More of the same, but closer to going home

Not a lot of news today, other than James finally catching on to the bottle feeding thing. The nurses say "the light bulb went on." At his overnight feedings, and all day today, James sucked away like a champ at his bottles. A few he even finished faster than his sister. He's certainly using less energy than he was to get through them, and he seems to be enjoying the whole process a lot more.

If the babies keep up this progress with the feedings and weight gain, we may be able to take them home as soon as the end of this week! They will have to be on apnea monitors for two or three months at home, but even though it's an added hassle, it is reassuring to us as they are both still having some episodes of bradycardia and we'll feel much better knowing about it if they need some help. They did pass their car seat tests, which is reassuring.

Although this is right around the doctor's initial optimistic estimates of their stay in the NICU, the actual preparations for their discharge caught us a bit off guard. We've suddenly gone from a sort of holding pattern in the nursery and here at the apartment to making ourselves ready to leave this place. Fortunately all of the nursery essentials are already set up at home!

One of the nurses, who has been off for a few days, asked about their last weight gain and remarked that Kathryn's face seemed to have plumped up quite a bit (on babies this size, even a few ounces can make a big difference). It made me think about all of the changes we've seen in them just in this short time, and how different they are now than just a couple of weeks ago. They have been transformed from strange, spastic little naked creatures, surrounded by tubes and wires in plastic boxes, to nearly normal babies -- on the small side, but they look and act much more like regular babies now.