More Baby Steps

Our kids are both rock stars.  No big changes today, but they continue to do well eating and growing.  The end is really in sight.  At rounds this morning, the attending thought by the end of the week he might be ready to give us a graduation date.  I almost cried - from happiness - at the thought of it.  We've started talking about the various plans to get the kids ready to go home - weaning them from some of their medications, getting vaccines, scheduling their MRIs and hearing tests, setting up our rooming-in (where we stay with the babies overnight in a room outside the NICU to practice caring for them without the nurses' supervision).  It's going to be a busy week or two, but we will love every minute of it.

We've already reached one milestone for graduation - breathing comfortably without support.  The hope is that by the end of this week, both babies will be ready to move from their incubators into open cribs, the second milestone for graduation.  And they are working towards milestone number #3, getting rid of the feeding tube.  Each day now there is a little more progress and the doctors allow the babies to try a little more.  Olivia did great today nursing on a half-full breast.  Hopefully in another couple days she can nurse on a full breast like her brother, so that Mom can learn to nurse them at the same time.  She will get to try a bottle with the nurse tonight and the speech therapist will come by tomorrow morning to work with both babies.  Both kids seem to enjoy nursing and get all nice and snuggly with Mom when they're done.  It's very sweet, and I can already tell one of the great joys of motherhood - except maybe at 2am.

Olivia had another eye exam and her retinas are almost fully mature now.  She won't need another follow-up for 4 weeks, which is great because this is definitely one of their least favorite NICU procedures.  Lucas will have his exam next week, then we'll hopefully be able to get them on the same schedule for follow-up visits.  For the first month or two after we go home, we will have a lot of doctors visits, both at the pediatrician and the hospital clinic, but then things should start to settle into a less intensive routine, and I suppose after daily care going to the doctor every week or two will seem like a long time without medical feedback.

I'm finally starting to believe that these little ones are coming home soon.  It's wonderful to imagine them in the house with us, getting to experience all their coos and cries and expressions all day long, seeing them peacefully sleeping in their cribs or laying together on their playmat.  It's going to be a lot of fun.