Two Good Days in a Row...

For the second day in a row, we have nothing but positive progress with all the babies! I can’t even begin to describe how great that feels!

Annaleigh came out for a visit with her daddy for about 45 minutes today. I’ve only gotten to hold her one time, and this time was even better because she opened her eyes to look at me. It was so great! She kept one eye open wide for about three minutes, just staring at my face. It felt like she was really seeing me—the real me, not just my nose or my eyes. What a great feeling! Brooke was nice enough to let me hold her the entire time, and I really appreciated it. Our little monkey is up to 4 ml of breast milk for her feedings and is digesting them well. She’s only had a few episodes all day; we were “lucky enough” to witness one tonight, but she calmed down and is doing great.

Lily Bug resumed her feeding today for the first time in three days. The nurses yesterday said that her heart murmur was all but gone, but they heard it again a little today. That’s no surprise but we’ll wait and see what Dr. Hiatt says about it in a few days. She continues to have a lot of episodes, but she mostly is able to correct them herself. Her weight is up to 810 grams so she’s doing exactly what we need her to do right now—gain weight!

Charlie continues to be our little chunk. He’s eating his 10 ml of breast milk and digesting it all happily. He’s had no new pimples since that second one was drained a couple days ago. The nurse practitioner actually checked the spot the last pimple was and found nothing at all, which was a good thing. He’s continuing his MRSA medicine, probably for another few weeks but that’s not stopping him from growing. He was wide-eyed for a while during our afternoon visit today and he just looks content with everything.

I spent a lot of time talking to one of the nurses today. She gave me lots of information about what the babies can see and hear and feel. She told me that they definitely recognize Brooke’s voice, which is probably why Charlie’s oxygen levels drop or rise so dramatically when she enters the room. They may recognize mine, too, since I read to them every night while they were in Brooke’s belly, but that’s not a sure thing. She also told me that the babies can’t really “see” us yet and they won’t be able to for a few months, but they can “sense” us by our touch and our smell. She was very adamant that babies have a strong sense of smell. It was an interesting conversation.

Three weeks ago tonight our world changed. We’re so proud of our little babies and we love them so much more than we ever dreamed possible. Happy three weeks, babies!