1 Week Old

The girls are 1 week old today!!! Here are some quick updates:

Olivia - Little Miss Livy thought it would be really fantastic if she extubated herself last night. The nurse heard some crying coming from her bed and knew something was up (they can't make crying noises when they are on the ventilator), so she headed over to check things out. Turns out our feisty little monkey finally got ahold of that tube and yanked it right out. Should have been no surprise, I suppose, because all she did last night was try to grab at it during our visit. So now she is on a high flow nasal canula, set at the highest setting. Hopefully she can deal with those tubes being in her nose for a little while. As for feeds, she is on 3cc of breastmilk and they plan to hold her there for a while. She is on Erythromycin to help digest her food, so hopefully she can start picking up on the feeds. With her heart condition, we really need her to start gaining weight so that she can have her surgery when the time is right.

Lauren - Lauren is taking 12 cc of food right now and increasing by 1cc every 12 hours. She is tolerating her feeds pretty well for the most part. She is also on Erythromycin for digestion and increasing by 1cc every few hours. They did a brain scan on her today, but we haven't yet received the results. Last week they found a spot on one part of her brain and so we are hoping that spot is absolutely nothing to worry about. We should find out more by tomorrow. Lauren was on the highest setting of the nasal canula, but they moved her back up to CPAP because she wasn't doing as well as they would hope. The girls will likely move back and forth between "levels" of breathing assistance, so this is no surprise that she slightly regressed.

Makenna - Well, Makenna is outshining her sisters on the whole breathing thing, but she has some major catch-up to do with the feedings. She is on the very lowest setting of the nasal canula and we won't be surprised to find her breathing completely on her own anytime now. Of course, once those tubes are out, they can always go back in, but she seems as if she's really getting ready to fly on her own. Feedings are a different story. She is still only taking 2cc of breastmilk per feeding and a lot of it doesn't ever get digested. So they placed her, too, on Erythromycin. She has only been feeding for maybe 48 hours now and it's totally normal for them to have difficulty making the transition...so we just need to wait it out and hope for the best. We know she makes really good poops, so it's just a matter of turning my breastmilk into that poop and she'll be good to go.

All three girls really have their own personalities, which we can see coming out just by their sleeping positions. Makenna sleeps like a froggy, on her belly with her legs bent up underneat her. Lauren prefers her back or side with her arms wide open above her head or her hands closed in against her face. Olivia tends to keep her hands folded nicely over her chest, though it's unclear which position she most prefers at the moment. And they are all incredibly feisty. If they are unhappy, you'll know about it. They scrunch up their faces, stretch out their legs, and pull like hell on their cords.

Last night Olivia was particularly upset during our visit. She couldn't make any crying noises, but her face was scrunched up as if she was crying and she couldn't stop moving around. Then she coughed up some food and she just wouldn't relax at all. I tried cuddling her while she was in bed, but it just didn't help at all. So the nurse decided that mommy needed to hold her to calm her down. She pulled up a big comfy glider and placed my baby girl against my chest, inside my shirt. It was so amazing how quickly she settled down. She even opened her eyes off and on for about 10 minutes, which she rarely ever does. It was such a great experience.

Here are some pics of the last few days:

Olivia




Lauren




Makenna