The twins are 3 weeks old (35 weeks adjusted) and it’s finally starting to feel like we are making progress (although we took a small step backwards today)

Last week felt hard. For many days in a row, I would come to the NICU and see no changes in their care. Still on respiratory support. Still in separate rooms. Margo still not able to practice breastfeeding. I know that every baby is different, but last week it was hard for me not to think about how some 32 weekers get out in 3 weeks, and how some 35 weekers don’t need NICU time at all. Why are my babies slower? Our bathroom remodel still isn’t finished, and my attempts to convince Erin to help move furniture around so we can get the baby room ready were met with frustration. Dumbledore just died, and I am now on the last Harry Potter book. Also, pumping 8x a day is a pain in the nipple. It is nice to see the beginning of a big milk collection, but that much pumping is uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, in the NICU, we were seeing little progress each day. I’ve been at this hospital every day since July 15th, and the slowness of last week felt like a real slog. Will we ever go home?

But now we finally have some progress!

On Thursday, we made a day trip to Chelan to check out our new driveway and meet with our builder. We stopped by the NICU on the way home to discover the tops off the isolettes.

On Sunday, they gave Margo a shot at life without the CPAP. Given that Annalee had to get a nasal cannula a few days after her room air trial, I wasn’t optimistic about Margo. They took her off the CPAP at 5pm on Sunday, and when we left the NICU, her O2 saturation was hovering in the low 90s. I was so excited to arrive on Monday morning to see her whole face. She made it all night without the CPAP.

On Monday, we finally got a twin room. It is like the hospital penthouse. It’s huge. And we have a view of the Montlake Cut.

Tuesday was also an exciting day. I finally got to hold them both at the same time! After spending months sitting on top of each other, it was so hard to see them separated these past 3 weeks. The reunion was interesting. Margo was wide awake and curious about her sister. Annalee slept the whole time. I am noticing a personality pattern here. We also got to try breastfeeding with Margo finally. We’ve been doing practice with Annalee for the last week or so. Margo did great and latched pretty quickly! Of course, some attempts are better than others, and they are both still pretty sleepy, so it really is just practice.

Today, Thursday, I walked in to see both babies on nasal cannulas. Margo made it about 3 days on room air, and Annalee made it about 8 hours. Both of them had more desaturation events yesterday, so they put them back on cannulas to give them a little more time. The good news is that we can still practice breastfeeding and swallowing with cannulas. The sad news is that I can’t hold them together because the oxygen isn’t portable. Hopefully it won’t be too long. This is the struggle of the NICU. Try something. See if it works. If not, let the babies regroup and try again.

We also did our first au pair interviews this week! I will write more on that topic another time.

Meanwhile, I contacted some movers to help move our furniture around. It turns out that Yelp now has a feature where it sends out a quote request to like 4 companies at once. They are coming tomorrow! This feels like a big relief. I felt bad that I kept bothering Erin about this. He’s been busy trying to get the bathroom done. The baby room is really important to me, though, because I’ve had so little time to enjoy this pregnancy. I want to be able to take my time putting their things away and getting their room organized.

And Sam has returned back to his “daddy is my favorite” ways. I almost made it 3 weeks before he told me to go away! I am trying to woo him with play activities and nicknames. Since Sam likes to call his friend “Eugene Green Bean”, I started making up nicknames for Sam. Sam the ham. Sam the green bean can. He thinks these are hilarious.