NO more Cadillac Isolettes for Us!

Today, when I arrived at the NIUC (minus Daddy b/c he had a headache after dinner out for Uncle Keith's Birthday), the girls surprised me by having "New" isolettes. Basically what's happened is that they have been moved to a 'step-down isolette'.


You see the isolettes they'd had before were the Cadillac models and now they only need the Lexus because they are soon to be in open air cribs. That said, it's cool to see their progress being noted, but I HATE HATE HATE the 'new' isolettes. They suck. Almost as bad as the nurse we had today. In fact, I need to find out today HOW I can make sure we don't have her tomorrow. My biggest complaint is that I feel she wasn't safe enough with the girls. She walked away from their isolettes SEVERAL times (even AFTER I asked her not to do this) with the door open. My God, the girls could easily fall out. NOT good. Also she freaked out about getting me shields for the door next to us for nursing. Okay lady, listen. I know you all (the nurses) are used to seeing women nurse. But hey, I'm not so hot on the WHOLE NICU (okay, just our neighbors, Dr's whom I don't know and people who randomly walk past our door) seeing me nurse, and I'm DEFINATELY not talented enough to cover myself and the babies entirely. Maybe in a couple weeks I'll be that talented. Not to mention she didn't make sure the girls actually ATE all of their food (I, of course was pumping when this happened, so I missed it too).

Sydney is back on her full feeds. She had an episode of spitting up today, which made Mommy not so happy. Olivia, well, she's doing great. I see her potentially in an open air isolette by next weekend. Hurry up Sydney, your sister's going to beat you! :P

Today was a tiring day. I am exhausted because...we went out to dinner for Keith's birthday last night. Great time, I so love Barcelona. SOOOOOOOOOOO, I missed out on my extra 4 hours of sleep that I normally get napping on the couch at night in between pumping sessions. So, I'm off to nap. I'll post the adorable pictures I took yesterday and today, later on this evening!

Matt's out at Kent's bachelor party, so I'm sure he'll be exhausted tomorrow too. Hopefully his headache from today is MUCH better by then! :)


These cards were waiting for me on Friday when I arrived at the NICU. Inside there are stamps of the girls feet...well, Olivia has feet stamps and Sydney has a foot stamp because of her IV in one of her feet. :( Apparently they do things like this all the time...I love it, such a cute idea!





Sydney on Friday...



Olivia on Friday...




Our new isolettes...






Our night nurse (on Friday night) has identical twin daughters whom she dresses alike. It GREATLY disturbs her that the girls don't have MANY matching outfits, SO she found one they have that matches and dressed them in it for the day... purple's a great color for them! :) Our night nurses pick out the girls outfits and dress them around 6am every day.


Olivia.... this is her favorite face to make at Mommy!



Sydney...

Hope all is well!

J

One Month Old!

Today we are 'officially' 1 month old OR in the world of the NICU, we are 34 weeks old. QUITE a milestone. Sometime in the next 2 weeks, we will start working on bottle feeding, but only once we've mastered nursing. So, I will begin my days of 'living' at the NICU more so than I already do so that I can work with the girls through 2-3 feeding sessions. YAY. It also means we are technically MUCH closer to the girls coming home. THey tell us to anticipate that they will be home around their due date...and that is 6 weeks from today...yay. Somehow I don't think that Sugar and Cassius are ready for the girls! They do like the smell of them though! :)

Today, was Sydney's LAST day of starvation AND concidentally she also had her barium/camera test to check her rectum for rectal trauma...ALL CLEAR, no trauma to be found, thankfully! :) Sadly however, it was ANOTHER 2 IV's in one day Day for Little Miss Sydney. Olivia, to be in competition with her sister had to be placed back on her high humidity ONLY because without it her nasal passage dried up so much that she was sounding like she had a cold! So, they put her back on high humidity so that they could suck all the grossness out of her nose. Tonight, BOTH girls gained an ounce to be 3 lbs 2.5 ounces for Miss Sydney and 3lbs 10.5 ounces for Miss Olivia and they BOTH also had baths this evening courtesy of their night nurse Jen. YAY! We love Jen! :)

Sleepytime Pictures....

Sydney (a 2 outfit day for this little girl)!

***Her 2nd IV for the day was in her foot not her head! Thankfully.

Olivia (posing as she sleeps)....

Smiles....

Olivia (well...I was smiling, but the camera startled me!)...

Sydney



Hope all is well!
J

An Attention Competition...

So, they may be only a few weeks old, but it seems we already have a competition for attention when it comes to the twins. Every time one of the girls is getting extra attention (due to bloody stool or breathing issues) the other one seems to pop up with an issue that needs attending to. It's uncanny how while Jeni or I or even a nurse is taking care of Sydney, Olivia's little alarms start going off. Later, while we are checking on Olivia, Sydney starts crying... I know it sounds funny, and it truly could be a coincidence, but it does seem to be some sort of jealousy thing...

While I was at work this morning, Jeni had to run some errands and was able to meet me for lunch. It was nice to sit down and have a meal that wasn't so strategically scheduled around baby visits and pumping schedules. We met at Steak n' Shake, how romantic!


I finished my day at work and headed down to the hospital where Jeni headed to after taking care of the dogs following lunch. Jeni practiced with Olivia for a while and then went off to pump, so I continued to hold her while she received her feeding via tube...


Olivia is off of her humidity completely today, but is still adjusting to that. While I was holding her, she still had some times of being what we refer to as a lazy breather. It's nothing serious, but they monitor her oxygen saturation in her breaths and want them to be between 85 & 100%. At times, Olivia drops down to under 80 or 75... This is something they will continue to monitor. Additionally, she remains on 28% oxygen through her cannulas. She's almost on complete room air, which is 21% oxygen. She'll need to get to room air and keep her oxygen saturation consistent before she can come home...


Sydney remains our mystery child. Another day went by and still no results from her cultures... No signs of infection can be found. So, the doctors are still stumped at the cause of her bloody stool. The most pathetic thing is her IV issues. She continues to have to have new IV's inserted in various locations, most commonly her head. :( Because of the frequency in the location changes, the doctors are considering putting her back on food early. Originally the plan was to give her complete bowel rest until Friday. However, to reduce the stress on her from the IV issues, if they continue to have problems with this she may go back on food tomorrow to avoid the need for the IV. All the antibiotics are finished, so now she's just receiving nutrients to supplement for the food.


At the end of last night's message, Jeni mentioned we were heading to a shower being thrown by my former Macy's co-workers. It was a great time! I have to say a giant THANKS to all of my Macy's friends for their thoughtfulness and for the wonderful gift. They are having the swing we registered for shipped to us. How cool is that! So thanks to Brian & Denis for hosting us. And thanks to those of you who helped organize the shower. I'm glad that we can continue to get together once a month for dinner or drinks and to catch up. As we discussed last night, the chemistry and work environment we had at Macy's was truly a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience with so many wonderful, funny, friendly, thoughtful, and talented folks. It's a shame it had to end, but the connections and friendships we made there will last forever!


And now, since yesterday's blog didn't include any, I know I'll be criticized if I don't include some pictures...

So here they are.

Olivia just hangin' out...

Sydney trying to sleep & relax...

Until tomorrow...

M

Our 1st Package...in the Mail that is.....

came today! It was from our Grandparents out West....they sent us some more cute preemie clothes. It's official, they now have MORE clothes that 'fit' them than I do. :) ALL the nurses at the NICU comment on how cute our kid's clothes are....it's so cute! Of course they also comment on how adorable our daughters are as well.

In baby news.....no camera up the bum for Miss Sydney, BUT she is on bowel rest until Sunday, which means NO FOOD for her until then. :( Poor girl. It's so sad because even though they give her electrolytes, you can tell she's unhappy as she cries frequently. :( So I spend a lot of my time soothing her and giving her her paci. Our favorite nurse (Lori) predicts that Sydney will be a champion nurser by the time that she's allowed to eat again!

Olivia and I worked on eating again today. She basically knows WHAT she wants to do, but get's distracted very easily and pulls off quite frequently, or spends her time licking and tasting. She did a GREAT job and it's so cute when she actually gets something because she has such a surprised look on her face.

So, how is this all going to work? For the next couple weeks, she and I (and Sydney and I when she's able to eat again) will need to be together for at least 2 feedings in a row. For her first feeding she will receive 1/2 of her regular feeds and we will spend about a 1/2 hour practicing or actually breastfeeding. For her second feed, I'll breastfeed her first and then she'll get her entire feed. Eventually she won't get that 1/2 feed because she'll be MUCH better at breastfeeding.

So, visiting us at the NICU is going to have to be VERY strategically planned, as I love everyone in our families, but I'm not really that comfortable with you all watching me breastfeed...know what I mean?

Weights...it's official, we now have 2 babies that weigh 3 pounds! YAY! We are so proud of Sydney that she's attempting to catch up with her sister! :) Sydney weighed in at 3 pounds and Olivia weighed in at 3lbs 5ounces (she actually lost a little bit of weight, just 1/2 an ounce).

Well, we are off to our Macy's get together/baby shower...
Hope all is well,
J

NONE, Nada, Zip...so far.....

So, there is STILL no sign of infection in Little Miss Sydney. Her cultures are not showing any growth and her white blood cell count went down again today. Her new x-rays show no sign of NEC. Originally we were told she'd be TPN for 48-72 hours, but now it sounds like she may not be able to eat for 7 days...you have got to be kidding me. That's a LONG time. :( This is still not an official plan, but it sounds like her Dr. wants her to go on a 7 day bowel rest. Poor Baby. You can tell she's hungry when I hold her...she roots at me for food. :( Well, maybe she'll figure out breast feeding when the whole thing is said and done. So, Sydney will continue her antibiotics through tomorrow and her IV fluids...tomorrow the Dr will also make the decision as to whetehr or not she will have a camera rectal exam. Oh sadly her IV that was in her arm was bothering her so they tried another arm and both feet, ultimately her IV ended up in her HEAD. Poor baby, she looks ridiculous. So, now she's starving, fussy (b/c she's starving), and looks ridiculous, but at least she is not sick. KNOW WHAT I MEAN?

Miss Olivia is off her 2 liters of high humidity and is now on 28% of Oxygen. Room air is 21%, so it will be a little while before she gets her nose cannulas out, but she's working her way there. Apparently the fact that she's getting bigger and gaining weight will help her master breathing! YAY. You go girl.

No eye test today...the Dr's decided that they want the girls to be another week older before they do that, SOOOOOOOOO they had their eyes dialated for no reason. :(

Both girls are gaining weight....Olivia weighs in at 3lbs 5 1/2 ounces, and Sydney weighs in at 2lbs 15 1/2 ounces (go figure that weight gain since she's not eating). My biggest concern with Sydney not eating is that she's going to lose weight and continue to be soooooooooo much smaller than her sister. :( She needs to gain some SERIOUS weight and fast. We talk to the Nurse Practictioner about 'the plan' for breastfeeding and bottle feeding with the girls. You see the suck reflex developes between 34-36 weeks, SO we should see them start eating by breastfeeding or bottle feeding. She explained that for awhile the girls will continue to be fed by their feeding tube, even when they are successfully breastfeeding and or bottle feeding, so as to not stress them out. Since I want to Breastfeed with them, we will make sure they are doing that successfully before we move on to bottle feeding because they do not want to create confusion issues...yay. So, guess what we're continuing to work on? Olivia did a GREAT job today at practicing, but she tuckered out pretty quickly, which is why I completely understand that that leave in the babies feeding tubes.

So, I think the girls were all tuckered out from their weekend as all they basically did today was sleep, which is good because that helps them grow!

Sydney with her IV in her head....

Olivia with her paci...

I went to a touch bonding class today to help the babies be able to handle touch and to help Matt and I bond with them. I also learned Infant massage...it was cool. I can tell you, all of you NIUC visitors that after today's class some rules are going to change...for instance NO longer will we be talking at full levels in the room while the babies are sleeping AND we will not be opening their isolettes ALL the time. One of the things I learned was that you cause MORE distress in the babies when you disrupt them at certain points in their sleep cycle, which is B.A.D. So, I guess I'll make a poster and post it so that we know WHEN you can open isolette doors.

Today was the first day of teacher's meetings...it was weird to not be at work and to talk to my friend Stephanie about what happened at work...in a way I missed it, strange, huh? Matt survived his early morning meeting! Tomorrow night we have another baby shower at Matt's old boss's house...it will be good to see the Macy's people again....I know Matt misses them, as do I, they were like a family!

Hope all is well!
J

Fussy and Hungry.....

So, the weekend came and went, just as quickly (the went part that is) as it usually does. And as usual, we spent as much time as we could at the NICU visiting the girls. As many of you can tell, we didn't spend as much time on the blog...in fact we took a blog vacation. Sorry, but it's been a stressful weekend.

Our Saturday started out with a call from Children's Hospital (right as we were getting organized to go there), from our new Dr (remember we're with the step down team now). Apparently Little Miss Fussy Pants (Sydney) had more bloody poop/stool. SO, we were having to come up with a new plan of action to figure out WHAT in the world is STILL causing these issues. Dr. L (as I will call her b/c she's from Poland and I don't know how to spell her name) called and was asking me about my issues with being Lactose intolerant. APPARENTLY it's very rare but babies this young can be lactose intolerant as well, and one of the symptoms of this is.....BLOODY STOOL. So, in order to determine this, they wanted to have her go on some lactose free formula for 48-72 hours, while I completely modified my diet and cut out any the dairy items that I do ACTUALLY eat, which isn't a problem. I have no problem modifying my diet to make sure the girls are healthy and that they are doing well. In addition, in order to make sure that we killed/identified any potential infection, Dr. L ordered cultures done and put Sydney on antibiotics which required her to have another IV placed for the next 48 hours. So, no worries. In my mind, this would fix all of Little Sydney's issues. So, we headed down to the NICU, spent the afternoon with the girls, cuddling and calming them down, particularly Little Miss Sydney. It was rather depressing to see Sydney with an IV again. Poor baby. :( We came home around 8:30 and spent a quiet evening at home. It was nice, as evenings in our house soon will not be so quiet I am sure!

The girls getting in some "Mommy-time"

Sydney

Olivia

And some cute "sleepy-time" pictures...

Sunday...typcial morning. Woke up at 6 to do mommy duty, went back to bed... Woke up to a thunderstorm before my second pump of the day. Darn it, how annoying that it woke me up. So, I got up to call the hospital to check on the girls before we showered and headed down there only to hear that Dr. L was just getting ready to call me. SO, the news is that poor Little Miss Sydney had MORE bloody stool this morning, so as of this morning she is now NPO (which means NO food for her) for the next 48-72 hours until we determine what the potential cause for bloody stool. Her cultures didn't show anything this morning, but they will continue to grow for another day. She does not present as ill (appear, look, run a fever, etc). If we can't determine that this is caused by an infection in 48-72 hours, Dr. L is going to have to put a camera up her rectum to determine if she has rectal trauma and see if that is what is causing the bloody stool. So, in the mean time, she's fussy and hungry... well, not too hungry because they do have her on IV fluids, antibiotics, and vitamins which will keep her feeling pretty full. However, as we spent time with her today, she was pretty fussy again (which is why she got to spend 2 hours of time bonding with mommy today).

Olivia now weighs 3lbs 3 1/2 ounces and Sydney now weights 2lbs 13 1/2 ounces. Poor Sydney, she's so much more petite than her sister is AND she cannot seem to gain enough weight fast enough. :( Olivia continues to be on her 2 liters of high humidity and still has her moments of over and under achieving in breathing, which makes me crazy.

Today was a crazy busy day for family visitors for the girls...Matt's Dad and Vicki came to see the girls and then his Mom and Rick, along with their friends the Boyers stopped in for a while. Everyone continues to think the girls are adorable... we just need to get them home. I wonder how long the Dr will have them on visitor restriction and house arrest. Life with preemies is, I do believe, going to be a MAJOR adjustment for a lot of our family members. They aren't allowed to go very many places or see many people, so that you can make sure they don't get sick, as their immune systems are more comprimised than that of an average newborn. No Fun. But, whatever is best for them is what's going to happen and be strictly enforced at our household at ALL times.

More of Sydney...

And Olivia...

Tonight we had a quiet dinner at home while I worked to start organizing the girls room/clothes/closet and Matt hung out watching the Cardinals game. Tomorrow, school starts, SO I'm hopefully going to work in some time to get up to West to finish cleaning out my office so that my sub can have a clean office. Matt on the other hand has to be at work by 7..stinks to be him! Tomorrow morning the girls have their first eye exam to check and make sure their eyes are developing correctly, so it's a busy Monday for the entire family!

Hope everyone had a fun and relaxing weekend!
J