The Pair of Scates: 36 Weeks

I would have been 36 weeks pregnant today. So it's been 8 weeks or so since I was pregnant. The time has flown ... some days it seems like we just got to the NICU, and other days it feels like it has been months and months.

Today Hazel was 4 pounds, 14 ounces (up from 2 pounds, 11 ounces at birth), so she's gained 2 pounds, 3 ounces. She was 43 cm long when measured last Saturday night/Sunday morning, which means she has grown about 2 inches in length since she was born (yes, I know, I'm mixing measuring systems).

Abby is 4 pounds, 11.9 ounces today (up from 2 pounds, 8 ounces at birth), so she's gained 2 pounds, 4 ounces. She is also 43 cm long, which means she has grown about 3 inches since she was born.

Both girls look so big now (yes, it's relative, I know). Check out the before and now:

Hazel - 1 day old (3/13/2012)


Hazel - 51 days old (5/2/2012)

Abby - 1 day old (TD pose)

Abby - 51 days old (kung fu pose)

They are definitely adding some chub. ;)

The big news today from Dr. Breed is that Abby will now be bumped up to oral feeds two out of three times. And that's only after two days of every other feeds! For both girls, we'll now be doing breast feeding (or trying to) twice a day, instead of just once a day. He also told me about switching from the vitamin fortifier to the infant formula (same thing Dr. Kinestra mentioned yesterday), which the girls need for growth, since they are premature. (As a side note, he asked how much milk I've been producing, and when I told him between 700 and 800 ml per day, he seemed impressed. Yay.)

Breast feeding with the girls had two very different outcomes today. From the get-go, Hazel was fussy and crying, especially since she had to wait while I changed onesie due to a massively full diaper. She jumped on pretty eagerly, but bradyed/desated three times over the course of 10-15 minutes, so we switched over to the bottle. She did the same thing, so the nurses decided to gavage the rest of her feeding. In retrospect, she probably got over eager (due to being super hungry) and over tired (due to crying) and that's probably what caused the beeping.

Abby, on the other hand, generally does a good job of pacing herself, and today was no exception. There was minimal fussing, and then she latched on, but took her time before starting. She ended up being on for 20 minutes before falling asleep and switching to the bottle for the rest of her feeding (I would have attempted longer, but it was NICU closing time). The best part - NO beeping during the entire 20 minutes! It occurs to me she eats like Matt ... slowly and steadily (in fact, most of the time I'm done with my meal way before him, and then wait and watch [which he hates] while he meticulously eats each food separately).

As I may have mentioned before, the NICU 3 overflow room has grown on me. I like that it is much more laid back than the big room. The radio is usually on (not super loud), and there is much less beeping overall. The only time the room is annoying is when a bunch of parents are in there, because then it gets really loud. But normally when I'm there, it's just me and the three nurses assigned to the nine babies (currently three sets of twins - all girls - plus two other girls and a boy). Anyway, since the babies in NICU 3 are relatively low maintenance, the nurses like to chitchat (of course), so I learn all sorts of interesting things when it's just me and them. Today, for example, one of the nurses happened to lament that her babies were just taken off of caffeine, and while she understood they needed to be weaned off of it, about two or three days later the babies usually have a bunch of desats and episodes. I asked the nurse if she was talking about my girls - she said no - and then I told her that Hazel and Abigail were taken off caffeine earlier this week. All three nurses responded knowingly ("ohhhh"). But the nurse who had mentioned that little tidbit, who didn't know it happened to also apply to my girls, immediately worried that I was going to freak out (nope). So, just an example. Aside from NICU stuff, I also hear the nurses gossip about normal work stuff, travel plans, kids, etc. Sometimes, when I'm behind the screen and pumping/feeding, I wonder if they even remember I'm in there. ;) I have yet to hear anything salacious, though.

On the home front, I'm still working on the nursery. The closet was completely cleaned out two days ago, and in the process of putting the stuff somewhere else I ended up straightening/reorganizing the two linen closets upstairs. I've also got another huge pile going to Goodwill. Ah...I love getting rid of clutter.

Other pics from the day: