April 19

The girls are 2 weeks old today! They are also 30 weeks corrected, which is a huge milestone for preemies. They both had head ultrasounds yesterday to recheck for brain bleeds which are common in 28 weekers and both were clear, no bleeds!

Wednesday just kept getting worse :( Poor little Mary had to be put back on the ventilator because of the increased difficulty she was having with her breathing. They did also screen for infection as that can cause the respiratory symptoms she was having, and thankfully everything came back negative. They are thinking that she just needed a little bit of a break from the hard hard work of breathing at her age. Almost right away after they put her back on the vent she was more relaxed and her color was much better. She also got a blood transfusion which will help her oxygenation status as well. They had to put an IV in her scalp which is so sad to see, but it doesn't seem to bother her much!

I was worried that Vivian would decide to do the same thing since they like to matching a lot of the time, but she was a rockstar yesterday and continues to be today.

Thursday morning they were both doing well. Mary had been able to have her oxygen weaned down and cut almost in half from the amount she was on before they put her back on the ventilator and that is a very good thing and the goal of putting her back on the ventilator.

She seems back to her old self today and is kicking and moving like she usually does. Wednesday she was very lethargic and I could tell she just wasn't herself. She has had the pressure and amount of breaths the vent gives her decreased this morning and will possibly have the vent removed and be put back on cpap today/tonight. She also had her PICC line removed which is a huge step! She is completely off TPN and lipids, and will now receive all medications through her feeding tube.

Vivian continues to do great, and they are working on weaning her oxygen down on the CPAP.

They do seem to be very connected, and most of the time if I or the nurse are paying attention to or working with one of them the other ones monitor will go off. Its almost like they sense that their sister is getting attention and they want some too! It makes complete sense because they were so so close in the womb, closer even than other identical twins and were always kicking and touching each other because they shared the same sac. I can't wait for the day when I can hold them at the same time! I think that will happen very soon...maybe even early next week.

We are doing pretty well, it has been difficult to manage splitting time between work (for Kyle) and spending time with the twins and with Norah. Thankfully we have great family and friends who help us out a lot. Kyles parents came up Wednesday when the girls had their bad day and are staying until next Friday to watch Norah. It is so nice and generous of them, and we are very thankful!

Looking back it is amazing how many changes we have gone through in the past 10 weeks. We found out we were having twins at 20 weeks and that they were mono-mono and very high risk. Six weeks after that I was in the hospital for monitoring, 2 weeks after that they were born via emergency c-section, and now 2 weeks later they are 2 weeks old in the NICU. Needless to say its been a lot to process! It just makes me realize that these two little girls truly are miracles, and are definitely meant to be here. I will write up their birth story soon and post it here.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support :)

Here is a picture of Viv all cuddled in for kangaroo care. She had her head resting on both arms it was too cute! (Yes that's a tiny arm on the right, not a nipple.) Mary hasn't been up for pictures the past couple days but I will post some of her next time ;)