6 days old

Before I begin, I'd just like to note that this is post #101. When I started this blog, Sean and I were still just dating, not even living together yet, and I had no idea, or intentions for, how far this blog would go. Now it's a resource for people near and far to keep up with our lives and those of our animals and now our daughters. I get comments when I go too long without posting and comments about our friends' and families' favorite parts of our postings. I get requests for special topics and events in our lives and requests for even more posts. People visit daily and sometimes even hourly, to see what we have to say, which astounds me most days. We have ordinary lives, at least as far as I can tell, and there isn't much that makes us any different from the rest of your neighbors and friends, yet somehow you seem to remain interested.

When I noticed that this was post #101, two thoughts struck me. The first was that maybe the one thing that sets us apart from other blogs, or even other people, is that Sean and I truly appreciate everything we have in our lives and see the humor in it all. We know that we're pretty lucky to have what we have: steady, reliable jobs; friends and family that love us; our health; and, most of all, each other. Most of our postings are about pretty mundane things, but we post them because even the little moments make us infinitely happy. It's not much, but Sean and I are so happy together that everything we do seems fun and exciting to us. And I guess that in itself is pretty damn special.

The other thing that struck me is that, although I do post a little bit for me, to keep a record of our lives in some way, I really write this blog for you. If you're reading this, then I'm talking about you. You care enough to check up on us, even if we've never met. Maybe you're interested in a certain topic that kept you checking back (Cooter's entries? Tales of the epic hospitalization? A need to know what these members of your family are up to?) or maybe you like the writing itself. Either way, if you didn't read this, I probably wouldn't keep up with it. The blog would have faded away with just a few short entries and been lost in the black hole that is cyberspace.

So... thank you. Thank you for checking back. Thank you for sharing the blog with others. Thank you for commenting. And most of all, thank you for reading. This blog is yours as well as ours. Thank you. And now, on to the post....

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Charlotte and Lilah are both now off the bilirubin lights! Yes! Both have also been moved up to 5 mL of milk every two hours (about 1 tbsp) via feeding tube and will continue to have 1 mL added to that every 8 hours. Let the weight gain begin.

Charlotte' s nurse was getting ready to feed her right as I started pumping, so she used the brand new milk when feeding her since it was already warm. I pictured a dairy company slogan: "Fresh from the cow to you". In addition to feeding Charlotte with it, the nurse took just a few drops of the milk and put them in our little girl's mouth, followed quickly by a pacifier. It's a bit of stepping stone to prepare her for actual mouth feedings at some point in the future.

Yesterday the staff was talking about removing Charlotte's cannula altogether and early this morning she was one step ahead of them. She pulled it off her face entirely, tape and all, and they figured they wouldn't go to the trouble of replacing it, so now she's breathing entirely on her own without any assistance at all! The doctor stopped by and said that he was joking with staff that another little baby should probably try the same thing and "pull a Sparks". Congratulations, Charlotte - only 6 days old and you're already a verb!!

Today I finally got to hold Lilah skin to skin and we laid there together for almost two hours! The first half-hour she was patiently looking around, and the rest of the time she was peacefully sleeping, and I soon joined her. I absolutely can't wait to do this with the girls once we get them home!

Later in the afternoon we noticed that Lilah had a rare few minutes of wide-eyed alertness. Usually she quickly blinks and then closes them again, so nurse Terry mentioned that it would be a great time to get a picture. Of course! Why it took me so long I don't know. These are some of the best pictures of her yet....





In the meantime, I'm working on healing from this major surgery. Yes, I am reminded that nearly every action from taking a seat to laughing at my husband (his stories, I mean laughing at his stories. Hi, sweetie!) uses abdominal muscles. I'm on oxycodone, Tylenol and Ibuprofen. I'm also taking prenatal vitamins and then a stool softener because the pain meds back you up. I'm walking from room to room, but still using a wheelchair for distances much longer than that. This morning I woke up to find that my hands had swollen so much that my wedding ring was cutting off the circulation to mny finger - Sean finally got it off with some dish soap and clever maneuvering. Luckily the NICU is next door to Labor and delivery so while I was visiting the girls I went over to follow up with a doctor. Apparently all the fluid from the pregnancy, which is more when you have twins, needs somewhere to go after birth and gets absorbed into other places like the feet, face and hands. On top of that, my blood pressure was 149/90, which is high, so they gave me a diuretic for the next 5 days to flush those excess fluids from my body. I'm taking more pills than I have in my whole life! My nightstand is a mini pharmacy.

Sean is still being wonderful about getting up to get me things I need and making sure I don't carry anything or stay on my feet too long, but I'm ready for this recovery to end and to feel normal again!