The H Word

Welcome to our blog for the weekend of Sept 19 - 21.

These are photos from a 'photo shoot' Jeni did with the girls on Friday afternoon...

Olivia

Olivia is on the left and Sydney is on the right!

So in the world of the neonatal intensive care unit, there are a few rules that are strictly enforced by the nurses:
1. Everyone must wash their hands!
2. Only 2 visitors per baby!
3. Don't use the H word around the babies.

If you haven't guessed, the H word is "Home." As patients progress towards being released from the NICU, the nurses don't say anything about 'going home.' They refer to their release as 'going shopping' or 'going to a football game'.

So, why am I pointing this out? Well, we were told that if the girls continue to progress as they have the past few days, then they could be 'going shopping' by the weekend!

That's right, they have made some big moves towards leaving the NICU. On Friday night, the nurses and doctor decided to remove the girls' feeding tubes. They did this for a couple of reasons. One, they wanted to challenge the girls to eat on their own instead of depending on getting their feeds through the tubes. Two, upon removal of the tube (on accident when one of the girls yanked it out) they saw that the thrush had colonized around the outside of the tube. This is part of the reason why the thrush has been so hard to kick. The medicine for it had been going down the tube, thus not killing it where it was growing... So as of Saturday morning, the girls were officially all on their own when it comes to eating. They have minimums they need to eat at each feeding but so far we've been encouraged that several times they've taken all of their bottles...

Olivia

Sydney....

After their tubes were removed on Saturday, our nurse on decided to attempt to cross another milestone/test for the girls: They both had their carseat tests. This test required the girls to sit in their carseat for an hour without having any heartrate or breathing issues. Both Sydney & Olivia did great and passed!


Sydney...

Olivia...


Jeni and I spent alot of Saturday with the girls making sure they had plenty of time eating from the bottle and getting pictures without tubes on their faces! I went home a little before Jeni and did some yard work. I grilled some bratwurst for dinner and we had a nice evening at home. After dinner I hung a couple more decorations in the nursery to get it completely ready for its new residents.

Sydney...

Olivia...

Sydney....
On Sunday, I got up early and visited the girls for their 8 & 9 AM feedings. I stayed until Jeni arrived around noon and then headed home. Jeni stayed most of the afternoon and then came home before we quickly left again. We went to the wake for Jeni's great uncle Kenny and then swung by her mom's to pick up dinner that she made for us.

Tonight has been a quiet evening at home, but many of our conversations have been about what's to come in this next week. I think the reality of the girls being here hasn't hit us yet, but we are MORE than ready. We've been ready for a couple of month. Now we'll see how crazy our lives are about to get...

Well, that's all for me. I'm off to bed. I'll be flying off to Florida for work tomorrow afternoon and will return Tuesday night. Jeni will be in charge of keeping all of you up to date.

Take care!

M