Day 24

Another Monday in the Special Care nursery. We heard some good news today. Sydney's virus test came back negative--that means that the 7 viruses they test for, Sydney does not have. She still is fighting something, but it's an unknown virus. Our nurse today, Amy, thought that Sydney was on the 'way out' from the sickness and Ethan was on his 'way in'. We were actually excited to hear that because Sydney hasn't been too sick. She's just slept a LOT. Today was her first time waking up enough to try to eat. She's slept through our attempts for days.

Sydney is 4 lbs 7 oz! They are getting big so fast. Ethan is weighing in with a cast in tow at 4 lbs 10 oz. We're pretty sure that Sydney has passed up Ethan in weight. They are both over 2 kilograms, which the doctor told us would be a landmark for them. After they are over 2 kilos, they will start gaining weight at a faster rate. We found out that with the additional calcium and vitamin D that was started a few days ago, they moved to 26 calorie milk. Mother's milk is usually 20 calories per ounce. They use a powder (6 packets per 100 ccs or 4+ oz) to make it 26 calories. The bummer? Their poop stinks bad! We'll be glad when that's over.

We talked to the doctor who came to evaluate their progress today. He said that he thought they would be home before 38 weeks. That is less than 3 weeks away. We felt a little glimmer of hope. They will just need to figure out eating...that will be their true test.

We had a great 7 pm 'feeding' tonight. We weighed Ethan before and after as a little test and he did gain weight--just not sure how much really. Sydney was awake for the first time in days and seemed to do really well. I am pretty proud of this video because I took it while holding Sydney. Doug and I were loving our time with them tonight. They are looking bigger!

After days of sleeping and eating--without much waking time, Sydney is looking quite chubby.