As Little Will and the Girls Grow: "Special Care"

What a difference 5 days make. I have had many reasons to update on the girls but have not had a chance to write a post these last few days. Each morning, Ellis and I have dropped Will off at day care, then Ellis comes up to the NICU with me for an update on the girls, then he goes to work and I stay all day with the girls, then he comes back around 4:45 for a little visit before he and I leave to pick up Will and head home. Its been an exhausting week for us, to say the least.

But the girls have drastically improved from where they were last Sunday. Each day they have gotten better and better and better. Last night, the girls "graduated" out of the intensive care room to the special care room. Its WONDERFUL. Its the growing and fattening room where, instead of having a 1 pound, 24 week baby as one of the girls' neighbor, all the babies are bigger and fattening up with bottle feeds and nursing. We are able to take the girls out of the isolettes on our own. This morning, I got to bottle feed Catie (changed her diaper, took her out of the isolette, fed her, and put her back in) and then do the same thing with Carter except that I nursed her. The independence of feeling more like their "mom" is wonderful. Oh - and they are wearing clothes as they get closer and closer to getting out of their isolettes!

As of today, here is how each girl is doing:

Carter --
She is no longer on the CPAP and is off the step-down treatment of Vapotherm so she no longer has a nasal canuul (that little thing in her nose). She is being treated with an antibiotic for her poor little nose that has become irritated from all of that being on her for so long. They have also taken her off of the caffeine that is given to treat apnea. We should know by Wednesday next week if she will have any remaining trouble with apnea that might require an apnea monitor when we come home. They have also taken Carter off fluids, so she no longer has an IV. The only "tube" attached to her is the feeding tube down her nose and into her tummy. She is learning to eat from a bottle and to nurse. She is fed 35 mL of breastmilk every 3 hours, can breastfeed once every 24 hours, and is given a bottle twice every 24 hours. Her isolette is on room temperature (the nurse controls the temp rather than a computer that monitors their skin temperature) and when I left today, the nurse was working to see how low the temperature could be turned down to so that we could hopefully get her out of the isolette and into a crib. Last night, she weighed 4 pounds and 1.5 ounces.

Carter has really long, skinny arms and legs and long fingers. She has a head full of hair and really distinct eyebrows that are the most expressive things when she is alert. She totally cracks me up when she is awake after a feeding. I love to interact with her. Although she is not great with a bottle yet, she nurses like a champ. She also can be a bit of a spitfire, pitching a fit if you make her do something she doesn't want to do. We've had several nurses comment on the kind of fit she can throw.

Catie --
While her sister has struggled to get over her breathing problems, Catie has continued to work on gaining calories, so she can come out of her isolette and eventually home. She is still getting some fluids, so she still has a central line in her. But I think it will come out tomorrow or Sunday. Other than that, she just has a feeding tube like her sister. She and her sister are completely off the billirubin lights too. Catie is not very easy to nurse, but takes a bottle with absolutely no fuss. She is getting 29 mL of breastmilk every 3 hours, is fed by bottle 4 times in 24 hours and can breastfeed an additional 2 times. The nurse is working to get her out of the isolette too, but she seems to still require a little bit more heat than her sister to maintain the right body temperature. Catie now weighs more than her sister at 4 pounds 4 ounces.

Catie is my snoozer - she is the hardest and most peaceful sleeping baby. She will barely wake up even when they had to put a new IV in her veins. She is always sleeping in the most adorable, comfy positions. I could stare at her sleeping for hours. She continues to be the spitting image of her brother and is much chubbier and rounder than her sister. Catie and Carter look absolutely nothing alike.

Essentially, we are now just waiting and giving it time for the girls to fatten up. There is no weight requirement for their discharge. They just need to maintain their body temperature in a crib while continuing to take in calories and gain weight. They won't give parents any guesstimate on a discharge date, but I am crossing my fingers that the girls might come home the end of next week when we had originally scheduled for my c-section. So please send us prayers full of calories and fat! :-)

So - now some pictures from the past 5 days:

Monday

Daddy holds Catie for the first time