Sophia Home! Twins Reunited!

Yesterday was a great day... we went to the hospital and picked up Sophia. Our family's now all home! We can't begin to describe how happy Myra and I are now that the girls are home and doing so well.

We brought Mila with us to pick her up and when we were ready to go a page went out to the whole NICU. All thedoctors and nurses came by to say goodbye and congratulate us. They even the give the girls a little diploma for graduating from the NICU.

When we brought them home we put the girls in the same crib, and they immediately grabbed eachother's hand. (No, I didn't get a picture of that - shame on me)

Sophia had a bit of a rough night getting used to the new diggs, and kept us awake pretty much all night. We certainly expected to have some sleepless nights with twins, and we're not complaining.

The Visiting Nurse came today and checked out both girls. They are doing great. Mila is now 7 pounds! Sophia is 6 lbs 12oz. They have their first pediatrician appointment tomorrow..

Here are some pix:

Here's Sophia almost ready to go. Her hat wound up being about 4 sizes too big. As long as it was out of her eyes, she didn't care.

Here she is all strapped in and ready to leave. By the way, her beautiful little sweater was made by Mrs. Grant, a good friend and mom to our friends Jason and Jenniffer (yes there are two 'f's and two 'n's). She also made us some gorgeous buntings and hats for the girls.

Finally, here are the girls reunited at last. I'll let you guess who is who and tell you the answer at the end of this entry. It's getting harder for even us to tell them apart - in profile it's especially difficult. Head on Mila's face is rounder, while Sophia's more oval. Sophia also has comparitively chubbier cheeks.

Last night the girl's Ninong (godfather) Jason and their auntie Christine came by and we ordered Chinese food. Chistine's son Quinn was a preemie too and spent a lot of time in the NICU. He's a little over a year old now, a big boy, off all his meds, and doing really well. Christine held Sophia for a while last night while I held Sophia.

So the answers to who's who in the picture above: Miss Sophia is on the left, and Miss Mila is on the right.

Mila is Home!

We finally got Mila home today and she's doing great. It's taking her a little bit getting used to her new environment, but she's eating very well.

Here she is waving goodbye to the NICU.

And here she is all dressed up and ready to go. All the nurses came out to see her go out the door in her little outfit.

She took her first car ride very well even with the terrible roads and noisy traffic.

She's been a little fussy since coming home. I think it's being away from her sister in a quieter environment. She did spend 52 days (her entire life) basically in the same four walls. The good thing is that we can just pick her up and hold her whenever we want.

This will be our first night having to do all the feedings, so we'll see how sleep-deprived we get.

We have a Visiting Nurse coming by tomorrow to check her out and we'll take her to see Sophia at 5.

Here is her first photo at home.

Sophia Has a Minor Setback

We were all set to bring Sophia home today. We were at the hospital, had filled out all the discharge paperwork, and even dressed her in her outfit to go home. I was feeding her, and she had a heartrate drop. It was low enough to alarm and, just to be cautious, the doctor set her back to 3 days count.

The bradycardia isn't considered that significant because it was short, self resolving, not accompanies by oxygen desaturization, and hapened duing a feeding. It's not concerning, but the hospital is extremely cautious. Some hospitals may have ignored the spell and sent her home anyway.

Sophia is now due to come home on Monday. Mila is still due tomorrow.

We were literally 10 minutes away from walking out the door with her. We were heartbroken. We've gotten to know some of the other NICU parents, and this is very common. it's probably the most frustrating and disappointing part of having preemies in the NICU.

Here are some pix I took of Sophia (meant to capture her before she left the hospital):

Here's an ear-to-ear grin. She was very happy while mommy was holding her. She and her sister both enjoy showing off their tongues.

Here she is hanging out with mommy. Despite her acting up a little, she was wide awake this morning and making all kinds of faces and noises. Both girls are such characters!

This is Sophia in her coming-home outfit, courtesy of Grammy-Jean. We were so sad to take it off her and put her NICU shirt back on.

With luck, Mila will still be home tomorrow, and we'll get Sophia home Monday. We'll bring Mila in to see her sister once a day until she gets home, and Myra and I will take split shifts at the hospital.

GIrls on Target to Come Home This Weekend

The girls are doing great - eating, sleeping, growing, and pooping. They are still on Target to come home Friday (Sophia), and Saturday (Mila).

Sophia is now 6lbs 6oz - which is double her birthweight. Mila is 6lbs 11 oz - 3 pounds more than her birthweight. The girls are eating about twice their minimum at each feeding - which explains why they are growing so much.

Here is Mila engaging in her favorite activity - chowing down. She's very smart and motivated - she'll grab for the bottle when she sees it. In fact, she tried to grab her sister's bottle the other day.

Here's Sophia napping. Compare this picture of her to the one at the top right side of this blog. You can definitely see that she's packed on the pounds. Look at those chubby cheeks!