7 weeks old

Well my babies are 7 weeks old today!! I can't believe it's been 7 weeks already since they were born on 27w6d. (they'll be 35weeks gestation Sunday)

Jackson is 5 pounds 13oz and Addison is 5 pounds 10oz. They are both 17 - 17 1/4 inches long.

Addison is still on the canula...I can't wait for the day that she doesn't need that anymore. She tends to go 48-72 hours without a BM... not sure what that is about. She sucks on her binky occasionally and will cue every once in a awhile but not all the time, so we haven't tried breast feeding or bottle yet. She did pass her hearing test today!!

Jackson passed his hearing test a week ago. He is taking at least 50% of his feeds by bottle/breast. So the Nurse Practitioner today said he will start going on Demand feeding this week. I fed him by breast today (he took 24 of his 50ml by breast) and then he was exhausted so we tube fed him the rest. He tends to fall asleep faster when BF then he does when he gets a bottle. The NP said that as soon as he goes to demand feeding he will likely go home in a weeks time. So he could be home in a week!! Assuming he doesnt' brady of course this week (he had a brady this evening when he refluxed.)

Sometimes I feel guilty holding one baby more than the other. Some days it happens unintentionally (depending on when I get to the hospital and how long I stay there). Their care is an hour apart. Addison is on 12 - 3- 6- 9 schedule and Jackson is on 1 -4 -7 -10 schedule. So if I get there at 3pm then I do Addison's care, hold her until close to 4 and then start Jackson's care and hold him for about an hour (sometimes longer). So unless I skip Jackson's care, then I can generally only hold Addison for a little less than an hour at a time. Sometimes I will only hold Jackson the hour and then spend the hour of free time pumping or taking pictures of both. 

Course then there is my 12 year old... she feels neglected sometimes with all the time I have to spend at the hospital and all the stuff the babies are getting.

Good Day

Today was a good day. I went to see the babies by myself. I got there in time for Addison's care. We decided to go ahead and weigh her and measure her. Course I had her ready but there wasn't a scale available yet so I did Kanga care. She and I both enjoyed it. She weighed 2340 grams today, was 44 1/4 cm long ( just over 17")... my girl is growing!!
Then it was Jackson's turn, I kind of sort of did Kanga... while we were doing Kanga we practiced breastfeeding. At first he kind of just played. Then we used a nipple shield and he just went to town!!! He took close to 30ml!!!!!!!!!! By then he was tired so we dressed him and let him sleep. Poor little guy would have slept through his next feeding if they wouldn't have tried to wake him. He was too tired to do bottle or breast again so we decided to tube feed him again. I'm very proud of my little boy!!! He weighed 2415 grams!!!! They hadn't measured him yet so I will have to call in and find out.
Then after pumping it was time for Addison's care again. I got to hold her again (not kanga) and we were belly to belly basically. She was at 23% o2 pretty much all day... but she did great. Not many desats at all.
They are so cute!

Happy Easter

My babies had their first Easter today. Course they really don't know they had their first Easter. I took a picture of them with their bunny.

Addison also hit 5 pounds as of today!!! (Course she hasn't pooped in 2 days so part of it could be that). Jackson is 5 lbs 2 oz.

Jackson had his hearing test today. He passed!  They also discontinued his caffeine (he has been on it since he was born). He has taken 2 bottles since his overnight feedings (and it was the full 43ml he is supposed to eat). We tried BF again today, he got tired quickly of course so we fed him through his feeding tube for the rest.  He had 2 brady's while I was there... they were both related to reflux. Oh and it's been about a week at least since they have heard his murmur.... fingers crossed that means his PDA is closed!

Addison is eating 40ml these days. Here is still by ng tube. Her desats seem to be a little better than what they were. She's still having them, but she seems to pull her self out most of the time. There was only twice I think while I was there that they had to up her o2 or stimulate her. As for her hearing test, they didn't do it today. They said "closer to the time that she'll come home". So that really sounds like Jackson might come home before she will.

I took the car seats in today for inspection. That makes coming home seem so much more real.

6 Weeks old!

Jackson and Addison are 6 weeks old today! 

They had a big day. They had their First Bath today!! Addison HATED it. She screamed her little head off! Jackson was upset about his but he was more mellow and didn't scream, just fussed a bit. I wish I could have taken pictures during the bath but it was just the nurse and I so it wasn't a possibility. 

Pictures after the bath....

Jackson also drank from a bottle for the first time today! (We've been practicing BF the last couple of days). He actually drank 23ml!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

As for their weights... Jackson hit 5 pounds today and Addison hit 4 pounds 13 oz!! They are about 17" long. My babies are growing!! 

Tired, firsts and everything else

I know I have been bad about writing everywhere! If I'm not working, then I'm pumping or at the hospital. Or I'm just too plain tired to do anything.

Let's see if I can summarize what has happened in the last week.

Addison - She is still dealing with desats (oxygen saturation levels in the blood decreasing). There is a pattern right now... it all seems to revolve around her feedings. Course her feedings keep increasing as her weight increased (has to be so many ml per kg a day). They actually had to bag her yesterday because she just wouldn't  come up from the 50's/60's. It seems like she is refluxing as well. She will do a slight cough... then start hiccups. Then the desats start. I'm trying to get the nurses to document as many as possible (even when they don't have to intervene) so hopefully the Dr's or NP's will try a med like Prevacid, prilosec etc. Poor little girl seems so uncomfortable when it happens.
Good news is that her feeding tube was moved from her mouth to her nose. She is also sleeping in an open air crib now (as of 4/19).
As of yesterday she is 43.8cm long, head is 31 cm, and she weighed 4 lbs 8oz.

Jackson - His Brady's have decreased. The last 2 were on 4/18 and 4/15. He does desat occasionally but brings himself back up. He was moved to an open air crib today (was waiting on weight gain). Not only did he get his new bed today, but we also tried breastfeeding! We only practiced for 5 minutes, he was so tired after just that 5 minutes. But my little man did great. He opened his mouth right away and actually started sucking. I guess the practice with the binky is working. We will practice once a day for the next few days then move it to 2 times a day and so on.
As of yesterday, he is 43cm long, head is 30cm, and he weighed 4 lbs 10oz.

Eye Exam

Both Jackson and Addison had their first eye exams this evening. There is NO sign of ROP. The eye Dr said that both babies eyes are almost mature. He also said that their vessels are growing in the right direction!!!

Hooray!!!!

(both babies are VERY close to 4 pounds too!)

Happy 1 month birthday!

Addison and Jackson are 1 month old today!!!!!!!!!!!!  Happy Birthday babies!!

I got to hold both of them today (separately of course). :)

I am so in love!

A step forward

I had a pleasant surprise when I arrived at the hospital today....

Jackson's canula was removed!!  He looks so cute! 

I also found out I should be able to start holding Addison again as long as she is behaving. She started having some Desats again though while I was there so I decided I had better give her until tomorrow. I want my girl healthy and strong!  She looked precious as always.

The nurses kept saying what beautiful babies they are. One of the nurses was caring for them today that had watched them down in the NICU. She said when she came in the night that they had been moved she was bummed. 

Here is a picture of Jackson that I think is adorable and I just have to share.

As of today, Addison is 3 lbs 14oz and Jackson is 3lbs 12oz (he had lost a little bit of weight yesterday). As soon as they are able to gain more than 25grams a day for 5 days in a row, then they should be able to move to open air cribs.

They Aced their ultrasound!

Well we had our repeat Brain ultrasounds this morning (actually the babies did not me). :)   And the faboulous results are: Jackson is the same, Normal. Addison's also came back normal!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am so happy! Actually I think I'm beyond happy. I think I did the happy dance there in the ICN. (she had the suspicious for grade 2 brain bleed at 1 week old). I think the next testing they go through is for their eyes (looking for ROP blindness). Praying hard my babies eyes are perfect!

As of today Jackson is 3 lbs 10oz and Addison is 3lbs 9oz.  They have gotten so much bigger!!!

Addison has had some issues with desats but she has been better the last couple of days. She is currently getting some humidity through her canula to help with all of her mucus secretions. They both have some big boogers sometimes!!!

My babies are so beautiful!!  :)

Weekly weigh in/length check 3wks3day old (gestation 31w2d)

4/5/11 – I kanga’d Addison tonight and David Held Jackson. Addison is still having lots of desat issues. I would stimulate her by rubbing her feet and back as her sats dropped into the 60’s. They thought it was sepsis/infection at first but everything came back negative so they stopped the antibiotics. I guess now they are just assuming she’s “tired”. But bad thing is, the NP won’t let me hold her anymore until she is “stable”. I hope I get to hold her again soon.

Weekly numbers:

J – 1576 g (3 lbs 7 oz) {increase from 1403g, 143g for the week}, Length 40.7, Head 28.5

A – 1523 g (3lbs 5oz) {increase from 1349g, 174g increase for week}, Length 41.2, Head 29

4/6/11 - I went by myself to see my babies tonight. I got to hold Jackson swaddled, course Addison is still Desatting so I can't hold her yet. They are generally keeping her on 23% oxygen to keep her happy and to control the desats.  Daily weigh-in... Jackson lost 10 grams (1566) and Addison gained 99 grams! (puts her at 3lbs 9oz, or 1622 grams!!) That just seems like way too much of an increase to me (but they did just up her feedings last night as well). I believe Jackson is now at 30ml and Addison at 27ml for their feedings....

Sorry for Slacking!

I have been so bad about blogging I know... I have just been really tired!! Here are some quick daily updates I have been saving:

3/29/11 – I held Addison swaddled today, David held Jackson swaddled. I freaked out a little bit after Addison moved her head then her respiration and sat’s went down. Her little nose even looked blue!! I asked the nurse to take her so she could get her back to normal!!

Weekly numbers:

J – 1403 g, Head 27 cm, Length 40 (15 ¾), hematocrit = 35

A – 1349 g, Head 28 cm, Length 41, hematocrit = 35

3/30/11 – Brianna held Jackson. He did great. Only had a couple 1 beep desats. I held Addison. She had a few desats that went down. It was right after they hooked up her feeding. We repositioned her and she was fine.

J – 1411

A – 1358

3/31/11 – We kanga’d both babies today (leslie held Jackson, David held Addison). Jackson did great, Addison had some desats.

J – 1448  3lb 3oz 

A – 1353 (just shy of 3 lbs)

4/1/11 – I went to see the babies by myself today. I held Jackson again because Addison was in a mood today. This morning she had an episode where her sats went down into the 30’s. They had to stimulate her to get her back up. I guess she had a really large booger about 8am also. Both babies sodium levels are just a tad low. They are just doing the wait and see what they are next week routine right now. I talked to the NP and she said they should be having their echo’s again next week (April 7^th I think) to check on their PDAs. Fx they are closing up!! They aren’t happy with Addison’s weight gain right now, they are going to up her food just a tad. They don’t want to up it too much because it could stress out her heart. They should also have their brain ultrasound pretty soon, probably Monday April 11^th. 

J – 1481 3 lbs 4oz (woohoo go Jackson go!!)

A – 1370 g (3 lbs 0 oz, let’s go Addison, time to put on the weight!!)

4/2/11 – Kanga’d Jackson. Addison was desatting a lot so I let her have a break.

J 1484g

A – 1361 g

4/3/11 – Addison had an episode at 4am where her sats went down into the 40’s. They had to stimulate her and give her oxygen to get her out of it. She had another one around 1pm when I was holding her (kanga). Brianna changed Jackson’s diaper for the first time. Course he ended up peeing all over his bedding. LOL

J – No A or B’s tonight, big boogers tonight, 1521g (3 lbs 5oz)

A – 1497 (weighed 3 times), Has IV on which is some of the weight. Cut her back from 25 to 24cc for the night. Will talk to the dr in the morning. Not sure of true weight with the IV on board. Had another episode around 530pm (sats down into the 70’s).