6 months old and home for almost 2 months!

The girls are now 6 months old!  Their adjusted age is 3 months.  Here are a couple of pictures of our little old ladies.  They were moving around a lot, so I didn't really get sharp pictures.  I tried explaining to them the importance of sitting still, but they wouldn't listen to me :)  Paige on the left, Aubrey on right.

They're really starting to "grow up" on us.  Both smile a lot when we talk to them and they've discovered that their hands fit in their mouths very well.  Paige will sometimes give us a good giggle, and Aubrey coos at us like she's trying to have a conversation when we talk to her.  They're a lot of fun when they aren't cranky and tired.

The girls had an eye exam a few weeks ago, and things seem to be going very well with their eyes.  The retinopathy of prematurity is resolved in both girls.  Aubrey's retinas are developed just as they should be for her age, and Paige's are almost there.  Her retina blood vessels have not fully grown in yet, but the ophthalmologist says that he has never seen a case where the ROP resolves and the blood vessels don't eventually grow in correctly.  He is not worried about her, but she will have another exam in August just to make sure everything is OK.

Both girls are eating relatively well and gaining weight.  Paige had been eating really sloppy until last week when we experimented with a different bottle.  With the new bottles (which we had already tried and not had luck with two months ago), she now eats nearly leak-free.  I'll include the weight/height chart below, but as of July 25, Aubrey weighed 10 lbs 6 oz and was just a smidgeon under 21 and a half inches.  Paige weighed in at 9 lbs 1 oz and was just a hair taller than her sister at 21 and a half inches.  We took the girls to church for the first time a week ago, and it's weird seeing babies that are only a month or two old just dwarfing our "6-month-old" girls.  Paige still wears newborn diapers, and Aubrey wears size ones but could reasonably fit into newborns if blowouts weren't such an issue with her.

We've started introducing baby cookies to our girls.  They seem to enjoy the flavor, and the end result is usually a lot of drool and crumbs all over everything.  We'll probably introduce rice cereal and pureed veggies in the next few weeks just to give them exposure to foods.

The girls got their 6-month immunizations a couple of days ago.  They did not seem to enjoy that very much.  Aubrey screamed like I've never heard before.

Andrea's grandma came for a visit, so we had 4 generations of girls in our home for a few days while Andrea's mom was still here.  Aubrey on left, Paige on right.

Here are some pictures of our girls with their only great-grandparent.  Andrea thought they were funny pictures, so if great-grandma gets mad, it's Andrea's fault :)

Here's great-grandma laughing while the girls are screaming.  We captured everyone with open mouths.  Aubrey left, Paige right.

Our dog lived with great-grandma for about 6 months while Andrea and the girls were in the hospital, so she wanted to show some appreciation by giving her a lick.  I got lucky and caught great-grandma's and Paige's reaction to the incoming puppy kiss.

Both girls really enjoy watching our dog play around.

Paige has kind of been turning into a mommy's girl.  There are times when nothing I can do will calm her down, and then Andrea will take her and she'll calm down in a matter of seconds.  After I get past my feelings of being rejected by my own daughter, we have a good laugh over it, haha.  Aubrey is happy with whomever gives her attention and talks to her.

Here are some pics of babies with mommy and daddy.  Aubrey is on the left, Paige on the right.

Weight and height time!

Aubrey:

     Day 1 -     2 lbs 2 oz     14 inches
     Day 8 -     2 lbs 7 oz
     Day 17 -   2 lbs 11 oz
     Day 27 -   3 lbs 1 oz
     Day 36 -   3 lbs 4 oz

     Day 46 -   3 lbs 7 oz     16 inches

     Day 56 -   4 lbs 0 oz

     Day 62 -   4 lbs 9 oz     16 1/2 inches

     Day 72 -   4 lbs 14 oz   17 1/2 inches

     Day 80 -   5 lbs 5 oz

     Day 88 -   5 lbs 14 oz   18 inches

     Day 102 - 6 lbs 6 oz

     Day 110 - 6 lbs 15 oz 

     Day 118 - 7 lbs 6 oz     19 1/2 inches

     Day 126 - 7 lbs 8 oz

     Day 134 - 8 lbs 0 oz     20 1/4 inches

     5 months - 9 lbs 2 oz

     6 months - 10 lbs 6 oz   21 1/4 inches

Paige:
     Day 1 -     1 lbs 13 oz   14 1/2 inches
     Day 8 -     1 lbs 12 oz
     Day 17 -   2 lbs 2 oz
     Day 27 -   2 lbs 10 oz

     Day 36 -   2 lbs 13 oz

     Day 46 -   3 lbs 5 oz     16 1/2 inches

     Day 56 -   3 lbs 10 oz

     Day 62 -   4 lbs 1 oz     17 1/2 inches

     Day 72 -   4 lbs 4 oz     18 inches

     Day 80 -   4 lbs 14 oz

     Day 88 -   5 lbs 0 oz     18 inches

     Day 102 - 6 lbs 2 oz

     Day 110 - 6 lbs 7 oz

     Day 118 - 6 lbs 12 oz   19 inches

     Day 126 - 7 lbs 1 oz
     Day 134 - 7 lbs 4 oz     19 3/4 inches
     5 months - 7 lbs 14 oz
     6 months - 9 lbs 1 oz     21 1/2 inches

1 month home update

Sorry for not posting recently.  The girls keep us a little busy, and I kind of lost track of how long it had been since I last posted.  The girls' adjusted age is 2 and a half months (11 weeks).

Overall the girls have been doing well.  They eat, sleep, poop, and cry.  Compared to when we brought them home, they are much more engaged with their surroundings now.  Aubrey especially loves to be held upright over our shoulder so that she can look around.  Also, both girls are enjoying tummy time.  Here's a picture of Aubrey working her arm and back muscles.

Both girls have been starting to smile a lot, too.  It seems that both girls give us lots of smiles every time we take off their pants, be it for a diaper change or a bath or whatever.  It's pretty funny.  It's hard to get a picture or video of it, though.  Every time they see the camera or one of our phones pointed at them, they get really serious and focused.  Here's a video of Paige smiling a little bit.  Andrea is getting her ready for a bath, so her hair is really nasty.

Both girls have also started to discover their hands.  They like to put their hands up to their lips and will occasionally give their hands a lick.

We got our dog back with us a few weeks ago.  Here she is trying to reclaim her territory on the couch.

Canela has been tolerating the girls pretty well.  Every so often when they both cry at the same time she'll retreat into our guest room for a little peace and quiet.

My parents came to visit the girls a couple weeks ago.  My dad hadn't seen the girls since February when they were both in incubators and intubated, so he got to hold them for the first time.  Here are Grandma and Grandpa Roberts with Aubrey on the left and Paige on the right.

When this picture was taken, Aubrey and Paige were their newest grand kids.  The girls lost that title about 2 weeks ago to their cousin who, despite being 5 months younger, is about 2 pounds heavier than they are.

Andrea's parents also came in for a visit this past week.  This was the first time Andrea's dad was able to meet the girls.  We took Andrea's parents to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park with the girls.  The girls did pretty well there, but made sure we knew every time they were hungry.  Here's a picture of Grandma and Grandpa Moore with Paige on the left and Aubrey on the right.

Sorry about the weird lighting.  The girls were starting to cry and I couldn't figure out how to manually turn the flash on before we abandoned the photo shoot. Here's a funny picture of Aubrey screaming while being held by Grandpa Moore.

The girls' 5-year-old niece sent them some hair bows, so we put them on.  Paige is on the left, Aubrey the right.

 

Both girls are gaining weight at about 4 ounces each week.  As you can tell from the picture above, Aubrey is a little more successful at gaining weight than Paige is.  When we first came home, we were struggling with getting Paige to eat enough, but she has really improved over the past few weeks.  Paige normally eats about 8 times each day, and Aubrey eats about 6 times per day.  We still wake Paige up at night to feed her, but have stopped waking up Aubrey.  With Aubrey, we find that she just doesn't eat between 9 PM and 5 AM no matter how hard we try.  She often goes 10 hours through the night without eating, and then pigs out during the day.  Paige is more of an every 2 hour snacker.

The girls had another eye exam a few weeks back, and the ophthalmologist was happy with their progress.  We have another appointment sometime this week, and if all goes well it should be the last one for ROP screening.

A question that we get asked a lot that we are still not sure how to answer is "how old are your girls?"  If we tell someone that the girls are 5 months old, they give us a weird look because they are still the size of newborns.  If we say 2 and a half months, which is their adjusted age, it feels like lying.  In the comments section of one of the previous posts, I explained a little bit about how the girls are assessed and viewed age-wise from a medical standpoint.  I'll go into a little more detail here if anyone cares to know.

For about the first two years, the girls' doctors treat them as if they were actually born on their due date, which was April 22.  This is called their age adjusted for gestation.  Height, weight, and major milestones like grabbing things, mouthing, eye tracking, crawling, cooing, babbling, and whatever else babies eventually do is assessed based on their adjusted age.  For these aforementioned things, the girls are viewed as being 11 weeks old.  That Andrea and I are aware of, the only 2 things that are not adjusted for gestational age are immunizations and introduction of solid foods.  We will be introducing them to solid foods towards the end of this month.

As a general rule, preemies that do not have significant mental or physical disabilities or delays are expected to catch up to their full term peers by about the age of two.  This means that a person should not be able to tell the difference from a 2-year-old preemie and a 2-year-old full term baby.

That being said, a preemie will always be a preemie.  The time that preemies lose that would have otherwise been spent inside mommy can not be regained, despite the best medical care and professional services that the world can offer.  All of us probably know someone who was born premature and is now living a perfectly "normal" life with no noticeable problems.  In nearly every case, that person would be even more "normal" if they had been born full term.  The analogy I think of is like getting a broken bone.  Sure, the bone will heal itself and be fully functional in 6 weeks or so, but it will never be the same bone it was prior to breaking.  A radiologist will always be able to look at an x-ray of your bone and see that it had been broken.

Our girls may or may not have physical or mental delays.  It's a little too early to tell that.  But if they had been born at full term rather than 3 months premature, they would have been stronger, bigger, healthier, and more mature mentally than they are now.  That's just the way it is.

My car, which has well over 300,000 miles on it, was our only vehicle that could accommodate both girls' car seats and all the other junk that travels with them wherever they go.  So Andrea went out and got this ugly thing a few days ago.

What it lacks in looks it makes up for in practicality.  It's actually a pretty sweet car as long as you're inside of it.  I'm not sure why car makers can't find a way to put sliding doors on, say, a Chevy Tahoe.  Oh well.

At last weigh ins a week ago, Paige was 7 lbs 14 oz, and Aubrey was 9 lbs 2 oz