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)