Little Weekend Warriors

"You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and rest in safety".
 Job 11:18

Saturday July 25th:

Girls are off of their UV lights! Their bilirubin levels are now perfect! 

 Poor Kaylee had her IV put back in her head last night. I felt so awful for her since they had to work so hard to find a good vein Friday. Thankfully they will be off their IV fluids soon and she won't have to deal with being poke and prodded again.

We practiced breastfeeding again and they both did well. Of course they were being tube fed during practice so it only took about 10-15 minutes for them to happily fall asleep! They are getting 25mL each feeding and will be moving up on their feeding amounts in the coming week. Their nurse said they are "vigorous eaters on the bottle" but are doing well pacing themselves. 

Friday night Amelia weighed 3 pounds 14 ounces and Kaylee weighed 4 pounds 5 ounces. Both girls are doing well and just need to gain some more fat and weight!

Sunday July 26th:

Jessie and I got to assist in bathing the girls this morning! They both absolutely love getting their heads washed and scrubbed. But what little girl doesn't!?! They will be "fortifying" their milk with some extra calories, fats, vitamins, etc to help them with the weight gain. The nurses will not be adding fluids to their IV bags but they haven't been given the direct order to stop the fluids and remove the IV ports. Nurse said it could be a day or two depending on how well the girls do. Probably in the next day or so their feeding amounts will increase too!

Monday July 27th:

Today we had Nurse Tammy. I absolutely love her! She is "older" than the other nurses and tells us like it is, which I like!

Amelia in new bed

I walked into the NICU and saw the girls without their IV lines and the lid on their incubators was lifted off. I couldn't help but tear up and cry some. This is a huge milestone for them and I am so proud of how well they are doing. Every nurse that has worked with them says they are big strong girls! 

I was so please to do some major skin to skin time with Amelia today. Nurse Tammy brought over one of the lounging chairs and got me to put my feet and lounge back. It was a wonderful bonding time for us. Tomorrow I will have some happy bonding time with Kaylee! 

The girl's wonderful nurse practitioner, Jason, came by while we were there. He talked about the fortified milk and what course of action they will take in the future before the girls go home. He upped their feeding amount again based on their weight. Amelia will get 34mL of milk and Kaylee will get 36mL of milk! (I've gotta keep ahead of them!)

Daddy feeding Kaylee

For the last several days their feedings have been: bottle, tube feed, bottle, tube feed, etc. Because they are doing so well their feedings will now be: bottle, bottle, tube feed, bottle,  bottle, tube feed, etc. When they do very well with those feedings and are able to complete each feeding, he will continue to lower the tube feedings and up the bottle feeds until the girls are only taking bottles.

If they continue with this progress I believe they will be coming home much sooner than we first thought. Of course there are still several factors involved and they need to gain as much weight as possible before coming home. 

We were told today that the car seats for the girls need to have a weight minimum of 4 pounds and of course the ones we have are 5 pound minimum. If this is the only little obstacle we encounter through all this craziness then I will consider us blessed!  

Kaylee in new bed

Again, we can't thank you all enough for the prayers, thoughts and words of encouragement sent our way. God is truly doing some amazing work in these little girls and his awesome power is shining through them each day!

In Him,

Angie K