It was a long day but a good one. The kids were amazing as usual. It is so funny now that they can open their eyes.. they each watch me while I am doing something with the other one. If I am changing Austin's diaper, Grace is watching and vice versa.. hilarious.. already competing for my attention.
Today was a huge milestone.. they tried what is called non-nutritive feeding and that means that I pump first and then they try to latch on without actually getting any milk. By the time I got them all situated, it had been a few hours since I had pumped and I had milk backing up but didn't think they would actually latch. Grace was first and she latched immediately! and she did GREAT!!!! She nursed off and on for 10 minutes, wow!! I am so proud of her bc she is tiny and she didn't give up at all. Being that Grace did so well, I thought for sure that Austin would reject it but he did the same thing.. latched right on. Apparently, that is not the norm for premmies so I am feeling super proud of my two little stars!
We were hoping that they would be transferred to open air cribs in the next few days but with the issues Grace has been dealing with in terms of her hematacrit (anemia), they think it will be next week. Regulating their temperatures takes energy and calories are burned so it would be safer to keep them in. Now that they are breastfeeding, they will burn even more energy. Today, her hematocrit was 26 which is down from last week..It should coincide with their gestational age of 33 and obviously isn't. Austin's is down now too which sucks but we did find out that Tom's blood is a match so we have the samples ready and waiting. They would each get a transfusion to help build their red blood cell count. We will know more over the next week..
Updates
Grace
She still weighs 4lbs. 7 oz. and her feedings are the same, 36ML but she is still gaining weight.. woo hoo! The events have really slowed down this week for Grace and she is down to just a few each day, huge improvement. She has grown too and is now 16 1/2", up 1/2" since she was born.
Austin
His feedings got increased today to 42ML! He is growing soo fast! He still weighs 4lbs. 13 oz. and is doing so well. He went an entire night without a single event.. and even now, he only has a few here and there and resolves them himself. Yay! He has grown in length to 17 3/4" - up from 16" at birth.
Something fun was that my cousin/sister, Kirsten came to visit us today. It was wonderful to see her again and catch up.. ;)) Family is so important right now and having her close by is very comforting to me. It was a successful day and I'm feeling really blessed for all of the positive steps we have been taking lately. Thank you God!
Much love to you all,
Erica and Tom
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