January 31, 2011

WHAT'S THIS?!  A BLOG POST?!  You got it!  And though this one is long over due, it is a special one.  Wendy and I are currently "Rooming In" in the NICU with the girls.  We are basically spending the night with the girls in a room for just the four of us.  We manage all their care and we only call in a nurse if we need them.  We are doing this because...

WE ARE GOING HOME!!!

As long as everything goes well tonight, we will be discharged in the morning and our family will all be under one roof.  We are so excited and very ready.  The NICU has taken amazing care of our girls and we are eternally grateful for that but we are done with driving from Franklin to Nashville everyday, and we are done with beeping monitors, and we are done with going home without our girls every night.  Pray for us as we start yet another new chapter with our little ones.  Having them home will present it's own challenges, I'm sure.  But it will also be wonderful.  Pics to follow!  Please keep checking in!

January 16, 2011

If you still read this I'm so sorry.  Since I have been back to work full time it's been difficult to keep up with the blog.  But I did want to check in while I had a moment to let you know what's going on with the girls.  They continue to do really well.  They have been gaining about 2 ounces a day this week!  Sophia is still getting what they call a "wiff" of air support.  Not even enough to read on a meter.  Other than that she is just gaining a ton of weight and is progressing well.  Tiny Genevieve is still cruising along.  No help and feisty as ever.  We still don't know when the girls will come home but it is looking probable that they will go home at different times since Sophia weighs so much more than Genevieve.  However, Sophia's air needs might equal them out timing wise, who knows.  For now we will just continue to drive up daily to spend time with our little angels.  It is certainly the best part of our day.

Snow Day!

For all of you not living here in the Nashville area we had quite the blizzard overnight.  Check my Facebook for a video of our backyard.  Once our car was finally free we went up to the hospital to see our girls.  They have now been promoted for a THIRD time and have their own room in the non-critical care nursery just for the two of them.  Pretty cozy.  They are at the point now where they will soon be losing many of their vital monitors and once they reach a certain weight (which I can't recall right now) they will be moved to regular cribs.  It baffles me how much they have progressed in a week and a half.  Not just clinically but in all aspects.  They already are showing personality.  The nurses all say that Genevieve is one of the scrappiest babies they've seen in a while and that Sophia is a joy because of how easy she is to work with.  Their eyes open for much longer periods of time and it's so much fun to watch them look around.  Wendy and I love our visits to the NICU, and although we are anxious to get them home, we are enjoying this special time in our lives.  These pictures were taken today, the first time we held both of them at once.

 

Sadness

Today was the first day that I didn't see the girls since they were born.  I went to work and Wendy and Debbie went up to the hospital.  I miss them.  Tomorrow my friend Michael and I are driving to Atlanta to pick up some baby furniture at IKEA.  So that means that Sunday is the next time I will see my babies. 

Wendy had a great day with them today.  She got to change diapers, feed and check temperatures.  It's amazing how much the girls change everyday.  They are growing up fast.  Let's try a video...

Nope.  Just spent 10 minutes waiting on a video to load and it finally timed out.  I'll keep trying.  Maybe I'll just have to post 20 second clips.  Trust me though, they are beautiful.  Time for us to go to bed.  Goodnight!

Homeward bound!

A colleague of our doctor's just came in and told us that she is discharging us today!  We are so ready to go home and it's been a long couple of weeks.  We are so happy with how the staff here and at Williamson has treated us.  We have had 5 different doctors and close to 30 nurses.  Everyone of them were treasures.  The girls are doing well today.  Genevieve is completely off of IVs and respiratory help.  They have upped her feedings and she looks awesome.  Sophia was moved to her incubator yesterday just like her sister was about 3 days ago.  Her air pressure assistance is down to almost nothing and they are hoping to remove her IV and air support tomorrow.  We will go home, take a HUGE nap and then come back up and see our girls tonight.  As long as the snow doesn't stop us!  Time to pack!

Here is a picture I took yesterday of the first time the girls were put together.  I was very cool to see them next to each other.

Nope.

I'm cashing in my "too tired to blog" card for the week.  I'll make it up tomorrow.  Love you all.

A Good Day.

Today Debbie and I really worked hard on getting Wendy moving around.  When she started the day she had to hold on to one of us just to take two steps.  Before she went to bed she was walking clear across the room by herself.  I think what really got her motivated was getting to spend a good amount of time with her babies.  We went to see them twice today for about an hour each time.  Aaaaand....

We got to hold Genevieve!  It was very amazing and we were so grateful for the opportunity.  Sophia is not quite ready yet but any day now she will get her turn, too.  We can now hold Genevieve everyday as long as her condition doesn't backslide, which can happen with preemies and is totally normal.  She was VERY light and it was a lot of fun to hold our little girl.  I am going to make an attempt at putting some video on here tomorrow.  Goodnight everyone!

At the beach...

At the beach is a term the NICU nurses use for babies who are under lamps to treat jaundice.  This is what it looks like...

Pretty cute.

As we speak Wendy is having her catheter and one of her two IVs removed.  She had some jello and can have bland foods now.  The nurses are going to have her sit on the side of the bed and dangle her legs for a bit.  A world of difference from yesterday which was already a much better day than the day before.  She WILL be seeing her girls today.  Yay!

Good News for Mommy!

Happy Bowl Games Day Everybody!  I hope your team wins and their team loses.  I'm sorry this blog is being posted so late in the day but I didn't wake up until about 1 this afternoon.  There has been a really good development with Wendy that I wanted to share.  Since about 15 minutes after the delivery Wendy has been on an IV supply of magnesium to prevent seizures that can result from having high blood pressure.  Although the magnesium is hugely beneficial it does make you feel pretty yucky and out of it.  And it's because of this that yesterday was such a difficult day.  At 3:15 this morning the doctor ordered that the magnesium be taken out of her IV.  Within an hour she was more alert and lucid.  She is feeling much better now and has been sleeping soundly most of the day.  She is ready to see her girls and hopefully that can happen later today. 

The girls continue to do well.  Genevieve has been particularly responsive and she was moved to an incubator this morning (which is a good thing).  Sophia is also doing very well but she gained a little bit of water weight so they backed her IV off just a little bit.  They also gave her a little more air pressure assistance but they both are still breathing room air and breathing on their own.

I have been wanting to take a few more pictures but they have started to spend a lot of time on their stomachs so I'm waiting for an opportune moment when they are positioned more photogenically.  Thank you for your continued support and prayers and love.