I have my hands full....

Let's see how well this works...I'm going to attempt to post and have Loren climbing all over me. She is into everything!!!! Maybe it's a good thing these girls are in the NICU. I'm definitely going to have my hands full. Oh wait, I already do. :)

It's amazing how much a day off can feel like. Going into the NICU today, I felt like I hadn't been there in a week. They are slowly weaning Emma and so far she has tolerated it. We'll continue to pray that she does well. She is gaining huge amounts of weight right now. She is 2 lb. 14 1/2 oz. One of two things.... (1) - her bed scale is off OR... (2) - My hind milk has a huge amount of fat in it. Only time will tell if her weight amount is accurate. If it is then we know that the hind milk is working. The doctor spoke with me today. We knew that Emma had had a grade 1 blood on the right side of her brain at birth. Then we knew that she had a resolving grade 1. Well, they did another brain ultrasound at 34 weeks and it showed a grade 2 on the right side of the brain. The left side had no signs of bleeding on the brain. It basically is telling the damage that occurred either while I was pregnant or since at birth. It is a clot now that is resolving. So we don't know the long term affects yet and we probably won't know until about age 2 or 3. We'll just keep praying for her that she will not show any signs of damage.

Olivia had a good day. She is just shy of 3 lb. 13 oz. I came in today and the first thing they told me is that they were starting her feeds today instead of tomorrow. Yea!!! I took her temp. The nurse in orientation changed her diaper and it was clean. They had chipped her because she hasn't stooled for about 7 days. Of course, she is not eating either. But I guess you can still stool on TPN. I was able to kangaroo her. It felt so good to hold her again!!!!! She was so snugly!! She was moving around some. I also kept smelling something (like medicine but weird). They said she was probably passing gas. After I was done holding her, they checked her diaper and that girl had let lose. I can talk about this because it's exciting when their body functions work. Anyway, after she changed her, we fed her her small amount of 2 1/2 ml. through a nipple and she sucked it down within a minute. A couple weeks ago, when they fed her through a bottle, it took her 20 minutes to drink 4 ml. So she did an awesome job!!! Afterwards, she just laid there and smiled. I wish I had a picture of that. Poop and eat - can't get better than that! Yep, my husband is probably embarrassed now. Sorry Honey!

Well, that is all for today. We'll find out how Emma tolerated her drop in Nitric Oxide (10 down to 5) in the morning. Please pray her blood gases are good.

Love and Goodnight!!
Bethany