Brooke is a Baby Hog

Today was a good day. Brooke got to hold all three of our babies, including Annaleigh for the first time since her surgery. (I only got to hold Lily because I didn’t make the morning visit since I was home working on the nursery—I’m not jealous at all. Nope. Not at all. But for the record, Brooke is a total baby hog.)

Charlie is doing well with his feedings and steroids and he may be off the respirator in another week. Annaleigh ate for the first time in nearly two weeks and is tolerating it perfectly so far. Granted, she’s only eating 2 ml of breast milk, but at least it’s a good sign. Lily has been on BiPAP for 24 hours now and all signs point towards success. She hasn’t had many episodes and doesn’t seem uncomfortable. Needless to say, we’re happy about all of this.

Other than that, there’s nothing to report. If we can keep every day’s post to this short length for a while, it’ll mean that everyone is growing according to schedule and there aren’t any problems. It’s not exciting, but we definitely want dull and boring in our daily reports!


Charlie looking up at his nurse Sue as she moves him back into his isolette after weighing him.


It is extremely difficult to move any of the babies, but Charlie is particularly challenging. The nurse has to be very careful about keeping his respirator tube still while transporting him from his isolette to the scale. If the respirator moves, even just a little bit, it can hit his vagel nerve in his throat, which causes his heart rate to drop and his breathing to slow. Luckily, the girls aren't as sensitive as Charlie.


Charlie is exhausted after his bath.


Lily is very happy to be held by her mommy. All of her breathing numbers improved dramatically when Brooke had her snug in her arms. She wasn't quite as content when I held her.


Lily Bug loves to play with her hands. The whole time we were holding her, she kept her hands on her face, examining her mouth and her nose and her BiPAP tube. She was so silly that Brooke laughed hysterically (she actually laughed so hard that she cried, which is usually something reserved for animal humor).


The thing about the CPAP is that it looks so much worse than it is. Annaleigh is sleeping soundly. Notice the chin strap; they have to put it on her because she leaves her mouth open so much that she loses all her oxygen! The chin strap helps remind her to close it every now and again. I have a feeling that she and her sister and going to keep their mouths open all the time (just like their mommy) and talk, talk, talk once they get out of the NICU.