Day 3

Brooke came off her iv around 10 am, so she was able to shower and move around a lot more easily. We had a great NICU visit first thing in the morning and Brooke got to see Lily’s beautiful eyes for the first time. Annaleigh’s nurse turned off the warming lights for a minute and took off the foam eye-covers that protect our middle baby’s eyes, so we got to see her cute little face for the first time. And then Charlie… boy was he active! He wiggled around and grabbed our fingers with a very surprisingly tight grip, and when we were getting ready to leave he didn’t want to let go of Brooke! Adorable!!!

Lilly is getting 1 cc of formula every three hours. She doesn’t digest it all, but she’s getting the motion down, and that’s more important right now. Charlie has water going into his feeding tube for the same reason. All of the babies are getting water, vitamins, and fluids via iv tubes.

Charlie had a central line put in today. Basically, it’s an iv that goes into a vein, through the body, all the way to the heart. It makes any emergency procedures that much faster if the central line is already installed. The girls will have them put in sometime in the very near future.

Lily has a little pink bow on her head (being held on with a little lubricant). Her bed is made up of all purple plaid and there’s a really cute girly sign that says “Lily” with all her stats attached to the front of the glass. It’s all so cute! Apparently the night nurse had some free time last night and started to make it homey for her.

During an afternoon visit, we got the chance to go with the three doctors while they did rounds of each baby. They spent about 10 to 15 minutes talking about Lily, and when they finished, Dr. Hiatt stopped and explained what they had just said to us. They then did the same for Charlie, and finally for Annaleigh. It was awesome! The basic discussion was that they are all doing very well for their age/size, and it was especially comforting that they let us listen in (so we know that we’re getting the exact information and nobody is sugar-coating things for us). It is yet another thing that has amazed and impressed us about this hospital.

One minor concern is that the babies will eventually need to have a blood transfusion. All premies eventually need them because babies of this size only have about two ounces of blood in their entire body. So every time they need to take blood for a test (and there are A LOT of tests, especially since every single test in the NICU is done two times to ensure accuracy) they lose a higher ratio than normal babies. They said that Annaleigh will most likely need blood in the next few days, and since it’s a long holiday weekend coming up, the doctors suggested we donate today. They usually have the father donate the blood, but since I’m on blood pressure medication I’m not able to donate. Brooke can’t do it because she’s lost way too much already and they don’t let moms donate until two months after a c-section. So we both turned to John, my brother. We called him and he was here in an hour, having left work and driven all the way here. We are very lucky to have him; he’s already a great uncle! Fortunately, a normal adult blood donation is more than enough to sustain the babies for a long time, so there shouldn’t be any need for anyone else to donate (but thank you for all the offers that we have already had).

The babies also got their first visit from their grandfather Ron and great-grandmother Nana. Ron brought them the first of what I can only assume will be many Dallas Cowboy toys, and Nana brought them guardian angel medals. There is now a guardian angel in each baby bed.

It was a busy day, but another good day. The babies hit 72 hours old and haven’t had any major complications- that in itself is a major miracle. Let’s keep the good days coming!