The up side

Well, we're back to more good news - this is the roller coaster that is the NICU.  Happy to report that both girls are doing better than when we last posted!

Emerson getting burped, day 12!

Emerson - since she never lost interest in eating, was alert, acting same as her old self, etc, and still having poops, the doctor put her on a watch and didn't order any medical intervention.  Today her belly looks SO much better!  She's rooming in with us again down on the second floor tonight, and then will be discharged tomorrow if all goes well...  which we are not counting on!  We learned our lesson about NICU the hard way. No expectations is the name of our current game...

Charlotte - she had no further decelerations in her heartbeat after the spell Monday night!  So, she's doing well also.  She's still on her same 5 day countdown.  The hard thing about countdowns is that if she has a decel that requires stimulation to come out of, the countdown starts over.  Fingers crossed!  Her having these slowed heartbeats isn't anything to be too scared of in and of themselves - it's just that when she's not on a monitor, we don't know she's having them, and then we don't know to watch her and stimulate as necessary. As one nurse said, she's just now "acting her age".  That is to say - our little 34 weekers were basically superstars (was their any doubt?!) for their first week of life, and acting like 38 weekers. These decels are super common in preemies.  So, our fingers are crossed that she doesn't have any more in the next few days... we'll see!

The other piece of good news is that both girls are gaining weight!  Em is 60 grams above her birth weight, and is now back up to 4 lbs, 4 oz.  Char is almost at her birth weight, and is 4 lbs, 3 oz.  Both girls are exclusively eating breastmilk, which hopefully is helping to fatten them up.