Another big milestone
Look Ma, no isolette! Yep, both kids have officially graduated out of their isolettes and I couldn't be happier. This was the view that struck me as my freezing butt walked into their room this morning (I decided to ride my scooter into the hospital -- it as 35 degrees out... Yikes!). Not only are the kids out of their isolettes, but they are sharing a single crib. They look so cute all snuggled up together. I just realized that I'm becoming that parent all other non-parents complain about. You know the one, the parent who constantly talks about their kids and how cute they are. Oh well, so be it... you'll all just have to deal. Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah, a single crib.
The kids are doing great and Emma is MUCH MUCH happier now. Even though she's still on the CPAP, this is more tolerable for her. She has someone to look at and interact with constantly (e.g. her sister). Her new goal is to reach 2500 grams. The doctors over at Children's Hospital told us they want to see her reach that weight before they do surgery. So that's our next big milestone for her. As of last night she weighed 1934 grams or 4 lbs 5 oz, so we don't have too far to go. She's been gaining about 40 grams a day, so we should reach that goal in about 4 weeks.
Oh, I almost totally forgot to tell you all this. Ella is no longer using supplemental oxygen. No CPAP, no cannula, nothing. She's breathing entirely on her own. Her feedings have also been shortened to a realistic 30 minutes too. There are only 2 milestones left for her before she can come home. She needs to learn how to nipple feed and she has to stop have apnea events. Once she accomplishes both of those, she'll be coming home. Wow.
One last thing I wanted to mention to you all. You'll think I'm crazy, but each girl has already developed a noticeable personality. Ella is quite vocal, especially at 1 am. For her, she thinks 1am is the middle of the day or something. She continually grunts and does what we call "the Stevie Wonder", where she closes her eyes and moves her head back and forth. It's quite funny. She loves to be held, but won't really pay attention to you if you hold her. She's quite interested in punk rock. I spent an hour telling her the entire story of the Sex Pistols and she was attentive to the entire thing. When I started calling her "punk rock girl", from the Dead Milkmen song of the same name, she perked right up and responded.
Emma on the other hand, is not that vocal except when she's upset. Did you ever hear a small "yappy dog" bark and wonder how such a small animal can make such an irritating loud noise? That's Emma. When she's pissed, she lets you know it and how. She loves wearing colors other than pink (I swear I can tell), and she's very responsive to music or singing. She doesn't respond to loud banging music, but loves it when you sing old Beatles songs to her. I must have sung "Yellow Submarine" 30 times to her the other morning. Figures, I just read that Paul McCartney wrote that as a children's song. Well anytime I stopped singing or sang another song, Emma got really upset...yes, yappy dog upset. I now officially hate that song. Thank god I have all the old Beatles songs ripped and stored on my iPod. I guess I'll be setting up the nursery so she can listen to it.
Oh, on a final note. Thanks to all of you who've donated already to Climb For Kids. I just confirmed that our amazing doctor, Dr. Peter Wall, is going to be climbing with us up the mountain. So, if you ever wanted to climb Mt. Rainier, now is your chance. If you haven't donated yet, what are you waiting for?