Two By Two

So I have meant to update but it's just been so chaotic..

The girls are almost 2 weeks old now (although technically they are only at 36 weeks gestation). They are both still in NICU currently but are getting stronger every day.

Ember is at 5 lbs 3 oz as of last night which is only 1 oz below her birth weight. She is off of the NG tube and IV and is taking all of her feeds by mouth now. And so far has been taking all of the feeds completely which is GREAT. It's the last major hurdle she has to overcome before she can come home. (Minus the coming home tests.. i.e the carseat test).

Kaeda is at 4 lbs 5 oz as of last night. Which is a whopping 8 oz above her birth weight!! She is on every other feed by mouth currently and is still having trouble getting all the feed down. She just gets so tired. Which is common for preemies. She also has been having trouble with brady episodes. Her heart rate drops way down into the 60s and she requires help to get it back up again (rubbing her chest, shaking her a bit etc). Every time she does this the "clock" resets back to 5 days. She must be brady free for 5 days of observation before she can go home when all else is looking good. Not that she's at that point yet. We are at about a day and a half with out an episode now. They are fortifying her breast milk bottles with a calorie fortifier to help her gain weight and obviously it seems to be working. She's still in the isolette but mostly because of her size than anything else. Hopefully soon she'll come out of there so we can start putting her with her sister for some snuggle time.

Both girls are amazingly calm. Neither one is much of a crier and both seem very laid back. We can only hope it lasts. They each are developing their own little personalities and I LOVE it. The more they grow and the more weight they gain they more alike they look. It's amazing.

Here are a few pictures for you...

Ember Rayne arrived 2 minutes later at 8:36am
Weighing 5 lbs 4 oz and measuring 17.75 inches long


Both girls needed a little assistance breathing at first and were on CPAP machines for help for the first 12 hours of life or so but have since both been weaned completely off of any oxygen assistance. They are currently both a little jaundice and are under the lights for treatment. Both are having issues getting their calcium levels high enough and Ember is having some issues slowing her respirations down. From what they say, these are all very typical behaviors for 34 weekers.

I am 33 weeks pregnant today. Hoping to make it another 35 days but I don't know if I actually will. We shall see.

River is very excited about the girls coming. He asks all the time about "my babies" and when they are coming. It's been such a joy to see his expression when he gets to feel them move or kick.



While doing my picture today for my "weekly" pictures I decided to see if I could do a comparison. This was the first picture I took back when I found out I was pregnant and actually starting to show. I was 9 weeks. The 2nd is the same outfit today at 33 weeks



I'm too tired for much more of an update than that but I will update soon.

We took Journey to the GI doctor today.

He's been having these weird bouts of throwing up for no apparent reason.

The first episode was in June. He woke up at 2:30am and proceeded to throw up for 7 hours basically every 15 minutes until there was nothing left to throw up at which point he dry heaved a bit and then was FINE. No other symptoms. Figured it was a bug. Doctor said probably a bug.

2nd episode was the first week of July. Same thing. He woke up at about 2:30am and threw up for 5 hours until he was just dry heaving and then he fell asleep and woke up and was fine. No other symptoms. Took him back to the pedi and again we were told it was a bug.. ummm I don't think so. no one else gets it and it's gone in a matter of hours.

3rd episode was about 2 weeks ago. He woke up at 4:30am, threw up a dozen times and then was fine. No other symptoms. Took him back to the pediatrician and demanded a referral back to GI for evaluation.

So he went to GI today and I told the GI doctor what was happening and he asked if either of us have migraines. I do. He said he's nearly positive that it's something called Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome. Basically an abnormal type of migraine. Adults get awful headaches.. Kids get this weird nausea/vomiting. Because he isn't throwing up often (about one day out of every 3-4 weeks) he doesn't want to give him any medication for it. If it becomes more frequent or starts to really cause issues, such as dehydration, we can look at doing something about it. He said he's pretty confident that this is what we're looking at but if want to rule out anything more serious we can take him for a sonogram, blood work, urinalysis, and stool culture.. ummm yeah right on that. So yet another diagnosis to add to his growing repertoire of crap.

His stats today..
13.4kg (29 1/2 lbs)-- 45th percentile
84.5 cm (33.75 inches)-- at the 4th percentile or right at the 50th percentile for NS kids.

I am 31 weeks 4 days now! Less than 7 weeks until the girls arrive at most.


I had an OB appointment on Monday. I'm measuring 40 weeks now. Which basically means I'm as big as someone who is pregnant with one baby would be on the day the deliver! CRAZY I lost weight this time around which was nice. I'm still up 29 lbs but that's okay. I don't go back to see the OB until the 16th of the August because I'm being followed so closely by the perinatologist that there really is no reason for me to be seen any more frequently than that for now. Once I go back though I start going weekly.

I had a peri appointment today. It was a growth scan for the girls.

Kaeda is measuring 3 lbs 2 oz and Ember is measuring 4 lbs 3 oz. They means that the discordance between them is 25% (the doctors like it under 20%) but they are going to just keep watching for now and see how Kaeda does at the next growth scan (scheduled for August 20th) and we'll go from there.

I am 29 weeks 4 days today.

OB appt-- He's bumped me to weeklies now which I figured was coming. We talked about my blood sugars and he is going to start me on Diabeta to try and help the sugars that are crazy while avoiding insulin. If I decide I'd rather just forget the pill and do the insulin he'll do that too. I'm measuring 35/36 weeks currently. He was a little surprised at how swollen my feet are and told me to keep them up as much as possible but my BP is good so we'll just keep watching. I go back on the 26th.

Peri Appt-- Again they commented on the swollen feet and legs. As far as the girls.. there is something weird going on with Kaeda's doppler flow. Where the umbilical cord inserts into her belly the flow is elevated meaning that it's meeting resistance. They said that's not a common finding and especially not coupled with the rest of her cord looking good. They've actually never seen it before. LOL They said her fluid levels are also a little elevated but not excessively so but enough to notate. Other than that she said Kaeda apparently hasn't gotten the memo that something is up with her cord because she active, growing, and looks great. In fact she was practice breathing A TON on screen However because of the increased risk of IUGR and the risks of oxygen issues they want to monitor us even more closely. So I will see them next Tuesday and again next Friday and we'll re-evaluate then. We're basically trying to buy time to get them further along but it's looking more and more like delivery day is going to be in August.

I am 28 weeks 4 days today.

We had a growth scan today for the girls.

Kaeda is 2 lbs 5 oz (she gained 15 oz in 3 weeks) and Ember is 2 lbs 11 oz (she gained exactly a lb). Their discordance in size is shrinking. It's down to 12% now. Kaeda is having an issue with her doppler flow, the flow from the placenta to her, so we are watching closely as that's a major sign of TTTS but it doesn't appear to be effecting her fluid levels or growth which is great. They said after about another 5 or 6 weeks they'll be more picky about doppler levels and things like that. They also said that they deliver at 37 weeks for Mono/Di twins. Which for me September 13th or before. Which means 66 days to go.

Kaeda was so impressed with the ultrasound that she treated us to a yawn LOL


Ember's profile. She refused to cooperate for most of the ultrasound.