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.