Day 15

No doubt, yesterday was a rough day all around. Thankfully, we had a much better day today. Or maybe I should clarify: there’s still plenty to be concerned about, but we didn’t witness any major issues firsthand.

First, an update on Lily. She’s doing a bit better and seems to be responding to the diuretic, which is supposed to help cleanse her lungs of excess fluids. So far her blood cultures from last night are all negative, which is a good sign that she doesn’t have an infection (this won’t be 100% certain for a few days though). She’s had plenty of episodes today but she’s been able to self-correct; there’s only been a handful of times that her nurse has needed to intervene with extra oxygen. Her weight is almost back to her birth weight and she’s still eating one ml of breast milk every three hours. There are lots of good signs with her today. Hopefully, the worst has passed.

Annaleigh continues to show signs that she’s got some GI issues. Her nurse from yesterday said that she ate a lot (two ml every three hours) and pooped after each meal, but early this morning all that changed pretty suddenly. They had to stop her feeding because she wasn’t digesting at all and mucus was coming back up the feeding tubes. She’s maintained her weight though, which is an important sign. We feel almost like we don’t know her as well as the other two because she still hasn’t opened her eyes for us yet. Her nurse assured us that it’s not abnormal that she’s still keeping them closed but we’d love to see them soon.

Charlie is now affectionately known as “Two Pound Charlie.” He’s gaining his weight and today is up to 900 grams (or two pounds)! He actually hit that mark yesterday but we were so depressed after seeing Lily’s drama that we forgot to post about it. He’s eating three ml of breast milk every three hours and he’s digesting really well. He continues to demonstrate his acceptance of the DiGiuseppe male DNA—he sleeps a lot, eats a lot, and doesn’t mind people taking care of him. Unfortunately his central line came out today; it was causing his arm to swell, so they removed it. Hopefully another will be inserted tomorrow, but in the meantime he’s got an iv in his foot to tide him over.

All three will be checked early next week for their heart murmurs, but all the nurses have said repeatedly that it would be odd if they didn’t have the murmurs at this point. Otherwise, all is well today. Brooke got to hold Charlie again, and he really seems to enjoy the close contact. We’re hopeful that Lily will get herself better so we can hold her real soon.

One another note, Grandpa Fred is home from the hospital. He’s got to take it real easy, but the ulders should clear up and he should be able to visit his grandbabies soon. They’ve missed him!