Six Month Update

Six months! Can you believe it?!?!? Evelyn and Jessica were six months old on Friday. We've had quite an adventure since Halloween. The girls started daycare on Nov. 9. So far they're doing pretty well. Jessica doesn't like to eat quite as well at daycare, but so far that's been the only problem. We've also been on two road trips for Thanksgiving celebrations; Rock Hill and Edenton. The girls traveled very well and were on great behavior for the crowds.

Towards the end of last week, both girls got their first colds. Evelyn's wasn't too bad--just a little head congestion and some sniffles. Jessica, on the other hand, has been miserable. She has congestion in her chest and is coughing a lot. Poor baby. We hope she shakes it soon.

Friday afternoon we had an appointment at the pediatrician for their Synagis shot to prevent RSV. They get this once a month through March. Not that any shot is pleasant, but these are evidently doozies. It takes some serious consoling to get them through. I keep waiting for the windows to shatter because their screams are so high pitched.

Today we had our 6 month check up at the pediatrician. Other than Jessica's congestion, both girls were perfectly normal. He was very happy with Evelyn's weight gain. Jessica is still tiny, but she's growing well...it's just hard to tell when Evelyn is overachieving! They both got four shots, which they handled better than their one shot on Friday. Here are their current stats:

Evelyn: 13 lbs 3 ozs, 23.5 inches long

Jessica: 9 lbs 15 ozs, 22 inches long

We have our second follow up appointment at Duke on Thursday. We'll let you know how that one goes.

Here's a picture that was taken over Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween!

We took Evelyn and Jessica to Trunk-or-Treat at church yesterday. We didn't stay very long since it was hot and the girls had on bulky costumes. We were there long enough to say hello to everyone and get a picture. Our first family picture since the girls have been home!


Evelyn is the spider and Jessica is the unicorn.

And the Eyes Have It

Evelyn's retinas are now mature! (Jessica's matured about 6 weeks ago.) She had an opthamology visit yesterday, where the doctor confirmed that her eyes have matured and that she does not need to be seen again for a year! We are excited that we don't have those appointments to work around anymore.

Both girls have become fun to play with recently. They are now smiling when they see us or when we play with them, rather than just when they have gas. They are beginning to recognize a few of their toys and their pacifiers. They are also starting to follow us and a few of their toys with their eyes! The both love to look at lights and Evelyn loves the mirror.


Jessica


Evelyn

We are looking forward to dressing them up for Halloween on Saturday! Be on the lookout for new pictures.

The Big Debut

Jessica and Evelyn made their big debut today. We took them to church this morning! It was the first trip out of the house that didn't involve an appointment with one of their many doctors. They were so cute in their little dresses! We wanted to get a picture, but we were on the verge of running late this morning and then they were screaming when we got home because it was time for them to eat. So we were not able to capture the milestone moment. Oh well, I'm sure we'll miss others, too.

The trip went really well. When we got to church, we dropped them off in the nursery. Our friend Kecia was in charge this morning, and since she's a mother of three I knew we didn't need to worry. We quickly got them settled, filled Kecia and Emily in with the important highlights, and scooted into the sanctuary right as the service was starting. After the service we picked them up and then showed them off to everyone. It was nice to be able to go out as a family!

Four Months Old

Evelyn and Jessica turned four months on Sunday! We can hardly believe it! They have had a busy week being four months old.

Sunday ended their visit with Nonna and Grandpa. They always enjoy being held way too much when either set of grandparents are in town. Then Sunday night they got baths. That meant they were squeaky clean for Monday's trip to the pediatrician.

The pediatrician delared that "they are perfectly healthy babies." It was nice to hear that they seem to be doing well. Evelyn measured in at 8 lbs, 4 ozs and 21 in. Jessica is still the little sister at 7 lbs 3 ozs and 20.5 in. They received their next set of vaccines--3 shots. They did great though. One big, long scream right after the first shot was administered, but then once the 3rd shot was finished, they were fine. A little wide eyed and sniffly, but fine. Then they slept all afternoon, which meant Mommy got a nice long nap!

Wednesday night was bath night again in preparation for our first follow up appointment at the Special Infant Care Clinic at Duke. All of the medical staff there thought the girls looked great. They, like our pediatrician, were very happy with their weight gain and growth statistics. So while we haven't caught up with the full term one month olds, we're on track for preemie growth. The only changes that the Duke doctors made was to Jessica's reflux medicine. We're switching her from Zantac to Prilosec to see if she will spit up a little less. Mom hopes it helps. She wants here little girl to feel good and eat well and, to be honest, is really tired of cleaning up all the spit up from Mount Jessica. But, we realize that if Jessica's reflux is our biggest problem, we're really very lucky.

Before we left Duke, we stopped by the ICN to see some old friends. It was great to see some of our old nurses. We also got to show one of the dads with twins in the unit that they will eventually get to leave and will get chubby cheeks like Evelyn. We were sad that we didn't get to see all of our nurses, but, for those of you that are reading, don't worry, we'll be back in December!


Evelyn during Sunday night's bath.


Jessica during bath time.


Jessca (L) and Evelyn (R) hanging out together.

Evelyn the Acrobat

All the doctors have been telling us that the girls may be delayed slightly on their development track because they were preemies. Well Evelyn just proved them wrong! Jason was giving her some tummy time and she rolled over! Yes, our child with a corrected age of 16 days old just rolled from her tummy to her back! To be fair, she was laying on a wedge, so she wasn't completely horizontal, but we still think it's a big achievement. Now we'll just have to wait and see if she'll do it again anytime soon or can do it while laying flat on the floor.

Both girls are continuing to grow. Evelyn LOVES to eat. We think she would eat every hour if we let her. She's eating about 3 ounces every 3 to 4 hours. Her voracious appetite is paying off; she is now 7 lbs 3 oz and 20 in long. Jessica doesn't have quite the appetite that Evelyn does. Jessica is a little smaller at 6 lbs 9 oz and 19 inches.

Mommy had fun a few days ago taking pictures. Thanks to Ryan and Carey for the cute princess outfits!


Evelyn


Jessica


Jessica (L), Evelyn (R)

Quick Update

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. It's been a bit busy. I returned to work this week, so Mom had the girls by herself during the day. Things went well, although by the end of the week we were both tired.

The girls are continuing to grow. Thursday night we gave the girls a good bath, and then weighed them. Evelyn had passed the 6 pound mark and was up to 6 lbs and 1 oz. Jessica is right on her heels at 5 lbs 14.5 oz.

We passed another milestone this week too. No more preemie diapers! The girls are both using newborn diapers now. They are much more roomier for moving around, and well, for other things too...

Here's a video of the girls from last week. (I hope that it plays.) Evelyn is on the left in this video. This is from one afternoon just before their afternoon bottles. As you can tell they are both a bit hungry. Jessica lost her pacifier, and then tried to take Evelyn's. Evelyn was going to have none of that (notice her right hand). Jessica found a good compromise though...

Nothing Special

The only update we have right now is that the eye doctor appointment went well. Both girls' eyes are improving and we are not anticipating having any long term problems. We're just hanging out and doing all the regular baby stuff...eat, sleep, poop, repeat. We have cute pictures though....


Jessica likes to know where everyone is at all times. Touching Evelyn while they sleep is a must.

Sweet sisters.

Evelyn taking a quick nap before going to the eye doctor. Aren't her froggy feet cute?


Jessica napping before the eye doctor too. Doesn't she look just like a porcelain doll?

One week at home

Today marks one week that the girls have been home. What a week it has been!!!

We've had two trips to the pediatrician for checkups. The checkups have gone great. The doctor is very happy with the progress the girls are making. Both are gaining weight well, with Jessica now at 5lbs 6oz, while Evelyn is at 5lbs 5oz.

We see the eye doctor on Wednesday to get a check on the girls' ROP. Fotunately, the girls seem to like the car rides. In fact, I'm thinking about taking Jessica for a ride later if she decides that 1:30 am is playtime again tonight. :)

The girls seem to like it here. The only times that they are fussy are when they are hungry, or when Jessica gets jealous or lonely, or when daddy tries to use the bulb syringe on their noses. Seriously, that must be listed somewhere as a tortue device. Fortunately for me, the girls have short memory spans!

Well, time to go for now. Jessica, (who is in my left arm and not helping me type) is getting hungry again. Time to find her pacifier to see if I can satisfy her til midnight.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

They BOTH slept through the night last night!!! We still got up and fed them on schedule, but they dream fed everytime and slept right through everything. We're not sure what was different. All we can come up with is that we gave them a bath last night. We're not niave enough to think that this is going to happen again, we're just excited over last night's gift. Although we're now wondering if every night should be bath night!

There's No Place Like Home

One night down, the rest of their lives to go!

We had a very uneventful time bringing the girls home. Jason and I had a quick refresher course in infant CPR and infant choking, the doctors rounded one last time on them, and then we were allowed to go. Here they are waiting on Daddy to bring the car around.

We were home by 12:15. We promptly fed the girls lunch, made lunch for ourselves, and then we all took naps. The rest of the afternoon and evening went smoothly. We fed them, played, napped some more, bathed them, and put them to bed.

Evelyn had a wonderful night. She seems to understand that when it is dark outside, it is time to sleep. She didn't wake up much at all--not even for meals. She would open one eye just a crack, close it, and then scarf down her bottle. After a good night's sleep, she was ready to play about 8:00 this morning.

The rest of us didn't have the same easy night. Jessica's reflux was bothering her, so she didn't sleep much, and Jason and I took turns being up with her. Hopefully tonight will be a better night for her.

We see the pediatrician tomorrow. We need to leave about the time that the girls get their afternoon snack, so we're going to try to feed them a little early. We'll see how that goes and see if we can actually get two babies packed up and to an appointment on time!

Dad and the girls playing.

Hey, I know you!

Nap time.

Is it possible?

Could it be true? Are we really bringing our babies home? That the plan! The big day is supposed to be Monday. The feeding tubes are out and both girls are eating everything on their own. Evelyn passed her car seat test today. Jessica is supposed to be having her test sometime in the next 24 hours. The nurses have taught us how to give them their medicine. (Don't worry--nothing too scary, just multi-vitamins and Zantac.) We have shown competency in changing diapers, feeding, taking temperatures, swaddling, holding, and giving baths.

Their room is just about ready. We just need to put some finishing touches on it. We're waiting on our glider to come in. It should be here in a couple of weeks, so until then we'll just have to make do. It doesn't really matter though, because we're so excited that we finally get to be a family at home!

Jason and I will never be able to express our gratitude for everything you have done for us over the past several months. To our medical team, thank you for the safe delivery and special care of our precious daughters. To our friends and family, thank you for all the support you've given us. The meals, hugs, words of encouragement, and gifts have all been wonderful. To all of our readers, those we know and those we don't, thank you most of all for all of the prayers that have been offered up on behalf of our girls. We know that they have played the biggest part in helping us get our girls home.

Evelyn (top) and Jessica (bottom) without feeding tubes. They finally look like regular babies without anything on their faces!

Settling In to Wake Med

Evelyn and Jessica are continuing to work on bottle feeding at every meal. They are taking their whole bottles more often and are increasing the amount of milk they are taking when they only eat partial bottles. Jessica has finally caught up with her sister--they are both now 4.5 lbs! If all continues to go well, we should have the girls home in a couple of weeks!

Both girls enjoyed a visit from Nonna, Grandpa, and Grandmama (their great-grandmother). Grandpa was too busy taking pictures to get in any himself, but maybe we'll catch him next time.

Jessica with Nonna.

Evelyn with Grandmama.

All the ladies...4 generations.

Moving Day

Today the girls will be 10 weeks old. We thought that it would be just another day in the TCN at Duke. Boy were we wrong. This turns out to be our last day at Duke Hospital...

Around 1pm this afternoon, I got the call that Wake Med in Raleigh had several open beds and that our girls would be transferred today to Wake Med. This is good in a way, because Wake is only about 10 minutes from our house. It's a much shorter drive in the evening than driving from Durham.

But transferring the girls takes a bit of work. Here's what their first ride out of the hospital looked like...


They were transferred to Wake Med at about 4pm this afternoon. I got a call from the nurse at Wake Med around 5:30 pm that they were all snug in their new bed and that they were doing well. They were a bit angry that they missed their afternoon meal, but soon forgot about it when dinner arrived.

Cynthia and I went by after shift change and stayed with them most of the evening. There are rules and procedures that we have to learn, but for the most part it's not much different than being at Duke. We have a bit more privacy in our area of the ICN. We didn't get much of a chance this evening to talk with the doctors or nurses, so I'm sure that we will learn more over the next several days.

The girls were real snug when we left them for the evening...


We know that moving them from Duke to Wake Med is a step closer to the girls coming home for good. We really owe a lot to the doctors and nurse practitioners that treated our girls. Words cannot express our gratitude to the nurses that watched over our princesses day and night, and treated them like their very own. The saddest part of today is that we didn't get a chance to let their primary team of nurses say goodbye. Without them, I don't think Cynthia and I would have kept our sanity over the past 10 weeks.

They are all heroes in the truest sense of the word.

Mid-week Update

We don't really have any huge news for this update, but we know some of you get worried when we don't post and we don't want to be the cause for anyone's anxeity! Don't worry, everything is still going well.

Evelyn is now up to 4 lbs 6 ozs. She has been increased to feeding by bottle every other feed. So far she has been taking about half her volume. But, tonight's nurse just reported that she took all but 2 mLs at her 9:00 feeding! She's working hard to catch up with her little sister.

Jessica is 4 lbs 3 ozs. Jessica is now being allowed to bottle feed every meal, if she's up to it. Right now she's taking about half of her volume for most feeds, occasionally taking the entire feed or needing to rest and being fed via the feeding tube. It takes a little while for babies to increase their stamina to take their entire feed every time. Hopefully she'll be eating everything by bottle soon...then we'll be that much closer to bringing her home!

Busy Weekend

Evelyn and Jessica had a big, busy weekend. They spent most of the weekend being visited by their Nana and Pa Pa and by their Uncle Mark and Aunt Ashley. Aunt LeAnne stopped in as well on Saturday.

Our big news is that we now have two 4 pound babies! Evelyn is 4 lbs 3 oz and Jessica is 4 lbs. Woo hoo!!!! They are getting so big...which is so funny to say since they're still so small.

We are working with both girls on feeding. Jessica is now eating every other meal from the bottle. She is taking close to her entire volume, if not all, each time. Evelyn is taking one bottle per shift (sometimes two if the nurse is ambitious). She is taking about half of her volume from the bottle and is getting the rest of the meal through her feeding tube. We're also working with both girls on nursing, but neither one has quite gotten the hang of it yet. We'll get there eventually.

Today was bath day. We put Evelyn and Jessica in the same tub and had some fun play time. Aren't they cute? Evelyn is on the left and Jessica on the right.









And one of Jessica and Mommy.

Two Months Old!!!

It is hard to believe, but the girls are two months old today. It's amazing how much they've grown over the past two months, especially in the past two weeks.

To celebrate, the nurses got the girls some presents!!



That's right, the girls have moved out of the isolets and into bassinets! Jessica is on the left or top (depending on your browser's window size). We keep them bundled up good just to help them maintain their temperatures, and to keep them from moving around the bed.

Jessica had a even bigger day. Overnight, she ate one of her entire feedings, 32 ml, from a bottle! That's a little over 1 oz. This afternoon, her and mom had their first breastfeeding session. Jessica has the technique down, but wasn't getting much out today. They'll try again tomorrow. She now weighs about 3lbs 9 oz.

Evelyn is inching closer to 4 lbs. Tonight she is at 3 lbs 12.5 ozs. She lost a little today, but has been having big gains over the past week. We expect her to hit 4 lbs any day now. She's having a little problem with her hematocrit that we are having to keep watch on. Hopefully, she'll be able to fix this one on her own. If not, she'll need to get a transfusion sometime later this week, or into the weekend.

Belated Update

Sorry it's been so long since our last post, but things have been busy. Our girls have made lots of progress over the past few days.

Evelyn has gained several ounces since Wednesday. She is now 3 lbs 10.5 oz! We started "Lick and Learn" with her on Thursday. Remember when the lactation consultant said that Jessica did better than any baby she had seen on their first try? Well, believe it or not, Evelyn did better than Jessica! I don't think we're going to have any problems getting these girls to eat!

The occupational and speech therapists are going to begin working with Evelyn on a bottle tomorrow. If the bottle feedings go well over the next few days she'll probably be moving out of the isolet and into a bassinet. It will be nice to see her without a plastic shell between us!

Jessica has been gaining weight too. She is 3 lbs 7.5 oz. Jessica has been working on eating from a bottle this week. Saturday morning she took 15 mLs from the bottle, which is about half of her feed! She gets to eat from the bottle once per shift for 20 minutes. Anything she doesn't eat she gets through her feeding tube. As she grows and her stamina increases she'll be able to eat from the bottle more often. This is a BIG step towards getting her home.

Now for the crummy news...Jessica's hematocrit has been low this week. She wasn't showing any signs of being anemic, other than just being a little tired, so the doctors decided to see if her body was ready to produce her own red blood cells. She did really well until last night. When the night nurse tried to bottle feed her, she wouldn't take any of her food. Since Jessica always lets us know when she's hungry, this wasn't a good sign. They checked her hematocrit level again and it was even lower than before. So she got a blood transfusion this afternoon, which meant she didn't get fed for 12 hours. She was doing much better when we left this evening--she had a lot more energy, but was VERY hungry. Hopefully she'll be able to pick back up on her feeds and continue working on bottle feeding without any problems.

Jessica (left) and Evelyn (right)

The Surprises of Little Girls

Mommy and Jessica were having some quality time relaxing and snuggling this afternoon. Mom tucked Jessica (who was wearing only a diaper) into her shirt for some kangaroo care. Suddenly, things were warm in a new spot on Mom's chest. Had Jessica moved her leg to a new spot? NO!!! Surprise! She peed all over Mommy! Luckily Mom had an extra shirt, so no real damage and she still loves Jessica anyway!

Here are a couple of new pictures of Jessica. Sorry that they're a little dark. Eventhough she's growing, the preemie clothes are still too big!





Evelyn got a bath today. This was the first real bath that Mom and Dad were able to give. Once she got over the shock of being put into the water, Evelyn enjoyed her bath. Here are some cute pictures of her.

Jessica's new tricks

Jessica evidently likes to be the over achiever. She's been handling feeds great, and also has had several successful "Lick and Learn" sessions. Today she even went a step further. The therapists took a specially designed bottle nipple and placed a few drops of milk in it. They then gave it to Jessica to see if she would suck the milk out of the nipple. No problems at all. She had to get used to swallowing, but that should come soon. With as easy as she has taken to everything else, swallowing shouldn't be difficult. If she continues to progress, she may be ready for a bottle feed by next week. Her weight tonight is up to 1422 grams, which is just over 3 lbs, 2 oz.

The therapists have not started the "Lick and Learn" sessions with Evelyn yet. Due to her getting blood early last week, she had several days where she was not gaining weight. The therapists wanted to make sure that she was ok and gaining weight before starting to work with her. These therapies can be very tiring for the girls, so it is important to make sure they don't burn too many calories.

Evelyn has responded well. Her weight as of last night was up to 1452 grams which is 3 lbs, 3 oz. The therapists should start to work with her soon.

Big Babies

So not really BIG babies, but we're getting there. Evelyn is now tipping the scales at a whopping 3 lbs 1 oz! Woo hoo! Not to be too outdone by her big sister, Jessica is only 2 oz behind Evelyn! We're so glad the girls are finally putting on some weight. Hopefully they'll be chunky monkeys before too long.

The girls are beginning to mature a little bit. We have been able to see a big difference over the past week in the way they are acting and responding to their environment and stimulation. The both are doing better tolerating being moved around and transitioning between sleep and awake stages. I guess the doctors can see some of these improvements too because they are weaning both girls off of some of their medications and increasing their feeds. We should be able to tell in a few days if they can handle these adjustments.

Good Stuff

The past two days have been full of good news for us! Jessica had a huge growth spurt. Since last week she has gained 5 ounces and grown 2.5 cm. She is now 2 lbs 13 oz and 15.75 inches! She has caught up with Evelyn in weight and is only 1 cm, or .4 inches, shorter.

Jessica was evaluated by the speech therapists Tuesday afternoon, who said they were very impressed with her. Jessica gave them a great demonstration of all she can do...sucking on her pacifier, calming herself down, being alert, and responding to touch and stimulation. She was delcared very mature for 33 weeks. Since she did so well during the evaluation, the therapists said she was ready to start "Lick and Learn" which allows her practice breastfeeding. This will help her learn to suck and swallow and will help with the transition from the feeding tube to the breast/bottle. We had a "Lick and Learn" session this afternoon and Jessica did very well. The lactation consultant said that Jessica did the best of any baby she's seen on their first try! We're so proud of our little super star!

Evelyn hasn't gained any weight this week, but she did grow 1 cm. She should start gaining some weight soon since she had the blood transfusion on Monday. Evelyn was evaluated by speed therapy this afternoon. She also did very well showing how she can suck on the pacifier, respond to touch/stimulation, and transitioning from asleep to awake. She doesn't calm herself down quite as quickly as Jessica does, but everything she's doing is appropriate for 33 weeks. We should be able to start "Lick and Learn" with her next week, if she gains some weight over the weekend. We'd rather her use her energy to grow right now.

We should see the physical therapy and occupational therapy teams for evaluations soon. Hopefully we'll get good news from them as well. Until then, we're still focusing on growing! We'll keep you posted.

The Big Move

Both girls were moved to the Transitional Care Nursery (TCN). This is a positive step, moving towards bringing our babies home. This nursery allows the parents to be much more hands on with their child. The main care for the babies falls to us while we're there. Right now there's not too much for us to do, just diapers and holding, but soon we'll be adding regular bathing, feeding, and all the other joys of parenting. They weren't able to put the girls next to each other, but hopefully one of our neighbors will get to go home soon and we can move into their spot.

Evelyn had to have a blood transfusion this afternoon because her hematocrit got really low. She was VERY ornery this afternoon since her feeds were suspended. She was screaming at Jason and the nurse because she was so hungry. When Jason tried to hold her hand, she put his finger in her mouth and sucked on it. As bad as we feel for her, we're excited that she did this since it demonstrates that she knows she should be eating this way, rather than through a feeding tube! She was taken off the nasal cannula today and has been breathing on her own since mid-morning without any problems! Another good step for her!

Jessica is about the same. She gained a little bit today, so she's back up to 2 lbs 8 oz. They are going to add a different calorie fortifier to their milk tomorrow to try to get them to put on more weight. We should see in a few days how they are responding. I'm sure this will be the only time in their life that we want our girls to be fat! :-)

Sunday Update

Things are still going very well for our girls. Our biggest news is that both girls have been working on regulating their own body temperature in the isolets. The goal is to be able to maintain their body temps when the air temp is 27 degrees C. Evelyn has been regulating her own body temperature since Friday. Her isolet is currently set to 29.6 degrees C. Jessica's nurse changed her isolet over to air temp today to see how she would do. So far she's been able to maintain her body temp, too! I think her isolet was set at 29C.

We're still trying to get both girls to gain weight, especially Jessica. We incorrectly reported Jessica's weight in Thursday's post. At that time, she was 1144 grams (2 lbs 8 oz), not 1194 grams (2 lbs 10 oz). I'm sure you can see how we mis-read the third digit. Since Thursday Jessica has lost an ounce, but Evelyn is holding steady at 2 lbs 13 oz. The ICN staff is trying to figure out why the girls are not gaining as much weight as they would like, so we'll see what they figure out and decide to do.

Our most exciting news has absolutely nothing to do with us. There's talk that our best ICN buddy may get to go home tomorrow! YAY!!! We are so excited for the family (and a little jealous)! Please pray that tonight goes well for them and that they get to take their little guy home with them tomorrow.

The girls together...

Six Weeks Stats

Yes, our girls are six weeks old today. This means that they are at 32.5 weeks gestation. Evelyn is now 1277 grams and 40 cm long (2 lbs 13 oz and 15.75 inches). Jessica is still slightly smaller weighing in at 1194 grams and measuring 37.5 cm long (2 lbs 10 oz and 14.75 inches). They're both still tiny, but they're growing! We can see the 3 lbs milestone looming on the horizon!

Since Evelyn is getting bigger the doctors have decided that it may be time to see if she can begin regulating her own temperature. So far the isolets have been adjusting the air temperature based on the baby's skin temperature. If she gets cold, the air heats up. If she gains weight (or holds her weight) again tonight, they'll set the air at a certain temperature and see if Evelyn can maintain her body temperature. If she does, they'll slowly decrease the air temperature to room air temp. We'll see how she does with this transition.

The doctors discussed moving Jessica to the Transitional Care Nursery (TCN) this morning. Jason and I aren't completely comfortable with this step since she still occasionally has a desat or brady episode and she can't regulate her own temperature. But considering that we don't have medical degrees I'm not sure our opinions count for much. Fortunately our nurses talked the doctors out of moving Jessica. The ICN nurses all love our girls and want to keep them as long as possible. They also know it's easier on us to have them side by side rather than in two different nurseries. So, for now, they're still together. We'll see how long we have that luxury.

The Great Escape...

I think that Evelyn is trying to do her best Steve McQueen impersonation...

Those would be the doors to the isolet that she is heading for :)

Jessica is just shocked by all this...


... not that she doesn't try the same thing when no one is looking.

Steady as she goes...

So far so good this week. The girls have been doing well, aside from the occasional brady from Evelyn. She still seems to be having problems with reflux during her feeds. The good news is that she was fine while we were visiting Tuesday afternoon. Part of that may be due to the fact that both girls are getting some changes made to their feeds. The total volume that they are getting is being reduced, however their feeds are being supplemented with a calorie rich compound. The net result is that while the girls are getting less food overall, they end up getting more calories.

Both girls are starting to show signs of being able to regulate their own body temperature. The nurses are talking about turning off the heaters in their isolets. This would be a big step, as it is one of the requirements for them to move out of the isolets and into bassinets.

Daddy's Turn

Daddy had his turn today in holding Evelyn and Jessica at the same time. All 3 of them took a long nap together in the recliner. Evelyn was dressed when we got to the hospital today, but Jessica was still just in her diaper. Maybe this means we'll be able to start using some of the cute preemie outfits we have!


Dad and the girls napping.


Sleeping sisters.


Jessica hitting Evelyn in the face.


Jessica apologizes for being mean by holding Evelyn's hand.

Two Peas in a Pod

Evelyn has come off of her CPAP and has transitioned to the nasal cannula. It is so wonderful to be able to see her face! The pictures below are not the best of her, but you can get a better idea of what she looks like.


You want to do what? Can't you people just leave me alone?


I am so ready for bed!

Jessica did very well for about 36 hours without any respiratory assistance. But after that, she started having trouble keeping her oxygen sats up, so they decided to put the nasal cannula back on. It's very common for preemies to go back and forth a couple of times before getting rid of the cannula completely. If she continues to do well, we should be able to try her without the cannula again in a couple of days.

Today's visit had a very special surprise. Mommy was able to hold both girls at the same time! We wondered if the girls would remember if they had a twin and were curious how they would react to each other. Once both girls were on Mom's chest, they started wriggling a little bit. They scooted around until their shoulders and hips were touching and then settled down and went to sleep! Later on they woke up, wriggled around some more and ended up holding hands for a little bit. Amazing! Aren't they precious together? Jessica is on the left and Evelyn is on the right.