Day 2

Lots to report today.

Brooke woke up with a fever of 100.9, which meant that she couldn’t see the babies. That was not a good way to start the day at all. So while they were testing her for infections, I went to check on everyone:

Annaleigh still hasn’t needed the help of the respirator, though she has needed some extra oxygen. She’s also not quite as active has her siblings. The doctors say that it’s probably just that she’s tired from breathing on her own for all this time, and it’s nothing extra to worry about. We also learned that all babies born so early will most likely go on and off the respirators, just because their lungs aren’t strong enough to breathe on their own with any consistency yet.


Charlie is off the respirator! And when I saw him first thing in the morning, he was laying on his stomach! The nurse said that they try to rotate the babies as much as possible to keep the head from “denting,” and he seemed to enjoy being on his little belly. When I visited this afternoon, I got to see him being flipped from his left side onto his back—the nurse was both gentle and supportive at the same time, and is just another amazing person I’ve met working here at St. Peters.

Lily is the big news of the day—she ate some food! Okay, it was actually only one cc of formula, but it was a huge, huge step. She’s the first of the babies to eat something and yet she’s the only one still on the respirator. So it seems that she’s the most advanced and the least advanced at the same time.

My parents came up to visit and saw their grandkids, and my brother John and his better half Rebecca got to meet them for the first time. Then they visited Brooke, who was feeling much, much better by that point in the day. Her fever disappeared and she was able to get out of bed with minimal help. Walking is much easier for her than getting in and out of the bed, though she only has the energy to be on her feet for a few minutes at a time.

And since her fever turned out to be the result of an infection in her uterus (resulting from the c-section), the doctors okayed a trip to the NICU to see the babies. So, around 8:30 pm, we walked (well, I walked and she wheeled) down to the third floor and spent about an hour with everyone. It was the first time Brooke was able to do more than glance at her children and it was a beautiful sight to see. It was hard for her to see just how fragile they are, but they’re all doing very well by the doctors’ standards so that made her feel a little better.



In all, it’s been a busy day but a good day. Dr. Hiatt, the man who is in charge of the NICU, said that we needed to hope for another span of 24 hours that was as positive as the first 24 hours, and it looks like we got it. Now, we just need to string together about 90 more spans of 24 hours, and the babies will be home safe and sound at the end of September!