Celia & Isabel: July 2011

We are almost into August ... quickly approaching the girls original due date of August 11th! What is even crazier is that on Friday, the girls will be 38 weeks gestation which is when I would have been induced had I not already gone into labor. But lucky us, we have had close to 100 days with the girls already :)

It has been WAY too long since our last update! Things are a bit nutty right now - we put our condo back on the market, we had a baby shower, we have been house hunting, working, spending our free time at the hospital, etc, etc, so to say our free time is limited is being generous. BUT that doesn't mean we don't have updates! Lots has been happening ...

Feedings
The girls continue to do well with their feedings. The way they act before its time to eat mimics their personalities to a tee. Celia is very vocal about when she wants her bottle. She'll start squirming around and rooting (arching her back and turning towards you). This is a sign that she's ready to eat. She will attack her bottle and guzzle it down. When she has enough energy, she'll take a whole bottle no problem and when she doesn't, she'll start chugging, get all confused and then usually desat, brady or burp up all her milk. She's a maniac (a really cute one). Isa on the other hand is a little more relaxed. She has to be coaxed a little more to take her whole bottle and will often pretend to "fall asleep". As soon as we stop the bottle feeding and resort to putting the rest of the milk through the feeding tube, she'll pop her little eyes open and be as alert as can be (Sam used to play this trick when he was little and didn't want to finish all his food). As each day passes, both girls are getting better with their bottle feedings. They are learning to pace themselves, breath, keep their heart rate up, and look cute/confused as they are taking their feedings. The goal is to get a full day of feedings taken through the bottle (47 mls for Isa, 45 mls for Celia) - all 8 of them. Celia has taken 6 full bottles in 1 day, and Isa has taken 2.

Diuretics
We had been at a standstill with their oxygen and so the doctors decided to try the girls on a chronic dose of diuretics. Needless to say, it is doing wonders. Not only did they lose close to 3 ounces each in water weight, they are now on the 21%, 1 liter on the cannula - the lowest support you can be on before coming off of oxygen all together. The thought was, if there is visible puffiness/water retention in their face & groin, there is most likely extra fluid around their lungs making it more difficult to breath. And right they were! Speaking of weight - Celia is 5 lb, 2 ozs and Isa is 5 lbs, 5 ozs.

Eyes
Isa continues to be clear for her eyes, showing no sign of ROP and done with the eye checks in the hospital. Celia's last check on Tuesday showed no change from last week, which is stage 3 in one eye, and stage 2 in the other. The doctors are still not concerned and hopeful that it will go away on its own without treatment. Like always, we have to just wait and see what happens. If she does need treatment, it would be a laser treatment that has a 90% correction rate of central vision. However, her peripheral vision would be compromised. How much we aren't sure - but we are not going to worry about it until we have to.

So that's what is happening in our world. We are getting so close to them coming home. We need to be off the cannula for good, get all 8 feedings through the bottle, and have no major bradys or desats for 5 days - and THEN HOME!!

Now to the fun stuff - lots and lots of pictures and videos of the little ladies :)

Do I like the bath? ... Isa 7/17/11

... Ah! I sure do! Isa 7/17/11

Snug as a bug. Isa 7/18/11

Celia 7/22/11

Whose holding me?! Celia 7/22/11

Oh Hey Meghan! It's me, Celia! 7/22/11

Double Time! 7/22/11

Isa 7/22/11

Show us "scared". Isa 7/22/11

Show us "concerned". Isa 7/22/11

Aunt Beth visits! Celia 7/23/11

Sam and Isa. 7/23/11

Isa 7/23/11

Heeey Sister! C top, I bottom. 7/23/11

7/23/11

Movc it Celia! I left, C right. 7/23/11

Isa & Celia 7/23/11

I'm starving! Anything will do ... 7/23/11

C & I 7/23/11

Celia 7/23/11

I love my WubbaNub! Celia 7/24/11

Bath Time! Isa 7/25/11

Isa 7/25/11

Grandma visits! 7/25/11

Sam & sleeping beauty Isa. 7/25/11

Celia getting ready for the bath. 7/25/11

Celia 7/25/11

"Why guys?!" Celia 7/25/11

Like father, like daughter. Celia 7/25/11

No cannula (for a few minutes) ;) Celia 7/25/11

We are spending more and more time at the hospital since both girls are learning to bottle & breast feed and now have alternate schedules (they get fed and their checks (temperature & diaper)) an hour apart from each other so that we can spend time with each, which is turning into later nights and making it harder and harder to keep the blog updated! BUT so much continues to happen so here we go!

Weight: Celia is now 4 lb, 8.5 oz and Isa is 4 lb, 11.5 oz! They are on 26 fortified breast milk right now, meaning they get extra calories put into the milk. Typical breast milk has 20 calories so they are getting an extra 6. The goal is to start reducing the fortification to 24, then to 22, and then to remove it all together and have them continue to gain weight without it. I did ask if I ate more McDonald's would that increase the calories in my milk, but I was told it doesn't matter what you eat ... breast milk always has the same # of calories. ;(

Oxygen: Both girls are at 1 liter on their regular cannulas (off of the high flow) and doing well. Celia in particular still has big dips in her oxygen down to the 20s (we want it to be above 86) but she pulls herself back up on her own. The only place left to go from here is NO cannula!

Eyes: Isa's last eye checked turned out great - her ROP has resolved and she is "clear". She won't receive any more eye checks while in the NICU. Celia's ROP is still sitting at Stage 2, but hasn't gotten worse from last week which is encouraging. She will get another exam on Tuesday and we will go from there.

CRIBS! Both girls are out of the incubators and in regular cribs! They are doing excellent maintaining their own body temperatures. It's so nice to not have plastic and arm holes in the way anymore. They are looking more and more like term babies every day.

Reflux: Both girls have reflux which is common in all babies, but particuarly common in preemies. They are on a daily dose of Prevacid to help reduce the reflux and could very well come home on some medication for it.

We gave thier first "real" bath this week too! They both loved their baths and are slipperly little suckers when wet.