Elephants No More

Josie went up ten grams and Sammi lost ten, but overall things are still going well. They were finally confident enough in Josie’s breathing that they graduated her to a high flow nasal cannula instead of CPAP, so we can finally get rid of the head gear and she can finally be on par with her sister. It also makes skin-to-skin so much easier. Both girls got some time out of their incubators today, and Josie left me an image that will be seared into my mind during our last care time. I’ll spare you the details on that one.

Sammi's Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Who would have thought Sammi’s fifteen minutes of fame would have arrived within a week of her birth? As Hope was finishing up care for Josie, I wandered into the satellite Ronald McDonald House outside of the NICU for some water, and stumbled on a filming session involving a mother and daughter that were in the NICU 21 years ago. The daughter is graduating from college and ABC 27 was there to do a story on her journey and on the NICU as a whole. While Hope and I were leaving, the NICU director asked us whether we’d feel comfortable talking to the mom and daughter and showing them our twins and talking a bit about our experiences. So we did! It was great to meet another parent that went through this process and learn about the kind of invisible bond that all parents of preemies share. I also quickly signed away Sammi’s media rights, and it was really weird to put down her name and very young d.o.b. on the form as the patient! Looking for that to air on Sunday and will try to post the video if I can get it.

Current weigh ins: 2lb. 9oz and 3lbs. Josie is distancing herself a bit. I got a couple hours of skin-to-skin with Sammi and Hope had an hour and a half with Josie.

Supposed to Be Born Day

Sammi is up to 2 lb. 8 oz, and Josie is up to 2 lb. 15 oz. Feeding and growing! Umbilical line should be removed before noon today, which will make skin-to-skin so much easier, and hopefully will decrease their risk of infection.

Sammi is tolerating the high flow thing well, going down from 5l to 4l, still room air. Both kids are so cute and strong. Sammi got some more skin-to-skin with Hope, though the quiet hours at the NICU were not so much today.

Hiccups

Kangaroo Care - Dad's Here Too!

I got to do some kangaroo care today with Samantha! It was really an incredible experience, hard to believe so much life could fit in such a small body. We also had a really funny moment when she started hiccuping, which I’ll put in another post. CPAP is still on both, but they’re really doing great.

Also, Hope finally got discharged today! She was admitted at 4pm on May 9th, which according to the date calculator, means she spent just a little under 9% of 2019 in the hospital. During that time she was in seven different rooms (triage, C section, 3234, triage, 3237, triage, C section) and met more specialized health teams than I care to admit. At least now we know she’s not allergic to penicillin! Anyway, besides almost being hit by a car the moment we left the parking garage, all was good.