Days 63-66 - March 27-30

Happy Easter! We had a little Easter photo shoot with the girls.

Aubrey was asleep during most of the picture taking, and Paige was crying during most of the picture taking. In all the pictures, Aubrey is on the left and Paige is on the right.

Here's a family photo. Apparently I wasn't wearing very Eastery colors.  Oops.

These next two pictures capture the true difference between Paige and Aubrey, haha.

Here's a picture showing their dirty little faces (they each got a bath that night)

Here's mommy holding her two little ones.

And here's one more (this time Paige is on the left).

Both girls are now in open "cribs". I use the term loosely because their crib is a clear plastic bucket with a hard mattress on the bottom.  Here's Aubrey in hers.

The buckets are inclined to help with their reflux (heartburn).  It's very quiet in our room now that the incubators are out.

The only thing that is really new from last post (besides the Easter pictures, of course) is that both girls had another eye exam.   Both girls are showing signs of stage 1 retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), so Andrea and I are bummed about that.  Stage 1 is the most mild form of the condition, and we're told that 90% of infants with stage 1 ROP typically grow out of it on their own with no need for treatment.  The doctors told us that they are actually surprised that the girls didn't have ROP earlier given how premature they were.  They'll have another eye exam in two weeks, so that will give us a better idea of what is going on.

Aubrey's feedings are up to 40 mL every 3 hours (38 last post) and her oxygen requirements fluctuate between 20 - 40 mL per minute (about the same as last post).  We still try bottle feeding her about twice daily.  Sometimes she does a decent job and drinks 15 mL, sometimes she isn't interested at all and doesn't take any.

Paige's feedings are up to 35 mL every 3 hours (34 last post) and her oxygen hovers between 100 - 160 mL per minute (about the same).  She still isn't getting the whole bottle feeding thing.

At this point, the question is "When can they go home?"  In general, there are 3 requirements:
1) Be able to maintain body temperature in open crib (they do this fine)
2) Be able to eat enough to grow (can't do this yet)
3) Be medically stable, which for them means no decreases in oxygen levels and heart rates (they're both having problems with this still)

We assume that both girls will be in the NICU for at least 2 or 3 more weeks.