Today Margo and Annalee are 4 weeks old, but their gestational age is 36 weeks (so in some ways, they are both 4 weeks old and -4 weeks old)

They have come a long way in 4 weeks! They are starting to be awake a bit more, cross their eyes less, and find their voices (by crying and grunting)

The NICU continues to be a roller coaster. In my last update, both babies were put on nasal cannulas. They still have their cannulas today. The doctors tried to discontinue the caffeine that both babies were getting, which led to an increase in their heart rate events (bradys) and pO2 events (desats). Babies are weird: when they forget to breathe, their heart rates slow down too. Annalee was having a harder go, with an event or two that required stimulation to get her breathing again. They checked her for signs of bacteria infection, but that all came back normal, so they think it’s due to the caffeine discontinuation. Both gals got another dose of caffeine on Wednesday and more today, after about 4 days off of it, which helped a lot with their events. Annalee also had her cannula bumped up to 3L instead of 2L. That should go back down to 2L tomorrow.

Basically, we just need to wait for the gals to grow out of these events. Eventually the events will stop happening and the babies will breathe consistently, but until they grow out of it, there’s not much we can do but wait.

Also, the alarm sounds from these events are making me crazy. Some days, I can only manage to stay for 2 feedings because I can’t handle it. So much dramatic beeping.

Meanwhile, the gals have been working on feeding. Both are improving at breastfeeding, and Margo started taking bottles this week. Annalee will start once she’s back down to 2L on her cannula. Both of them are over 5lbs now!

In other words, it’s unclear when we’ll get out of here. On Sunday, a doctor said “the final stretch,” then on Monday a different doctor said we should “adjust our expectations” due to Annalee’s events (they think the gestational age for the twins is actually a bit younger than 36w), and on Tuesday, a nurse said they were doing so well that maybe we’ll get out before our due date. 🤷‍♀️

One thing that is hard about the NICU is that you miss a lot of the “first” milestones. I have no idea when the babies had their first baths. I also missed Margo’s first bottle due to a miscommunication. Maybe I’ll make up my own NICU baby milestones, such as: First bath AT HOME.

I’m really hoping that the gals come home in October!