Day 2 in the NICU

First, thanks to my sister-in-law's sister, Christina, for making the button on the left column of the blog. She did an amazing job with it and we appreciate her so much!

I FINALLY got to see my daughters today. After more than 24 hours of having them, I was able to be wheeled down to the NICU. First stop, Kamryn… Oh, she’s such a doll. She’s doing so well. I’ll let Shawn fill you in on her stats. But, her color is beautiful. She’s pink and perfect. While Shawn was behind me talking with the nurse about her stats, I was busily looking her over, and admiring how much she looks like Hollie did when she was born. It’s so neat to see the similarities. Her hair is a little darker than Hollie’s was, but they really do look alike. I can’t wait to hold her. Her little chest is pumping away, but she’s doing so well. Again, I’ll let Shawn fill you in on those details.

Next, onto Brooke. Oh My!!!! She’s a chunky monkey. All the nurses are asking me how it felt having both of them together in my belly. Just to give you a frame of reference, Brooke weighs the exact same as Hollie did when I delivered her at 41 weeks. 7 pounds and 14 ounces. Plus Kamryn’s 6 pounds, 6.6 ounces. Anyway, Brooke’s little cheeks are just so chunky and cute. I got to hold her too. She was just so sweet. I could see her eyes trying so hard to focus on my face. It was such an amazing moment to share with her. I’ve been back down to see her one last time before I went to bed, but I didn’t get to hold her this time.

I’m doing better. The pain was so intense in recovery. It took the nurses and doctors a long time to get it under control. And once I got into my room, the nurse that I had was lacking any sense of urgency. So, once again, my pain got ahead of me, and it took them all night to get it back under control. Never mind the fact that we couldn’t understand a word that she spoke. So frustrating!!!! But, I’m doing a lot better today and starting to feel the pain meds kick in for the night. I’m going to hand the laptop over to Shawn to update y’all on the girls.

Brooke is doing great and is still on room air levels with her CPAP. I expect them to take her off assistance tomorrow because she is doing so well. Kamryn is really surprising everyone. Given her initial scans and images in utero, no one expected her to be doing this well after her 24 hour honeymoon period. They were finally able to get a PICC line into her arm for meds and nutrition and her oxygen setting is in the mid 20% range which is really low. Ventilator setting has been pulled back because the CO2 levels are getting easier to control. Actually, the surgeons said that if her echo would have been just a bit better, they would have talked about surgery today just a day after she was born which is incredibly fast. They are actually talking about surgery tomorrow if she continues to do this good or possibly Monday. The only problem she currently has are with her hematocrits (crits) which are in the low 30’s. Basically, this means she will need a blood transfusion tonight or tomorrow before any surgery can happen.

We are taking one day at a time, but we have now won day 1 and 2 and are ready for day 3!

Shawn and Stephanie