Music to My Ears

Today's doctor visit for Aubrey was uneventful - thankfully! Turns out it is just gas and what they called toddler belly. They said that around 18 months almost all toddlers get a big belly look because of the way that they balance themselves - something that I would not know as a first time parent I guess. So, I am thankful for the good report.

After going to the doctor I headed to the hospital. The girls are doing so well. As soon as I arrived I heard a sound that was the most beautiful sound ever. It was Reagan crying LOUDLY! I could hear her across the room from over at Cameron's isolette. Then, later I was at Reagan's isolette and heard Cameron crying LOUDLY, too! I couldn't believe how strong their cries were and how sweet.

Another amazing thing that I was told by their nurse was that technically Reagan is doing so well that she could go to Transitional Care Nursery (a.k.a. TCN)(which is the step down nursery from the NICU where babies go to feed and grow) because she is on full feeds and is on the nasal cannula. You cannot go if you are on cpap or intubated! I was amazed! Now, she is not going to go to TCN anytime soon because she is so small and there are plenty of other babies there that would go before her but how amazing is that?!?!? My heart swelled for my strong little fighter! Right now the plan is to try her off of the nasal cannula tomorrow because it is time to push her again - she seems ready, she pulls the cannula off of her face regularly and does well and she is saturating at 97-100%. She has also been handling a large volume of food but not a lot of calories. So, they are going to decrease the volume and add more microlipids to her food as well. She also got her eyes checked today but I do not know the results. They will check her eyes again on Tuesday of next week.

Cameron was doing well when I arrived and had not been desatting as much. She had one of her favorite nurses today so I think that helped. They added a second packet of HMF to her milk and she is doing fine with it. She has returned to all her original settings on the cpap. They are planning on trying to wean her on her cpap settings as well to try to get her nasal cannula soon. She also had her eyes checked today and will be rechecked next Tuesday. They are also decreasing the hydrocortisone that she has been on and she is working on her second negative blood culture (it is running right now and so far has been negative since early Sunday morning) which means that they can maybe discontinue the antibiotics soon.

I am hoping to try to meet with a developmental therapist this week to take a look at the girls. She should be able to help tell me what the girls are doing well for their development, what they need to work on and how we can help them achieve those things. The idea is that be enabling the girls to cope and soothe themselves better will help for them to develop better - I think.

Today on my way back and forth to and from the hospital I was listening to the Duke Radiothon for the Children's Hospital and listening to the stories of the kids. I am sure that my girls are benefiting from those funds more than I can imagine. To hear stories from both the children's wing and the NICU were unbelievable and I cried most of the way home. Before we went to the hospital Seth and I talked about what a blessing it was to be in a place where we had to choose between two unbelievable hospitals - Duke and Chapel Hill. Not too many people are that fortunate.