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!