A day at the NICU

We spent a lot of time in the NICU today. Doug and I both commented how it felt like they were our babies a little more because we were able to spend most of the day with them. My mom visited as well. She was there when they gave Ethan a new set of shades. He is also under lights for jaundice this morning. They have both lost some weight and are down to 3 lbs 5 oz and 3 lbs 7 oz (not sure which one was which). They have put them both on humidified air to help keep their weight up.

We met with Annie, an occupational therapist, who gave us some tips on how to help us bond with our babies when they were in the NICU. We are going to talk to them for 30 seconds when we get there (preferably at feeding times--1, 4, 7, & 10) and then touch the same place on their body every time. She told me that they know my smell and studies have shown that they can sense me 50 feet away. She also said that Ethan's foot looks like it can be corrected with a splint that they re-do every week. We will meet with an orthopedic specialist sometime this week. She also talked with the doctor and got approval for us to hold Ethan once per day! That was amazing considering we were hearing 2-3 times per week at this point. We like Annie a lot! She then showed us how we can give them a tiny taste of my milk in their mouth when the nurse feeds them in their feeding tubes. It was really fun to try.

The Pediatric Cardiologist tech came for the echos today and both Ethan and Sydney were able to have one. I held Sydney to keep her calm, but she pulled out her feeding tube during the echo. I helped calm her while the nurse pulled off the tape off her face and put a new one back in after. She cried a little, which was hard for me. I feel like a wuss when they cry because they are so little and look so fragile. The doctor told us that the preliminary report was optimistic. Both Ethan and Sydney's hearts are growing and developing and they are pretty confident that the murmurs will go away on their own as they mature.

Sydney had her picc line put in today. That was good news because we were one step closer to holding her. The criteria for us to hold them are:

1. The lines coming from their umbilical cord need to removed (Sydney's are still in below)

2. They need to be off CPAP (both babies are off)

3. Their picc line is put in when they have no umbilical lines, and we need to wait 4 hours after both the lines are removed and/or the picc line is put in. They monitor them for bleeding.

Sydney was all stretched out while the nurse prepped her for her picc line. I asked if they sedated her at all and they said they gave her 'sweeties' which is basically sugar water. The nurse told me this acts like morphine in premies. Thought that was interesting...my baby was sedated with sugar water today.

We went home for dinner and went back to the hospital because Sydney had her picc line in and umbilical lines removed at 5 pm. That meant we could hold her around 9 pm! I thought I'd share this video so you could see how they give her to me to hold. I get nervous watching them take them from the beds.

It was just as amazing to hold her. She was so sweet. I was so excited that nurse suggested we feed them while I was holding them. This will help them transition to me feeding them later. She gave her a tiny bit of milk in her mouth as the milk flowed with gravity into her belly. She started licking her a lips a little--great news. Then we gave her the pacifier to see if she would suck and boy did she! She has passed her brother in the amount of milk they are giving her. Ethan is getting 6 cc (1 oz is 30 cc) and Sydney is getting 3 cc. They measure their digestion and give them more milk as their digestion improves.

I then asked the nurse if Doug could hold Ethan for our daily hold instead of me. They've been wanting me to hold him so I produce antibodies for both of them. I knew how much Doug wanted to hold even one of them. The nurse quickly said that was fine and said that Doug could hold Sydney while I moved and held Ethan. Doug was thrilled and I got so much joy out of watching him hold her for the first time. It was wonderful.

The nurse then offered to let Doug hold Ethan as well. We felt like we had won the lottery. We decided that she is our new favorite nurse!