Monday, May 25, 2009

Hooray! Two weeks old!

Geez! Let me sleep people! (Madison)

We celebrate the small successes right now and two weeks is a big deal for us and the girls! The girls are growing and it might not seem like it to everyone else but to us they change and get better and bigger everyday. This week has been all about trying out feeding. They have started eating and then stopped and started and stopped so many times that we can't keep track of it anymore. And according to the doctors and nurses that's what it's going to be like until almost the end. Their stomachs are very sensitive and are needing to learn to digest earlier than they would like to. And they hardly eat anything. They start them on 1 ml (or cc) every 8 hours (there are 30 ml in 1 ounce to give you an idea) and if they take it well they move to 1 ml every 6 hours, then every 4 hours, then every 3 hours. And then slowly (over weeks) they increase their dosage. So the eating process will take forever and they tell us that it's going to require a lot of patience on our part.

Some individual things about each girl:

Mckenna- At this point her brain bleeding has stabilized meaning that the liquids in her brain are not swelling and causing pressure on the brain. We just continue to hope that it stays like this. Within a week or so, her chances of problems will go down dramatically and then we don't have to worry about it as much. We hope that it hasn't caused any long term effects but we'll just wait and see years down the road. She is also not eating right now because they are worried that she might have a fissure between her bladder and bowels. They are doing a test this week to make sure; if she does they will perform a regular procedure to fix it and if not, she starts eating again. She has the most fickle digestive system so far.

But some fun stuff on Mckenna. She loves loves loves to feel things with her hands. She's all about touching new fabric. It's quite cute and the nurses say that she likes to put her hands on her chest because it helps her stay calm and know where she is. So funny, I'm thinking she will be just like mom and want to touch all the fabrics and clothes in stores when shopping!

Madison- Madison has had very little in terms of complications. Sometimes she gets wet lungs and she is still having problems with her billirubin (spelling?) so has to have the light therapy on her still, but besides that she is steady as a rock with her breathing and such. She is up to eating every 4 hours (but that could change at any point) so hopefully she stays there or eats more. And her eyes are finally opening! They were sealed still when she was born and one of the pictures below is of her looking around. They look so different with their eyes open.

We've just learned in the last couple days that Madison is very expressive with her face. When she isn't happy you can see it all over her face. She scrunches it up when she doesn't like what's going on. Maybe she will be our drama queen.

Carly- Carly is still the bigger baby of the three. She just has accumulated her baby fat a little bit easier than the other two. I predict she will be the first one to come home because she is the first to eat, first to breathe on her own, etc. She is also eating every 4 hours and hopefully keeps on going. Her right arm that was really bruised when she was born is still red and bruised but they did tests on it and there's nothing wrong, it just might take some time to heal. The arm is quite a bit bigger than her left so we call her Popeye. Hopefully it doesn't stay like that.

Something new about Carly is that she loves to lay on her belly. She puts up fights and even stops breathing until she can go on her belly. Silly girl!

One last thing: They are all receiving steroid shots in the next five days that should help mature and expand their lungs so that they can take them off their ventilators in the next five days and put them on what they call a CPAP which is just oxygen in the nose when they need it and they are completely breathing on their own. Hopefully it works and they can start making their lungs strong. We'll update next week.

Pictures below are of the girls at 2 weeks old. Notice that they have their dad's wedding ring on their fingers to show just how small they are.

I'm opening my eyes now! (Madison)
Mckenna- 2 weeks

Madison- 2 weeks

Carly- 2 weeks

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations and we hope all will continue to go well for you. Maybe they are just being fickle women. Cheryl and I are happy for you and our prayers are for you family.

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  2. I can't believe how big that ring looks! Crazy! Love you little girls!

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  3. Sunny P. -- Reid Allred here. I just saw your email for the first time and checked out the blog. Congrats. You'll be in my prayers. I'm so excited for you and hope that you'll get to take home three healthy little ones as soon as possible.
    Lots of love from Colorado.
    Reid

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  4. Wow! I can't believe how tiny they are. It's fun to hear how their personalities come out! I hope things continue to go well, you are in our prayers.

    Alisa

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  5. Thank you so much for sending me the email. The babies are so sweet and cute. I'll keep them in my prayers.
    Rosemary I know where you will be spending a lot of time.
    We love you and pray for all of you.
    Love Peggy Collotzi
    Chad 1st child's name is Madison, then McKell, and their son Caden.
    I'll send your email to Chad.

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