Sunday, September 20, 2009

Repeat

We debated titling tonight’s post “See Last Night’s Post” and leaving it at that, since everything is pretty much the same today as it was yesterday. But that seemed like slacking, so here we are!

Things with Charlie are pretty much the same. He is still having his brady episodes, although he only had a few today and they were not as dramatic as last night. We’re finding that these bradies happen mostly when he’s trying to burp and are most likely related to reflux of some sort. I brought in some of the Avent bottles I have at home that have lower-flow nipples in hopes that they will help a bit, so we’ll see. I’ll ask the doctors more about this tomorrow, but most likely we need to just wait for him to grow out of them. Otherwise, Charlie is good! He’s been eating like a truck driver – today he ate between 80 and 90 ml with each feeding. These big feedings are helping him gain weight – tonight he was 5 lbs 10 oz. Charlie also enjoyed hearing us read his new book, Goodnight Ocean, which was a gift from two of his favorite girls, Nurse Mary and Nurse Carolyn. Mary goes on vacation after tonight, and there’s a chance that by the time she gets back to work Charlie will be home. It was hard to say goodbye to Mary tonight – she has been instrumental in Charlie’s success in the NICU and is a wonderful person. We are so grateful for everything she’s done for our Charlie, and we hope we can keep in touch with her. Charlie will miss her for sure, and so will Joe and I.

Things with Lily aren’t quite the same as yesterday, as she is no longer entirely on room air. Sometime during the night yesterday her oxygen level began to drop – nothing bad but lower than the doctors like to see it, so they gave her back her cannula. She’s not on it all the time, rather just when the nurses think she needs a little break. The rest of the time she’s doing the work on her own. The Bug was super wide awake tonight which made for a fun visit. She was quite hungry when we got there and chugged her bottle quickly. Right now Lily gets 40 ml a feeding but definitely seems like she could eat more, so tomorrow I plan to see if they can up her feedings a bit. After she ate, Lily looked at all the pictures in Goodnight Ocean, borrowed from Charlie, then eyed up everything that was going on around her in the NICU. She was a curious bug tonight!

In other news, Joe got the babies’ car seats installed in my car today with the help of our friend Gerry. It’s exciting to have the seats in – we can’t wait until our babies are in them!

Also, huge congratulations to my best friend Colleen and her husband Joey. Their new baby boy Danny was born Friday night and joins his brother Jonathon and sister Caitlin, officially making them a family of 5! We’re so happy for you, and Charlie can’t wait to meet his new buddy.

8 comments:

k said...

So happy things are still going well! I hope those babies get to go home soon! I don't know who all you have working with the babies in the NICU, but the Speech Pathologist may be able to make some suggestions on ways to reduce reflux. Sounds crazy, but speech paths do feeding in the NICU and reflux is very common in premies. It could be that some postural changes during the feeding may help or even changing the consistency of the milk.
Keep up the good work, Charlie and Lily! (and Brooke and Joe!)

The Madeira Triplets said...

How sweet! You know, the Born Free bottles may help as well. We had similar issues, and also itched our Dr. Brown's after finding that they had BPA in them and went to Born Free, and actually found that they had a really slow flow with a nipple that they sell for just that purpose. That was before Babies R Us started selling everything BPA free--we had a bunch of old Dr. Browns and Avent bottles that had been given to us. We loved those Born Free bottles! Much less gas than the Avent (which leaked for us) and the Dr. Browns. We just got 6 of the the 8 oz. (or 9 oz.?) Born Free bottles from the start. But everyone has different experiences. Hope you find something that works!

Anonymous said...

One of my boys had bad acid reflux. They too were preemies born at 32 wks. Prevacid Rx helped a ton, and Dr. Brown Natural Flow bottles are awesome! Try those. We had projectile vomiting and low weight gain, and both helped so much!

Anonymous said...

Good job angels... Lily you'll be fine - I have confidence in you - sometimes you get tired - that's okay sweetpea... The boys think Charlie is really looking like Brooke. They are really starting to look a like... As usual - gorgeous pictures...

All My Love, Auntie :) xoxoxoxo

everafterinmi said...

Brooke.. they really look AMAZING. The count down is ON!!

Michele from FTHS said...

My sister used Avent with both my nephews and loved them. Keep up the good work, babies. Good job installing those car seats, Joe. I know thats not always an easy task. xoxoxo

soccerwife said...

I'm so happy Charlie and Lily are doing so well! And I can't believe how big they are already!
I read your blog daily. Your strength amazes and inspires me. Your children are very fortunate to have you both as parents.

Anonymous said...

I am an RN in a NICU and I too would have to recommend the Dr. Brown's. I've seen many a preemie with feeding issues go home after switching to one of these!