We have some seriously fat babies on our hands. They each gained 2 ounces last night, which is not unusual for our little overachievers (1 ounce a day is considered normal/goal). The doctor who saw them today is very impressed with their track record. The current stats are:
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/Brinlee 4 pounds 6 ounces
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/Kimball 4 pounds 8.5 ounces
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/Sawyer 5 pounds 1.5 ounces
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/We are so excited about the way they are gaining, and that Sawyer broke 5 pounds. It is definitely related to how they are feeding, which is the next topic. They graduated to 2 bottles a day plus one breastfeeding. Some days one or all of them will breastfeed like a champ, or show no interest at all. For example, today Kimball just could not wake up. He was konked out. At this stage breastfeeding takes a lot of focus and concentration on their part, so sleeping through it does not work. Sawyer did pretty well, and Brinlee did great. She has been the most consistent. She is also doing the best with the bottles. She finished hers in 10 minutes yesterday. They have a maximum of 30 minutes to finish, or it starts using more calories than they are getting. Finishing in 10 minutes is like running a 4-minute mile. Kimball and Sawyer take anywhere from 20-30 minutes to finish. They are each getting about 40 ccs (1.3 ounces) a feeding.
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/Ever since they moved to the preemie nursery from NICU, they have been seen by the nurse practitioners instead of the doctors. The doctors mostly visit the really sick babies. This weekend all the nurse practitioners are unavailable, or something, so the doctor is seeing them. We are constantly asking the question you are never supposed ask: When are our babies coming home? We ask everyone. The babies constantly have different nurses, so we ask them too. Maybe we just want someone to tell us what we want to hear. Soon. The NP has been saying they’ll come home by their due date if we’re lucky. That’s in 5 weeks. 5 weeks. If we’re lucky. Maybe by Christmas. Christmas? That sounds soooooo far away. We don’t care for that answer. So what did I ask the doctor tonight when he called to give us the update on our beautiful babies? The unaskable, of course. His answer surprised us most of all. He said in a week or a week and a half. What!! He said that at this gestational stage (they are 35 weeks and 3 days), their progress just takes off. He thinks their bottle feeding will progress very quickly. They have to take 8 bottles a day for 2 days. They also have to pass the car seat test. They have to sit in it for an hour without having an apnea episode. So he advised us to get ready. A week and a half is a whole lot different than 5 weeks maybe. Why the discrepancy? That’s what I’ll ask our nurse tomorrow 🙂
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/We took our infant CPR class today, which is a requirement for all parents of NICU babies. Adam has the next week off for the holiday, so he and I are going to study the car seats and practice taking them in and out of our van. I read some obscene statistic that something like 85% of car seats are installed incorrectly. We are going to have them checked at our local fire station to be sure. Atlanta is full of crazy drivers talking on their cell phones, and we don’t want our precious babies to become statistics.
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/All in all the babies have a great team of professionals helping them during this time. We get the odd nurse that we don’t like, but no one incompetent. One problem is conflicting goals. The PTOT is very focused on getting them bottle feeding, because that’s her job and it gets the babies home. So she wanted me to choose between coming to the hospital to breastfeed or bottle feed (I can only go once a day). The babies can learn to bottle feed without me, but I am a key player in the breastfeeding practice. If you ever need an advocate, sic a lactation consultant on whomever may be giving you trouble. The lactation consultants at our hospital have been very good to me. They have intervened for me many times. I really appreciate their help. They are passionate about what they do, and have been really great about helping me achieve my goal of breastfeeding these babies, making sure they get all breastmilk in the hospital, and cheering me on.