The girls' doctor decided that Emily hadn't gained enough weight over the last few days so he changed the new coming home date to Friday. On Friday Abby will definitely be coming home and Emily will come home as long as she continues to gain weight. If she doesn't gain over the next day or so, they'll bump her discharge back until the weekend.


Today Abby took her carseat test and Emily was supposed to take it after I left tonight. During the test the baby sits in her carseat and is hooked up to monitors to confirm that she is able to safely breathe in the seat for one hour. Abby passed without any problems. Emily shouldn't have any problems either, but I'll know for sure in the morning. Below is a picture of Abby during the test.



Emily had her evaluation with the developmental pediatrician today to assess her hearing, sight and strength. They test her ability to follow an image that is passed in front of her eyes as well as her ability to hear a voice and look toward it. The doctor said she has absolutely no developmental problems and is pretty much up to speed with a full term newborn! She also learned how to suck her thumb today and seemed to be quite happy with it. I forgot my regular camera at the hospital tonight, so pictures from my phone will have to do.

Babies are coming home!

Here's the quick rundown on the last couple days. On Sunday the girls were moved into cribs and have been keeping their temperatures up well, so they past the test of being moved into room temperature. Then on Sunday night they were very hungry and have been eating ravenously ever since. Their minimum requirement for each feeding is 25mL, but they had been eating 30-35mL. They have now suddenly started drinking 60mL at some feedings! They seem to want to come home with us as much as we do!

Emily in her crib


Abby in her crib



After a talk with the doctor today about how they are doing, he decided that Thursday would be a good day for them to move in with us! We're SO excited to be able to bring them home!

November 8 Update

The girls are still making great progress. As of noon tomorrow (Sunday) they will both be in cribs. This is a big step for them because it is the last major hurdle that they need to jump (other than ongoing weight gain). The biggest change for the girls is their sudden desire to eat. Until Thursday every feeding was a fight. They had to be forced to take their bottles and they were eating only their minimum requirements every 4 hours. On Friday they suddenly got a hang of eating and started to wake up crying for food every 3 hours. Not only have they been eating, but they have been eating much more than they are required to eat. They are both below their birth weights (just about all babies lose weight during the first few weeks), however they have now started to gain weight again. Abby is up to 3 lbs, 12 oz and Emily is up to 3 lbs, 8 oz. The picture below may just look like an angry baby (Emily), but really it shows the great progress that the girls have made. It shows Emily crying for food!




Hopefully this progress means that the girls will be coming home this week. We'll likely have a date on Monday when the doctor is back in the hospital.

Dad with Abby


This isn't a great picture, but I just love the frog feet so much.


Dad with Emily


Dad with Abby


Colleen with Abby


Emily


Mrs. Bowen with Abby and Liz with Emily

Emily goes wireless too!

Today Emily decided that it was time to catch up to Abby. She was taken off the monitors and also suddenly started eating more than Abby. Before this she was lagging behind a little bit, but they really seem to be on the same track right now. Other than that, everything is going well and hopefully they'll be in cribs by the weekend.

The thought of bringing them home sometime in the near future is really exciting. The nursery is all set up and the only thing it still needs is babies. At this point the only thing the girls have left to do before they can come home is consistently gain weight.

Abby

Abby Goes Wireless!

The girls seem to be making so much progress every day...it feels like I have something huge to write here every day. They are doing incredibly for babies born this early. Both Abby and Emily are eating well, maintaining their body temperatures and growing. They are well on their way to coming home sometime next week! Today Abby's monitoring system was completely removed and now she is wireless! She has done so well to date that she no longer needs to have her vitals monitored all day. Emily will have hers removed tomorrow as long as she keeps up the good work (she had to wait an extra day because she had some breathing problems last Saturday). Within the next couple days the girls should also be moved into cribs which will be the last major change before they are released. We are SO thankful that we have such healthy girls who are doing so well.

We want to thank you all for the visits, cards, calls and e-mails we've received so far. It's great to know how much everyone cares about our family.

Moved into a new nursery!

Today was a big day for our new family - Abby and Emily were upgraded to the Continuing Care Nursery which is the next step on the girls' way to coming home! The girls just need to continue to grow and eat in order to be released. At rounds this morning the doctor said that he thinks it won't be much more than a week until Abby and Emily get to move home with us as long as they keep up the good work.

I was discharged from the hospital today, but decided to take advantage of the hospital's free boarding program so that I could stay close to the girls. The hospital has some rooms available to parents of babies in the NICU at no cost to the families in order to allow the parents to be as involved as possible with the care of their children. While I was very thankful for this opportunity I quickly realized that the beds were not going to work for me as my abs are extremely uncomfortable from the surgery and I'm unable to lie flat at this point. Having to leave the girls at the hospital alone was really a really tough decision, but it is nice to know that they are being taken care of by the great nurses at UMass. To help me feeel a bit better, Byron will be dropping me off at the hospital each morning this week so I can spend the day with the babies.

Here are the girls in the awesome shirts that Justin and Lisa bought for them - all the nurses talk about how cute the shirts look! Thanks guys!










Here's a picture of Emily asleep on Byron's lap. She seems to love snuggling with him.



Now that the girls are in the Continuing Care Nursery we are able to hold them together and take pictures - tomorrow I'll try to take some so that everyone can see how surprised we were to find that they look VERY similar!

More friends come to visit...

Emily and Abby are both off of their IVs and wearing cute baby clothes. We continue to be thankful for the visits of friends joining us in welcoming the twins.