One Month

One month ago (last Saturday) Ella and Sadie made their grand debut.   They have definitely won our hearts and as stressful as it is to spend a majority of my time in the NICU, walking into the girls' room every morning is my favorite moment of every day.

Sadie Marie

Ella Claire

Oxygen. We have had a pretty busy week - so I apologize fora  delay in this new post!  Last we spoke, Ella and Sadie were both on oxygen.  As of Monday for Ella and this morning for Sadie, both girls are off oxygen! So far, both are doing very well.  We continue to work on bottle feeding and nursing - but are careful to take it slow so as not to overwhelm them with changes (which may cause them to go backwards with their breathing progress.  So that is very exciting!

Blood Sugar.  I've written a few times about Sadie's struggles with maintaining her blood sugar - well despite a few set backs, she is finally making great progress!  Sadie has maintained over the last couple of days as the doctors continue to try to discontinue her PICC line.  I think that they may attempt to discontinue the medicine and just run saline tomorrow.  [For any medical personnel that may be reading this... I am trying my best to recount exactly what I am being told, but please forgive me if my explanations don't make sense.  There is a reason I didn't go to medical school.  For the rest of you, you may continue to blindly trust my explanations.]

There was an extended period of time where I was convinced that Sadie had Addison's disease, would need part of her pancreas removed, or had a growth hormone deficiency.  These diagnoses were based on my extensive online research.  It is possible that the neonatologist laughed at me when I mentioned Addison's disease... because it is rare. Very rare. I suppose I should trust the doctors over the great minds bringing us Wikipedia.

Head Circumference.  To this point, I have not written anything about Sadie's head circumference measurements.  Probably because, once again, I took to the internet and was convinced of the worst possible situation... Now that I know things are probably fine, I am ready to explain.  Generally, the girls had been receiving weekly measurements - including measuring their head circumferences.  Sadie's measurements remained steady until a few weeks ago when the measurements showed that her head circumference increased by 2.5 centimeters in one week.  This is a lot of sudden growth (.5 - 1.0 centimeters/week would be normal for their age).  Well after allowing Google to convince me she had hydrocephalus and would need a shunt and a life full of shunt-related issues, her head ultrasound revealed that, alas, there was no hydrocephalus.

I understand that I should retire "Google", but it seems to be an addiction I just can't let go of!