Cute Pix - Mila Having a Rough Day

Here is Miss Mila in her cute little (not so little for her) Christmas dress.

And here is Miss Sophia in her Christmas dress.

Of course these aren't the actual portraits, just a couple of behind the scenes candids. These are the smallest dresses available, but huge on the girls.

Poor Mila had a bit of a rough day today. Her day nurse noticed a significant amount of bood in her stool today. The biggest concern would be a serious problem called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). She had some x-rays and blood-work and it looks like that's not the problem. She has a follow-up x-ray in the morning.

The neonatologist's opinion is it's probably a reaction to something in her feeds. She gets mostly breast-milk, but they do mix some other stuff in. For now they have stopped her feeds, which means that she's back on the IV. If she does well they will start her back on just breast-milk. If she has a problem with that they can try modifying Myra's diet or giving Mila predigested formula.

Mila's on antibiotics again tonight just as a precaution because it can take 2 days for all of her blood cultures to come back.

Apart from that, she appears really healthy and is in good spirits. She broke 5 pounds today!

Sophia is still doing well, although she had a low hematocrit level. This makes her heart rate a bit fast, but they aren't worried about it yet. I bottle-fed her today and she took about 2o CCs - which is great. She tends to be our little rude girl, and tonight during an exam tooted right in mommy's face, and then right in the nurses face.

Our Big Day

Yesterday was a big day for the girls. They both tried bottle feeding for the first time. Both of them coordinated sucking, swallowing, and breathing well. This is a big step for preemies. They tire easily and fall asleep after about 5 minutes. We have to work slowly to build up their stamina.

Both girls are still gaining a ton of weight, and I suspect that Mila will be over 5 pounds tonight.

We had a family portrait session yesterday (photos will be forthcoming). We bought the smallest Christmas dresses we could find and, with the nurse's help, got them on the kids. They were swimming in them, but they both looked so cute. The woman who does the pictures is a former NICU mom and puts together all kinds of programs for the parents. The girls slept through most of the experience.

Both girls are currently off caffeine and handling it well. They got a vaccination last night and are getting eye exams this morning. I don't think they'll have any eye problems, since they like to watch people in the room and are looking at things farther away than newborns are supposed to see. They warned us that the girls may be a bit cranky when we go in. The eye exam isn't painful, but just having somebody bother with their eyes can stress them out.

Mila has a little red spot on her arm which may be a strawberry hemangioma. This is a completley harmless birthmark and may help us tell them apart for a while. These birthmarks tend to fade after about 5-9 years.

Sophia had a low hematocrit level, which may mean she's getting anemic. However, she's asymptomatic - so they aren't worried about her. Yesterday she managed to get her little snap-up t-shirt almost completely off while swaddled. I keep saying that we're going to have to hide the car-keys.