Well, the babies will be two weeks old tomorrow, and today marked a big milestone as they were transported (by ambulance) from Devos Hospital to Northern Michigan Hospital! Alexa had her IV taken out on Saturday and Delaney followed suit on Sunday, and they both began some bottle feedings on Saturday. As a result, the doctors felt they were stable enough to be transferred up to Petoskey! The girls have both done really well with their bottle feedings so far. Delaney took 15 of her 30 ml's on her first try, which the nurse was very impressed with since apparently most babies will only take around 5 or so the first several times. Alexa then decided to show her sister up and take the full 30 ml's her very first bottle feed, and has continued to do so pretty much every feeding. They are only getting bottles 2 times per day at this point as they expend so much energy taking the bottle that it can become counter-productive to do more than that at this point.
They are both regaining their weight, although somewhat slowly. Right now Alexa weighs 3 pounds, 13 ounces and Delaney weighs 3 pounds, 10 ounces. Their main goal in the NICU is just eating and growing. In order to come home they need to be able to regulate their own temperature and be able to take all their feedings by bottle and/or breast. It sounds like most babies have to be around 4 pounds to maintain their own temperature, and the feeding thing will just take some time to work up to, but we're getting there!
After nearly 8 weeks of being in GR, it's so good to be home! It will definitely be an adjustment for all of us to have me around again, but one I think we're all ready to make. All things considered, the last 8 weeks have gone incredibly smoothly, and have gone by faster than I anticipated. It was actually a little bittersweet to be heading home as we have all really enjoyed our time in GR staying with the Kohsels. They have truly become family to us in these past couple months and I don't know what we would have done without them! Also, as hard as it has been to be away for so long, I'm kind of glad I had the opportunity to heal some before having to dive back into full responsibilities at home! And now I have a little time to get my home in order before the babies actually come home, so I guess it's not all bad. So for now we are enjoying at least having our whole family in the same town again, and are looking forward to the day that we will all be under one roof!
No comments:
Post a Comment