Another exciting bit of new was when one of the Neonatologists came to see me, he was conducting a study on something to do with Heart blood flow and vessels, something too complex for a new mommy to comprehend. His problem is he only has babies at this age that are really sick or have too many complications. He wanted to know if he could do an ultrasound on our babies to put in the study under the "Normal" category...So another Woohooo!!! He said other than our babies being small and early they are completely healthy Normal babies and he would appreciate being able to compare the sick babies to our healthy ones...Proud mommy moment for sure!
Leah is doing exceptionally well, not that Blake isn't doing well but she is just doing extra extra good. She has no oxygen on at all and hasn't for over 24 hours, her feeds are going well and they are close to taking out her IV, which only leaves the feeding tube down her throat. I was a little sad today when I saw her as they has given her head a really aweful shave job to put the IV in her head again. I guess that is an easy place to find a vein because her little hands are too small and bruised..The could have at least shave all of it or made it more even...I guess this is just the first of many bad haircuts she'll have throughout her life...At least they saved me her hair...
I'm already feeling guilty about the amount of time I've been able to hold her and the amount of pictures she has compared to Blake. It seems every time I'm there he is all tucked in sleeping and she is wide awake. He is under the billi lights still so its harder to get a chance to hold him. He is doing well, he still has a low flow nasal oxygen, buts its hardly blowing anything I'm told. He had his IV in his foot today so at least his hair was spared. His feeds are going up a little but he still gets a bit of an upset tummy, so its slow and steady for him. He is still also having something called bradycardias which is very common with babies this age, its when they are really relaxed and they forget to breath for a few seconds causing their heartrate to drop really low. He usually gets 1 or 2 a day, they are not concerned at all about it at this point...They make sure before they come home they haven't had a "Brady" for at least 7 days, but I'm more than sure he will outgrow this well before he is ready to come home...Leah hasn't had a brady since Friday...which of course is Excellent...
Today I was able to hold Leah again for about an hour. I have only held Blake once so of course I feel guilty about that. I held her like I was rocking her today instead of her lying on my chest so I could look at her, she gazed at me on and off for about an hour. They apparently can't see very well at this age like most newborns, so I'm sure didn't know what she was looking at but it was sweet non the less. She was sucking her little mouth so I gave her a soother and she loved it. I was told 33-35 weeks they can try breastfeeding so the sucking is good for them to learn how to suck better. They are still going by gestation as if they were in utero so this week they are 31 weeks... Daddy still hasn't seen them since Thursday and has yet to hold them. Hopefully in just a few more days his flu bug will be totally gone and he can go snuggle them..I know he's dying too.
As I've been looking at these babies I struggle with who they look like...I'm thinking they just look like themselves, of course being so small with no fat I'm sure they will look entirely different by the time we bring them home...For now I'm going with Blake looks like Kirk from what I can see he looked like as a baby. Kirk had bleach blonde hair as a baby just like Alyssa with big brown eyes. Leah I think looks more like Kirk does now with dark hair and dark eyes. Granted their eye color will probably change, for now they are both quite dark.
Leah's aweful new hairdo :(
Being held by mommy
Yesterday holding Leah
Baby Blake from today. He really prefers to lie on his tummy and fusses when he's on his back. You can kind of see his blondy hair in this picture...I really hope I can snuggle him tomorrow!
Out light a light
A quick picture with his eyes open
Stacey what a wonderful blog full of great news.
ReplyDeleteRe Leah's hair. My Indian friends in Lagos all shaved their babies heads in the belief that this makes it grow in thick and gives them beautiful hair, so Leah will be ever so grateful she had a new born shave.
They are both so adorable.