Time for an Update

The girls are doing incredibly well. They have both made some huge advancements in the last couple of days...

Kaylyn is now up to full feedings, and had her picc line removed a few days ago. They have started condensing her feedings now, so instead of getting fed for 24 hours a day, she is fed over a 2 hour period and then an hour off in between. They will continue to condense her feedings until she can tolerate all of her food at once. Kaylyn is now breathing on her own!! She no longer needs the nasal cannula, and is doing very well. She maintains her O2 saturation in the high 90's.

Kylee is almost breathing on her own, she is now on low flow O2 and .25lpm. You really can't go much lower than that, apparently she just needs a little puff here and there. Kylee is still tolerating her Bolus feedings, and we have continued to work on breastfeeding. It is really kind of hit or miss, sometimes she will do it, and other times she will just put my nipple in her mouth and fall asleep.

They both were moved to open cribs yesterday. Kaylyn is doing just fine, Kylee is borderline maintaining her own temperature. They are wrapping up Kylee like a baby burrito to help her adjust.

They are making great progress, at this rate hopefully we will have them home in a few weeks. We are praying for no more set backs, but we will just have to wait and see.

We're Getting There

We now have a 4 pounder!! Kaylyn is now 4lbs 1oz. and Kylee is 3lbs 8.5oz. They are getting big, relatively speaking of course!

Yesterday both of the girls had a chest xray in the morning and they were both a little hazy. The Dr. is thinking they probably have a little fluid around their lungs, so they both got a dose of Lasix to make them pee out the excess fluid. All of their other lab work was great though, and the fluid is not overly concerning.

Kylee is still tolerating full feedings. We even tried Dry breast feeding the other night. That is where I pump first, and then put her to the boob so she doesn't get flooded. She did really well. She was getting the hang of it. Unfortunately I can't do it too much because it burns a lot of calories for her, and right now we need to fatten her up a bit before she can really have at it.

Kaylyn should be at full feedings by this afternoon. They have slowly been increasing the amount of breast milk she gets, and she seems to be tolerating it thus far. She is still on continuous feedings, but once she gets to a full feeding they will start condensing the amount of time she gets food. So rather than getting fed 24 hours a days, they will titrate it down to 16 hours a day, until she can tolerate the bolus feed (all of her food at one feeding).

Everyday they are making progress! The Dr. had mentioned that he was thinking about repeating Kaylyn's cardiac ultrasound to see if the valve had closed in her heart yet, but so far he has not ordered it. Other than that they are just feeding and growing, and working on the breathing in between.

4 Weeks Old Already

I cannot believe my precious little angels are already 4 weeks old. They have made so much progress over the last month, I am so very proud of both of them.

Yesterday they moved the girls to the less intensive Step Down unit!! This means that they don't require as serious care, so its a big step. I am so happy that they moved the girls at the same time, and they are still next to each other. The nurses has told me previously there was a chance they might have to be split up, but I am very thankful I didn't have to deal with that.

So apparently Kaylyn's scale in her isolette is broken (and apparently has been for some time), and no one caught on to this until her nurse a couple of nights ago thought she looked much bigger than what the bed-scale was reading, so she weighed her on a separate scale and got a much higher, more accurate weight for her. So Kylee does not out-weigh Kaylyn...yet. Its kind of disappointing because for the last week all of Kaylyn's weights are wrong, and it is impossible to say if she has consistently been gaining weight. Kaylyn now weighs 3lbs 15oz, and Kylee weighs 3lbs 8oz. They are both almost a pound over their birth weight!!

They are increasing Kaylyn's feedings every 12 hours, and in about 2 days she should be up to a full feeding and they will be able to discontinue her IV. Kylee is still on full feedings and doing very well with it. The Dr. wrote orders today that I can start "Dry" breastfeeding Kylee tonight. That means that I will pump and then I will put her to my boob. The purpose is to work on getting her to latch on, but we don't want to flood her with breast milk just yet. So hopefully that goes well.

Not much else has changed since yesterday. The Dr came by today and remarked how well they are both doing. I am very hopeful that continues. We are one more day closer to being able to bring them home!!

The Twinfants are doing Fabulous!!

I have nothing but good news to report!! Both of the girls are doing amazingly well! The Dr. even said that they may be discharged in about a month or so. A lot still has to happen before they come though. They have to be in open cribs and able to regulate their own body temperature (we are already close to that ), they have to be breathing on their own, and the next big step will be that they have to be eating (either by bottle or breast) and gaining weight. They will probably start introducing a bottle in the next couple of weeks, and possibly even putting them to the boob.

Kylee has now been off of CPAP and on the Nasal Cannula for 4 days!! I guess Marcy didn't jinx her after all. They even starting weaning the amount of O's (oxygen) she is getting from 2lpm to 1.5lpm, so we are making progress. She is tolerating it very well this time, and is not working to breath like she was before. This is the longest she has been off of CPAP, so I am hoping we have seen the end of that terrible device. She is still tolerating her full feedings, and because her weight increased her full feed is now up to 29ml every 3 hours. She had her PICC line (her IV) removed yesterday, so now the only tube coming out of her is her feeding tube and her Nasal Cannula! Kylee even outweigh's her sister now.

Kaylyn is down to .5lpm, so she is very close to breathing on her own without any assistance. It will be so great to see her beautiful little face without anything on it. As of last night she was at 12ml every 3 hours for feeding (she is still on continuous feeds), but I believe it may increase this morning as long as she tolerated her food last night. She also may be moved into an open crib within the next couple of days. They have turned down the temperature in her isolette to almost room air, and so far she has been able to regulate her temperature on her own.

I had them both out yesterday and at least 5 nurses saw me holding them and commented on how big they have gotten. Its hard for me to tell because I see them everyday, but it is good to hear that they are growing! Even though Kylee weighs more now, she still looks smaller because Kaylyn's head is a lot bigger. Everyone agrees they are really starting to look more alike.

Keep your fingers crossed that this great progress continues. I cannot wait to bring them home!! They are 32 weeks gestational age today, so we are getting there!

Yet Another Update

The girls are both doing fabulous! I haven't updated my blog because Kylee went back on Nasal Canula 2 nights ago, and it seems as though every time I update this damn thing, and write that she is back on Nasal Cannula she ends up back on CPAP in a matter of hours. So if she goes back on CPAP we can all blame Marcy (because she was begging for an update)! So far so good though, she is tolerating it well and doesn't seem to be working too hard to breath like she had in the past.

Kylee is now up to a Full Feeding (27ml every 3 hours), so she no longer needs any IV fluids! That is a HUGE step, and it is one of the criteria she had to meet in order to go home. Within the next couple of weeks they will start her on a bottle and practice breast feeding. We will see how that goes.

Kaylyn on the other hand is in no hurry to get to her Full feedings. She is at 7ml every 3 hours, but she is still on the continuous feeds. They gave her a suppository today, so hopefully that will clean things out. Kaylyn is down to 1lpm of oxygen now, so she is really close to breathing on her own.

We are getting there....slowly but surely. I am hopeful that things continue in this direction. Sorry Marcy, I don't have their current weights, but I do know that they are gaining weight. I will try and do better on the exact figures in the next blog update!

Monochorionic Diamniotic

Yesterday the pathology report came back from the "Products of Birth", and it found that my girls were Mono-chorionic (which means there was only 1 placenta), and Di-amniotic (which means there were 2 separate amniotic sacs). That being said, and the fact that they both have the same blood type, and because the membrane that separated them in utero was so tiny it is looking like they are probably identical. You have to have a DNA test to know for sure (which I plan on doing when they get home), but chances are they are identical. I can't wait to see when they get a little older if they look the same or not. I still have not had the chance to see them side by side, and it is really hard to tell by looking in one isolette and comparing it to the other. By looking at pictures though, I would say they look a lot alike.

The nurse had asked us to bring in some onsies for the girls to wear in preparation for the transition from the isolette into an open crib. I went to babies R us yesterday, and could not find preemie onsies anywhere! So I just brought in some of the newborn onsies I had at home. Kristi made some adorable ones with their names on them, so those were perfect! Perfect except for the fact that they are HUGE on them. Their days of eternal nakedness has come to an end. Even though they are a little big, it is nice to see them dressed. They look much more human. It was really cute.

Kaylyn now weighs 3lbs 6oz, and is on continuous feeding. That means that there is a pump feeding the milk to her 24 hours a day (It breaks down to 1ml every hour), rather than getting 3mls every 3 hours. For some reason her gut did not want to digest big amount at one time. So far the continuous feeds seem to be working, she has not had any residual and is tolerating it well. She is such a mellow baby. She opens her eyes and looks around, but she never cries. People poke and prod her and she just looks at them like "what are you doing in my little house dude?", but she doesn't really care. She's just going with the flow.

Kylee is now up to 3lbs 1oz, and is up to 12ml of milk every 3 hours, and is tolerating it well (She's getting a lot more because she was tolerating it better). Even though she is still on CPAP and struggling a little bit respiratory wise, she is kicking butt on the feedings. There was talk about possible taking her off of CPAP today, but it all depends on how she is doing at the time. She hates it so much, and it makes her a little fussy. I can't blame her though, I wouldn't want a huge plastic horn tied to my face either.

Not much else has changed in regards to their status, which is a good thing. We are making progress slowly but surely. It is hard to believe that they are already over 3 weeks old. They are both so incredible and I love them so much!

The Roller Coaster Continues

Both of the girls are doing fine, with minor set backs here and there.

Last night Kylee had to go back on CPAP (for what seems like the 100th time...) because once again she was working a little too hard to breath. In talking with her nurse the only solution to this problem (her going back and forth from CPAP to Nasal Canula) is time. She needs to get bigger and stronger. Its so hard as a parent to watch them have to take steps backwards when they are doing so well. Other than the breathing issue, Kylee is doing great. She is tolerating her feedings and she is gaining weight. Kylee weighed 2lbs 10oz at birth, and as of yesterday she was at 2lbs 15oz.

Kaylyn got her Lasix on Wednesday afternoon, and so far it seems to have helped her out quite a bit. She is not working nearly as hard to breath, and she looks a lot more comfortable. She has also started tolerating her feedings (finally!), and is gaining weight. Kaylyn weighted 3lbs 1oz at birth and she is now up to 3lbs 3oz.

The nurses in the NICU adore the girls. They even fight over who gets them . They are very animated little babies and make all kinds of faces all the time. Its really cute. They really don't cry all that much, usually only when they have to go back to bed after being held. They don't even mind getting their diaper changed. They really are good little girls.

These last couple of months feel like years, and I still have at least 2 more months to go. I know that it will all be worth it when I get to bring my beautiful girls home, it just feels infinitely far away...