Snowmaggedon

Today's big excitement actually had little to do with the babies - it was the weather.  About a foot and a half of snow fell in DC from Friday night through today and the roads were a mess!  While we would usually look at such a storm as an excuse to stay cozy inside, or maybe go hike around and appreciate the beauty, a giant snowstorm looks a little different as parents with two sweet babies in the NICU. 

So this morning we trudged downstairs around 8am to brave the roads.  Unfortunately, the hotel valet was not nearly as prepared and determined as we were.  (In case we haven't shared this on the blog, we've spent the past 5 nights staying with my parents at a hotel because our bathroom is being renovated - not the best timing, although we did avoid about half the project with my stay at the hospital.)  Our car - or rather, my parents car, which has all-wheel drive - was nowhere to be seen when we got outside.  First we were told we had to wait for the driveway to get plowed (as the plow driver sat in his truck on his phone), then they finally admitted that the lock box where they keep the keys was frozen shut!  I had my first mama bear moment and got very upset with the valet, insisting he figure out how I was going to get to the hospital in a timely manner.  We nearly ended up riding over in the plow truck before my parents came up with a second set of keys.  We also got all our parking charges for the week wiped out.  It was a bit of a stressful way to start the day, but I was proud to see my mama protective instinct going strong.  Once we finally got into the car, driving was a bit like playing a video game - this is what the street in front of the hotel looked like:

 

 We did finally make it to the hospital and had a lovely visit with the cuties.  Olivia seems to be making good progress closing her PDA valve, but is not quite there, at least as far as we can tell from observation of her blood pressure.  If the technicians are in tomorrow, she'll have another echo-cardiogram to take a look.  The docs are talking about weaning her off the ventilator early next week either way, as her lungs seem to be doing well.  Lucas gained 50 grams (I still can't figure out why the hospital uses the metric system) and got his breast milk feed levels increased again.  As our awesome nurse Catherine was explaining to me, the babies may gain some weight at the feeds are increased, but it's once they get to full feeds (breast milk only) that they'll really start looking to put on weight.  So another few weeks and our little ones might be quite a bit bigger. Small steps, but as the attending said to us the other day, it's a marathon not a sprint, and we figure that completing a marathon by taking baby steps probably takes a while, say close to 10 weeks.

After a couple hours away, where Dad went to the Georgetown basketball game and Mom managed to pump three times and write about two thank you cards (it's so hard to get anything done on this schedule!), I decided that I wanted to go back to see the babies again.  My parents graciously offered to take me over.  We drove about two blocks before we saw a stopped car ahead on a one-way street.  My dad decided the best approach would be to back up down the street, which worked just fine until we backed into a snowbank!  I felt totally helpless in my post-surgery movement/exercise-restricted state as my parents tried to dig the car out with their hands.  Luckily, within 5 minutes two guys came walking down the street with a shovel and helped us to dig.  About 25 minutes and two more good samaritans later, we were finally able to free the car.  We drove carefully, and forward, the rest of the way to Georgetown.  

 

It was well worth the effort, as Lucas and I snuggled contentedly for over an hour and Catherine told me we could try to take Olivia out of her isolette tomorrow if she's looking good.  We are extremely lucky to have my parents visiting, and their generosity of offering to stay another two days so that we can continue to visit the hospital until the streets get properly cleared.  Tomorrow we'll go back to pictures of babies...