Mommy and Gracie

Jeni got to hold Gracie for the first time since her surgery last week (which seems like decades ago at this point). Being Dad I felt the need to switch to video mode on the camera to catch some of Gracie's funny faces. We also had the opportunity to have our first picture of me, Jeni and Gracie. We hope to do likewise with Hope this weekend.

Mommy & Gracie

Back to School

After the alarm went off this morning and my hitting the snooze button did not send me back to dreamland, I arose to face today: my return to work. I was mostly nervous about going back to my classroom with 24 wide-eyed fifth graders trying to understand why their teacher had a couple of babies three months before they were due. Luckily, the parents did a nice job explaining everything so the questions were more about how the babies are doing, what they're doing at the hospital, and when they're coming home. Pretty much the same questions that I answered all day for the adults as well! When I got to school today, I was hug-attacked by several fifth graders. What a warm welcome that certainly helped give me that warm fuzzy that I needed today! The day was just as hectic as I imagined with my morning filled with science fair projects, kids finding a place for their supplies (hmm... where should that frog go?), parents dropping kids off wanting to hear about the babies, an altered schedule, etc.

Just as I was feeling pretty good about being at school and confident that all was well with the girls, and right in the middle of a student's science fair presentation, I hear a child announce, "Mrs. Piper, your phone is vibrating!!!!!" When he went on to peer at my phone (which I do not normally leave on during the day for obvious reasons) sitting on my desk , as my "just in case" precaution, and said our doctor's name, my heart skipped a beat. The kids occupied themselves as I went to take the call, which, thank God, was just a quick update that the girls were doing well. Whew...

Apparently later in the day, Gracie decided that she was not a happy camper. Our little one had a nasty green "spit up" (which is the gentle way of describing what she did). Will immediately thought of The Exorcist when hearing of her episode. Luckily her head did not start spinning around and we had no need for an old priest and a new priest. Later, she decided that she liked her food a bit more, and ate with nothing green coming out of her belly, at least not through her mouth. Will had the privilege of handling that little gift from his daughter while I held Hope tonight. I certainly hope that the duties remain the same for when they come home!

3 Pound Hope!

It seems like so little... yet it is so much. Hope, who has been the larger of the two babies from the get go, weighed in at 3 pounds even today. I swear a good chunk of that has to be going to her face which is cheeky as ever. Even Nurse Shawnda commented about her cheeky disposition this evening. Perhaps in honor of now becoming a full "3 pounder" Hope rewarded her daddy with a full diaper when he did her cares. Jeni stood by watching (and perhaps chuckling a little) as daddy did his second "eventful change."

I held Hope for a half hour this evening, and nearly fell asleep rocking her. She had a few desats along the way, but overall continues to make progress each time she is held. One thing I've noticed about Hope is how she loves being in her comfort zone. Snuggle her up tight in her isolette with her blanket wrapped around her little arms and legs and she'll take deep breaths and be in room air or low oxygen. Mix up her routine a little and she'll get nervous and desaturate a bit. This is all normal according to the nurses. As we approach the one month mark in the NICU, and dealing with a lot of ups and downs so far, I have come to grips with the fact that these things just happen and are developmentally appropriate for preemies. I'm not too terribly worried.

Gracie Girl had an uneventful day. She laid on her back sleeping while we visited tonight. Hopefully tomorrow Jeni can hold her. She, too, has increased weight and feedings. She now clocks in at 2 pounds 10.5 ounces, and is starting to get cheeky (although not quite as much as her sister). She is now up to 7 ccs of milk and has small or trace residuals, so she's on the right track too. To think that her surgery was a week ago tomorrow, it is truly amazing how far Gracie has come in just 7 days.

Increasing Feedings and Diaper Drama

Hope and Grace had another good day today. For some reason, it seems like the girls are making huge digestive strides in a short amount of time. They both are up to 5 ccs of breast milk. Now, this sounds like barely a sip for you or I, but is 5 times larger than their 1 cc feeding last Friday. They had minimum to no residuals today and are likely to see their feedings increased once again. You go girls!

We arrived at the hospital this evening early enough to do both girls' cares. I changed Hope who had a rather uneventful diaper, dropping my poopy diaper batting average to 1/9 or .111. Jeni, on the other hand, chose to change Gracie. Gracie started off a little fussy for her cares, and it didn't take Mom and Dad long to figure out why. Gracie produced her first "two-diaper-wonder". While Dad found this extremely amusing, Mom didn't find it quite as funny. I am sure that my time will come soon enough.

Jeni had the pleasure of holding Hope this afternoon, and I got day 3 in a row with Gracie. She and her daddy are bonding and she got to wear her pink hat again today.

While we know that there will be more bumps in the road ahead of us, we both rejoice in the fact that the girls are on a hot streak right now (now if only the Brewers can turn things around :) ). We are so incredibly blessed to have so many people praying for us and supporting us and our daughters. Thank you all for reading and following our story and thank you all for your support.

Wide Eyes and Pink Hats...

Today brought with it more holding time. Jeni spent a half hour with Hope resting her snorkel-covered head in Jeni's arms. Here she is with her beautiful eyes looking up at her mommy, being cute and cheeky as ever.

Daddy got some time with Gracie Girl again today. This time I held her for close to an hour. She seemed to enjoy the stylish pink hat that Nurse Mary put on her. It matched her dad's pink polo.

Both girls continue to amaze Jeni and I. Both have increased their feeds, lowered their vent settings, and had a great Sunday. We pray for more holding time and an uneventful week for our two little champs. Days like today really make prayers of thanksgiving so powerful and meaningful.

Holding Time

While our daughters continue to have their share of ups and downs (as Nurse Karen put it last evening, we're still in the "hour-by-hour" stage), we were blessed to be able to hold the girls this weekend again. Jeni got to hold and kangaroo with Hope for the first time. Hope loved being with her mommy and tried several times to literally climb up Jeni. She even managed to raise her head. It is amazing how strong she is given her size. I see that she takes after her mom in this department already.

After 3 long weeks and 1 day, Daddy finally got to hold his Gracie Girl, and this certainly capped off the week as the highlight. Gracie enjoyed resting her little head on her daddy's elbow and even ate her 2 ccs of breast milk while in Daddy's arms. I am amazed at Gracie's independent spirit and determination. She had PDA surgery on Wednesday, was off of her breathing tube and on feeds by Friday, and doubled her feeds and was held by her dad on Saturday. Gracie's biggest challenge thus far has been that her independent spirit gets the best of her and can cause trouble at times, as she tries to do too much too fast. For instance, she hates the nasal prongs and pulled them off while being held (I was told this occurred regularly with her throughout the day, and she ended up giving herself a bloody nose in the process). I keep having people tell me, "wait until she's a teenager." Frankly, I can't wait!

Pooped!

As Hope and Gracie enter their third week of post-womb life tomorrow, all I can think of is how pooped Jeni and I are. I know I've said it before, but the NICU is a giant roller coaster ride, prone to take unexpected twists and turns at any given minute.

Grace seems to be recovering from surgery well, although it's still too early to give her the "all clear" on the operation. We are very thankful that all signs are pointing in a positive direction with our "Gracie Girl," however. She visibly looked better today than we've seen her look in a few days. While sill sedated on the pain medication given to her after her operation, she was able to give my pointer finger a vice-like grip for about 10 minutes straight when we were visiting with her today. I love how tight she likes to hold on to my fingers and how she does not like to let go.

Hope, on the other hand, had an unusual day. While still on her feeds (1 cc of breast milk every 6 hours), she had 8 apneas/bradycardias from 7:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. YIKES! To fill our gentle readers in on these two new NICU vocab terms, apneas are basically when the baby forgets to breathe, and bradycardias are when the baby's heart rate drops. While these are listed in the chapter titled, "Typical Problems of Preterm Babies and Other Sick Newborns" in the Newborn Intensive Care: What Every Parent Needs To Know (2nd edition) book that our doctor gave us, the idea of our daughter forgetting to breathe makes Mom and Dad, in particular, a little on edge.

The funny thing is, however, that every day seems to pose these sorts of battles for Hope and Gracie as well as the countless joys of having them here. While we could sit and dwell on the apneas/bradycardias, we could just as easily dwell on the fact that Hope is starting, slowly but surely, to gain some weight and her cheeks are starting to puff up like a squirrel storing nuts for the forthcoming winter. It's too adorable for words (see picture below). For the time being, I've nicknamed her my "cheeky monkey." I just hope that this little monkey can remember to take deep breaths.



Here I'm washing out my "cheeky monkey's" mouth. I was told by the nurse that it tastes minty. Hope likes it a lot :) The "snorkel mask" is her CPAP device to help her breathe.