02.12 Update

The days of the crazy bells, monitors and sounds are slowly crawling to an end.  The unnerving feeling of a situation waiting around a corner still sits with me and I have to shake that feeling off because the truth of the matter is that these girls are growing and going in the right direction.  They are finally losing pieces of equipment bit by bit, mainly Penelope.  One thing gets shut off or taken away bit by bit.  It's been another quiet day here in the NICU and we can't be more grateful.  So quiet that when Bethany went out for a baby shower today, I went home and pressed out on a run, albiet a painful-getting reinitiated kind of run, but nonetheless refreshing to work off some of the late night eating that we have been doing.

Update:
Penelope 1kg 190g  2lbs 9.9oz

The girl's finally playing by the books.  As far as medicines go, she's down to just her vancomycin (antibiotics) and ursodial (bili medicine).  When the last dose of vanc is given Sun. night, she'll be getting rid of that IV which hopefully she'll take to it like she did the removal of the PICC line and grow even stronger.  The PICC really was causing more harm than good in this situation because since it's removal, she's continued her journey upwards.  It's hard for the body, especially such a tiny one, to have a foreign object like that inside of you for so long, as beneficial as it is.  It's the main line that continued to give her nutrients when she was on the ever so slightest of feeds.  Her goal now is to grow and get big which won't be hard at the rate she's being given her food!  She's up to bolus 20cc's of feed over two hours with one hour break, every three hours and that's momma's milk with 25calories in fortifiers!  It's truthfully close to eating a burger, fries and shake every 3 hours - a lot of calories!  The rate at which they grow here is astounding! She's also stooling well with "man poop" diapers with the color finally changing from a darkish yellow to the more brighter yellow that is normal.  She's also been given the opportunity to have a bottle every shift with 5cc's of milk.  Bethany gave her the first one, two days ago and I got to give her one last night and tonight.  It's so fulfilling as a parent to feed your child, especially after not having that opportunity since their birth.  While Bethany was holding her last night, she was rooting around (sticking her tongue out and mouthing around for food) trying to find more food than what she had been given, so Bethany decides that she'll give her a taste of the real deal.  The girl latched on without any help almost immediately!  Such a smart girl!!! The only thing holding her back is her mouth size is too small so Bethany's waiting for the lactation specialist to help her out.  She's moving on up!! Dr. Krishnan believes that she could be homeward bound within a month!  Woot!  Which is about right, with the plan to go home as close to the original completed gestational date as possible (March 15th).  Currently the concerns left on the table are A'sB's (which will be an issue for a number of months even while they're at home), her bili number, her inguinal hernia, the dimpling on her back, and continued digestion health and development.  The hernia and dimpling are things they plan on doing the closer she gets to leaving with the thoughts that these things aren't going to get worse over the next month.  There's even talk about moving her back to The Pavilion if there's nothing left but feed and grow.  This would be a huge help because...

 Lydia 1kg 910g (they gotta be twins) 4lbs 3oz

might be coming home in as little time as ten days!  *shock* yes, it's true that this might be happening very soon and oh man, are we freaked out!  Lydia has been a champ, taking 31cc's of milk with fortifier within her 15 min. time frame the last two feeds.  I fed her tonight and she gobbled it up quick!  She was so mad before I gave it to her, yelling and crying louder than we've ever heard her cry.  She's on an order right now of every other feed still to have either mom or bottle which is tiring her out a bit more but she's getting more and more use to eating by real PO rather than by NG.  I'll have to admit, it's been a lot of fun having her in this stage where we can dress her up, put fun sheets in her bed and have her out of the giraffe bed more.  The nurses say as soon as she can hold her temp properly, she'll be moving to a radiant warmer bed which is an open top bed.  We'll have even more access to her, without the concerns of keeping the humidity inside the bed.  Medicine wise, she's off her caffeine dosage for over a day now, she's on a single 24 hour dose of Previcid for her refluxing - which has helped a TON! and of course getting her polyvisol (multivitamin) by NG.  She's getting so big, in the preemie sense!  It's quite hard to imagine that people don't go home with four pound babies but rather 6-10 pound babies!

And so brings us to the conclusion of today!  What a blessing today has been, being filled with joy with these two lives that God has chosen to bestow upon us.  What a learning process we are continuing to go through.

Specific Prayer Requests

• Penelope to continue tolerating feeds, having poopy diapers.
• Penelope to develop the proper suck, swallow, breath technique.
• Penelope to not have any more infections.
• Penelope to be done with IV's (blood transfusions, medicines).
• Penelope to not have any issues with her hernia and the dimpling on her back.
• Lydia & Penny to continue getting bigger and stronger
• Lydia to keep up with her feeds and SSB technique
• Lydia to get out of her incubator and in to an open air bed.
• For us to be mentally prepared for Lydia to come home as well as getting our house prepared for her arrival!

A continued thank you for you all who are still journeying with us and learning about these little lives along with us.  We're entering the home stretch!