oh REALLY?!

So the babies are doing well today once more.

Mary Louise is feisty as ever and staring down everyone who crosses her path to poke or prod. Her poor heels are taking the brunt of the poking and are bruised already. We are continuing to hope for the vent to be discontinued soon. Also, as of this afternoon, her blood culture was negative. This does not mean it will stay negative (they have to grow for a day or 2 before being considered negative) but it was encouraging all the same. Her oxygen level is back and forth but weaning from the vent is still on the table. They start feeding her breast milk as of 8pm tonight. I am so hoping she tolerates it well. It will start as tiny amounts for a bit then progress as she tolerates it. She will stay on her TPN (IV feedings) until she can take in enough breast milk to sustain her. She actually looks an awful lot like my baby photos.

David has opened both eyes as of today. His eyes may look like mine but the rest of him seems to be all Brent - he even makes the same focused facial expressions. They have been able to wean the rate on his vent to a rather low setting and are trying to wean his oxygen level down. So, he is doing much more of the breathing work himself these days. They are also working on very slow weaning from his blood pressure meds but are (again) keeping his pressure a little higher as he seems to do better that way. (oh our hot-headed kids!) A repeat ECHO was done today and unfortunately his PDA has opened a little. However, it is considered small and doesn't seem to be causing any problems right now so they will not medicate him.

Repeat ECHO's will be done on Monday (I know they are doing one on Mary Louise anyhow). Head ultrasound number 2 will be on Tuesday. This is a HUGE deal to us. If they have normal head ultrasounds this time, they will not have another until discharge. (and oh what a day that will be!!)

The oh REALLY?! title was for me actually. I believe I have officially gotten all major and minor complication pre-and post-pregnancy with the exception of drooling and gestational diabetes (no doubt avoided because I think they usually test around 26 weeks - ha). So I have a ridiculously HUGE rash now. I mean it's really impressive. It started a little yesterday and by this morning covered pretty much my whole body - with the exception of my lower legs and face. I called the lactation consultant and my regular OB to see if anything would cause this after pregnancy. I ended up going in to see Dr. Brown who said it looks like an allergic reaction (to what I have no idea) and gave me steroids and told me to take Zyrtec. I am to go to the dermatologist on Monday if it doesn't subside. I was told I couldn't pass it to the babies - and the neonatologist has seen it and told me I could still pump and visit, etc. But I avoided touching them today just to make sure. It is starting to clear after the first dose of steroids so that's promising. Still itchy though. UGH - what a bizarre happening. Honestly - I couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to.

So glad to hear the neonatologist say "they are both doing well." So desperately wanting this trend to continue...

Love to all,
Heather