Tonight's Visit

We just got back from our evening care visit with the girls, and they are continuing to do well. Both the girls are each gaining about 2 ounces a day. That's the equivalent of to a 150 pound person putting on about 5 pounds a day.

We were still concerned about the number of spells Mila has been having. Today they did a blood culture on her and found out she is anemic. It's pretty common for preemies to lose red blood cells faster than they can produce them. It's exacerbated by the fact that they get their blood drawn frequently.

Tonight Mila is getting a blood transfusion to help with the anemia. Preemies only get O+ blood that has been checked for a number of viruses beyond those checked for normal donated blood. The blood is then irradiated to kill any bacteria. Since preemies are immuno-suppressed, they are unable to have allergic reactions (at last an advantage!).

They told us that she might be a bit moody tomorrow. Her nurse said they sometimes joke that the kids are getting a dose of brat-blood.

The goal is to increase her ability to carry oxygen in her bloodstream and reduce her spells. Hopefully we'll be able to get her off the CPAP stuff tonight. When we take it off to weigh her, she looks and acts so happy.

Sophia is just super. She got her nasal cannula off so frequently without any ill effects, they decided to leave it off. I held her tonight and she was in a great mood, looking at me when I talked to her, and then looking at Myra when she was talking.

Tonight the girls got to meet their Ninong Jason Grant. He agreed that they were very cute, and if he hadn't - Myra would have bopped him.

We are hoping that the girls might get their first bath tomorrow. We may be able to start bottle-feeding sometime next week. Everything is day by day, but we like to set little goals.