Kangeroo Cuddles... fun for all the family

The Huddlestons of Karori have a new favourite pastime; it's called Kangeroo cuddling. Apparently babies show vast benefit from regular "skin to skin" contact with their parents, so the NICU team have been very keen for us to get up close and personal with our beautiful girls. We've been loving this incredibly precious time with our babies for 6 days now, and it gets better and better.

It doesn't matter how stressed your world is, its impossible to spend 60-120 minutes with your baby snuggled on top of you without all of your cares drifting away. We've also had a chance to monitor their incredible progress from the closest viewpoint.

Olive has had a week of spectacular progress. You'll notice her CPAP (Continuous Passive Airway Pressure) "gas mask" is totally gone. It was phased out over a two day period, firstly replaced by the "Wellington" CPAP (which Eliza is currently sporting) which utilises much smaller probes into the nostrils instead of the full-on mask. She then began a trial phase with no airway assistance and has done so well it is staying off. So she is breathing by herself, clever girl!

In fact the only difference between her and a "normal" full term baby is that she has a tube to feed her milk through. All of the other wires you see in the photos are the monitoring equipment to measure her heart rate, respiratory rate and O2 levels.

All of this good news means that Megan and I are much more comfortable within ourselves that she is  not only growing into a healthy and happy girl, but also a very pretty one. We never doubted that, but I'm sure you'll agree it's easier to see that now.

If you think she looks a tad chubbier, you are right. She put on a whopping 70 grams overnight, and is just a shade under her birth weight and right on her expected growth curve. And all she has ever eaten is Megan's milk! Currently at a rate of 21mls every 2 hours.

Eliza too has made terrific progress this week. But as she started life a relatively behind her sister she does have a longer road to travel. She spent a couple of days under UV LED lamps to help correct her very plummy colouring. Apparently they help break down the surplus of red blood cells in her system (the result of her small share of the placenta).

Her colour has certainly improved, and she is delightfully interactive in the cuddles. She loves grabbing hold of fingers, chest hair (mine of course, ouch!) and flinging her legs all over the show. She is certainly the busier of the two.

Also her "long line" IV drip which went into her leg has been removed because like her sister, Mum's milk (13mls per 2 hours) is giving her all she needs to catch her sister up. Both babies hand IV drips are gone too. Her 28 grams overnight puts her at 928grams, and quickly closing in on the magic 1 kilo mark. Go Eliza Molly Go!

And what a present for us today. She also has graduated to the "Wellington" CPAP. This means we get to see her pretty face too - just like her sister's but a little smaller and still slightly rosier.

How good are my three girls then eh!

And their names are...

Eliza Molly Huddleston...formerly known as Bambam. She has had a great first few days in NICU. Her weight has shot up from 760 grams to 830 (almost 10%) in three days! This is because she has been feeding on extra nutrients - all good stuff. She has just started on Mum's milk.

Mum waiting for her first Kangeroo Cuddle

Eliza waiting for her Mum.

Nearly there

Worth the wait.

Bless

Olive Cass Huddleston...formerly known as Pebbles. She's lost a little weight (as babies do) and is now about 1400 grams - her little sister is catching her up. Olive is being fed entirely on Mum's milk at the whopping rate of 8 ml every two hours. 

Waiting for the World Cup Final

Olive is backing black...

... from her fingers...

... to her toes.

Dad is backing Olive.

What a great feeling.

Olive cuddles her proud dad.

Introducing Pebbles and Bambam

Megan and Michael's precious baby daughters came into the world on Friday the 21st of October.
Pebbles was first out at 3.42pm and her sister was just a minute behind her.

Words can't do justice to the wave of emotion that hit us when we first met them. Feelings of joy, responsibility, bewilderment, fear, elation and pure love overcame us.

They arrived via C-Section at just 30 weeks because they had an uneven distribution of goodness from their placenta (they are identical so they shared it). Little Bambam was only getting about 15% of the goodness and nutrition of the placenta and had been growing at a much smaller rate than her sister.

Megan was absolutely brilliant in the operation and was conscious throughout. We were both delighted to hear a big healthy cry from Pebbles and then soon after a slightly more muted effort from Bambam. The delivery theatre was incredibly busy with about 15 people in attendance (and yes they were all doing a job).

Our two specialists who have guided us, taught us and helped make important decisions through the pregnancy were very hands on in the delivery. Fellow Dr Jay Marlow conducted the surgery and was assisted by the head of the High Risk team Jeremy Tuohy. Megan and I joked in the theatre that we got the dream team.

Once born the babies were swiftly taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where they were given an amazing amount of equipment to help monitor and nourish them through the next few weeks. It is certainly daunting at first to see all of the gizmos and gadgets but when we look into the incubators we only have eye for our sweet girls.

Megan is recovering well, she's been walking short distances and wheel-chairing all over the show. She is eating and drinking small amounts, and is doing better than either of us could have hoped for. This is no doubt helped by that surge of joy she feels every time we pop down to the NICU and see our daughters.

The twins will be named before too long. So this is the last time we'll be calling them by their working titles. This is Pebbles... her delivery weight was 1416grams. The thing on her head is called a CPAP, and it is like a little gas mask that helps her breathe. The what-sit on her foot monitors the oxygen in her bloodstream. She's doing really well!

And this is Bambam, she weighed in at just 760grams. You'll notice she appears a lot smaller than her Sister and has a much rosier complexion. The NICU team have heaps of tricks up their sleeve to help her start to catch up with her sister, but this means she has more gizmos for now. She has a tube into her bellybutton, a "long line" IV drip in her foot and another in her hand.

Even though we are touching them in some of these photos, it is generally discouraged. They haven't got very good immunity levels yet, so we are going to back off from hands on apart from in the scheduled "care sessions".  In the time ahead Megan and I will learn to help with these six hourly sessions, where they are cleaned, changed, have their temperatures taken and their cuffs popped on different limbs. Then a little later we will get to have cuddle times with each of them (probably with Pebbles first). We can't wait.

For the meantime all of us have to look at them and love them from afar, but that isn't hard.

Next time we update this our girls will have names! Stay tuned.