Day 39 and Day 40 (35 weeks)

The girls have continued to do well over the past couple days. Things have been so up and down, especially with Madison, that's it's almost too good to be true. She looked tired tonight and had one brady episode, and my mind automatically starts to think that something is wrong. I think maybe my mother's intuition is turning into paranoia. I asked her night nurse to pay close attention to how many bradys she has tonight (if any). I'll definitely be calling in the middle of the night to check on her and if she's had any more, I'll ask to speak to the doctor. I hate to be this way - thinking that just because she's sleepy that's something is wrong - sounds ridiculous to most people I guess - I mean, babies sleep, that's what they do. I don't want to be that mom who freaks over every little thing, but all things considered, I just can't help myself. Aside from being a little on the sleepy side, and that one brady episode, Maddie looked really good throughout the day. She was very alert and active at certain times during the day and her color is looking better than ever. The doctor drew another blood culture yesterday and so far it's negative (but this type of Staph infection can take up to 48 hours to grow in a culture, so we still have to wait it out for the final result). The deal is that she'll have to be on the antibiotics for 7 days after a negative blood culture is drawn - so hopefully this culture stays negative so she can be done with the antibiotics and IVs in 5 days. The spinal tap culture is still negative also, which is excellent news. They took her off of lipids and electrolytes today since her feedings have been increased up to 25mls every 3 hrs and she's tolerating these feedings well (this is a part of the reason that my paranoia has set in - every time she gets up to this amount of milk, she gets sick - but hopefully her tummy is past this). She is taking all of her feedings by bottle and is doing excellent with this - taking 100% of her feedings by bottle and not requiring the feeding tube at all, so it hasn't had to be put back in - hopefully as her feedings increase she can continue to do this well.

Melia is also taking all of her feedings by bottle. For 2 days now she has taken 100% of her feedings by bottle - so Melia is now tube-free also! We can finally see the both little ladies without tape on their face or tubes in their nose or mouth. Melia is up to 43mls every 3 hrs and is tolerating this amount very well. She's still having some trouble pacing herself during feedings. Mike and I really have to pay close attention to her sucking and breathing to make sure that she doesn't desaturate or brady during a feeding, but as long as we pace her, she does really well. She had an apnea episode last night while she was sleeping for the first time in a long time, so that's something that the nurses will keep a close eye on. But most times, she does very well with her breathing while sleeping. There hasn't been any further mention of her going home, but now that she's taking all of her feedings by bottle, I can see the doctors dropping that on us any day now!
Tomorrow the girls will be 6 weeks old. Next Thursday will be the 36 week mark gestastionally - this is their "target date" to go home and I can't believe that Melia may actually be home on or about her target date. Looking back at pictures from June 5th until now, I can't believe how much progress they've made. It's so amazing - THEY are so amazing!