Movin' on Up! (lots of news, long post)

Well a lot has happened since the last post. The girls have made tremendous progress in the last week. Today they are 34 weeks (gestation age) and they have been in the NICU for six weeks. Both girls are off all breathing support now. Kathryn is now completely on breast milk just like her sister and she is tolerating it very well. That is wonderful progress for her because she did not tolerate it well when she was first introduced to it and the nurses would have to pull all the undigested milk from her belly which obviously didn’t do her any good for weight gain if she couldn’t digest it. But this time around she digests it just fine. Speaking of weight gain, Sophia is at 3 lbs. 13 ozs. and Kathryn is at 3 lbs. 9.5 ozs. They are really filling out and looking less fragile.

The girls had been getting doses of caffeine in their feedings which helped to keep them from dropping their heart rates. They are now currently off the caffeine which shows their progress because until yesterday the girls weren’t having nearly any episodes, however, yesterday Sophia began to have a few episodes throughout the day which may just mean she needs to go back on caffeine. The nurse told me today the caffeine stays in their system for about five days after coming off of it, and tomorrow makes day five, so if her episodes increase tomorrow then that is a clear indication the caffeine doses should resume. The only reason that bothers me is because if she has to remain on the caffeine when she comes home, then she will definitely be sent home on a monitor. That’s not the worse thing in the world, but it would be really nice if they could be without the monitors when the come home.

As for more of the good news, on Wednesday the girls were moved out of the critical care room and into a “feeders and growers” room. This room is a much more relaxed environment and it’s not nearly as noisy with all the beeping monitors that constantly alarmed in the critical care room. This room is where they will learn to feed in preparation for coming home. This morning the girls had their first bottle feeding and the nurse said they did VERY well. They get rated based on whether they finish the feed in under 20 minutes, do they keep the food down, and can they get through the feed without a drop in heart rate, so it’s a very good thing they rated well. Kathryn had a slightly harder time taking the bottle than Sophia because she gulped up the feeding really fast and she forgot to breathe while doing so, so her rate dropped slightly, but the nurse just pulled back until she recouped. They start with one bottle feed per day (other feedings by tube) and they will slowly work their way up to more per day if they remain tolerating them. Since they did so good today, they will try two feeds tomorrow. They don’t get to try breastfeeding for awhile yet because that is really tiring for them. They will try that closer to coming home time.

They’ve recently spent a lot of time together and a new activity for them is to spend time together in one incubator for a few hours per day so they can get some cuddle time together. It’s so fun to watch them together. They stretch and touch each other’s face and hands. I could watch them together all day long. They look so adorable and you can tell they really enjoy each others company.

Sorry for the long post, its just that they have made so much progress this last week and grow stronger every day. Please continue to keep them in your thoughts and prayers during this holiday season in hopes we can spend Christmas with them in our home.

Enjoy plenty of pictures below and God Bless!

Thier old room, closest bed was Sophia's, Kathryn's is in the background.

The Step Down Room - The "quiet" room, one more closer to home!

Sleeping together in Kathryn's incubator for the first time.

Holding hands for the first time.

Just plain ol' cuddling.

Sophia Grace

Kathryn Lydia

Daddy "feeding" Sophia.

The result of that feeding.

Mommy giving Sophia a bath.

Happy Thankgiving!

How we spent the first half of Thankgiving, Emily is holding Sophia and Kathryn is on her lap under the small blue & pink blanket...hands a little full?

Daddy feeding Sophia her Thanksgiving milk.

Kathryn after getting her Thankgiving milk from Mommy.

No more pictures please.

WIDE awake after Mommy gives her a bath.

Some Thanksgiving cuddling for a couple of hours.

Holding hands again.

Some comfortable girls taking advantage of some quiet time together.