Happy :-)

It has been a fast 24 hours for us! I was discharged from the hospital yesterday around 10pm.  Even though we had just spent two hours with the girls, leaving them at the hospital while we came home was, hands down, the hardest thing I have ever had to do.  We both left a great big piece of our hearts with the girls and headed home to try to rest.  I must say, David may joke about the lack of sleep we are getting, but considering, we don't have babies at home or to even care for, we are seriously behind in the sleep department!

Now that we are home, David and I are trying to find a schedule that works so that we or another family member can be at the majority of Annabel & Sophia's feedings.  Feeding time includes changing their diaper- -David is SO far ahead of me-- and taking their temperature, in addition to 30 minutes of holding time with Annabel (until she comes out from under the lights, then it's pretty much unlimited) and feeding.  For at least the past 36 hours, Annabel has not had to be fed through her feeding tube.  We are ready for it to go away...one less wire!

It's challenging, and of course, it's unrealistic for someone to be there for the middle of the night feedings, but we are making it work as well as we can for now.  My mom and sister are here are able to go to the NICU without us, so they went to the 2pm feeding and fed them while David and I actually got some rest.  David's mom is arriving tonight for a week to meet the babies and to also spend some time with them.  It may sound silly, but it is really important to us that when they are awake and alert, they are surrounded by more than just beeping machines and "strangers" (although the NICU staff is wonderful).

Sophia Update:  Our little Sophia is doing so well, and as of today, she is OFF of the CPAP!  This is huge, huge, huge news as it has taken since Monday for her to wean off of it.  She still has a little bit of oxygen, but it's actually very common for babies in Colorado to need some oxygen due to the altitude, and they have warned us that one or both of them may actually come home with some oxygen.  We are so proud of our little girl!  The video above is of Sophia this morning (12/2) a few hours before they took the CPAP off completely.  We just love her.

She is still under the billi lights to combat the jaundice, but she doesn't seem to mind.  She is incredibly mellow, and considering all the poking and prodding this sweet girl has had to endure, she tolerates it so well and just looks around.  She is still being fed through her feeding tube, but that is primarily because of the CPAP machine, so we will see how that changes now that she is off of it.  Right now, I believe she is getting 3ml per feeding and digesting most of it (It's so crazy... their feeding tubes go directly to their stomachs, so right before each feeding, the nurses check for "residuals," which is basically what is left in her stomach after the last feed.  A lot of residual means they aren't necessarily digesting the food they are getting.  Sophia hardly has any, so that is great news.)  I don't know how else to say this without sounding crass, but girlfriend REALLY needs to poop, so that will be our next milestone (we are so obviously parents now that we get excited over poop).

When we were visiting this morning, the wonderful nurse let me hold Sophia for the very first time!  At this point she was still hooked up to her CPAP, but she was so awake and alert (perhaps even more than this sleepy momma was!).

Mom holding Sophia for the first time!

 Annabel Update: Little Annabel is still doing great!  We're going to go with the old adage "no news is good news" with Annabel.  But to give you an idea of how quickly she is progressing, at our last update she was still taking 3ml of milk each feeding..... well, now they are upping her amount every other feeding and for the last feeding she had...DRUM ROLL... 23 ml!!  For her weight right now, the goal is 46ml per feeding, and it should come from either the breast or the bottle, meaning she has to finish it all on her own (or else they will put it in her feeding tube).  

She isn't having an issue with residual either, so hopefully she is starting to store some of that fat and start gaining weight.  Last night, she weighed 5 pounds, so she has lost some of her starting weight, but they keep telling us that is completely normal in the first 10 days of life, especially with preemies.

When we came in this morning, we just about died when we saw how she was sleeping....

Evening out her tan

Her pacifier had fallen out and was shoved up against her little mouth!

She loves daddy's hands.

She was so content!  You probably hear David comment at the end of the video above that Sophia's sister would not have tolerated all that action so well--usually Annabel is a little fussy during diaper changes, but today, she was just as content as Annabel.  We are convinced it's because she's getting to know David and I :-)

I think that's it for now.  Keep praying for our little girls because so far, it's working!  We look back on the past 4.5 days and are astounded at how much has happened and how much progress they have made...I can't wait to see their progress 4 days from now!

We love you, baby girls!

Mary