06-01-10

It was nice getting to see the girls early through out the weekend and Monday. We were able to be home in the evenings and get a bit more rest. They did good this weekend. Brooklyn is still off her cannula and taking more and more of her bottle when they do feed her via bottle. They give her breaks about every other feeding and feed her via tube. She has been such a trooper and trying so hard to keep up with her big sister. She is so darn adorable. I honestly believe she has the feeding schedule figured out. They are fed every 4 hours so about 8:30pm when we get there, she is pitching a fit in her box. She is crying and those arms and legs are going crazy. But when you get her out and start feeding her...she is a sweet precious angel just calm as can be.

As of Sunday, Brooklyn weighed 3lbs 6.2oz. She is growing so much. Even the Nurse Practitioner on Sunday mentioned that she just looks bigger since the last weigh in. She is so jealous of her sister and wants out of her bed and in cute clothes. They don't want her to burn too many calories trying to keep herself warm. So they are waiting but I expect her to be out sometime this week. Tonight is weigh night so she may reach that goal. Cross your fingers.

Porky Princess, Quinn, weighs 4lbs 12oz. I dressed her in a preemie outfit after her bath on Sunday night and she is filling it out. Soon she will not fit in the preemie clothes. But then again, some preemie outfits seem so much smaller than other preemie outfits.

We are having a bit of trouble from Brooklyn. She is being watched because her heart rate will sky rocket and then settles down. Both her and Quinn's hemoglobin levels are low(red blood cell count). But they are not low enough that a transfusion is necessary. The Doctors want her to make up for those on her own. However, this is probably the cause of her heart rate elevating occasionally. But right now it is a just sit and watch situation.

Quinn is showing her stubborn side. And she is STUBBORN. Wow! Last night, she would not take a bottle for me. She was refusing to have anything to do with the bottle. At first she was not sucking and the bottle was slowly dripping in her mouth and she was making this awful face like she didn't like the taste. Yes, it offended me that she didn't like the wonderful taste of my breast milk. But then she would start coughing and then choking. I proceeded to sit her up while she was choking and give her a break. I tried over and over to get her to take this bottle. Finally, her little lips were turning blue and she just started choking. Scared me to death. The crazy Chickie was refusing to swallow the milk and the drips were choking her. We gave her several minutes to rest and hopefully wake up to take some of the bottle. This time Nurse Kelly tried and Quinn did the exact same thing, which was a big fat nothing. We gave up on feeding her. Thing is that she now has orders to bottle feed every feeding. She pulled her feeding tube out a few hours before so she just starved that meal. They tried again the next feeding and she still wouldn't take the bottle. They had to put her feeding tube back to feed her.

I guess by this morning she was rested enough or saw that her sister was doing better than she was doing. Both Chickies took their entire bottle this morning. AWESOME!!!! Nurses said that it isn't unusual for babies to regress on their bottle feedings. They just get tired of working for food. Needless to say, both the Nurse and I were defeated by a 4lb baby. She stood her ground and refused and ultimately she won. Where does she get that stubbornness from? I love her anyway...even her blow out diapers. She is the worst smelling child I have ever witnessed. All she wanted was to lay on Momma's chest and sleep. That is what I gave her and she was in her own little coma. It was so sweet. When I laid her in her crib, she was still out of it. I just did not want to let her go. She was like a sweet little limp noodle!

If she doesn't start behaving, Brooklyn will beat her home. Brooklyn is a trip. She will make me laugh so hard. Richard held her last night and she was so peaceful. When it is time for her to go back to bed, she lets us know. She will start fussing and flailing those arms and legs. She knows when she wants to get back in bed. Once she was settled in bed, she was laughing so hard. I can only imagine what was making her laugh. My first thought was, "Yep, I know how to get my way. It works every time." She seems like a jokester. She will make her monitors start beeping and then she smiles like it is such fun to scare us. She is about as silly as they come.

I am getting so anxious to get these babies home with me!!! It is getting harder and harder to put them back in those beds and not just take them home with me. The less wires they have on them the closer they are to home and the harder it is on me. Their days in NICU are limited and I am wanting them in my arms at home!!!