40 Weeks

Well, there you have it.  Lucas and Olivia are officially 40 weeks today.  We are told that for roughly the first two years of their lives, developmental milestones will be counted from today and not their actual birthday.  They should do things like hold their head up, smile, talk, walk, etc., within roughly the *normal* amount of time counting from today.  By two years, they should be caught up so that their milestones will be counted from January 29. 

What this all means is, Lucas and Olivia are 80 days old today, but "to people at the park" they are 1 day old today.  They are 80 days old, adjusted age 1 day.  This is particularly cool given that throughout their stay in the nicu they were referred to by "day of life" (e.g., 80) and gestational age (e.g., 40 weeks).  It is kind of neat to start counting forward.

Of course, Olivia is still waiting for graduation to begin the celebration.  Today was another seemingly stagnant day, though I maintain with immense amounts of progress to the discerning eye.  Olivia is sporting much more energy than she has in a week.  She took an entire feed with the speech therapist today without a brady.  She gained 30 grams in her weigh-in last night.  And, in a funny highlight, she was weighed before and after breast feeding in order to gauge how much she gets from a good nursing session (because she hasn't had any problems nursing and the new theory is maybe she just nurses more and bottle feeds less (a complicated calculus because preemies require extra calories to make up for their late start)).  So, from this pre- and post-nursing weigh-in, Olivia put on 80 grams from one 20 minutes session.  Not sure where that fact will take us, but it is fun nonetheless.

We are still living day by day without a timetable for Olivia to come home.  We did a good job today dividing and conquering, each getting a chance to spend time at home and at the hospital.  And Lucas continues to settle in at home, sleeping, eating, and enduring diaper changes with increasing calm and comfort.

Here are a bunch of cute pictures from today.  We are all sad that grandma and grandpa will be heading back home tomorrow, but we look forward to another visit soon.