Day 2

It's only 11 am and we already have lots of good news! When I got to the NICU this morning, the nurse told me that Lydia was coming off the CPAP. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, the respiratory therapist came in and unhooked her! She's on a nasal canula now with just a bit of oxygen. Her vitals have been great since making the switch. I'm thrilled! It's so wonderful to be able to see her little face!

Both girls are now down to room temp in their isolettes, so they should be in open cribs in about 24 hours (that's the rule - they have to maintain at room temp for 24 hours before switching to open cribs). They are also off most of their IVs, so now they are just getting dextrose and a little sodium, but the nurse said that they will likely be off those very soon as well based on their levels today. They are tolerating feeds very well, with little to no residuals, so their per feed amount was increased today.

Meanwhile, right as I was beginning to despair that I was never going to get any colostrum, much less any milk, I started pumping a little bit at every session. Thus far today, in three sessions, I've pumped 4.3 ccs. While that's still pretty much nothing, it sure beats pumping 2 ccs after 8 pumping sessions and 2 nursing sessions yesterday! I finally had enough last session for it to drop down into the bottles, which felt so good. I know that pumping and/or BF'ing will be a long road for me again, but at least it's starting to work a little bit. The babies will have about 5 ccs worth of colostrum at their next feed, and should have at least a little at every feed from here on out. Now for my milk to come in!

In other news, my recovery was a bit rougher yesterday but still ridiculously easy for a c-section. I just overdid it, I think. I've been taking the Percocet again, and it's definitely helping. I'm walking so much that I think that I just probably need the Percocet for a few more days.

Robert stayed with the babies until nearly 4 am last night and then went home to sleep a bit. I've been in here with them since 9 am and now Robert is on his way. Thank goodness that we have my dad and our nanny to help out with the other kids! They are all at the children's museum right now, and will be home for lunch and toddler naptime soon, and then will come and visit later today. I am missing them like crazy, but I'm glad that I've been able to spend time with them every day... and that my hospital stay ended up only being for delivery this time around!

Little Miss Lydia without her CPAP! Her poor little face is still smooshed from the bands they use to hold the CPAP on, but she was trying to open her eyes and look around. This was right after the CPAP comes off, so I'm sure she'll be less smooshed very soon!