Kangaroo Switcheroo!

After an “off” day yesterday, Brooke and I got to kangaroo the girls again. This time, Brooke cuddled with Annaleigh and I snuggled with Lily Bug. And just like the first time, it was awesome.

Lily liked her kangaroo time once she was readjusted a few times by her nurse. When the time came, the nurse actually handed Lily to me and I had no idea what to do. I had this tiny baby in my hands and I was absolutely clueless. I wasn’t sure how to get her from a laying down position in my hands to a kangaroo position flat against my chest. After a few awkward seconds of me on the verge of panic, the nurse helped me place the Bug. I don’t think I did a good job because she had a number of episodes in the first few minutes and her neck was stretched out too far. Once she got more comfy, she seemed to really enjoy our time together. She had a good rest of the day too. She’s up to 1030 grams and 18 ml of breast milk and her most recent round of ultrasound brain scans came back perfectly.

Annaleigh had a more active day. Her kangaroo time with Brooke couldn’t have gone better. Once again, she loved the time cuddling with her mommy and her numbers looked great the whole time. She was making her normal sucking motion, almost as though she was trying to nurse (she’s not quite ready for that just yet though) and Brooke kept laughing as she was holding her. She needed to get some blood today since she was looking a little anemic. Her feedings are up to 12 ml of breast milk but she hasn’t gained any weight in three days now (she’s been stuck at 1020 grams since Saturday). Hopefully she’s have a big gain tomorrow.




And then there’s Charlie. Oh Charlie. When we first entered the NICU, we were told that premature girl babies do much better than premature boy babies. I thought this was just a stereotype, a myth promulgated by the fact that 99% of the NICU nurses are females. Well, Charlie is not exactly doing his part to dispel the “myth.” He’s not doing poorly, but he continues having a number of episodes. His oxygen levels fluctuate a lot and his nurses can’t exactly call him “stable.” I got to hold him for about twenty minutes this morning while Brooke was with the girls, but that seemed to be his threshold; he started getting pale and his numbers dropped. Poor Brooke didn’t get to hold her Chunkers. When she came into his room, the nurse was putting him back into his isolette. When Brooke started talking to him though, his numbers shot up—he was excited to see her! It’s amazing that he recognizes her so easily and I know that it makes her feel good when that happens. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that he does so well when she’s there, but we like to think there’s more to it….

The only bad news we got today was that the beloved Dr. Hiatt is away for two weeks. We have grown so fond of that man over the past five weeks. We love his calm and his patience and his daily updates. We’re going to miss him so much! Hurry back, Dr. Hiatt!