Hi EVERYONE
This is SUPER quick and I apologise but this is a copy and paste of a mass email that Steve sent out this morning. I was discharged from hospital today
(I am pretending that it is OK to leave my precious girls in hospital whilst I focus on the positives of going home like sleeping in my own bed!!). I have just popped out of the hospital for an hour or so for some quick EB time (you've no idea how much I've missed EB - soooo many questions I have needing answers and am needing the wonderous EB girls to assist me!). I'm hoping to catch up in the next couple of weeks.
THANK YOU to everyone for your wonderful well wishes for our family - in particular, the stars of the show..... EMILY AND KAITLYN. The girls are
continuing to amaze the Paediatrician and nurses with how well they're
doing. On Wednesday night they moved from the high dependency, 1:1 care
of the NICU to the SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit) where the babies only
require 1:2/3 care. They no longer need any assistance with their
breathing and we are now working towards them only needing to be fed
breast milk (Heather is doing her best to stick to a routine of
expressing milk 7 times a day ie. every 3 hours during the day and once
through the night). Babies that are premature do not yet have the
suck/breathe/swallow reflex required to be able to breastfeed. This
reflex does not kick in till about 33/34 weeks gestation (the girls were
born at 31 weeks gestation). Emily and Kaitlyn are 32 weeks tomorrow
(27 September) so it will be at least a few weeks before we can begin
introducing the process of breastfeeding (there will be many steps to
work through before Heather will be able to successfully breastfeed the
girls). At the moment they are having 15mls of breast milk every two
hours administered by a nasal-gastro tube, whilst also receiving fats
and sugars via a drip. The amount of breast milk that they're fed each
day is slowly increasing and by Tuesday/Wednesday they will be having
20mls of breast milk every two hours which is a significant milestone as
it means that they can have their drips removed and will be fed only
breast milk (No pressure or anything for mummy!!).
Both Emily and Kaitlyn have lost some weight, which is what usually
happens for the first 14 days before they should begin putting on
weight. Premature babies are very susceptible to temperature changes,
which is why they are in humidicribs where they receive air at a
sustained temperature.
As is common in many babies, but premature babies are even more
susceptible to it, the girls developed some jaundice and so had to spend
almost two days under the lights. We were pleased when their time under
the lights was over as it meant we could see their eyes when they're
awake. Whilst under the lights they wear stick on shades so that the
light doesn't go in their eyes which meant that you couldn't see their
eyes except on the very few occasions when the light could be turned
off. One of these few occasions is when the girls receive their daily
wash which we have now been given responsibility for. We have also
changed many nappies already and dispense regular feeds. These are very
special times for us when we have the opportunity to do some of the
every day tasks that parents of newborns would normally be doing but
most of these "pleasures" have been taken away from us because of the
girls being premature and therefore in need of special care. THE most
special time of each day is the one time a day when we are allowed to
have the girls out of their humidicribs for cuddles! We absolutely
treasure this time.
And now we move onto the life of being parents of premature babies who
require ongoing care in hospital. The next 5 - 6 weeks are going to be
very trying times for us as we split our lives between "life as usual"
such as Steve continuing to work full time, spending time with the
babies in hospital, and for Heather, being able to express milk at
regular intervals to provide the much needed nourishment for our
beautiful girls. It is also an emotionally draining time as we deal
with the difficulties of leaving our babies at the hospital each day and
the potential ups and downs of their health. We are very slowly getting
used to hearing the regular sound of buzzers going off when something
such as a heart or breathing rate is registered as not quite right.
Fortunately, in the case of Emily and Kaitlyn these have been
insignificant. We pray that the next several weeks go very quickly as
the girls continue to progress so brilliantly and we are finally able to
have them home with us.
Oh, and in answer to the million dollar question..... No, the girls are
NOT identical. We quickly determined this, when we noticed that Kaitlyn
has very fair hair, whilst Emily has dark hair. Since then we have also
discovered many distinguishing features on each of them that makes them
distinct. They are however, almost identical in terms of their
progress. They regularly have the same blood sugar level readings and
are developing at the same rate with weights and measurements that
continue to be almost identical also.
Once again, thank you for your well wishes and we look forward to
receiving your ongoing support for the future. We've attached some
photos of our special little girls for your viewing pleasure! Some of
you may wonder what that "thing" is next to Emily in one photo. This
requires a mention as it is quite significant. This is called a
"Wookie". These are little fabric dolls that have been made for babies
separated from their mother. The girls have two Wookies each and have
one in their crib with them whilst Heather has the other one down the
front of her top. The Wookies are regularly swapped over. This is so
that the Wookies smell like Heather and they can recognise and receive
comfort from her scent. So, you may just have to get used to seeing
Heather with an odd looking cleavage for the next several weeks!!
Love Steve, Heather, Emily and Kaitlyn X X X X
<a href="http://www.snugglepie.com"><img border="0" src="http://www.snugglepie.com/ezb/245179.png"></a>
This message was edited by butterscotch on Monday, 26 September 2005 @ 2:07 PM
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