infection that she's just getting over. Dr. Kamtorn ordered a full blood count to be done tonight and as it turns out her red blood cell count was low again, but according to the nurse, it's not so low that it requires a transfusion. I'll talk to Dr. Kamtorn about it tomorrow and hopefully she can confirm that. Tomorrow will be Maddie's last dose of antibiotics and hopefully Thursday she'll be back on her feedings. She's still looking a little beat up from being so sick for the past week, but she's definitely looking better than she was ~ and she's definitely acting more like herself the past couple days ~ so I think we're definitely back on track now. Just have to keep our fingers crossed that she won't need another transfusion right away. But if she does, at least we have daddy's blood in the bank waiting to be used for her or Melia when needed. Speaking of Melia, she continues to do excellent. She's up to 33mls of milk
every 3 hours now and she took her entire afternoon feeding by bottle! I mean, not to toot my own kid's horn or anything, but that's pretty exceptional! :-) She's pretty much the smartest baby ever! ;-) No, really, this is a great accomplishment considering she's only been taking bottles for a few days now. Unfortunately, this totally wiped her out for her night-time feeding, so she was only able to take 5mls by bottle for her 8pm feeding. But, it's all a work in progress. In order to really get the bottle thing down to a science, she has to learn how to suck, swallow and breathe all at the same time ~ which isn't easy for a little baby who at 32 weeks would still be in utero and wouldn't have to do this. So her inconsistency is expected at this point. But overall, she's doing a great job and we are very proud of our lil' Lia.
every 3 hours now and she took her entire afternoon feeding by bottle! I mean, not to toot my own kid's horn or anything, but that's pretty exceptional! :-) She's pretty much the smartest baby ever! ;-) No, really, this is a great accomplishment considering she's only been taking bottles for a few days now. Unfortunately, this totally wiped her out for her night-time feeding, so she was only able to take 5mls by bottle for her 8pm feeding. But, it's all a work in progress. In order to really get the bottle thing down to a science, she has to learn how to suck, swallow and breathe all at the same time ~ which isn't easy for a little baby who at 32 weeks would still be in utero and wouldn't have to do this. So her inconsistency is expected at this point. But overall, she's doing a great job and we are very proud of our lil' Lia. Lucky for us, the NICU had a set of triplets and two full term babies come in today all around 2pm while we wer
e visiting the girls. Right before the nurses got busy with all of that, Maddie's nurse gave her to me to hold and Mike was holding Lia for her 2pm feeding. So since the girls were doing so well outside of their isolettes (maintaining their temperatures, oxygen and heartrates) and the nurses were so busy, we were able to hold them for over 2 hours! This was great for us (and for the girls), but I think that may have also helped to wipe Melia out, making her 8pm feeding really difficult for her (wow, I really can't stop making excuses for her, huh? - haha). Anyway, since the girls isolettes are right next to each other again, Mike and I were able to sit next to each other while holding them and it gave us an opportunity to snap a few quick pictures of the girls together. I was holding Maddie with one hand and the camera with the other, so I had a tough angle on Maddie. Hopefully one of these days we can get a really good side by side picture of them. Until then, we'll just be grateful for the few minutes that we could put the girls together again. Lia was wide awake during this little photo session and she looked at Maddie so curiously. It was really cute. Maddie on the other hand is still not feeling 100%, so she spent most of her time outside of her isolette sleeping.
e visiting the girls. Right before the nurses got busy with all of that, Maddie's nurse gave her to me to hold and Mike was holding Lia for her 2pm feeding. So since the girls were doing so well outside of their isolettes (maintaining their temperatures, oxygen and heartrates) and the nurses were so busy, we were able to hold them for over 2 hours! This was great for us (and for the girls), but I think that may have also helped to wipe Melia out, making her 8pm feeding really difficult for her (wow, I really can't stop making excuses for her, huh? - haha). Anyway, since the girls isolettes are right next to each other again, Mike and I were able to sit next to each other while holding them and it gave us an opportunity to snap a few quick pictures of the girls together. I was holding Maddie with one hand and the camera with the other, so I had a tough angle on Maddie. Hopefully one of these days we can get a really good side by side picture of them. Until then, we'll just be grateful for the few minutes that we could put the girls together again. Lia was wide awake during this little photo session and she looked at Maddie so curiously. It was really cute. Maddie on the other hand is still not feeling 100%, so she spent most of her time outside of her isolette sleeping. 
All in all it looks like we're going back upstream. Melia is doing great with her bottle feedings and Madison is looking better day by day. Phew! 
