Two Out and About

Today, both Lucas and Olivia were able to come out of their incubators and be held by Mom and Dad.  We didn't get a picture, but you can imagine us as a happy family all snuggling in kangaroo care at the same time :)  Tomorrow we are going to try and start a work routine, which we're hoping will mean beginning most days holding both our babies before we head to our respective offices.  We're both a little nervous about how we will balance work and hospital visits, as we've been keeping ourselves more than full-time busy with visits and taking care of chores and responsibilities at home, but we will figure it out, luckily with the help of two very supportive workplaces.

Lucas was causing a bit of trouble over the past day, with some breathing episodes after a totally clean day the day before.  This might be because he's gaining weight, or he's just asking for a little more help.  His cpap got increased to 5 in hopes that this will get him back on track with his breathing.  He also got vitamins added to his breastmilk, including iron to combat anemia.  Mom wishes he wasn't taking after her in this regard, as apparently baby vitamins don't taste good at all.

Olivia did well on her first 24 hours off the ventilator.  The docs ordered another echo to check out the PDA, so we'll know more tomorrow, but she was breathing well with only a few oxygen desaturation episodes and tolerating the increased feeds.  We are hopeful that she's getting ready to make some big strides over the next week.  Her feeds are going up to 4 mL of breastmilk every 3 hours, another step in the right direction.

Sometimes the progress seems so incremental - or even backwards - that it's difficult to imagine ever being free of the monitors and alarms of the NICU.  But we try to remember that our babies are still little and should have as much time as they need to get ready to come home.  And looking back over the past two-plus weeks, they are definitely making progress.  There's lots that still has to happen, but we're seeing many good forward steps and getting to enjoy increased time holding our sweethearts.  This is clearly not how either of us imagined our children starting their lives, but most of the time we are finding ways to accept and embrace it, feeling extraordinarily luckily for the care that Lucas and Olivia are receiving and all the support that is coming our way as well.  Especially in the moments when we feel scared or frustrated or just plain tired, we think of all of you reading the blog, sending us emails, calling us (and not getting upset when sometimes it takes us days to call you back), bringing us meals, and most importantly sending positive thoughts and prayers for the babies and we know that we'll all get through this just fine.