Wow, so much has happened in two days, apologies for not updating the blog sooner. We've been sending out email updates, but we'll stop spamming everyone and use the blog for most updates now.
The big news is that our babies have names! Our girl formerly known as Baby A is Isla Kay Ellingson. Our boy formerly known as Baby B is Solomon David Ellingson. Our boy formerly known as Baby C is Simon Benjamin Ellingson.
I went to see the babies yesterday morning and they were doing great. I was surprised to find Solomon already had his breathing tube removed and was only on a cannula. He also had a pacifier that he had been sucking on. Simon was still on a breathing tube and Isla was still on a CPAP. I was able to attend rounds for the babies (their round table discussion with everyone where they go over how they're doing and decide how to proceed). It was all good news during rounds. Simon had been "weaned like crazy" and they decided to remove his breathing tube and put him on a cannula. Isla was also doing well and they ordered her CPAP removed and she went on a cannula too.
Alicia was switched to oral meds yesterday morning and they are working better. She was able to get out of bed and take a short stroll down the hall early and she sat up and had some breakfast a little later. We took a wheelchair ride to the NICU around noon (and named them!)
We were able to feed Simon his first bottle last night. It is very exciting that all of the babies are able to take a bottle now. Alicia and I went to rounds this morning and the doctor was very happy that she had all good news. The babies are all being weaned off of their oxygen and are now only be on a low dose. All of the babies will be getting progressively larger feedings since they have taken everything so far. The doctor said that she didn't think that breathing issues would keep the babies in the hospital, and when they go home will depend on how soon they can take full feedings. As they start to get larger feeding they may not take it all and need a feeding tube to make up the difference.
Isla hasn't been keeping enough down so she was put on a feeding tube today. It wouldn't be fair to call it a setback, since she's not really taking a set backward, she's just not taking steps forward quite quick enough. The boys are still keeping up with the increased feedings, so we're hopeful that this will continue but it wouldn't be unexpected for them to need a feeding tube at some point as well. The babies can't come home until they can take full feedings for a couple days without the help of a feeding tube.
Alicia's parents are in town so they relieved me from duty at the hospital this afternoon and I was able to head home to get a couple things done, get cleaned up, take a nap, and give Oliver some luvins. (Oliver was also happy to get in on the nap action.) Alicia ended up having a rough afternoon. She postponed pumping because she was going to meet with a lactation specialist for Simon's 3pm feeding. The specialist was late, and Simon was already very hungry at 3pm, and the feeding didn't go well at all since Alicia's milk is just starting to come in (and the specialist wasn't very understanding of this fact), and it all lasted so long that Alicia was late for her pain meds at 3:30pm. It was all just a bad domino effect. Some of Alicia's family came to visit at that time and it was unfortunate that all of that had happened right before they came and she wasn't feeling well.
I got back to the hospital a little after 5pm and we were able to take people over to the NICU to see the babies. There are very rigorous rules for the NICU: no sickness for the last 2 weeks, vigorous hand washing when you enter, only one visitor escorted per parent, only two people per bedside. (We also have the more unusual rule of using the hand gel between babies since we have more than one.) Grandparents of the babies are able to get in without a parent, but they can't escort visitors. So we cycled through the visitors and showed off our precious little ones.
When we were in the NICU Alicia saw what looked like bed that had the name NEMO on it. She whispered to me that she couldn't believe that someone named their child Nemo. The nurse told me last night that they name their scales so that they can be sure to use the same one everytime, so I realized that it was a scale and explained it to Alicia. We thought it was pretty funny.
I dropped off another shipment of the ever-increasing breast milk and spoke with the nurses briefly. All of the babies took their full feedings by mouth tonight, so that's great news. Isla was burped every 5-7 min and that seemed to help her keep it down. We'll go to rounds tomorrow to see how the doctor evaluates things and what the plan of action will be. Alicia overdid it today and is showing some high blood pressure for the first time of her stay, so we hope that she'll get a relaxing night of sleep (with pumping and meds every 3 hours, so a relatively relaxing night).
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