Catch-up Time #2

The weekend went by faster than the blink of an eye. I am not sure we were able to get anymore sleep that any other day during the past week.

Saturday, Sept 12 - We spent the morning hours down in Williamsburg watching Kevin race in the Half IM. Unfortuantely, it was not his day out on the course and the stress of the past few weeks burned up all the energy that he had. After missing a turn on the way back on the bik and going 2-4 miles out of his way and noted that the event would just be a long training day. After heading out on the run course though his body began to fall apart and the day came to an end early. Emotionally, this was probably the best thing as we were able to depart earlier to come home and see the girls.

Our stay on the 3rd floor was a bit longer today as it all starts off with BATH NIGHT! Kevin and I took turns watching each other perform the duties that were shown to us in NICU. It's amazing how different the process is from person to person. None the less we have clean babies - albeit not as happy as they were sleeping in the incubators moments before.

HUGE milestone was hit today though - Annellice is allowed to start feeding from a bottle 2x per day (alexandra will likely get the orders on Monday)! This seems so early to us now given the fact that they are still on feeding tubes. Jessica, our nurse, informed us that this is completely normal and that they are working on getting the girls to correctly use their suck/swallow/breath reflex. We will be allowed to start feeding her on Sunday. For the rest of the evening, we spent our time changing and the kangarooing the girls. Little Alexandra proved to be a little trouble maker as her heart would have fits of bradycardia (heart rate dips drastically and then take a while before coming back to normal). It was noted in her chart - and it is likely due to reflux as it happened after her feeding had ended. All will be addressed with the doctor comes in for rounds in the morning. Until them, we go home a bit apprehensive of what all that really means.

Sunday, Sept 13th - We arrive to find that Little Alexandra is being given Caffiene to counteract the fits of Bradycardia and Annellice is proving to be a pro at taking the bottle. The caffiene is not like the stimulant that we get from coffee and soda's but more of a neurological stimulant with get things firing the way they are supposed to. Dr Ross infomed us that this is normal for premmie babies and that she will likely be on it for the next 7-10days. She also stated that it is a long acting stimulant and that it wold take a couple days once it has stopped being given to see how she does on her own. This gave us a small window of seeing the days in the hospital expand past another 2 weeks.

Annellice is doing well on the bottle. She and her sister are unlike any babies we have ever bottle fed before. They do not aggressively suck on the bottle. Infact Alexandra just wanted it to sit in her mouth she didn't seem to know what to do with it from there. Annellice is having some issues with timing the suck/swallow/breath and then at times seemed to tired to go one. The nurse gave us 30 minutes to see what we could do and then tranisitioned whatever was not ingested to the feeding tube. This is probably the hardest task thus far as at this stage it is not about the amount we get into them but rather the quality of their eating pattern. I will meet with the Speech Pathologist in the morning to learn better feeding techinques and recoginizing signs of issues with the girls.

I am beginning to wish I had the energy from college where we could pull all-nighters studying again! This time is slightly different though as all of it will need to be applied to provide a better life for the little ones. God bless the staff at the hospital for all the patience that they provide while helping us learn the ropes of the prematurity and for recognizing parents that are hitting overload and just need to hold and love their children.