So...BOTH babies were put on nasal cannula today! Sarah's doing well (was as low as 27% oxygen today) and Jonathan is doing beautifully (as low as 23% - and room air is 21%!). So nice to see their hair and noses! Sarah had spent time on the cannula and also vent so I'd seen hers, but Jonathan's I'd seen for maybe 2 minutes since he was born. They still desat and brady from time to time but no worse than on CPAP and maybe a little bit better.

Today Miss Sarah was lying in her tummy and turned her head to the other side by herself. AND while on her back turned her head to track my voice. Jonathan's just discovered his hands, which Sarah did a few days ago...I cannot believe my amazing wonder babies!

Both babies had peeps go down today!!

Sarah's peep is down to 3 and Jonathan's to 2. And oxygen requirements for both staying around 28-29%. I am so grateful - high flow cannula is hopefully around the corner. They will be happy to lose those masks/prongs. They still desat and brady from time to time but are doing better at maintaining saturation overall. They seem so happy now that they are properly swaddled. Feeds are up to 7.5 and 8 cc/hr respectively. Yes, it really does take weeks to get to 1.5 tsp/formula on a continuous basis per hour!

My day was a massive, endless brain fart, forgetting things...ohhh....4 times through the day, from snappies to my purse and from breast pump kit to cell phone. I went back to the hospital to get my phone and went in to peek in on Jonathan (could not see Sarah as I'd not bathed/changed since I'd last been there and had MRSA cooties) and he was lying there quietly wide awake. I could not resist the offer to hold him but forgot to ask for his pacie so ended up trying my finger. He knew it wasn't what he was used to and it could not have tasted great (since I had gloves on) but he settled down and went to sleep. It was heaven holding him with no sense of needing to get on to the next thing like when I am there during the day. I do wish I could have seen my Little Miss Spider but will spend more time with her tomorrow. She pooped her first outfit today! lol the things we celebrate in the NICU.

Time for one last pumping then bed...

We are back on breast milk again!!

We got a fridge this afternoon...hurray!! I wish I had known - would have brought some milk from home to be sure they'd have enough to last with what I pumped at the hospital. So they'll have a couple more formula feeds before I get there tomorrow then we should be on 100% breast milk from there on out. I am a happy mama.

Jonathan's able to maintain temperature now so in clothes too! He seemed to really love it...had a great day today - relatively stable. I rocked him today instead of kangaroo, which was a nice change. I think though that his paci wears him out because he sucks pretty hard on it when I hold him, and he desats at about the 30 minute mark after doing great till then. It's been a consistent pattern for several days. So paci time will have to be maybe 15-20 minutes only. His peep kept dropping to two and he did well regardless, with oxygen averaging maybe 29%. I got some great pics of him tonight showing his many moods.

Sarah had a good day too...her peep also would not stay up and she still did well with similar oxygen as her brother. Her feeds are up to 7 cc/hr now. And she's in REAL preemie diapers...the little ones (Pampers P-XS) claim to fit up to 4 lbs but she is so short for her weight that at 3 lbs 6 oz, she is just about out of them. She's starting to get vocal enough that she can be heard with her isolette shut. I do hate for her to cry but am glad she can cry more loudly now. On the ventilator, she could not make a sound.

They've come so far...will post pics from when they were tiny - he was 2 days and she was 5 days. Hard to believe it's only been 6 weeks since they were born when they've changed so much.

The big news today...Jonathan's peep (CPAP pressure) is down to 3!! We'll be on nasal cannula yet. Sarah's still at 4 but having a hard time maintaining peep - it went as low as 1 earlier and she still maintained oxygen saturation above 90%. Sarah did not do well out of her isolette today but we did have a lovely visit at her 4:00 hands on - she was very alert and smiling. Jonathan and I hung out in faux kangaroo for an hour...he spent almost the whole time sucking his paci but I think must start breathing shallowly after 20 minutes or so - will have to remember to give him a break before he desats. He's such a sweet boy...I wish I could give him kisses.

Other good news - we get our fridge Monday. Thank you thank you thank you God. My babies can start on breast milk again!

Good day today with the wee ones

Sarah is 1450 grams and her nurse said she could wear clothes!! I'd brought some in, knowing we were close to getting to wear them, but had not imagined it would be today. My princess is so cute! She found her hand today and stared and stared at it then put it to her face and slid it toward her mouth, trying to figure out how to get her fingers in her mouth. Not too shabby for a 31.5 week preemie. She had a great day other than one brady while I was there - did a great job maintaining her oxygen saturation even though her peep kept slipping.

Jonathan's hematocrit was very low so he got 20 cc of blood today over the course of 3 hours, I realize it doesn't sound like so much, but they used to only get 8-10 cc at a time. My boy is growing! He started losing saturation as we faux kangarooed and was threatened with a return to his isolette. I decided to rub his back...and he loved it! He was able to maintain high saturation beautifully and when I stopped a couple of times and he fussed, as soon as I started again, he settled. Between that, kangarooing, and a loud paci sucking session, he was one content baby. Pic is of him getting his bath Saturday - did not get a good one today.

Yes, watch me blog!

Today my wee ones are 5 weeks and 3 days old. I promise to eventually go back and fill in all the blanks in their lives so far, and how I came to deliver at barely 26 weeks.

The big milestone today - Sarah lost her picc line! She's getting all her feeds continuously via transpyloric feeding tube, and also went up to 24 calorie formula. When she reaches 1500 grams in a few days, she will get to start wearing all her preemie clothes, so am excited about that too. During her 12 pm hands-on care, she smiled and smiled at me nd was alert for a good 10 minutes. It is absolutely heart-melting. Who would think a baby still 9 weeks premature would smile socially? Her nurse Gladys saw it and did agree they were real smiles. Still cannot manage to get a picture of her smiling, mostly because it's too hard to drag myself away long enough to get the camera. Her other accomplishment was to somehow maneuver herself over the side of her nest - she was sleeping between it and the isolette wall at her 4 pm hands-on! And she is showing her temper again - she is one feisty little girl! She doesn't get sad - she gets MAD. We had a lovely time rocking today...she kept her oxygen saturation the whole time.

Jonathan had another up and down, bradying (bradycardia, where the heartrate free falls from the mid 100s to as low as the 60s) kinda day. He has a hard time finding his happy place, and his blood oxygen goes from too high to too low in as little as a minute. I am worried his PDA has opened up further...requested a visit from the cardiologist tomorrow, so hopefully they'll get an echo scheduled soon to assess. He also apparently did some isolette exploring today - his nurse told me she found him with his head against the front of the isolette! He had almost no alert time during our time together, but we did get to spend over an hour doing our faux kangaroo care (since my poor boy contracted MRSA, we can have no skin to skin contact, so real kangarooing is out of the question, sadly). His weight is still way behind Sarah's - he will likely start 27 calorie formula tomorrow to give him a boost.

Operation Pump and Dump is drawing to a close...one more day! Then Tuesday and Wednesday I can freeze my milk, and Thursday the babies can start getting it fresh. Yay!!! Fresh even if refrigerated has significantly more antioxidants than frozen, so this makes me happy. They've got to be off CPAP before they can begin bottle feeding, and hopefully they will allow Sarah to at least begin non-nutritive sucking at the breast then so she can start getting an idea of what they are for. Jonathan though...I will almost assuredly not get to breastfeed till he comes home. :( I hate that we must be punished for something that was out of our control.

Uh...yeah. I had great plans to blog here

Suffice it to say, I had my babies 14 weeks early on 7/16. Sarah and Jonathan are beautiful babies and I truly do feel like God blessed the broken road. Maybe I'll actually start blogging here again so I can remember the details of each day.