So, I'm still out of commission with an even higher fever today than yesterday. All signs are pointing towards one thing, a breast infection. I won't go into detail because that's not what this blog is about - but my fever should break by tomorrow afternoon since it will be 48 hours since I've started the antibiotics. I'm really hoping that's the case. Today was day 2 that I was unable to see the girls. Mike is working tomorrow and if I'm not better, they won't have either one of us there tomorrow.
As for the girls - it seems that at the early age of just one month old, the sibling rivalry has begun! The girls are in a full blown weight gaining competition. Maddie seems to be determined to catch up to her sister, weighing in at 3lbs 1.6oz tonight!! (she actually hit the 3lb mark last night, just crossing over at 3lbs .1oz, but I didn't have her weight when I blogged) But, don't count the little weed out, she's still growing too and as of tonight is officially a 4 pounder! Yup, Lia now weighs 4lbs even! Just as Maddie hits the 3lb mark, Lia hits the 4lb mark. She wants no part of her sister catching up to her. Ah, their first competition, sniff sniff. :-)
Everything else with the girls is pretty much status quo today. Maddie's feedings were increased to 10mls every 3 hours. She's doing okay with her feedings, sometimes tolerating her food better than other times, but overall doing well with it. Dr. Kamtorn made mention to Mike this morning that she'll probably be needing another transfusion soon. I'm not sure why exactly that is but there must be something in her bloodwork that indicates that her red blood cells or hemoglobin are getting low again. Lia continues to thrive, tolerating all of her feedings at 35ml every 3 hours. She's still working on getting her bottle feedings down, but this will come in time. She's still getting 2 of her feedings by bottle each day. Sometimes she takes her whole bottle, or close to it - other times she'll take less than half of her bottle. I think it depends on what time of day it is and how awake she is. Maddie is also getting 2 bottle feedings per day and she's taking all 10ml by bottle with no problems. We'll see if she can keep this up as her feedings get increased. This is a lot of work for these little ones, so it will take some time for them to get it all figured out enough to be consistent with it.
Not much else to report today. And all things considered recently - no news is good news! And no new pictures again, sorry. Daddy can't seem to get himself together when Mommy isn't at the hospital with him. haha.
The girls are making great strides. If they keep it up, they'll be home before we know it! ;-)
- 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.
