Yesterday was not a bad day, but it was a little rougher. Brooke and Claire are still doing okay, but they’ve been having some digestion issues and spitting up more than the doc and nurses would like. They’re on meds (“reglen”, I think) for it and are being closely watched for signs of infection like any green coloration to the spit up. There haven’t been any such signs (unless anything changed overnight), but that would be cause for concern. If they don’t resolve the spitting up issue soon, it could delay the transfer to the closer hospital. That would be a minor disappointment, but we want them wherever they need to be to get the best care possible.
Brooke had a little heartbeat irregularity last night about 5 minutes into holding time with Mommy and the nurse quickly resolved it, but she had to go back in the isolette. I felt bad for Kate that she didn’t get her “fair” share of snuggling, but she was still able to cup Brooke’s head and coo with her back in the isolette while I continued holding Claire. Both girls have had spit up issues (which I assume is the same as reflux, though I don’t think anyone has used that word to describe it to us), but Brooke has been our slightly more dramatic preemie even though she’s the bigger one. She’s had a couple (that I know of) brief apneas that didn’t self-resolve and there was the heartbeat thing last night. Claire briefly triggered a heartbeat alert when I was holding her, but it self-resolved in a couple seconds.
Kate had a rougher day physically and emotionally, but she’s still my hero and being a fantastic mommy. Physically, she’s coping with the incision pain from the c-section, the frequent discomforts and tribulations of breast pumping, a bowel that’s not quite ready to cooperate after surgery, back strain from who knows what but probably not helped any by trying to get the right upright position for breast pumping, and so on. Emotionally, it was a more stressful day with the babies, and I think combining that with the typical stresses of hormones, insufficient sleep, worrying about how to handle everything after discharge, and having to deal with all the physical stuff - it all caught up to her. That’s pretty overwhelming. I’m not quite sure how to best support her (my man brain wants to just fix it somehow), but I’m trying to figure it out as I go, and will be reading up and asking our doc about PPD to try to learn what the warning signs are, just in case.
I’m headed for the hospital shortly, and if all goes according to plan, I’ll be bringing Kate with me next time I come home.
