Field Trip

Today the whole family spent some time at the NICU.  Lucas was well-behaved as a visitor and enjoyed some snuggle time with his sister. 

It was really nice to be all four together again, and then difficult when we had to disband the party.  Luckily, Olivia continues her slow but steady march towards the door.  The doctors want to see her string together two good days taking all her feeds by mouth, then they tell us they'll be ready to sign her ticket home.  Her last rest feed was 2am last night, which means if all goes well, Friday morning is still in the running. 

So far, so good.  We were with Olivia for three feeds today - two breastfeeds and a bottle (plus a little snuck-in snack) - and all went well.  She was waking up fussy for all her feeds, which is the same behavior that Lucas showed right before he came home last week.  And I just spoke with the night nurse, who declared that Olivia was "doing great."  As a parent, there is nothing more wonderful to hear than those two words.  She also told me that she believes Olivia is ready.  As you have likely gathered from our blog writing over the past several months, because of how much time they spend with the babies, the nurses have a high level of credibility and accuracy in assessing the babies' progress.  Tonight's nurse was with Olivia last night, and also last week, and sees the same dramatic improvement from a week ago that we are seeing. 

As absolutely incredible as the doctors and nurses have been over the past nearly 12 weeks, and as much as we know that our children have wonderfully enhanced chances at success in life because of this amazing early care, we are so ready not to see the inside of the hospital for a while.  Life is just so much more fun at home.  After his early evening meal, Lucas spent some quality tummy time on his playmat, working on turning his head to look at Mom and Dad.  It was pretty awesome and he seemed really proud of himself each time he succeeded.  We have some great video that we'll try to post tomorrow.  He got himself a little too worked up from all the excitement and then had trouble sleeping, but that's a balance that we are learning as new parents - he was just too cute to stop.  There's so many fun things to discover with a new baby at home.  We've started using a bib when we give Lucas a bottle and it's really cool to see how he already associates it with eating.  As soon as you put the bib on him, he calms down knowing that milk is on the way.  Brilliant, I tell you :)

And now, it's time for another bottle, some snuggle time, and the attempt to grab a couple hours of sleep.