Monday, June 22, 2009

Look how big we are-- 6 weeks!

So there have been good and not good things happening this week. I guess that happens every week. The bad is not horrible, just frustrating. Oh, one thing I need to say before I forget. Someone helped me remember that I haven't told everyone that the girls are all in the same room and have been for about three weeks. It's lovely that way (there are only three spaces in our room) so that we don't have to share with other babies. If the girls all go to the same crib though, then we might get a roommate. So, let's start with Mckenna:

Mckenna- Mckenna was having a stellar week. She had increased feeds all week and was almost to the full amount of feed (the other two have been on full feeds for a few weeks now). She only had like one or two days left on her antibiotic for the urinary tract infection she had and then they were going to take out her PICC line (IV that runs up her arm). Then she had a bloody stool and so they ran some tests and she has Cdiff. In a nutshell, it's an infection of the gut usually caused by taking antibiotics because not only the bad bacteria is being killed but also the good. So they had to stop her food (she's getting nutrition through an IV) for a few days and let her belly rest before they start her back up again. She's on a new antibiotic for the Cdiff now and has to keep her PICC line in until she's through the amount needed. So, she will be over the sickness soon. The only annoying thing is that it's very contagious so the girls room is now in isolation which mainly means that nothing can leave the room and everyone has to really wash their hands when they come in, and we have to be gowned (and the nurses gloved and gowned) to work with Mckenna. It's the hospital policy. So I could handle that for a week or so but.... once a room goes into isolation, it's in isolation for the girls remainder of the stay. So, even when Mckenna gets better they still have to be very sanitary (more than normal) around her. The main reason I'm so annoyed about it is because she will probably not be able to co-bed in a crib with her sisters during her stay in the hospital. But I might keep on pushing and maybe I can get them to break down and let her be with her sisters at some point. I just think that she of all of them needs her sisters the most. Anyway, Kyle tells me to calm down and not worry. But I must be stubborn (as we've learned this week that Carly is) and I just want the best for my girls. She is still having her brain drained everyday and the liquid is always getting lighter and lighter in color and we're still waiting to see how it goes for future diagnosis. But besides all that, Mckenna is an amazing little girl. The nurses are always amazed at how relaxed she is when she has her brain drained. She is always happy, even with having the most problems. I know she is a tough little girl and maybe that's why she can handle all the hard stuff. They even said that when most babies get Cdiff they are quite cranky and she is all smiles and happy as a clam. She's going to be a great baby to take care of. Anyway, we love little Kenner Bug! She reached 3 pounds this week but dropped back to around 2 lbs. 14 oz. after the Cdiff so hopefully she catches back up with her sisters. Here's some pictures where it's no surprise that she is smiling and happy.

Mckenna 6 weeks old!

She opens her eyes really wide- she loves to really look around when she's awake.

Mckenna once again, smiling! I think she's sharing jokes with the angels.

Madison- Madison (and Carly) had some exciting things happen this week! Madison was so close to 1500 grams (at 1500 grams they let the babies be dressed and start to wean off incubator warmth and air) that they let us dress her! And they let you bring in clothes from home for them to wear. Pajamas are pretty much the only thing allowed because they need something on with snaps up the front so they can have all the monitor tubes coming out to the machines they are hooked up to without more work for the nurses. I thought that those dress sacks might work but we learned the hard way last not on Carly that it's only P.J.s from here on through the NICU. So we dressed Madison and she looked adorable. Here she is below in her first outfits.

Madison 6 weeks old!

Are you my mother?

So cute!

Full picture of the whole outfit- thanks Uncle Justin and Aunt Nicole!

She loves to look at people's faces- I think she will be quite social.
I'm glad we got some good pictures of Madison because she is so difficult to get a good picture of. It's like she knows when to make a bad face for the camera. She will be the one crying in all family pictures I'm sure. And she hates to be out of her swaddle. She gets cranky and then I can't get a good picture of her in her clothes! But some of the best pictures I have of her are close up and swaddled. I call her my little cherub because I think she looks like those cherubs (like Cupid is a cherub.... I think). She has a smaller head and face than her sisters. Yesterday she weighed 3 lbs. 1 oz.
Carly- Carly is still the leader in weight. Yesterday she was around 3 lbs. 8 oz. As you can see from the pictures below, Carly was also able to be dressed this week (she was dressed first and Madison a couple days later). Oh! And another great thing about them being dressed means that we don't have to do skin to skin and can swaddle them and hold them! (We still do skin to skin every other day because the girls love it so much) So its the first time they get to look at our faces because they can't quite see us really well through the incubators. It also means that other family members can hold her too. So their Grandma Morrell was in town this week and was able to hold Carly for the first time. I think Grandma was in heaven! (Just to throw in- when Madison was first swaddled and held she didn't have her eyes open when I pulled her out and so when she woke up and opened her eyes in my arms she made the funniest face. She kind of startled like she was so surprised! She made this funny "Oh my goodness, what a treat" face. Then she smiled and just stared for an hour. So funny.) When Kyle and I first held Carly she was all about concentrating on your face. When she concentrates she furrows her eyebrows and kind of looks mad but I think she is just thinking. She must be a deep thinker. Also, Carly and Madison are "hot babies" as the nurses say because they have had no problem weaning off the air in the incubators. One nurse said that Carly is so low on air in her incubator that she's almost moving on air conditioning in there. So hopefully they will both be moved to an open air crib (co-bedded) in the next week. They are all still in the "not breathing" and then being encouraged by nurses and us phases as talked about last week and their monitors are still dinging all over the place. It makes the nurses nuts, and me too sometimes. They will probably beep like this for the next few weeks and then hopefully die down and then we can start trying to move them off the oxygen. One last thing about Carly, we were able to give her a bath last night (as in a real bath in water, not the sponge bath) and she loved it! She was so happy, she was breathing really really well because they have to take her off monitors when they do that. And after the bath we put her back in her incubator and dressed her and she just zonked right out. She was really relaxed and was sleeping very deeply. I love baths... Anyway, here's some pictures below of the girls. Hopefully by next week we will have some pictures of Madison and Carly sleeping together!

Carly's first dressing- 6 weeks old! Look at her yawn, she's bored with the whole thing.

There's the concentrated, furrowed eyebrows look.

Bath time! Look at her death grip on her feeding tube.

Grandma Morrell holding Carly for the first time!

Another cute outfit from Uncle Justin and Aunt Nicole. And she's almost smiling in this one.

3 comments:

  1. They look so good! Really, they don't look so itsy bitsy, although I know they still are! They look so cute in their outfits!

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  2. Hello there! So fun to see Carly in the tub with a chubby tummy! HOORAY!! :) THEY ALL LOOK GREAT, so beautiful! What a gorgeous family!! The pictures of the girls concentrating on your faces just MELT me!! HOW SWEET! There is NOTHING like parenthood, is there? XOXXOOXXOO I never get to talk to you guys at chuch...YOU LOOK AWESOME SUNNY!!!

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  3. Congratulations on your sweet sweet babies. Best of luck with all of your adventures!

    Cally (hyde) graham

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