Recharging

Today, I got to hold and feed both of my babies. It's funny how different they are already. Ray, when taking the bottle goes to town, has such a strong suck that he gets the milk waving in the bottle, gets ahead of himself in his gusto and enthusiasm and then he starts to brady (slow heart rate) and dstat (too little oxygen in blood) and is only taking part of his meal via the bottle and part via gavage (tube through nose into stomach via pump) since he went to 4 bottles per day. I can control him getting too much a little bit by reducing the amount of milk in the nipple or removing it, but only to a certain extent. Since they started Ray on bottle with every other feeding, he gets tired and can't finish it all and he lost a bit of weight last night so we are holding steady on him a bit. Nora, when taking the bottle is much slower and paces herself and is a bit more tentative. She takes a bit (today with me it was about 10 ml) and then just stops making it clear she is finished thank you very much. Not as dramatically as Ray's brady's and dstats, but by just stopping, all finished, done, no more. She's "nippling" twice a day right now. In both cases, the babes did a bit better and was able to take a bit more from the bottle with me than with the nurses (or so I was told). Possibly the soft soothing praise as I coach them through it telling them how great they are doing and how smart they are for taking deep breaths and remembering to breath and to take their time, no rush. Ah, we are getting there.

Nora is still off oxygen and doing fine. She had a bit of trouble overnight maintaining her body temperature once moved to the bassinet, but they day nurse warmed her up with some warm blankets and put her in long sleeves and she did great all day. With the oxygen, the move from the incubator, and the nippling, she has had a big few days and is doing great. It was so nice to see her face free of tape and tubes (with the exception of the small gavage tube through her nose now). She sure is a beauty if I do say so myself (and I do). She gained again last night and is 1/2 oz shy of 4 lbs. She's just doing remarkable.

Ray is holding his own. He lost a bit of weight last night. He's still on oxygen, but it was reduced again. Overall, he is doing well. He was so far ahead of Nora, but she is catching up fast. He's like the hare and she's like the turtle in many ways. I wonder how that will play out as they grow.

Max is doing well and having a great time in Arizona.

Me, I'm using the time to recharge a bit. I got to bed at a decent time last night. Woke up a bit later than normal to pump (and pumped 400 ml's which is my highest single yield ever to date), and then went back to sleep for another hour or so until the phone woke me up. I needed it the extra few hours of sleep. I felt so much less tired and drained today than I have. I'm also feeling proud because I took the morning (and it took all morning and then some) and got through the stack of papers on the counter, the stack of papers in my bed room, and the stack of papers in my office. I filed, and recycled, and paid bills. I made a few phone calls one of which was to make Max's 3 year ped appointment. I guess I should have done it a few months ago because I got the first appointment available which is in early October. Oh well. I hope that's okay with his school. I'll have to double check next week. I'm feeling pretty caught up and rested at the moment. I thought about trying to set up evening plans with friends and then decided to not and see how things went. I'm glad I didn't because I'm actually enjoying a bit of time to myself. It has been far too long.