Scrambling (In a Good Way!)

Hope and I will eventually go back and finish the drafts of posts we’ve started over the last week for posterity and past progress, but we just wanted to quickly give an update. We were pretty shocked when we were told that there’s a possibility that the girls will be discharged this Wednesday! 😱 Needless to say, we’re very excited, but really stressed and slightly terrified, and it sent us scrambling to figure out general life logistics, whether we had everything ready in the nursery (think we’ll need blinds?), and just had us questioning how common it was for 36 weekers to be discharged, and whether it’s because they’re doing so well or whether they just need additional beds in the unit. And we definitely will be spending a lot of time tomorrow making sure it’s the former.

Regardless, bottle feeding is going pretty well, with both girls taking around 40ml each feeding. Their NG tubes were removed yesterday, so we’re kind of flying without a food safety net at this point. Hope and I have each had scary moments where it seemed like the girls got overstimulated and just forgot to breath for a little bit, but they’ve recovered pretty quickly each time so far. As much as I hate having the monitors constantly dinging at us, I have to admit that it will take some time to adjust not having them available to look at for assurance when we bring them home.

We also had car seat tests for each girl today. For these tests they need to place and properly fit each in their car seats, and leave them be for two hours, monitoring their vital signs throughout. Sammi didn’t pass her test due to being pretty stressed out, which caused an increase in her heart rate and an oxygen desaturation, but Josie passed. It actually seemed like she was pretty bored with the whole event!

Current weigh-in: Sammi, 4lbs even; Josie, 4lbs. 13oz.

Fireworks

Happy Fourth of July from the Wahlmark family!

Chris and I went home for two days while Baba stayed with our two fireworks in order to organize baby stuff and get the nursery together. Early on we decided to do a circus theme for the nursery (since let’s face it, going from just having a cat to raising two infants is going to be circus) and we’re pretty happy with the outcome considering our time constraint! 

Current weigh-in: Sammi, 3lbs. 11oz.; Josie, 4lbs. 6oz.

Hanging Out with Baba!

Baba was in her element spending time snuggling both girls today. Neither girl had any complaints about leaving their bassinets to be doted on and admired! They are living such a hard life ;)  

Mom very much appreciated having a second set of hands to take care and love on the girls! (pictures to come - we have pictures on so many different phones, cameras and cards we have a lot of sorting to do )

Let's Meet Nonno and Baba!

Since the girls have finally hit the 34 week mark they are allowed to be held by what are called support persons. Chris and I got to choose 4 people that can enter the NICU without us and interact with the girls. We added both of our parents to the list. 

Grandpa Licciardello who is called Nonno (Italian for grandfather) got to hold Sammi for the first time! I’d say she looks very comfy :) 

At this point in time the biggest thing we’ve noticed is that both are keeping their eyes open longer and attempting to follow movement. They are both still super sensitive to light so if you shade their eyes you’ll often see a sliver of parting eyelids and then if you’re lucky wide eyes!

Chris has to go home to work this whole week so mom and grandma Licciardello affectionately named baba (Ukrainian for grandmother) are having a girls week! 

Bring on the Bottle

It feels like things are advancing pretty quickly here lately. Sammi is almost ready to get out of her incubator (should happen any day now) and Josie is starting to bottle feed! Both girls have been showing signs of rooting, and Josie has really taken to her pacifier, so they’re now seeing how she does with a bottle. Hope got to do the honors of the first bottle feed, and it was just slightly more stressful than we both anticipated. Between holding the baby at the correct angle, starting and stopping the feed, looking signs of reflux or distress, and having to burp what still feels like a very tiny, fragile human, it was pretty overwhelming, but she took 7ml on her first try, so that seems like a great start to us.