A Little Info and a Lot of Pictures

Every single day I am amazed all over again at how well the girls are doing.

Every single day I think about how horribly things could have gone wrong, but didn't.

Every single day I thank my Heavenly Father for these two little miracles.

Naomi now weights 3 pounds 10 ounces and Colette weights 3 pounds 9 ounces. 

They are both closer to 4 pounds than 3 pounds!

They have both moved up to Stage 2 with their feedings.  This means that they are now working on taking 4 of their 8 feedings in a 24 hour period orally~ either by breast feeding or bottle.

Naomi is doing great with both.  

Colette is doing okay.  She is a very pokey eater, so it sometimes takes her too long to finish an oral feeding, which means they have to give the rest through her NG tube.  They don't want them to spend more than 30 minutes on a feeding because it uses up too many calories to make the feeding worth it.  

They are both still on supplemental oxygen.  

Naomi is using a little less than Colette, but they are both steadily working their way off of it.

They are both starting be awake for longer periods of time.  It is most noticeable that they are staying awake after a feeding.  It used to wear them out so much to nurse that they would immediately conk out, but they are starting to be able to stay awake after now.

I am going up 6 mornings a week and 6 evenings a week.  I have already figured out that I need a break from the NICU.  I would never get tired of spending time with my girls, but it is very draining to spend so much time in the NICU.  

Korby goes up about every other day~ either on his lunch break or in the evenings if we have a baby sitter. 

I did a little calculating this afternoon.  Between all the times that Korby came to see me during my hospital stay and now between the 2 of us coming up to see the girls~ we have driven to the hospital 71 times as of this morning!

Thank goodness we are only 15 minutes away!

Ok, enough info~ here are the pictures!

Naomi

Colette in newborn jammies.  I don't know how well you can see from the picture, but she was swimming in them!

Colette holding mom's finger

Naomi

Naomi letting mom know she is ready to eat!

Colette letting mom know she is ready to eat!

Since the girls are so small, they are not eating as much as a normal full term baby.  However, my body didn't get the memo and I am accumulating quite a stock pile of milk.  This is the freezer in the NICU.  Most babies have 1 bin~ as you can see we have 4!  The nurses have told me I will not need to bring in any more milk for quite a while~ which is now causing our freezer at home to become quite full of milk also!

Naomi sleeping so sweetly

Naomi~ I put her to bed all snuggled up and within a couple of minutes she had wiggled her foot out

And talk about wiggling out~ this is what she looked like later that night.  She had completely wiggled half her body out of her blanket and her jammies!

The nurses were all calling Naomi Houdini this night because after wiggling out of her blanket and jammies, she also somehow managed to wiggle her way over to her port hole and was sticking her arm out of it!

***Disclaimer: The port hole was only opened while the nurse and I were standing right by her isolette.  
They are normally closed.  

Sideways picture of Colette

Colette getting ready to go to sleep

Naomi

My absolute FAVORITE way for babies to sleep~ bum up!  And it is extra cute when there is a big heart on the bum, too! (Colette)

And for my sister Mary, and for myself~ here are some pictures of the NICU in general.  

Naomi's half of the room.  If you expand the picture you can see her little head in there somewhere :)

Colette's half of the room.  You can also see her, but you have to look close.

What the room looks like when you walk in the door.  

The "Scrub In" station.  My arms are starting to get really sensitive to all the scrubbing.  I have to do it pretty gentle or my arms get really red and irritated.

Sorry~ sideways!  Here is the sign for entering the NICU with the call button to get in.  I also need to get a picture of Korby and I wearing our NICU parent badges.