Ups and Downs

Today was a day of ups and downs, fortunately bigger ups than downs. The babies are making great strides and took bottles at four feedings in a row today. James sort of pooped out at the last one, and had to get the end of the feeding through his NG tube. This is disappointing because it means the tube can't come out just yet. Kathryn's might be out by morning if she keeps up her 10 minute bottles. She is still having the reflux and bradycardia episodes fairly frequently, though. The doctor has increased her medication, but it will take a little while to see if that helps.

They seem to be happy in the crib together (you can tell me he's not really smiling in this picture, but I won't believe you :-). We didn't put them down like that, they tilt their heads together all by themselves. Amazingly enough, one of them can be crying and fussing, even get a diaper change and all the associated business, and the other sleeps right through it. One plus to the NICU environment is that by the time they get home they should be able to sleep through anything -- there are near-constant lights, noises, babies crying, machines beeping, and people talking all around them, and they snooze away peacefully. This hospital does what they call "clustered care", where everything that needs to be done for a baby is done at one time, right around their feeding, so that they have several hours of uninterrupted sleep in between.


They are getting closer to going home, but James will have to take the bottles better and Kathryn will have to get over the bradys before they can be released. She may end up going home on a monitor as well. We're hoping that won't be necessary, because we are really looking forward to being rid of the tubes and wires. On the plus side, with all the practice we're getting now, changing clothes and diapers will be a breeze when the tubes and wires are gone!

It's a little frustrating when they take a big step forward and then backslide a little. We know it's normal and expected, but we want so badly for them to be strong and healthy that it's a bit of a blow each time there's another brady or a feeding issue. We also get a little nervous when we're feeding or holding them because we don't want them to "lose points" for our ineffectiveness at getting them to suck or burp, or because we've got them in a bad position that sets off a brady or breathing problem. It's a silly thing to worry about, especially because we have to do all of these things ourselves before they'll even discharge the babies, but we can't help but feel a little bit of personal failure when they have a setback, however minor.