Thursday May 29, 2008

The girls turned 4 weeks old today, and my have they grown. They are continuing to do quite well and thankfully are making the nurses days fairly easy. Maggie and Mom had quite the day today. I was around at 2pm to change her diaper right after Nurse BJ had given her a suppository. So, I got poopy diaper duty. However, once I got the diaper off, she squirted a bunch more. Luckily, I had the wipes properly aligned and kept if off of the bed and myself. (Sorry about the poo detail, it was a first so thought I’d better document!) Dad missed it, but would have been proud. Then we had kangaroo care from 3-5pm, without much of a cry (but hiccups). Maggie was a bit stinky, so when we put her back in her bed, I gave her a little “sponge bath” – mostly just wiped her with wet wipes. Nurse BJ had taken off her CPAP and her feeding tube had come out so her little head was free. Maggie was a little unhappy with the cleaning (what babies aren’t?) – you can see that on the pictures in the album – but then she had her eyes wide open and was looking around. We don’t get to see those girls in their true form very often and it just warmed my heart – there is a beautiful little girl under all that stuff.

Evie had some kangaroo time with Dad and also had the hiccups – so Dad got a recording. I’ll try to figure out how to load that. She is also doing much better on her oxygen needs today (she is quite the oxygen hog). Evie finally got to come off of her IV fluids (TPN and lipids) and is just on a maintenance drip, so they increased her feedings and started fortifying them. This little one continues to pack on the grams and was at 1250 (2lb 12oz), while Maggie came in at 1040 (2lb 4.5 oz). Oh, and in speaking with Dr. Hiller, Evie’s ductus is probably closed; the murmur that they had heard over the last couple days was likely turbulence due to her growing circulatory system (flow turbulence). We’ll probably check Maggie’s again next week.