Like Mother Like Daughters

It seems the girls just like their Mamma need their caffeine. They have been having more and more apnea spells where they forget to breathe and their oxygen and heart rates drop. Sometimes they will bring it back up on their own and other times their nurse has to give them some stimulation (rub their back) to remind them to breathe. They were on caffeine in the beginning, but they have been off it for awhile now. I guess going down to the 1 L flow on the nasal cannula is affecting them as well. Their oxygen rates have been varying from room air (21%) up to 40% depending on what is going on with them. Fortunately the caffeine can be given in their feeding tubes, so they don't have to get another IV. Their nurse told me that the caffeine was probably turned off too early, and that we shouldn't expect them to be responsible for their behavior yet! If only there was a Starbucks in the NICU, then we'd all be happy.

Millie weighed 2 lbs 9 oz last night. She has been gaining 2 oz/day the last few days which is crazy to me. I did kangaroo care with her today, and she does feel bigger. Ruby weighed 2 lbs 4 oz, so she is growing too! I'm so happy that they are doing well, and so thankful for the amazing NICU staff taking care of them. Our nurses have been great, and they really love our girls.

Emmett hit a milestone today too because he is 18 months old today. I took him for his first haircut to celebrate. I had mixed feelings about cutting off the curls, but he was getting the mullet look. The curls would appear after bath then slowly frizz out and look like a rat tail. We went to the same guy that cuts Jake's hair. Jerry has the patience of Job. I had grand plans to get pictures and videos, but Emmett wanted nothing to do with the haircut. We had brought a DVD player but that didn't work, and Emmett was slashing around, so I had to hold him. Jerry actually turned to me at one point and said he was afraid he was going to cut Emmett's ear off. I decided to switch game plans and asked Jerry for a sucker. Emmett has never had a sucker before, but boy did that make his day. We had a pretty uneventful haircut after that. Jerry was nice enough not to cut it too short and leave one curl for me. I also grabbed an extra sucker as walked out the door thinking that's going to come in handy again soon.

Emmett post hair cut with one curl left!

Jake starts school back tomorrow, and we are all exited about that. Routine is good for him, and he really loves school. Our only snafu is that the bus has been picking him up at Scott's Dad's house. I called today to get it changed, but it takes "3 to 5" days to process and let the bus drivers know. So I guess I will be driving him the next few days. We live close to the school, so it's not a big deal (for a couple of days at least!).  I promise to update more about Jake in a future blog.