Week Ten In the NICU

The girls were born 10 weeks ago.  Today, Hazel is 6 lbs (woohoo!) and Abigail is 5 lbs, 12 ounces.  I was looking at the pictures of them from the first week of their life, and whoa, we've come a long way.  Lately it seems like the tunnel is neverending, but I know we're getting close.  It's just hard to get your hopes up and then be disappointed by a setback, so I'm trying to be more temperate about it.

In the meantime, Dr. Soon called today and said the girls are getting really, really close.  In fact, he was talking about how soon it may be before Hazel can come home, which really shocked me, since it seemed like Abby had jumped her.  Apparently the race down the homestretch as to who will be discharged first is neck and neck (forgive the horse race analogies - the Preakness was this past weekend so its on my mind).

A culture was (will be) done on Abby today to make sure the antibiotics have cleared up her UTI.  Tomorrow they're going to do an ultrasound to make sure her kidneys and bladder are okay, and are not predisposed to these type of infections.  Melissa, our nurse today, needed to put a catheter in to get a urine sample, and since I hadn't walked into NICU3 yet (I was still talking to Bonnie, the unit clerk), she suggested I wait until they were done (so I wouldn't have to hear or watch Abby get poked by a large needle).  After a nice conversation with Bonnie (upon hearing what Matt does, she wants to work at his company) and watching the admittance of a "sick" baby (diagnosis unknown to me) at the scrub station, I went into the NICU.  Turns out the catheter attempt was unsuccessful; Melissa and Annalise told me Abby had "an uncooperative urethra."  For some reason that phrase cracks me up.  :)

My day in the NICU was relatively uneventful.  I fed the girls, took their temps, changed their diapers, pumped, and chatted with the nurses and Jennifer.  It will definitely be nice to have the girls home, but I'm going to miss visiting with the NICU nurses every day.  While there are one or two that are not my favorites, the vast majority of the nurses are fun, nice, and pleasant company. 

Not too many pictures today.  I could probably take a thousand of each girl every day, but if I did and posted them all I'd lose all three of my readers due to boredom.  "How many pictures do you need of a sleeping girl????"  Exactly my point.  :)

Hazel at 10 weeks old and SIX whole pounds.

Sleeping Abby.  She was wide awake for the longest time this afternoon - just checking stuff out.