Over 21 and hitting the bottle....

Okay, so they are just 22 days old and the bottle is full of milk, but still.....  The girls are doing great.  We thought for sure Kira would break 4lbs, but she was 3lb 15.5 oz.  Just a hair short of 4 lbs.  Alana was still around 3lb 5oz.  Both girls have started to take 1-2 feeds a day from the bottle and they have each finished a whole feed from the bottle at some point.  Kira seems to be doing a little better than Alana with the bottle.  These little ones keep flip flopping with who's ahead.

At one point it seemed Kira was going to be behind Alana when it came to feeds, because Kira seemed to sleep more and not care.  Alana would stay wide awake and search like crazy.  When she'd get on the pacifier she would sound like little Maggy Simpson.  Now Alana seems to doze off quickly and not have as much interest as before.

The word on the street is that they need to take all of their feeds by mouth for 24 hours.  If they do that they will loose the feeding tube.  Then if they keep it up for 3 more days or so they will be ready to come home.  The nurse last night said they will probably try the car seat test soon with them and thought it is possible that Kira may come home in a week or so.  This of course is a nurse talking and not the doctor, but I'm sure they see enough little babies to give an educated guess.  The doctors seem to play their hands closer to their chest and not give any estimates.

So in the next week or two we could begin our sleepless night stage of this whole parenting adventure.  Oh boy!

I'd also like to share a poem our birthing class teacher wrote for us.  She has been following our blog and was inspired to write this for us after our little girls were born.  I had meant to post it out long ago and after we ran into her last night I thought "Oh man I was going to post out her poem."  So here it is.  It is really quite touching.

---

Soar 

by Monica McNamara

              Beating all odds, strength defines you

              Incredible life inside her, each breath she takes is for her two

              Girls who know how to embrace hope and each other

              Spunk and love tug the vast affections of their father and their mother

              Amazing miracle, living on the edge before birth

              Unimaginable wonder what your lives will bring now that you're here on earth

              Every heart beat and every smile

              Your eyes, your laugh, your very style

              Inspire us all to know that anything can be done

              Because both girls are thriving on what was meant for only one

              Advocating for each other from their lives very start

              First breath, side by side, spreading love to each unique heart

              Support built on a foundation of love defines this family of four

              The strength they bring to each other are the very wings that make them soar!

Big Girl Bed!

Alana

Kira

Gma & Kira

Kira & Alana

So I am finally feeling much better and I have managed to stay out of the hospital for over a week. I do feel like I am attached 24/7 to the pump and I can not get enough sleep but other then that I am doing well.

The girls continue to impress us. Alana hit 3 lbs. Friday night (July 22nd) so that was a great milestone for her. The breast feeding every day is hit or miss. Alana usually does a little better then Kira but both girls struggle to stay awake for long periods of time. They both latch on well but they do not have the rest of it down on a consistent basis. If we can keep Kira awake for more then 2 minutes we are doing well. I told Jim it was his fault because she sleeps like him. You can dangle her, move her, raise your voice and all she does is sleep on..... She even sleeps through her diaper changes.

Yesterday when we went to visit the girls in the morning I forgot their milk. So on our way to dinner and a movie (Harry Potter at the IMAX) I quickly ran the milk into the hospital. When I was walking by the girls room I glanced in but kept on walking as we were running late. I had to back up though as something was just not right about the room. I quickly realized that there was a crib in the room! I thought great Kira is finally out of the isolette and in a normal crib. We figured it was coming soon as she was maintaining her body temperature very well. I asked the nurse and she told me to step into the room and check it out. I was shocked when both girls were in the crib together!! They were side by side and each girl had their hands on the others head. It was so sweet and unexpected it brought tears to my eyes. Of course because I was just running in I did not have a camera with me. Hopefully we can catch that pose again.

As of last night (7/24) Alana weighted 3lbs. 2oz. and Kira is up to 3lbs. 12oz. In talking to the doctor today he told me to prepare for Kira to come home before her sister. We of course still do not know when that will be but at this point they mainly have to learn to bottle feed and they have to be able to sit in a car seat for 45 minutes. The week they come home they have to get a few shots and they will have a hearing test. Hopefully they will be home by mid to late August.

Almost 2 Weeks Old

When I was so sick last week my girls (aka nurse Bonnie) sent me a get well card. It was so cute we wanted to post it out for everyone one to see.

Gma Stryker & Alana
Daddy & Kira
Gma Stryker & Alana
Gma Stryker & Alana (Hmmmm....)
Jim & Kira

Jim and I can not believe that our little ones will be 2 weeks old tomorrow! They continue to exceed everyone's expectations. They are both gaining weight and they are close to their birth weights. They are no longer on caffeine to keep their heart rates up. They are also starting to hold their body temperature and they should be out of their "boxes" soon. They have been turning the heat down everyday and when I was chatting with the doctor today she thought that they would be able to come out in the next week or so (once they get above their birth weights). That just leaves the feeding tube. They have both reached their maximum feedings and they are holding them pretty well. Kira does spit up some so they are watching that - she has some acid reflux. They will hold them at their amounts and possibly start increasing them again next week. We also started breast feeding. Normally they do not start this until a baby is at least 34 weeks old but since both girls love their pacifiers they wanted to start them early. I thought they were crazy!! However I should have known better as the girls both latched right on! It was surprisingly a piece of cake. Alana is really good at it and Kira is learning. They both get tired quickly (as expected) but they both understand the concept. Because this went so well they are considering trying to bottle feed them next week (again a few weeks before they normally start).

Alana's umbilical cord fell off on Monday and Kira's fell off yesterday (Tuesday). That is nice to get rid of. The nurse found Alana's cord and offered it to us but we passed on that souvenir.

Gma Stryker arrived on Sunday and was able to meet her grandchildren. She drives me each day to the hospital so that we can hang out and hold them. They can now come out for an hour at a time since they are maintaining their body heat. Then at night Jim and I visit them so that "Daddy" gets to see them as well. Jim is so cute with his girls. He just stares at them with awe and love. I told him the other night I was not sure who was more fun to watch the girl he was holding or him? I love the expressions on his face!
Alana is going to be a handful. The nurse mentioned today that she never sleeps and I believe her. Gma Stryker held her for at least a half hour and she was awake and I then held her for another hour or so (feeding and cuddling) and she was wide awake the entire time. We are in some serious trouble with this one. Kira is much more calm and cuddly. She spent the hour sleeping in Gma Stryker's arms after her feeding. Both are so adorable you want to spend the entire day with them.

The girls received their first Fed Ex box yesterday. It actually confused me for a minute as I am use to seeing Jim or Joy on all of our packages. My VP sent them personalized blankets and outfits with their names on them. They were so cute!

I guess that is all for now lets hope the girls are home soon.

11 Days in

I can't believe it.  We have 11 day old girls who are doing unbelievable!  Little Alana and Kira are doing great at Rex.  I don't recall if I mentioned it in the last blog, but they are now at Rex and they don't have any IVs or bililights.  The nurses have been bumping their feeds by 2ml every 12 hours and so far so good.

Little Alana is quite the spitfire.  She starts to wake up just before her 3 hour feeding and stays pretty lively and alert during her feeding.  Kira was actually pretty alert last night too when they were doing the feeding.  They look around and make silly faces while we hold them.  It is pretty awesome.  Saturday night we held them while the nurse did her assessments, changed diapers, took temps ect.  Alana thought it was be funny to do a number 1 on Daddy's lap while she wasn't wearing a diaper.  Then about 10 minutes later had a number 2 that was felt through the pillow she was laying on.  Oh boy.....

While we were at Rex on Saturday a few nurses who specialize in physical therapy came  by to look at the girls muscle tone.  There is a big concern with preemies that they wont have good muscle tone.  They tend to be sort of floppy since they miss out on being tucked in and snug for the full term.  Well, when they got done they said the girls were way ahead of where they expected them.  The only thing they noted was that Kira has a little bit of a smack when working her pacifier.  Other than they they wouldn't bother doing anything until they were ready to come home.  At that point they would give us exercises to do with them.

I figured they would do well.  We still hear about how far they move in their isolettes.  For a 10 day old preemie to scoot themselves 6-8 inches out a place they'd have to have good muscle tone and strength right?  

The neonatal also wants Joy to meet with lactation and start to attempt breastfeeding.  Joy is pretty intimidated and we are all impressed.  Typically a baby doesn't have the strength or coordination to do this until 34 weeks.  Our little ones are just 33 weeks adjusted today.  So they are starting them about a week early.   However, they love their pacifiers and seek them out whenever they are awake.  Then they absolutly go to town on them.  I joke with Joy, "You thought the pump hurt?"  :-D mean huh?

Mommy and Kira..."Boy mom, my tummy is too full to keep my eyes open"

Mommy and Alana..."Look mom no IV!"

The first family photo! Welcome the Schneider Gang of Four..

 

Blah....

It's been a long couple of weeks.  Wednesday night when we got home from filling out paper work at Rex, Joy had a fever and her digestive system decided to explode in all directions.  The poor thing was an awful wreck.  We stayed up until about 0130 waiting for her to settle down.  Like a trooper she continued to pump and tried to take in fluids.  By morning her fever was lower and things seemed settled.

Joy called the Perinatal Clinic and they weren't worried.  The nurses remembered her and chit chatted.  It didn't sound like it was related to the C-section since there wasn't any abdominal pain.  They recommended some food items and said if the fever doesn't go away to go to an urgent care or hospital.  I was able to get some pieces of toast and jelly into her during the day and more ginger ale.  She also ate a few popsicles.  Then 1700 hit.

All of the sudden she started feeling very chilled and had an even higher temp of 101.7.  Then her digestive system blew up again!  It was like she had swallowed TNT.  That left us with, do we go to urgent care or straight to the emergency room?  I was still convinced she just had food poisoning or something, but we didn't want to risk having to rush in at midnight.  We both felt like we might get sent to the emergency room since she just had a C-section and was probably pretty dehydrated.

We got to Rex around 1815.  They triaged her and I ran the girls' dinner up to them while I was there.  We didn't leave until about 0100, stopped by the store for some light foods and headed home. The doctors did some lab work, pumped her with 1.5L of fluid and made sure she could hold liquids and crackers down.  What a brave soul too, she went right for the bright colored, acidic cranberry juice.  I would have picked something clear that might stain less.

Nothing definitive came out of the lab work.  Joy has one more lab we need to drop off because she was out of samples by the time we got to Rex.  She seems to be doing so-so now and is resting.  She's managed to keep fluids, teddy grahams, and jell-o in.  The ER Doctor recommended that she stay away from the gils for at least 24-48 hours after her fever breaks.  We just aren't sure when that is.  When we got to the ER her temp was normal.  At home it is reading about 100 give or take and mine 96.  The doctor also told me I should stay away just to be safe even though I don't have any symptoms.

I called the nursery to let them know what was going on.  The nurse today had heard Joy wasn't feeling well.  I had let them know briefly yesterday when I dropped of the milk, but they were on a shift change so I couldn't explain.  The nurse said she would let the doctors and others know to not expect us for a few days and told mom to rest up and take care of herself.

The girls sound like they are doing good.  They are taking their feeds and sleeping well.  She said "Boy those two are feisty! Especially that little Alana!"  I just keep thinking, "Oh boy what am I going to be in for now?"  We have two premies born at 31w3d who seemed to have been feisty little fighters since conception.  How will we ever keep up with them...... :)

Rex Time

Whelp we got a call today that Duke needed more room and our girls were doing so well they wanted to move them to Rex.  So we gave them the ok/ they said they had to go.  Maybe these little ones were just too rowdy for them to handle :).

They were suppose to be transported at 8pm, but when we got there at around 9:20p they had not left Duke.  I'm not sure what the hold up is.  Most likely there is some other child that is more sick that they need to deal with.

During the transport the girls will be in the same isolette.  It will probably be the first time since birth that they have touched each other.

Joy and I did do the paper work for them while we were there, but we didn't stay to wait for them.  Joy was not feeling so good after having an upset tummy for the past two days.  Now she is in pretty ruff shape and has a fever.  So thank goodness we didn't stay.  I guess we will both have to stay away from them until we are sure our health is in order.  A stomach bug at their age would be devastating.

While there we did got a quick run down on how things work.  They are way more locked down than Duke was.

• The first 3 days or so after transport we have to wear gowns and gloves.  This is to quarantine them in case some nasty bug like Mursa got transported in.  I guess we may now miss that in order to make sure we are both healthy.  
• We must also wear wrist bands for each child for the duration of the girls' stay.  While at Duke they said we could take these off.  Not so with Rex. 
• They don't allow any visitors between 6:30-7:45 morning and night.  Duke didn't have this limit, but only parents were allowed and we could not talk to the nurses during this time.
• We are only able to designate a total of 4 visitors, period. Once picking these 4 visitors we can not change the list and we can not take any other people in expect those listed in the 4 slots. Joy and I don't know what to do about this.  We may not fill all four because we don't know who to cut when you have such a close knit family.  Although, several people have already visited we were a little apprehensive.  We want to share our girls, but we also knew the more visitors the more germs.   
• It is a little sad to not see the same faces we have been seeing everyday for the past 6 weeks at Duke.

On the plus side, 

• The girls don't have any complications to keep them in a higher level NICU.
• They will be in the same room!  In fact for now, they are the only two in the room because there is only room for 2 in their room! Privacy! 
• At some point they will get moved into sharing a crib which is shocking since it is not recommended when coming home. 
• Rex doesn't have a hard fast weight that they must achieve, but they must meet similar bench marks to go home.  It sounds like if they can start gaining weight they may still be home at around a 36-38 week gestational age and of course the safe bet is to not expect them home before their 40 week gestational age.  In short we really have no idea of when they will come home.
• They plan to get them on a closer schedule for feeds.  This way we can change diapers, feed, maybe hold one then the other back to back.  At Duke we seemed to only catch one baby then miss the other.  Which meant we lost the opportunity to participate in their care.
• The staff seems just as nice.
• The drive is shorter
• No paying for parking

Move'in on up

So we went to see our girls today and little Alana has been moved out into the TCN (Transitional Care Nursery) already! Kira, poor thing, is still struggling with her feeds and rolled over onto her IV. This caused fluid to be pumped not in a vein but into her scalp. So, they had to give her some injections to help dissipate the fluid etc. They were able to move the IV to her foot. Ouch again. Kira is doing so-so on her feeds, but she still has a ways to go.

Both girls are under the bili lights again. It seems that the bili lights will be an on again off again sort of thing. It also sounded like the IVs would not be coming out anytime soon after talking to the nurse tonight. It seems there is a magic number for Calories they try to achieve and they can't always bump the milk intake enough, so they make up for it with the IV. For example, Kira needs X Calories a day, but she is only able to handle 10ml of food in her tummy at a time. So they have to make up the difference with the IV. Say Kira gets to 13ml and that gives her the X Calories she needs. In a few days she may need X Calories plus 200. She may not be able to handle those extra 200 in her tummy so they will suppliment them with the IV.

In short, it sounds like they may not come off of the IV until about 2 weeks prior to coming home. At this rate we aren't sure how far away that will be. Alana for example only put on 14g today and weighed 2lb 9oz. (5oz less than birth). She needs to put on almost 1000g more before being heavy enough to come home. They did say however, that Alana is about to the point where they will need to use a pump to feed her. This is because her feeds are starting to get so big that letting gravity put it in will cause it to fill her tummy too quickly. So they will need to use a small pump to slowly moving the feed into her tummy and not overwhelm her all at once.

All of this stuff is so crazy and amazing. I hope Kira can get her system straight and move into TCN with her. If she can move into the TCN they will try to get the beds next to each other. So we can see them both.

Ugh, the one hard part is that you want to be there with them, but you can't hold them much yet. They need to be under the bili lights to get their bilirubin down. They can't stay warm enough to be out of the isolette for long. In addition, their little nervous systems are very sensitive at this point so you can't rub them. Even gentle touches can cause them to stir preventing them from a deep sleep. They need to sleep and be as still as possible to grow. In the end you can only sit there and stare at your little ones for so long. You feel guilty for get bored, but there isn't much you can really do. You can't interact much and you can only talk to them about gibberish for so long too. Maybe in two weeks they will be more stable and we will be able to interact with them a little more. Until then I guess our visits will stay rather short milk deliveries and be made up of mostly starring in aw at these cute little girls whom you can't play with yet...

I'm glad they're safe, healthy, and doing so well.

PJs already?

Today was a restday.  Joy and I caught up on some rest and spent a nice quiet day together.  I also bought a new toy with all of my birthday money.  I picked up a nikkor 35mm 1.8 lens.  It is awesome.  I was having a hard time with my zoom lens because the light in the NICU is so dim.  They like to keep the lights down so the babies can sleep better and not be stimulated.  I was having to crank up the ISO on my camera in order to get a decent picture with out shooting a flash all the time.  As you can see this lens does a pretty good job.  I love it!

Joy and I then headed out to Duke this afternoon to see the girls and was given great news before we even got there.  The doctors decided to pass on the upper gi study.  They had already done an x-ray or something the other day and didn't want to expose Kira to more radiation if they could help it.  So they backed off on Kira's feeds.  We happened to be there during her 9pm assessment which meant another diaper change for Daddy to do and there was hardly any residual from her last feed which was awesome!    If they can get her back to full feeds that IV can come out.

In addition, someone put her in a cute little outfit  I guess they were trying to draw the attention from her IV or "party hat" as I called it.

Mommy looks on at Kira don't touch she's sleeping and needs to so she can grow ...sigh....

Kira's cute outfit.

Give me a hand why is the nurse stripping me?

I got lucky no poo..

Alana was sound asleep and we didn't want to wake her.  She had a great day.  She came off of the bililight and is up to full feeds with out issue (13ml) every three hours.  She did have 2 brady's.  Also, I must correct myself.  Bradycardia is not when they stop breathing and slow their heart rate, but simply that their heart rate slows.  Typically our girls don't go below the 90's so it isn't a huge scare, but alarms go nuts and some times you have to reach in and touch them a little.

Alana sleeping peacefully 

Alana still sleeping

This is Alana and I from a few days ago.

Flowers Joy's work sent to her. Gorgeous! Loving the lens

2 days old

The girls are doing well.  Alana is still under the "bili-light" and her bilirubin went up just a little. She has a little reflux so they did a suppository to help move the meconium out and eleviate the pressure and let food pass.  The doctor listened to her bowels and thought it sounded good.  If she continues to have issues they will do an ultra sound on her as well.  They are also planning to up her food.  She has had a few episodes of bradicardia.  Basically she forgets to breath which causes her heart rate to drop.  This has happened a few times to they are now juicing her up with some caffeine.

Little Kira is doing well too.  She is out of the "bili-light" and will be tested again tomorrow to make sure her bilirubin stays in check.  She too was a little backed up and they did an ultra-sound on her tummy which looked good.  They are increasing her food intake as well.  We were able to hold her for a few hours today which was awesome!  I also got to change my first meconium diaper and swaddle her.  She made daddy's day by sleeping through the whole process.

The nurse was telling us that Kira would be moved to the Transition Nursery this evening.  She also said her sister would be right behind her once another bed opened in the transition nursery.  However, the charge nurse came by and said they decided not to move Kira.  They thought it was best to keep the girls across the hall and make it more convenient for us to see them.   The good part is that they both are doing so well they could step both down once there is room in the transition nursery.

Our little ones are real troopers.  Joy is doing well too.  She is walking better and refusing the strong pain meds.  She is just using Motrin to dull the pain.  The doctor she had yesterday thought she was crazy, but Joy would rather be in pain than to be nauseous. Talk about tough!  These little girls wont get much sympathy with "my tummy hurts"  Ok maybe from me they will :)

Introducing.....

Both girls are doing great!  They are both off of their CPAP and will start eating today.  Their bilirubin is a little high which is why they are so pink.  Their levels are just high enough that Duke is playing it safe and giving them their first and hopefully last "tanning" bed experiences.  Actually the UV is just outside of the UVA/UVB spectrum.  They will be under these for a day or so.  While under them we can only hold them for short periods because they want to get the bilirubin levels down.

Now on to introductions.

The little girl formerly known as calm "Baby A" while in utero, later known as "Baby B" after birth and coming in at svelte 2lbs 14oz. Alana Belle Schneider (first name is from Old German meaning "precious;awakening" and sounds great with Belle it's pronounced ah-LAH-nah)

The sister known as the active night owl "Baby B" while in utero, later taking on the "Baby A" title after birth and coming in at slightly more plump 3lbs 7oz. Kira Ann Schneider (first name has a Greek Origin and the meaning of "Lord" pronounced KEER-ah) 

Healthy Babies

Smaller BabyLarger Baby

Good morning everyone. Jim and I apologize that we did not get another post out yesterday but we were so tired we could not even function!

Anyway the girls are doing great!! They are both on the minimum required wires/machines in the NICU based on their size and weight. When you look at the pictures it will appear that they have wires everywhere but most are just sensors. They both are receiving oxygen (but the minimum amount). They have feeding tubes because they are just so young they have not developed enough to suck properly on a bottle. Lastly the smaller baby is in an icelet just to make sure she maintains her body temperature. The larger baby just has a heat fan to help her stay warm. The larger baby was taken off of oxygen for awhile so that we could see her hair and she maintained her levels so it is looking like she will not be on oxygen for long.

We went down twice yesterday to the NICU to see our babies and of course we are both in love! We were also able to hold the larger baby which was such a great experience. Jim said "I could really get use to this." We did not stay that long though as we were both so tired we could not keep our eyes open. We look forward to hanging out with them more today.

I am doing ok but of course pretty sore. I am up and walking around but getting up and down is still pretty painful. I am trying not to take much pain medicine as it makes me very ill. Unfortunately I was sick twice yesterday (once right after surgery). The C section went well but it was one of the strangest things I have ever gone through. It is hard to explain but you feel everything just not any pain. Jim and I were also a little sad as it was not much of a birthing experience. The babies did not make a sound and they rushed them out without us being able to see them. If they had not said Baby A was just born and then Baby B we would not have even known they were born. Oh well the important thing is that they are healthy and doing well.

On another note I experienced some pretty painful contractions. I told Jim that this was bad as I did not pay attention to this part in our class. It was also looking like if they did not hurry up I was going to have them before the C section. It took 1 & 1/2 hrs. for them to get my blood screening back (just in case I needed a transfusion). If anyone knows my family we tend to have babies very quickly and with the intensity of the contractions I was really starting to worry that we would not make it to the C section and that would have put the babies in a lot of danger.

The doctors and nurses could not believe the tangles and knots in the cords and stated it was the worst they had seen. Everyone was so glad we got them out when we did and several were surprised we did not have more problems during our NST's.

Here are a few pictures. Once I can locate the camera in our room I will put out a few better pictures.

I am now going to wake Jim up - we need to go and see our little girls!

Cords

Sorry these are like micro blogs.  Here is a link to some photo's of the cords...scary!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrschneider/5911613715/in/set-72157627138015066/

They are here

Not many stats to share. 2lbs 14oz and 3lbs 7oz if I remember right.  More to come

Prep work

Joy was just wheeled back to get prepped in the or.  Then they will come get me.
Sent from my droid

Water Broke

I just got home and let the dogs out.  I brushed my teeth and started to strip.  Then I got a call from joy at 12:17....her water had just broke....I'll try to keep you posted as best I can.

Are We Going To Make It Until Monday??

So after a pretty restless night I got up this morning and had another "pregnancy" experience. This one I did not know anything about - they really should cover this stuff in the birthing classes. Anyway I lost my mucous plug when I got up this morning to use the restroom. I had no idea what was going on!

In talking to the doctors it could be another sign that I may go into labor soon but it also may not mean that. Some people lose their plug and go right into labor, some in the next few days and some take several weeks.

Great another thing to stress about!

I also feel sorry for Jim. I call him and say stand by... he then never knows if he should go to work or head to the hospital. This is getting pretty old.

Hopefully we still make it until Monday but we may not.

Last Growth Scan - 31 Weeks

Only 6 more days to go!!! We have had a lot more stressful days and nights lately but we are nearing the end. The babies have had several decels (drop in heart rates) but they always seem to bounce back. As you can imagine though each time that happens it causes Jim and I a lot of stress. My contractions are also pretty out of control. I have days when I just contract every few minutes non stop. They are not super painful but they do cause some discomfort. The doctors keep telling me I must have a high pain tolerance (I do not think so!) as they should be more painful then I am telling them they are. Saturday and last night the contractions were pretty intense and on Saturday they became pretty concerned doing another check on my cervix and I was thankfully still only 1cm dilated. They also ran this other test to check to see if I had a certain protein. This test is only accurate if it comes back negative. If negative it tells them that I will not go into labor in the next 2 weeks. Of course my test came back positive which scared Jim and I until they told us that a positive does not mean anything. Positive states that you could go into labor within the next two weeks or that you will not. So basically the test was useless for us and just caused some unnecessary stress.

My main team of doctors came by today as they work during the days during the week and they confirmed that at this point if I should go into pre term labor they will not do anything to stop it but rather just deliver the babies a little early. At this point they said it would not make that much difference for the babies. The main team is also not that concerned about the contractions. That is one of the frustrating things about being in the hospital - the doctors change for nights, weekends and holidays and they all react differently.

My blood pressure which has never been a problem and has always been very low has been jumping all over the place. It goes extremely low, to normal to very high for me. I chatted with the doctors this morning and they are watching it but they said at this point since we are getting so close and I have more normal readings then abnormal readings I am ok for now.

The growth scan went well today (sorry no pictures). It lasted close to 2 hrs. because the babies are so on top of each other that she could not get great readings on Baby A's head or Baby B's leg. So the readings are going to be off. Baby A is going to need Gma Stryker to come down and teach her how to be a lady as she was spread eagle the entire time and has been in several other ultrasounds. Baby B is still crowding Baby A but I think Baby A is starting to like it because when Baby B moved away Baby A followed her. It is crazy how tangled they both are. Legs over each other, heads right next to each other and arms all over each other. They are so cute! They each gained over a pound in the last 3 weeks which is great. They grew way more then the doctors expected them to gain so things are looking good. They are also not that far apart in weight so another good sign.

Baby A is at 1462 grams (3lbs 4 oz) and in the 9th percentile. Baby B is 1522 grams (3 lbs 6 oz) and in the 14th percentile.

They should be somewhere between 3 1/2 lbs. and 4 lbs. when they are delivered on Monday.

I am getting pretty nervous about Monday and Jim is flying high as he can not wait to see his little girls. I will be so glad when Monday is over and then I can just focus on the "Joy" of having the two little precious girls!!

One other quick note is that Jim just found out today that the girls will be able to go to SAS daycare. He needs to find out all of the details but that will save us a ton of money.

No July 4th babies....

Well, Joy is a real trooper and followed the doctors orders to stay pregnant over the weekend. As usual I spent my weekend hanging out in the room with Joy. I think we have now seen all of the Star Wars flicks at least once and at times maybe even twice. You'd think that was the only program Spike TV was allowed to air.

We've also found that there really isn't any reason to waste money on cable. We spend most of our time flipping through junky reality shows, old movies we could watch on Netflix, and reruns from the major networks. Yup, I'm glad I've been pocketing that $50+ a month for the past 5 years (which adds up to approx. $3,000).

We had quite a bit of company this weekend and overall it seemed to pass by pretty quickly. Monday was a bit of a bummer because they put off the fireworks until Tuesday. We are hoping to see them from the 9th floor windows. This just gives us something to look forward to tonight.

Sunday, July 3rd, Joy's IV came out and you'd think she had won the lottery. She was so excited to get that out. I was pretty happy for her too. It was probably the most exciting thing to have happened over the past several weeks. Just taking it out also seemed to perk her up a bit. Funny how something so small can really change a person's mental state.

Sunday the babies had a few decels. Each time they occurred just moments before they took her off of the NST. Since the nurses don't have a computer screen in the room on the 7th floor, they didn't know until they re-reviewed the strip. This lead to them having to hook Joy back up for another 30 minutes. No big deal and everything looked good.

After Joy's NST on July 3rd, the nurse came in a little while later and warned Joy that she was not going to be happy with her. Joy cringed, started to sweat and panic. She was thinking "Oh know the IV has to go back in." The nurse said I need to hook you up for another 30 minutes on the NST and Joy went "Oh that's it? OK".

I can't believe it just 6 more days now! Then we get to see our little ones and the NICU phase starts. Let's hope for an uneventful NICU stay. I'm also crossing my fingers that they come home in 4-5 weeks after delivery. That seems to be a common range for 32 week old premies. This would be good too since Joy would have a month to recover then a month with the girls before going back to work.

It is amazing to look at a chart we were given several months ago in the 30-32 week range. The stats look very good now. The only stat that changes for a 33-34 week old is the CLD stat dropping to 1%.

98% chance of survival
7% CLD (Chronic Lung Disease from the ventilators and being on oxygen for so long)
1% NEC Necrotizing Enterocolitis (Parts of their bowels can become infected a die due to not being ready for milk)
NA for PDA (the valve not sealing to create a separation of the 4 heart chambers. This generally happens with the babies first cry).
1% IVH (level 3/4) These are severe brain bleeds that can lead to Cerebral Paulsey and other behavioral disorders.
0% ROP (This is a Retinopathy of Prematurity can lead to blindness)

For comparison the stats at 26 weeks when Joy went it were..
84% survival
34% morbidity (Severe IVH,CLD,NEC, infections ROP)
44% CLD

9% NEC
48%PDA
9% IVH
5% ROP

So things are looking pretty good.

One Tired Momma

Well, Joy was in pretty good spirits yesterday. She was very tired, but doing well. When I got to the hospital she was no longer on the IV, but had to keep the IV hookup in her hand. She is not pleased with that and I really don't blame her. She uses the hand a little, but for the most part sort of ignores that she even has a left hand. For whatever reason having a needle stuck in your hand can be painful from time to time. She tries to keep in elevated which seems to help.

At the moment Joy's contractions have subsided. She still has them, but they aren't as intense as they were on Wednesday night. The doctor (the director) again reassured her that contractions are normal for multiples, but they will not go too much further with preventing the natural progression if they become more intense and frequent.

I'm guessing the doctor's thought process about the contractions is this. The C-section is scheduled for about 9 days from now. The NSTs always look great, good BPP scores, they've had two rounds of steroids and the girls are probably pushing 3 lbs. each by now. They probably figure that given the riskiness of the cords and how close we are to our goal it wouldn't hurt to get them a little sooner than later if Joy's body starts to labor before 32 weeks. I imagine they would have a different thought process if we were back in the 24-26 week range.

Last night we had a great dinner. A friend of ours made us a great meal. Joy was so excited. Joy loved the fresh fruit and the cucumber salad made with lemon juice and sugar. It was very refreshing. The yummy stroganof like pasta really hit the spot as well.

It's too bad the nutritionist wasn't in the room to see that meal. Joy generally has a few grocery bags of "junk food" in the corner of the room, which she knows the nutritionist and doctors do not like to see. If they looked a little closer they would see it wasn't too bad. Mostly nuts and grains. Heck they were the ones bringing her packs of Oreos. In her defense, it is hard to keep any fresh healthy items around if you don't have a fridge and up until the last week or so she didn't. Plus, the dietary people almost always forget to bring her a snack and sometimes they bring her warm cheese sticks and milk...um those should be cold not room temp. Eh, we are almost done :)

Then it was shower time. With one hand you can imagine how hard that is. So, I had to continue adding to my husbandly duties and help Joy take a shower. It looks like they may become part of our new nightly routine for the next few weeks. We joked about how you almost have to get married to have someone help you with this sort of thing as you get older. It reminds me of that movie "Death Becomes Her" where Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn become immortal so they can stay young and retain their beauty. The problem though is that their body doesn't heal. So, as they get injured they have to repair each other with sheet metal, tape, and spray paint. By the end of the movie they look pretty busted up. It's worth a watch if you've never seen it.

After that we headed down to the NICU to ask some questions for another friend who wants to knit some hats and booties for premies. It turned out to become a pretty educational little trip. We saw that they had an infant CPR class we missed, but they hold them every two weeks. We can't take the next one because Joy will be a bit wrapped up with other things ;). If I remember right, I believe the lady we spoke with said we had to take the class to bring the little ones home. We also found that they have two overnight stay rooms for the parents. The rooms are used the day before the babies come home. The idea is that you get a dry run of caring for the little ones before you come home. This way if you have any questions or issues giving them their medicine and what-not you can just step out the door and ask for a hand. It seems like a bit of a pain, but I think it is a good idea.

Our evening ended a little early last night. Joy curled up in bed and started to doze off a little before 10. Poor thing, this is really getting old for her. I headed home once I noticed that, I too was a bit worn out from the long Wednesday night.