05-04-10

I have so much to be thankful for in my life. I have a wonderful and loving husband with a huge heart. Now I have two little girls that have complete control over my heart.

Today I am thankful for family, friends, nurses and God for all the support we have gotten over the last several weeks. Thank you for everything.

This week is Nurses Week at Gwinnett Medical Center. I would like to thank them for all their work and compassion. They are part of the reason these babies are here. Their constant attention to the babies is a full days work and I am grateful the girls have such great nurses. A few nurses have shirts that say "NICU Nurses Rock," and I will have to agree.

Last night was an interesting night. Papi and ReeRee visited the girls and got to see Quinn in her new head attire. I promise these babies in NICU do not know they are small. Quinn and Brooklyn are no exception. They have the biggest spirits. You are probably thinking...doubt it. They are babies fighting for their lives and I am a firm believer that they have spirits. They have a fighting heart and a strong will to put up with the poking and tests on a daily basis. I love them for it.

Brooklyn is now eating 9cc every three hours. We will have her porking up before long. She really needs some meat on her bones. But in all other aspects, she is doing wonderfully. She actually breathes better than Quinn does. Quinn will have a moment when she stops breathing and her monitors ding. Then she picks it back up again. But Brooklyn continued to pull her C-Pap out of her nose on Sunday night. The nurse didn't want to continue to upset her by putting it back in her nose so she left it out. She went the whole night and had no problems breathing. Wonderful news! Last night, she had it in her nose but the C-Pap wasn't bubbling/on. She again had no problems. Her monitors never flagged distress in her breathing. So we took her C-Pap head gear off while we waited for the Respiratory Therapist to suction her nose for boogs, and again no problem. Amazing! the Respiratory Therapist was so impressed, he went to ask the Nurse Practitioner if they could convert her to a nasal cannula like Quinn. The only thing holding her back is her weight. She needs to gain at least 200 more grams (at least 7 more onces). Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks she will be on a cannula like Quinn. She will probably have the central line in her neck for another week or so. Hopefully, she won't give them any other reasons to put another central line in her.

Quinn is doing great. Again, her breathing has "hiccups" but she recovers on her own and it doesn't pose a problem now. However, she will need to control this before she is allowed to come home.

But as of last night, all is well in NICU.

Amendment to statement above: Brooklyn is now on the nasal cannula and off C-Pap. They said they were going to try her on it and if she doesn't do well, they will put her back on C-Pap! Very exciting news today! And the nurse said that Quinn had a huge surprise for her this morning in her diaper. Apparently her poop was huge.