Apologies for not being able to keep the blogs coming nightly. I feel like I'm finally getting myself into the swing of things and not feeling so exhausted all the time, but internet access problems at home have been the culprit in recent days. We're working on getting it fixed, so bare with us if we don't blog every night. I'm blogging from the hospital right now, so this one will be short and sweet - and I don't have my camera cord to upload pictures, which is probably all anyone wants to see anyway! Haha. Sorry about that. Hopefully we'll be back in working order in a few days or so.
Yesterday was a rough day for Madison, and so, a rough day for me. When we got to the hospital for our morning visit I could tell that Maddie just wasn't herself. She was off the phototherapy lights and was no longer jaundice, but now she was white as a ghost, which made an obvious difference in her appearance. But besides that, she just seemed weak and lethargic - not nearly as feisty as her usual self - and it nearly threw me into hysterics seeing her behave so differently. I felt like maybe something was going wrong. Luckily, it wasn't anything serious, but afternoon blood work did show that she needed another blood transfusion. Maddie is anemic and her body is not producing red blood cells at a fast enough pace to make up for the red blood cells that are being broken down (perfectly normal for premature babies) - so the transfusion will give her that red blood cell boost that she needs. So yesterday she had her 4th blood transfusion and today she had her 5th. My poor baby - just as she went off of the IV, she needed to get it put back in. And to make matters worse, she couldn't eat for over 24 hours! Try telling a newborn baby who JUST got used to eating and keeping all her yummy food down, that now she can't eat! It wasn't pretty. Let's just say that we learned that Maddie definitely doesn't have any problems with her vocal cords, and it seems that those lungs of hers are now fully developed! But there is a drastic difference in her behavior and the way she looks. The transfusions definitely did the trick and Maddie is back to her old self. She's up to 20ml of food every 3 hours and they're adding a fortifier to my milk now in order to provide more calories and try to bulk her up. As of tonight she's 2lbs 7.8oz. I got to hold her for a nice long time today and enjoyed every second of it. She got a little too comfy a couple times and forgot to breathe, having a couple apnea/bradycardia episodes, but other than that, we had a great time being together today. Mike was at work, so I used the alone time to tell her some funny daddy stories. ;-)
Melia is pretty much in the same boat as Madison. While she didn't need a transfusion just yet, the doctor said that her bloodwork shows her red blood cell count getting a little low, so they anticipate a transfusion being needed in the upcoming days (good thing Mike donated that blood when he did, turns out the girls really did need it). So unfortunately, she too will have to endure the pain of the IV once again, and what's probably even worse for her, she'll be without food for over a day. I'm not looking forward to hearing her reaction to that! She's up to 28ml of food every 3 hours and they're adding the fortifier to my milk for her feedings also. As of tonight Lia is 3lb 3.4oz. I got to hold her for a long time today too. Lia handles being held a little better than Maddie. While she held her breathe a couple times and needed a little nudge, she didn't have any apnea/bradycardia episodes.
So overall the girls continue to do very well. With the exception of a few apnea/bradycardia episodes here and there - and a couple blood transfusions, everything has been going exceptionally well. And even these things are expected with such premature babies, so they're doing pretty much what they're expected to do at this point. Dr. Kamtorn said that we might try to introduce the bottle to them later on this week since they'll be 32 weeks on Thursday. They won't quite know what to do with the bottle, but it's all about introducing it to them so that they can start to learn how to eat by bottle rather than a feeding tube. So we are looking forward to that.
That's all for now. Stay tuned....
- Mike and Amanda
- I am a 29 year old mother of identical twin girls, Madison and Melia. They were born at 29 weeks, 1 day gestation and spent 8 weeks in the NICU at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, NJ. They hit 40 weeks gestation on August 20, 2009 and are now considered full term. Even though they are actually 11 weeks old, they are just now considered to be newborns. I started this blog as a way to keep friends and family informed on what was going on with the girls while they were in the NICU. It has turned into a keepsake and a therapuetic outlet. I hope that everyone continues to follow along and enjoys sharing this first hand experience of first-time parents of premature twin girls.
Words that I came to live by while on strict bedrest for 6 weeks during my pregnancy, 4 of which were spent in the hospital ~ Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination. Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.
