Yes, they are still breathing but they are doing it totally on their own as of 1 pm today. We are very excited about that. They are down to 30% humidity, and both gained weight. Ethan is back to his birth weight at 3 lb 10 oz and Sydney is nearly there gaining 2 oz and weighing in at 3 lb 8 oz! (Funny how that is a lot of weight to me)
Their faces with one less thing on them...
It's great to have one less tube. They are down to their feeding tube and then monitors! We love to look at their faces. They'll remove those circular stickers on their faces by morning if all goes well. Their oxygen saturation levels have been excellent today without the high flow.
They are enriching my milk with some powder to increase the caloric value per ounce by 2 calories. I guess human milk has 20 calories (on average) per ounce and where their bellies are so small, they can't feed them more volume. So, they are enhancing my milk with more calories and some extra calcium and other minerals. I was a little disappointed at first then realized that they haven't analyzed my milk or anything--they just want them to gain weight with more calories. I asked if I can do anything to help, but it didn't sound like I could do much besides bring in my afternoon milk vs the morning. Good thing we have a deep freeze. We are starting to freeze and store milk already. We've joked about selling it--but not sure where to find the buyers. :)
The other new development is that we can hold them 2 times per day. This means that Doug and I get to hold both babies everyday. Before we were choosing who would hold. It feels like a luxury to be able to hold them everyday. Also, I am going to practice the non-nutritive feedings daily as well. They did well with that today--better than the lactation specialist expected, otherwise I would think that nothing really happened.
We got a shot of them tonight that was cute. The nurse tonight said that they are the most active twins she's ever seen.
A little confession on my part--we've noticed that their nurses every shift are the supervisors. This made us a little concerned that Ethan & Sydney needed the most care and were the "sickest" in the nursery. I asked our nurse tonight (a supervisor) about that and she said it was the opposite. The supervisors need some flexibility so they can accomplish their other responsibilities, so they choose the best (woo hoo!) babies in the nursery to care for that shift. We are both proud parents to have the best babies in the nursery.
8 comments:
They are so precious! I can't believe that they are doing so well. Heather, I bet you have the most nutritious milk around!!! That must be why they are doing so great! Do you get the sense that they like being together again? I have to wonder... Love you. Sar
It's funny, they seem so comfortable with each other that we don't sense any 'excitement' that they are together. We also haven't seen them both awake at the same time since they've been together.
Yeah, so glad that they are together with not so many tubes. Are you and Doug getting enough sleep. I bet you just dream of them all the time while sleeping. We are still praying for them. Love you.
You should get that made into a bumper sticker. Like the ones "my kids an honor student at ______ middle school". Yours could say, "my babies are supervisor babies in the nursery" or "my babies are the best in the nursery" something like that. :)
It is so sweet to see their little faces, you can definitely start to see that they look different from one another now. I love how much they love to touch and be by each other, you can sense it even through the videos. To cute for words!
they are so precious you guys! they just seem so peaceful and content! we love you guys! love, kate
Now you have to remember that your babies are Beckstrand/Marchant babies, and of course they would be rock stars. I wouldn't expect anything less. They are so, so precious and I am so glad that they are doing so well. Prayers have been answered.
I noticed their ears are the same shape. Who has that ear? Doug or Heather?
Post a Comment