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...