Penelope - 1420 (woohoo! she gained! that's 3 lbs 2 oz) Lydia - bigger
Today was a pretty good day all around! I got to spend the morning with Penelope at Lebonheur while Mom and Jonathan worked their tails off around the house. Seemed like a fair deal to me! Penny is doing pretty well. She's been having trouble gaining weight, which could also be attributed to the fact that her body has been working extra hard to keep her temperature up whereas before it was done for her by the bed. If she's unable to gain, she'll have to go back in to an incubator type bed so that it can help her with her temp so she can focus on growing. Growing is the goal here, just in case you've not been reading carefully. Her bilirubin numbers are sloooowly coming down, but coming down none the less. She's still having a tough time with her rapid breathing but according to her doctor, this is normal for her BPD (bronchopulmonary displasia - or lung disease because of prematurity) and should improve with time, growth, and maturity. In fact she said that all of the issues our sweet Penny is having are the things that are not uncommon and will resolve with time. That helped me to take a sigh of relief for sure! While I was visiting, Penny gave me the gift of lots of open eye time. We had a staring contest. I won, but I've been playing for longer than she has, so it's only natural. It really was a precious time with her. Jonathan and I have been taking turns every other day visiting her, but I'm not sure if that is going to work out. I think I may need everyday. We'll see.
For Lydia, she's still doing very well. Tonight she is sleeping in her "I "heart" mommy" sleeper....it's a newborn size. Yup, she's been stretching the footies out of her footie pajamas the last couple of days so she graduated tonight. The funny thing about baby clothes is that they're not all a uniform size....so some preemie things are too big and some are too tiny (which works out for Penny). But the truth of the matter is, that tag says newborn and that's a big deal! She's been doing pretty well with her eating, still choking occasionally when she's too distracted by other, shall we say, rumblies in her tumbly, or in her diaper is the case usually is. She's also been keeping us laughing with all of her facial expressions and grunts. She has one sound in particular that she makes before or after eating time that sounds like a little pig. It's like she knows it would be funny. And she's right.
After a morning away from Lydia for my visit with Penny, it was hard for me to pull myself away again, but it was for a good cause. Tonight I went to my first "Mother's of Multiples" meeting. Going in I had no idea what to expect. I was a little worried that it would be all designer clothes wearing, perfect manicure having, spending more money on their hair every 6 weeks than I do on clothes for an entire year kind of women. And here I was with my maternity clothes wearing, dirty haired, spit-up smelling self just looking to find someone who'd been down this road before. When I pulled up I had to laugh, because in the parking lot was a row of van after van. I drove the Prius just to be different. All my fears were abated when I walked in to find a small group of women who looked alot more like me than I thought. Most of them looked like they had showered more recently than I, but still, they understood. There was a speaker on the topic of saving money with coupons, which is something I've always wanted to do but never had reason to. So now that I have reason to, I took copious notes. Then afterwards I was able to talk to a few moms whose roads have been similar to mine and found great comfort in what they said. In fact, one of them had met my mom in the baby aisle of Target just after the girls were born, and another is in a Bible study that's been praying for us all along. There are no accidents. It was well timed and just what I needed to realize that we can do this. Another sigh of relief.
Ok...Specific Prayer
- Penelope to grow grow grow!
- All of these things she's battling to go away when she's growing growing growing
- Lydia to continue on her path to real baby-hood
- Rest for Jonathan, our moms, and me as we do the round the clock feedings
Our posing Penny
Lydia's already working on her smug expressions
I think she's almost done cooking now...her hair is turning darker
Our first visit with Dr. Stacey
I don't think he likes her any (this is our Pastor Larry Ray who's love both girls is irrefutable!)
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