Bigger, healthier and hungrier!

Regular readers will surely remember last fortnight's post Two Steps Forward One Step Back. That post explained the central message which is drummed into everyone when dealing with pre-term babies, especially ones of the size of Eliza. You can't take growth for granted. These babies should still be in utero and they will strike all manner of hiccups and set backs on their road to full health.

A good chance to see the girls together.

Well it's lucky Olive and Eliza can't read because this last week they have been solely focused on marching forwards, without a hint of a backwards step to be seen!

Olive on the left, Eliza on the right.

Holding hands... how sweet!.

Starting with Eliza this week... she has made incredible progress. When her "Nec" problems began 3 weeks ago she was a hint over 1kg. In surmounting these difficulties she has made fairly methodical progress up to last week. Where she weighed 1366grams.

Eliza's incubator in Nursery F

The progress was slow because she was being gradually weened back on to Megan's milk. The staff do this to make sure her gut is functioning well, before bombarding it with full feeds. By midweek she had crossed the 1400 mark and was up to full feeds of 22 mls per 2 hours.

Megan and Eliza in no-CPAP trial earlier in the week.

Excitingly this meant the "long line" IV inserted into her left foot could come out, which is great because it decreases her risk of infection. Then her CPAP was removed for a third trial - the previous two efforts rapidly curtailed by her laboured breathing without it. Only this time it was a success, so it is gone for good (we hope). This means that for the first time since she was born we can see her pretty face without obstruction.

Now everyone can see how pretty she is!

In the last two days of this milk-only-no-CPAP regime she has not only remained stable, but has  put on 60 grams! So she is positively thriving and at last outweighs her sister's birth weight. Two more days like that will see her double her own birth weight, which all things considered will be a great milestone.

In other grand news for the week, Megan with the help of a vigilant American nurse Nancy, has tried using bigger expressing shields, and discovered she is yielding more milk. She has always been just ahead of the girls demand, but we've both been conscious that she might not be producing enough to feed two Olives (and given Eliza's progress, soon her appetite will equal her sister's). It's early days now, but it looks like with the bigger shields in play Megan will have the measure of these hungry twins after all. What a great Mum.

Speaking of feeding, that has been the story of Olive's week. She continues to make great strides every day. She now weighs in at a whopping 2328 grams, and looks like a perfectly normal, exceptionally pretty, smaller new born girl.

No food for Olive from her dad.

Lucky she's in a sleepy mood. 

In fact on Tuesday, Olive did a feed observed by Nurse Specialist Jax, which was scored 11/11 (I'm not making that scale up) and Jax declared that Olive would be ready to go home within a week or two. Megan and I rejoiced, and panicked at once (we are getting used to these conflicting emotions). 

We went out for dinner that night and toasted Olive's impending homecoming. Then we dropped everything and finished up the nursery at 7a Tisdall St (I assembled the very frustrating kit-set cots and change table with inadequate instructions) and purchased car seats and a double stroller. We had already purchased a new family wagon with room enough for a family of four. Trust me you don't want to think about how much all of this cost!

Hastily prepared with love.

Once Olive can manage a few successive feeds in a day, Megan will room in at NICU for a few nights. All going well Olive will be given the green light to head to Karori.

So many clothes already thanks to everyones generosity

And toys... they are so lucky.

Since then Megan and Olive have been on a mission to ramp up their breast feeding. Which is a bit hit or miss, to be honest. Olive has been scored everything between 5-11/11 when she feeds but sometimes she won't even wake up for a feed. This has effectively bought Megan and I a little (but not a lot) more time before Olive comes home.

 The girls' chariot awaits 

That is all on the horizon for us. We are still pretty sure Olive will be home before Christmas and we are also pretty sure Eliza will be 4-6 weeks behind her. But we are equally sure to not count our chickens until they hatch, nor when our roosters will come home to roost.

Before we wrap up, a quick word about my (Michael) Mum Janice, whom we think our girls will call Gran-Goose (she approves of this name). She has been doing it tough ever since Eliza and Olive arrived... she had an early spell in Wellington Hospital (2 floors above the twins) shortly after they were born. She has been diagnosed with osteorarethritis, osteoporosis and sciatica. She hoped she was ready to return home after 10 days in hospital and so went back to her Karori home.

This was a testing three weeks, and she never returned to an even keel, which resulted in a leg infection and a return to Wellington Hospital. This time after 3 days Janice was transfered to Porirua's Kenepuru hospital rehabilitation unit. She has been very brave and positive about this, and she's determined to regain first her health, then her fitness then her independence. Hopefully before long she will be ready to visit the girls again.