HAPPY 1 WEEK B-DAY

Today the girls are 33 weeks, technically...or negative 7weeks old. For some reason this has seemed like a REALLY long week! I feel like they were born a month ago!

Kennedy is still doing great. She remained off the vent and hasn't needed any assistance breathing. She is still g-tube fed, but is at the max amount and was just increased a couple mL's because she has started to gain a little weight back. Her IV was removed completely a couple of days ago since she is tolerating feeds so well! I was able to observe the PT last week and she says that everything looks good so far (are there standards for negative 7 week old babies?).

Lailey is doing well too-she's had a few more complications than Kennedy, but nothing too serious. She stayed on the warming table thingy a few more days than Kennedy (who went into an isolette almost immediately), but is now in an isolette. She needed some photo therapy due to jaundice. She had on these super funny "shades" which looked like tinted swim goggles haha (that's right, we laughed at (with) a preemie baby with jaundice) they were sooo cute! We forgot the camera, but thought we could get a pic next time, since they told us she would need the light for a couple of days...however the next day, no sunglasses, no light needed anymore! Great news, but maybe they will put the goggles on her just for a photo op...is that mean? She also has had trouble digesting and they were not able to increase her feeds at all for awhile, but as of Monday, they have been able to increase them and she is almost at her max too! Hasn't gained weight yet, hopefully soon. She still has her IV, however they were able to remove the lipids that they were adding to it. They removed her vent after a few days and moved her to a C-Pap...she looked sooo uncomfortable :( After a day or so of that they moved her to a nasal cannula with forced air. They were going to do 6hrs with the cannula, 6hrs with C-Pap, but she was doing so well with the cannula that they decided to do 9hrs cannula, 3hrs Cpap. That didn't last long, and now she's just on the nasal cannula with forced air- no O2 added, just room air and she is tolerating this really well. The nurse even said that when she pulls the cannula out, her O2 stats don't drop, which is a great sign! Yesterday they even got her dressed for the first time :) This is good news, not only because its so cute, but it means they aren't watching her chest for signs of distressed breathing!

We have been doing "kangaroo care" with the girls everyday for an hour, which is the most wonderful hour of the day! The nurses always say they feel so mean putting them back to bed because they do so well during that hour! They can only be out of their isolettes for about an hour a day so this is the only time we can hold them. We have gotten to change their diapers (which may not sound like such a great thing to all you parents out there, but it is for us! ) and get Kennedy dressed a couple of times, other than that, we aren't allowed to do too much. Therefore, after a while of staring at them through the isolette, we wonder what to do?? We don't feel like leaving them, but we feel awkward hovering! So strange. Both girls also have started to suck on their pacifiers (Lailey sucks so loud you can hear it outside the isolette!), so hopefully their feeding tubes will be moved to their nose soon so we can start bottle/breast feeding, or at least practicing! Ok, I think that's it for now...we have started a journal so that we can write down specific information like weights and feed amts so that we can actually see the progress...we are told so many things that we'll get home and say "Wait, what did the nurse say about____?" So hopefully this will help us remember what day it is!!