Week 6

I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since my babies were born! It seems like just yesterday. But the monotony of our lives doesn't help I'm sure. We've gotten into quite the rhythm. At least I know the twins will be on a great schedule when they get home! Although I think they're going to want a lot of cuddle time and I don't know if I'll be able to give one of them the full 1-2 hours I give them now of undivided attention when I don't have the nurses helping out with the other one.

Here's the update up until last Thursday. Sorry I'm so late. Anyway, this week...not a lot has changed, except with Jackson's breathing.


Jackson started the week on CPAP and ended the week on NOTHING! No CPAP, no oxygen, NOTHING. I'm so proud :) The doctor decided to start him on steroids last weekend. They help with the inflammation in his lungs from the respiratory distress he had the last time he was weened off of the CPAP. When the inflammation went down from the steroids, the diuretic he's been on for about 2 weeks kicked out all the extra fluid and he started breathing great! The bad part of steroids is that he dropped almost 3oz. He dropped down to about 3lb 5oz at the end of the week. He'll hopefully gain it back quickly. He also gets incredibly hungry and gets very fussy, which probably has accounted for some of the weight loss. Baby boy wants food and wants it every hour or so. Since he only gets food every 3 hours, he spends a good chunk of the in between time crying and fussing for more food. Poor guy. He's done with the steroids on Sunday, then hopefully he won't be as hungry and fussy and he'll still be breathing well. We shall see!

 

Baby boy with only his feeding tube!

Amelia, pretty little stubborn Amelia. All the nurses come over and tell her how pretty she is. It's going to her head haha. She seems so sweet as long as she's happy and you're not making her do something she doesn't want to do. I've never made her do anything until now. Now that I'm trying to nurse her, her true personality comes out. And behind that sweet little girl is a very smart, conniving, stubborn little girl. She knows how to nurse. 100% knows how. She's even been so crazy as to do it sometimes for 15-20 minutes. She gets 1/3-1/2 of her feeding when she does that. She does great. And then, when she realizes what is going on, she stops, and for the rest of the day WILL NOT even consider the idea of nursing. She will just clamp her mouth shut, close her eyes, and put this little grin on her face as if to say "ha ha ha you can't make me!" She forgets that I'm bigger and stronger than her though, and I will win this little battle. It's just going to take some tricks on my part. She has her tricks...the crying and whining and faking asleep. So now I just need to step up my game and figure a way around all of her tricks to just make her nurse. She has to eat somehow. Apparently taking away the feeding tube to force her to eat isn't very nice haha so I just need to be more creative ;) But she's doing great :) She's 3lbs 10oz at the end of the week and getting bigger every day!

Don't be fooled by her sweet face.

Next week we'll keep on nursing, the twins have their first field trip to the eye doctor and we'll see where things go. Hopefully by the end of next week we'll have a better idea of when they'll be discharged. At this point, they just need to eat better! Here's hoping!