Waiting

Lauren has been home for over a week now and we are starting to fall into a routine, which will soon be thrown out the window. We were told to plan on bringing Logan home over the weekend, but he is still at the hospital.  When they are switched over to demand feedings without their feeding tubes they are weighed daily to make sure they are continuing to gain weight.  Unfortunately, Logan lost weight Friday night, so he now has to show two days of weight gain again before being released.  We are hoping that we will be able to bring him home early this week. They were moved into the step down room where there is less monitoring and is mainly filled with babies that need time to grow.

Sam had had more episodes of apnea than our other two, so they have him hooked up to additional monitors that record every breath and heartbeat for 3 days.  The doctors review the data to see when he has these episodes, how long they last, etc.  They do not usually count the spells they have when they are eating; mainly just the ones that occur while they are sleeping or while they are alone.  He had two apnea episodes Saturday morning while sleeping that were only a couple minutes apart.  His heart rate dropped down into the 70-80 range, but he did bring it back up on his own.  When it happened again only a few minutes later, the nurse decided to go wake him. He will probably "fail" this test and buy himself more time in the NICU.  We are hoping that a few days or a week more to mature will help him grow out of these spells.  It's really scary to think that this could happen when he comes home, so we are willing to wait until he is done with these before taking him home.

Brad was finally able to visit the boys in the hospital today! It had been three weeks since he had been there, so they have changed a lot in that time.  I notice changes after just missing a day of visiting, so I can't imagine what it would be like to see them after weeks.  I know he missed seeing them, so I am glad we were able to go today.

Lauren is doing well at home.  She has quickly learned that it is much better to sleep while being held rather than on her own! She sometimes seems to have trouble digesting her meals, so we usually hold her until she falls asleep before putting her down.  She is a noisy little girl-grunting, squeeking, etc., and I keep telling her she can't do those noises after eating when she is older! She is eating better now than when we first brought her home though, so I shouldn't complain about the noises!

The babies will be one month old this week, but really only 36 weeks gestation.  I can't believe it has already been this long! It's hard because the boys are still in the NICU, so it doesn't feel completely real yet.  That will change as they come home! Thank goodness for the help from our families because I don't think I would be able to function at this point, let alone when all 3 are home! Brad and I actually both slept in our room last night for the first time in about 3 weeks. Oh how I missed that bed! Sleeping on the couch just isn't the same! My mom came over and took the night feedings so we could get some sleep. Hopefully we will be able to do that a bit more often!

Our girl is grunting so I'd better go see what's going on!