The girls are doing great. I look forward to Kate being fully recovered from her c-section and the gall bladder surgery to come, both for her sake and for mine. Mostly, I hate seeing her limited by pain; but also, I’m incapable of keeping the counters and floors as clean as tidy as they need to be to keep her sane, despite my normal range of movement, and my reprimands when she can’t help herself from picking up my slack are having less and less effect.

Brooke and Claire are doing what we want them to do, which is getting bigger, stronger, cuter. They’re gaining weight and have both gone past their birthweight, which is a good milestone. The caffeine (for apnea) and reglan (for digestion) continue to have the desired effect, so the two biggies of eating and breathing are going well. We’ve still been visiting twice a day and enjoying kangaroo care with them (skin to skin holding). We’re less limited now in the timing and duration of holding them, so we often hold them even while they’re feeding (not just before), and no one tells us when holding time has to end. That’s neat, but makes it a little hard to end because we never feel entirely ready to put them back. Both girls have been practicing “non-nutritive” breastfeeding, which means being introduced to the breast and practicing latching on, but not actually eating yet; that’s going well. I think Kate is a natural mommy, even if she harbors a few doubts herself.