Thursday, June 5, 2008

Good news today

We heard today that both girls had normal head scans. We are so relieved - it's a big hurdle I've been worrying about since last week. The doctors tell us their greatest risk for now is infection, specifically infection in their digestive systems. This risk is pretty high through the end of their 3rd week of life so the next week and a half is critical. After that, they still have a risk but it drops fairly significantly. I've never thought so much about hand washing and germs, etc. Don't get me wrong....I was my hands all the time but my awareness now is so much more heightened - I think about everything I touch and then what I touch next.

The girls are stable and the doctors are pleased with how they're doing. They increased their feedings at midnight and both seem to be tolerating it. Sofia started light therapy again this morning because her biliruben level went up. The doctor said babies usually grow out of jaundice by around 10 days so hopefully she'll be able to stop for good this time. I helped with this evening's assessment - taking temperatures and changing diapers. Both girls have gained weight including a full ounce for Sofia. Sofia weighed 2lb 10.3 oz (up from 9.3oz last night and getting oh so close to her birth weight - 2lb 11oz). Olivia weighed 2lb 12.5oz (up from 12.3oz last night and also getting close to the birth weight of 12.6 oz). They'll reach what would have been 31 weeks gestation on Saturday and our understanding is that they're going to start changing their feeding pattern. Right now they're on continuous feeding. Soon they'll start bolus feeding them where they'll get a certain amount over a certain time but it won't be continuous. Once they do well with that, they'll start trying to bottle feed them, typically around what would be 32 weeks gestation......and that'll be a week from Saturday. They'll start with one bottle a day and eventually work their way up to all bottles. They can also start wearing clothes at 32 weeks so we can put all the cute onesies we have to good use! These girls have more clothes than I do!!!

Everyone in the NICU continues to be wonderful. The doctors who are there are always available to us and the nurses are so friendly and patient. We have lots of questions, as anyone would, and they sit and talk to us as long as we need them to. There are a couple of nurses who are so sweet. I'm sure they do this for all the babies for whom they care, but they seem to have taken a liking to our girls. One of them heard us talking about the ladybugs in the nursery and she bought ladybug and gingham blankets and used them to make their beds. Tonight as we were saying hello to the girls, I noticed a sign they had made - that same nurse took pictures of the girls laying side by side and then another nurse made a cute sign with a poem about twins. They have prints of the pictures for us and I'll scan them in. Wait until you see these pictures.............those kids look very much alike!!! It's the first picture I've ever seen of the girls side by side. The nurse had to jump through hoops to get them side by side (all the wires, etc.)and she took it when she was moving their feedings tubes so you see their sweet little faces without tubes and wires. Olivia looks a little bigger than Sofia - she's longer, but all in all they look alike.

Until next time.............

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your girls are beautiful!!! I'm so glad to hear they're doing so well and hope things continue to improve. I saw your post about D being in the hospital bed and thought I would tell you that Adam did the exact same thing when Dr. Lattimore came in the day I went home. He told Adam "you look great for having just had a baby!" It was pretty funny.