Forward and Back

There is still snow everywhere in DC, but with my parents' all-wheel drive, we are rolling right over it.  It's nice to have reminders of the beauty and the fun of a big snowstorm, rather than just seeing it as a barrier to getting around.  This snowman is greeting people at the hospital entrance.

We took a little time this morning for a hot breakfast and when we got to the NICU, the docs were hanging out by Lucas and Olivia's incubators, getting ready to review their stats.  They had actually skipped them early on and come back around, to try and give us time to show up.  We're pretty lucky to have our babies taken care of by such talented and thoughtful people. 

Today was a good example of the type of progress the doctors have told us to expect - steps forward and back, or maybe forward and sideways. Lucas is being a rockstar.  He continues to do well on the lower cpap pressure level and gained another 70 grams - he now weighs 2 1/2 pounds, which is 4 ounces over his birth weight.  The docs increased his feeds again, so he's now getting 9 mL of breastmilk every 3 hours.  Mom is happy that all her pumping is starting to be used :)  Catherine (our awesome nurse yesterday & today) said it's possible he'll be completely on breast milk within a week or two.  Olivia is still on trophic feeds -- one mL every 6 hours to keep her gut from atrophying -- while they wait to see if her duct will close.  Her blood pressure numbers look much better than they did at the start of her ibuprofen courses, but it still looks like the valve is at least partially open.  We'll know for sure tomorrow after her echo-cardiogram.  Mom, Dad and the docs are all pulling for her, as resolving this problem will make it possible to make much better progress in her breathing and eating.  She has put on some weight with her IV nutrition, but we'd love to see her on more breast milk.

A big highlight of the day was getting to hold both Lucas and Olivia.  The babies are learning to share -- in this case, Mom and Dad's attention) -- early on.  It's a little more work to get Olivia out because of her vent, but Catherine was awesome and got her all nice and snuggled on Mom's chest. 

 

Olivia and Mom both enjoyed the snuggling time.  Check out this happy baby after her kangaroo time:

 

Lucas is getting to be a pro at getting out of his incubator, settled on Mom's chest, and then happily resettled back.  We've gotten some great books as gifts recently and as the babies are allowed to be out of their incubators for longer we look forward to reading them stories.  Mom is also going to relearn some lullabies -- the babies kindly don't mind her totally off-key singing voice.

After the hospital, we finally made the trip back to our house.  Our little street hasn't been touched by a snow plow yet

and has a big tree fallen over, so we're thinking we may be making some visits to the hospital on public transit once my parents head back on Tuesday.  It certainly adds another element of challenge to this adventure.

Despite all the weather and road challenges, and the fact that our house was covered in a layer of dust from the bathroom renovation, it is wonderful to be home.  We can't wait until we get to share the pleasure with Lucas and Olivia.