhausted. I know, I know... when they come home we'll be exhausted for 20 years. But, we'll at least be at home. We'll be a complete family. We won't be worried every day about little steps backwards or not enough steps forward. We'll hold our babies in our arms and be able to hug and kiss them without looking at a monitor!

33 Weeks

The girls are now 4 weeks old and tomorrow is their 1st month birthday! Madelyn is being re-weaned back into an open bed today. It brought tears to my eyes to see our Emma in her open bed yesterday. Of course the temptation to just pick them up and never let go is there, but it's important to let them rest and not overstimulate them, as they are still growing and getting stronger.

Both of their blood work yesterday showed that they may be anemic. They will repeat the blood work on Friday and if it's low again, they will need blood transfusions. As horrible as that sounds to me, the nurse practitioner says it's a very common occurance and is not a huge deal for them to perform. It may be why they can't seem to wean their oxygen down too much. On the other hand, their oxygen levels may be due to just being preemies. It's hard for us because we want to see vast improvements every day and sometimes it just takes time.

They both pooped out on us during their bottles yesterday, again due to their age. They both got down about 7cc's out of 30. As of today, they'll be moved up to 35cc's every 3 hours and I think they will start to incorporate more feedings by mouth.

A few of you have asked about holding the girls while they are in the NICU. My parents are really the only ones that we have and will let hold the girls right now. They have only had the opportunity once so far, and may or may not have the chance again. The reason is that we only get about 2-4 hours with them a day and they are fragile. During this window, we have to squeeze in feedings, sometimes bath time and kangaroo care. These activities wear the girls out. It's most important for us to get this bonding time with them ... they need it and so do we, as it's so hard on all of us not to have them home with us. Soon enough, when they are home and as long as you are well and germ-free, and pass our scrutiny of questions ... you may be able to hold our little snuggle bugs. Due to them being preemies, we will for sure be protective, but with good and valid reason... so please don't be offended if you can't visit or hold them at any certain time. For some, it may not be until summer that you can hold them. May is usually when RSV season is over.

Quick Post

It's 3am, and I got up to pump and realized I needed to use this time to post a few pictures. Emma progressed to an open air bed yesterday! Madelyn did as well, but she got cold and returned to the isolette. This is perfectly normal for preemies, and they'll try to wean her out again today. Christian and I are truly exhausted with working all day and not getting home until 10pm at night. We're hoping we won't have to do this for too much longer. We know we'll be sleep deprived when they are home, but at least the will be HOME and we won't be running back and forth to the hospital. We're going to definitely look into some help with the house, at least for a little while, as we just can't keep up. I can't imagine how much less time we'll have when they are home. :)

I'll update more later!

Picture Time!

Emma, our chunky monkey

Emma in her big girl bed (open air!)

Bathing Emma

Miss Madelyn

Again?

So I have a breast infection yet again. I got in to see the doctor this morning and I'm now on another antibiotic. I had to call off work today to stay home and catch up on some rest. I do feel a little better after sleeping for a few hours, but it's very painful. If it's not better by Wednesday morning then I will go in for an ultrasound to see if there is something else going on such as an abcess.

Mady went to the breast yesterday as well and did good! Neither of them is really getting too much, which is why they still tube feed them afterwards. The downfall is that we don't get to bottle feed them if we put them to the breast. Because they are still so young, they will only do one non-tube feeding a day. As each day passes, they will try to alternate between bottle or breast and tube until they get the hang of it. Breast and bottle require a lot of work for them and they burn too many calories right now. It's more important that they continue to grow at this point.

They look adorable in their tiny little outfits... just like little dolls!

Our Kitty

If you follow our blog, you know that our cat had been diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure. He was diagnosed a few weeks before I was hospitalized. We finally put him to rest on Saturday. It was so incredibly difficult. We both miss him so much. Everywhere at home there are reminders of him. We talked on Saturday about all the great memories we had with him. As we did this, we realized it had been awhile since he had really acted like himself. He loved to talk to us and tell us stories. We'd come home from work and ask him how his day was and he would meow and meow and meow. It was so sweet. The other cats seem like they may know something is wrong, but we're not sure. Hopefully Abby will be okay, as she and Giger hung out all the time and bathed each other. Giger licked her forehead before we took him...

Another Step Forward

The girls are now being introduced to the breast! Emma had her try this morning and did fairly well. She stayed alert and awake the whole time, and apparently that's what most babies struggle with. We'll be trying with Madelyn in a few minutes. We talked with the doctor this morning at it may be as early as 2 weeks for the girls to come home. He has no worries about them. He did say they MAY have to come home on O2, but he said that babies tend to come off of O2 sooner when they are at home. They still have plenty of time to try to work themselves off of it.

Will post more later!

More Pics!