Claire made such good progress with her nippling over the last week that we heard talk from the NICU nurses that she might be ready to go home by Monday (yesterday), but we still weren’t expecting it. We weren’t in complete denial, but we’d thought there’d be at least a couple days’ notice, and since we still hadn’t been asked by Sunday to bring in a car seat for her car seat test, or told she had officially started her prerequisite two consecutive days of nippling every feeding, Monday seemed like a longshot. So, when we arrived Sunday afternoon, we were caught off guard when our neonatologist told us he had been leaving us a voicemail as we walked in, telling us to bring a car seat because Claire was ready to go home the next day as long as she gained weight that night and passed her care seat test. She did both. Read the rest of this entry »
Claire is coming home today!
Kat’s surgery to have her gall bladder removed went well, but for reasons that still aren’t entirely clear, her doc decided to admit her for a couple of nights. We know her gall bladder was in bad shape - inflamed, but not infected - and she had a drainage tube and substantial post-op pain, so neither of us were bothered by the change in plans, but we’re still a little perplexed why he would have expected to do it as outpatient surgery in the first place. She was only a month removed from having a c-section, which to my layman’s judgment seems like something that could be expected to make her recovery a little rougher than usual. Like I said, though, we didn’t mind the stay. They were able to grant our request to have her admitted to women’s recovery wing just down the hall from the NICU, so she was close to the babies and being cared for by a bunch of nurses we already liked. With the pain level immediately following the surgery, Kate was in no hurry to get home and negotiate the stairs. Financially, it’s already a given that we’ll meet our annual out-of-pocket maximum for the year, so what’s another day or two in the hospital? Read the rest of this entry »
Brooke and Claire must have overheard conversations about Brooke possibly being read to go home first, because they seem to be conspiring to get more in synch so they can go home together. After a few days of finishing off her bottles under the time limit, Brooke has had a hard time staying awake to complete her feedings. Meanwhile, Claire caught up to her sister’s pace of taking every third feeding by bottle, and has done so well she might advance to nippling every other feeding before Brooke. Claire has also been the more feisty one lately, so we think Brooke may be feeling the anemia a little more than her sister. They’re still on epogen for the anemia, and we expect tomorrow’s labs to show us whether it’s working or if one or both might need a transfusion.
Mommy is having a cholecystectomy today, meaning her gall bladder will be removed. This is something we’ve been expecting for a while now, since she was first diagnosed with severe gall stones in her first trimester. Had she not been pregnant, they would have scheduled her for surgery ASAP. At the time of the diagnosis, when she was having discomfort but not severe pain, the ultrasound tech who scanned her gall bladder said it was in pretty bad shape and he was surprised she wasn’t in more pain; normally, if he saw gall stones that bad, he’d be scanning someone who came into the emergency room in severe pain. Surgeons and obstetricians prefer to avoid surgery during pregnancy unless absolutely necessary, so Kat was advised to adhere to a low-fat diet (fats aggravate gall bladder problems) and try to put off surgery until after the pregnancy. Read the rest of this entry »
Claire passed 4 lbs. a couple nights ago and Brooke hit the 5 lbs. mark last night, so we’re very pleased with their steady growth. Both girls’ faces have started to fill out with a little baby fat to give them more of that typical newborn look. Neither have had any days of losing weight since they turned the corner on Day 6 or so and started gaining weight instead of losing it. Brooke isn’t really outgrowing her sister - she just had a head start by about 11 oz. Our preference would be to bring them home at the same time when they’re ready, but because of Brooke’s head start, she might be ready to come home earlier. We still don’t know when that might be with any precision, but it’s possible Brooke could be ready in less than two weeks! Read the rest of this entry »
I always look forward to visiting my daughters in the NICU, which we’ve been doing twice a day since they were born three-and-a-half weeks ago, but I’d be lying if I said every visit was full of non-stop fun and bonding. There’s a lot of boring downtime mixed in, and even when I’m basking in the love of some quality kangaroo care, there’s only so much entertainment you can get from staring at the top of your baby’s head or their vital stats on a monitor. Kate and I talk, of course, and we’ve filled in some of the boring parts by reading to each other and our babies, but still, it can get pretty dull. (In a NICU, “dull” is generally preferred over “exciting”, since excitement in an intensive care unit isn’t always a good thing.) Sometimes, though, some combination of how the girls are acting or what we get to do with them will make a particular visit especially good. Last night was one of those times. Read the rest of this entry »
For the first time since a brief meeting on Mommy’s chest right after being delivered, Claire and Brooke are sharing space again. We’ve been looking forward to them co-bedding for a while now, but it couldn’t happen until both babies could self-regulate their body temperatures. That ability is closely tied to body weight, and though Brooke graduated to an open-air basinette a few days ago, Claire needed a little extra time in her temperature-controlled isolette to grow and catch up. We managed to capture the reunion on video, despite a battery that was on the verge of dying. It’ll probably be quite a while before they have any real awareness of being next to each other, but it means a lot to us even if they’re pretty clueless. They were both lying on their right sides when we left, to help with digestion, so Brooke’s view changed from the clear side of the hospital basinette to the bars of their pediatric crib, and Claire’s wondering where the big pink wall a few inches from her face came from.
Brooke has been doing fantastic with her nippling (bottle feeding) and has finished her last few bottle feedings within the time limit of a half hour. (If anything is left after that point, it’s fed through their NG tube.) Claire is making good nippling progress, too, but hasn’t caught up to her sister. That’s not surprising, since Claire is smaller and a lot of these things improve a lot with size. She’ll get there. Speaking of size, Claire is big enough that we expect the girls to finally get co-bedded today. Read the rest of this entry »
The girls’ quick growth and development continues. Brooke graduated from her isolette to an open-air crib a few nights ago, and when Claire gets just a little bigger and is regulating her body temp better, they’ll try co-bedding in a pediatric crib. Both are gaining weight well and steadily increasing the amount they eat. They’ve started learning to eat from a bottle (called “nippling”), which is an important part of the progression from tube feeding, to bottle feeding, to breastfeeding. The meds for apnea and digestion were recently discontinued, without causing any turn for the worse in breathing or digestion.
A couple nights ago, Nurse A. demonstrated with Claire how to bathe our preemies, and then we got to bathe Brooke ourselves. It was a team effort between Kat and me, but I got the easier part. Kate did most of the body wash (while I propped Brooke up as needed), which is the part they fuss and cry about; I then wrapped her up and put her in a “football” hold to wash her hair in the sink, which she seemed to enjoy a lot. She looked at me and looked at me, and I loved her and loved her. It always feels good to get to do those “normal” parent things that most parents don’t have to wait long for after delivery. The thrill of baths and diaper changes will probably fade, but it’s nice to feel like “real” Mommy and Daddy, and not just spectators while paid professionals take care of your baby. (I did decline a changing opportunity for probably the first time last night, when we were just about to leave for the night and Claire had a poopy diaper up for grabs. I let the nurse grab it.)
Kat is recovering well from her c-section. She still needs to take it easy for a while (I keep reminding her), but I don’t insist on a wheelchair anymore for the trip between the hospital entrance and the NICU. She has an appointment coming up soon to hopefully schedule surgery to remove her gall bladder. She was diagnosed with severe gall stones in the first trimester and was hospitalized for them early in the third, but the docs didn’t want to operate during the pregnancy unless there was no other choice. She endured a substantial amount of pain and discomfort, but made it to delivery without gall bladder surgery. Fortunately, she hasn’t suffered any gall bladder type pain since delivering, but we want it out as soon as it’s medically advisable. If we’re really lucky, it can happen before the babies come home, so she can get that recovery out of the way.
Pics are hopefully forthcoming soon. I have a bunch of pics ready and even uploaded, but I’m figuring out how to use a cool gallery/slideshow feature that’s new to me.
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.
