A Return to Regular Programming....

Alas, my darling, political-minded hubby has had his say about the politics of the U.S. these days or his take on the 'State of the Union'. Sorry that many of you had to be exposed to his ramblings. I listen to them daily. It's sad to say that often he is right, but often he also makes me crazy with his ramblings as well. It's a double edged sword.

I apologize for the lack of a blog yesterday, we're just getting the readership used to the fact that once the girls come home there will be many a day where the blog won't be updated, because it will be the SOS (same old stuff)...I can't take credit for that...Crazy Granny Nana Sharon came up with it, but she used a different word than stuff. :)

Let's see...lots of news...tonight Matt and I ventured out (after a romantic dinner of lasagna, garlic bread, and caesar salad) to see Baby Caroline and her tired parents who are affectionately known to our girls as Aunt Amy and Uncle Keith. She is so gosh darned cute. You should see her cute baby fat rolls (and you COULD if I'd remembered our camera...I know, my bad). Amy and Keith did a great job!!!!!!! It was cool to hold her, but weird because she is SOOO much larger than each of my girls. I can't wait until they are as big as her! I think I need to bust out the arm weights and work on my arm muscles before they get that big! :0)

News on the girls....I was sad to hear yesterday in a conversation with our nurse practitioner that Sydney will more than likely be coming home before Olivia. Sydney has in the past 3-4 days been a champ with the bottle and today was a champ at nursing..you go girl. Olivia USED to be a champ, but has in the last 3-4 days slowed down her love of the bottle and breast. Thankfully, however we think we have an answer as to why Olivia slowed down with eating and have her and Sydney on some meds to fix that! :) Remember, the last of the goals the girls are working on to come home is being able to eat on their own. So, since Sydney is doing better with that she's on track to come home earlier than Olivia. But you never know, Olivia COULD catch up to her!

I had ANOTHER conversation with our Nurse Practitioner Chris about health restrictions when the girls come home (I've had plenty of these conversations with our other NP Michelle about this as well). We'd had a conversation with another one of the NP's Holly this weekend, and so I was sharing that with NP Chris what we had talked about. Needless today, she was NOT HAPPY about what NP Holly had told us. She basically said that with Olivia's lung disease (reason why she's still on oxygen and very common in preemies), that we'll have to be SUPER SUPER careful about exposure to others. She wasn't a fan of us taking her anywhere she doesn't need to go and taking her in a crowd. So, I asked her what a crowd was and she said more than 6 people and as little exposure as possible to kids who attend school as they have fun little kid germs that could be super dangerous to her in particular. The concern is as great for Sydney, but she was pointing out that we'll have to keep an extra special eye out on Olivia for awhile because of her lung disease.

Another one of our talking points that we discussed was their concern about the girl's calcium and phosphorus levels. Both of these vitamins are vitamins that babies get in the 3rd trimester from their mom's bones. WELL, since we didn't have a 3rd trimester, they were worried that the girls would need some additional vitamins. Until now, the girls have been getting regular vitamins added to their breast milk. WELL, apparently that's not enough. SO, what we are starting (as of today) is mixing some Neosure (a special formula) to one bottle of their breast milk a day to assist them in gaining these vitamins. Apparently Breast Milk doesn't have enough of these 2 particular vitamins in it to help them gain what they need. SOOOOOOOOO since they are starting this new thing, Olivia is going to have to wait another 2-3 days before they try her off of her oxygen. PLEASE say a prayer or two for her that she does well off of it, as I would really prefer to not have to bring her home on Oxygen.

Today I also attended the Mother's Milk Lunch, which is a support group for mom's in the NICU who breastfeed. Today's focus was what you need to do to be discharged from the NICU. It was neat, there's whole list of things that Matt and I need to have done (at the hospital) before the girls can come home. SOOOOOOOOOOO tomorrow we'll be attending ONE of those requirements....Infant CPR class. YAY. Thank you Matt's boss Marion who is allowing him to attend this 1pm class. She rocks, seriously, and I mean that (esp. since I know she doesn't read our blog)...WE could not have asked for a better replacement for Brian Duffy as Matt's boss. SHe is so supportive and very family oriented and it means a lot.

WE continue to get the girl's nursery in order and the house as well! Tomorrow night promises to be busy as we need to get some more things put together and hopefully some more things hung in the nursery. ONce it's organized, I promise we'll put some pictures of it up on the blog. The girl's name letters are done (well, all but Olivia's A) and they look awesome! I'm so proud of myself, I didn't know I was so talented! :O)

Olivia

Sydney

Olivia...

Sydney...

Olivia!

Sydney!

Well, I'm off to nap...

Hope all is well!

J