April 27

Well, its the weekend again. I have to say that I prefer the weekdays up here because we usually get the same nurses, and thing tend to go much better when they know the girls and how they like things. I never realized the difference a familiar nurse makes before this whole experience. It can honestly make or break your day. In some ways I am thankful for this experience because I think/hope it will make me a better nurse.

Anyways, Mary was able to be weaned down in her CPAP settings yesterday. She is on a lot less oxygen too (27-30%) which is great. She seemed to be doing very well yesterday with those changes. They did decrease the rate to 15 today, but she seemed to be having more bradys and apneas, so they turned it back up to 20. It is still down from the 30 she was on, so its fine! She is just taking her sweet time with all this;) She likes things her way haha. They are thinking the increased bradys and apneas may be from the feeding tube in her nose. Both girls' were switched from their mouths to their noses a few days ago, and that might be making a difference in their apneas and bradys. Alise, one of our primary nurses mentioned yesterday that the tubes may need to be switched back to their noses as well, so I think its probably the best decision to change them.

They took Mary's out about 15 minutes ago and so far she is doing really well with it. I can't tell you how stressful it gets sitting here and waiting for their monitors to go off. I want them to be ok so badly, and its hard just sitting here and essentially waiting for something to go wrong. I really hope this will do the trick, and they won't have to do any other tests to figure out why she has had so many more bradys and apneas. Again, these are normal for their age, but they don't like to see an increase in them.

Vivian is doing great and is on 27% oxygen through her CPAP. She does occasionally have an irregularity in her heart rate, which is fairly common for some preemies and even full term babies, and they usually go away on their own. They did do a 12 lead EKG on her yesterday and the pediatric cardiologist is in the process of reading the results. No one seems too worried so hopefully it will be nothing!

I left the hospital yesterday around 330 instead of my usual later time so that Kyle Norah and I could spend some time together. The difficult thing about that though is I end up feeling guilty that I'm not here, and I miss the girls. One of their primary nurses, Julie, was working last evening though so that gave me peace of mind that I could leave because I know she takes great care of them. I called a couple of times and they were doing fine. So last night we walked up to Snookies and go some ice cream for the first time this season! Norah ate her kids cone and then stole my cone from me haha. She loves ice cream! We spent this morning outside playing and riding bikes and I came to the hospital around 1 PM. Sometimes you just need a break from the beeping and the constant staring at the monitors waiting for them to alarm.

Its been very hard for me to split my time, and I often feel guilty for not being at the hospital 24/7. However, its just not realistic, and I would end up burnt out and not a good mom to any of the 3 girls. If they had been born at the planned 32 weeks and hopefully only had to spend 2-3 weeks here, I would probably have been her 24/7. But with them being so tiny and needing peace and quiet and low stimulation there really isn't a lot that I can do for them. I have been able to do more lately, like bathe them and hold them for longer periods, but what they really need is to sleep for optimal brain development.  They did turn 31 weeks yesterday, so in a couple weeks when I can start nursing them I will most likely be here as much as I possibly can.

Mary weighs 2 lbs 10 oz and Vivian weights 2 lbs 14 oz. Almost 3 pounds! That seems so huge to me haha.

So overall we are doing good, just waiting for them to get big so they can come home and play with Norah ;)

The first couple pictures are of Vivian from yesterday. Can't believe how big she looks! And the other couple pictures are of Norah and Kyle planting some lettuce this morning!