September 23

I was pretty emotional today.
Scott went back to work for the first time. I thought I'd be able to spend the day with my mom and she could help me with pumping breastmilk (it's a 2-man job, the double electric pumps are hard to do with only 2 hands :) ), but she came down with a cold. I was so bummed out. Anyone who has any illness (including parents) aren't allowed in the NICU. It was so hard knowing she came up all this way and would be here until tomorrow and I couldn't be with her. She has a way of putting me at ease when I am with her and I cannot express how much that means to me.
**Please pray that Scott and I would stay healthy through the beginning of this cold/flu season so that we can be here for our babies through their entire stay here at the NICU. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't be with them, it would break my heart.

I'll start with the good news: The babies are 1 week old today :) Tycen is off of phototherapy today!! He is SO much more content being swaddled up. Shaylie is doing very well. She is now down to a level 4 on her CPAP, which is one step closer to coming off of it! (that's the scuba apparatus they have to wear)

Now some bad news: Tycen still has been vomiting and getting a lot of green residuals in his tummy. The doctor wants to hold off on his feeds (breastmilk via feeding tube, he will still be getting calories through the IV fluids) for today to see if this will help. I feel sad for him that he cannot have breastmilk right now, I know how good it is for babies. Plus, if he's off the breastmilk he won't be pooping as much and his bilirubin may come up again.
**Please continue to pray for the healthy maturation of his digestive system.

And some more bad news: Tycen's heart murmer sounds like it's getting worse today. The doctor thinks that holding his feeds may help with this. She also informed us that his PICC line isn't truly central and that they will have to pull it out some and make it a true peripheral today. Then, they will need to re-attempt a true PICC line sometime today or tomorrow. This is what Shaylie had to go through. It's so frustrating that they cannot get it in the right place the first time. I know it's hard with their little blood vessels, but these procedures are just so taxing on them.
**Please pray that they will get perfect placement of his PICC line and that he will not have any pain from the procedure.

I met my mom outside today when the sun was shining and we did laps around the courtyard for about 45 minutes, which is the most exercise I've gotten since my surgery. I actually felt pretty good. I am amazed how quickly the body can heal and how easy it is to get through a major surgery when you're distracted and not focused on yourself at all. It was nice to be able to spend some time with my mom today, even though it wasn't the circumstances we'd have liked. We tried to keep our distance and didn't even get to hug one another, which was really hard.

Kathy and David came to visit us in the evening time. They got to see both babies hat checks and they got to watch Shaylie during part of our skin to skin time.

The highlite of my day was doing about 1 to 1 1/2 hours of Kangaroo Care with both of my little angels. They are so sweet to cuddle with!!