Two (er.. almost Three) Weeks!

So I continue to work on completing this post... but every time I sit down to finish, we have updated information. But here we go again!

These future Supreme Court Justices/professional tennis players/neonatologists/attorneys/track stars made their debut a whole two weeks (and 5 days) ago now... I originally started this post last Thursday... oops!  Although progress seems to be extremely slow... they have made such big strides since then or even since the "One Week" post!  

Ella is now weighing in at 4 pounds, 2 ounces.  She is now big enough to wear preemie clothes and the idea of finally being able to put some cute clothing on one of my babies is pretty exciting for me (I am planning a "Fashion" post in the coming days/weeks).   Another benefit to her growing size: we moved her from the isolette incubator and into an open "crib" today!!!  Lights.  She is no longer under photo therapy lights as of last Wednesday!  Oxygen.  Unfortunately, after a long weekend and a longer Monday morning (last Monday), Ella went back on oxygen.  Her oxygen levels continued to drop - we (and by "we", I mean this is what nurses are telling me) believe she just became too tired after 6 days of breathing on her own.  For preemies, it is very hard work to breathe on their own.  Hopefully, putting her back on oxygen will give her enough of a rest to continue developing those lungs and we will be able to remove the oxygen once again.  In fact, there is now talk about trying to take her off oxygen again!  Food.  Ella is now eating 33 mL every 3 hours and has started nursing.  For babies Ella's size nursing requires the same amount of energy required to run a mile so we take it slowly and continue to feed her through her NG tube. They also fortify her food to add calories - they are too little to eat enough food to receive the number of calories they need.  IV/PICC.  Both girls started with an IV and eventually received a PICC line to receive the necessary nutrients and fluids before they could start digesting milk.  Ella had hers removed last week!  This means that she has been tolerating her food well and is getting the nutrients she needs from milk alone - this is a big deal.  Unfortunately, our nurse the evening we removed the PICC line was my good friend Sara... who had to remove very good tape from my premature daughters very sensitive skin.  It was the first time I had heard Ella really cry...which of course made me almost cry.  Although Ella's pain was in no way Sara's fault or as a result of her method... I would be lying if I said there wasn't a small part of me that wanted to punch her (Sara: just a very small part of me - and I suspect that you know me well enough to know that is how I was feeling that night). 

Sadie is now weighing in at 3 pounds, 5 ounces!!! How exciting to cross the 3 pound barrier!  While she is not big enough to wear preemie clothes quite yet, she continues to rock the swaddle.  She looks real good doing it.  We have clothing just waiting for her though... Lights.  Sadie is also rid of the lights for now.  Like her big sister, her numbers also continue to creep up.  As of right now, we are holding out to see if they will balance out on their own.  Keep your fingers crossed that she won't have to go back under!!  Food.  Sadie is now eating 28 mL every 3 hours.  Her food is also being fortified - but with an even higher calorie supplement.  Blood Sugar.  Before every feeding, the girls' blood sugar is tested.  This has not been an issue for either of them until very recently.  Sadie's blood sugar has always been lower than Ella's - but still within normal ranges.  Recently, however, her blood sugar has been dropping much lower.   Unfortunately I Googled "low blood sugar in premature babies".  Bad idea.  Hopefully I'll have good news about how the issue has self-corrected over the next week!  Sadie still has her PICC line and will likely keep it until we can figure out what is going on with her blood sugar. 

A funny, less-informative post to come soon...