Update with Photos

The days are somehow growing longer and shorter at the same time. While we are still spending hours and hours each day at the hospital, (and if that isn't exhausting enough, Rich's hours and hours at the hospital don't start until he is done working for the day) it seems that the critical, life-threatening moments are coming fewer and farther between KNOCK ON WOOD a thousand times. The days that turned into all-nighters at the hospital for some type of emergency are more frequently being replaced by all-nighters at home, usually getting in sometime after eleven and then getting up every 2.5 hours to pump and call the nurses to check in on the babies.

In fear of jinxing ourselves, I should say that the bumps in the road have not entirely vanished. For example, little Sadie spit up last week and couldn't breathe while she was doing it, so that turned into a bit of a terrifying emergency that involved an oxygen bag and a nurse on high alert . . . and that's about as far as my mind can go on that one. And just a few days before that, Zoe's IV infiltrated, which means the vein in which the IV was in had broken down and all her meds when straight into her leg. We didn't find out until I got to her bedside and saw that her leg was almost three times its normal size and she was writhing in pain. That was horrible but it didn't end there. Before she had fully recovered, the nurses put in another IV, but it went bad a few hours later (those veins are SO tiny) and then the nurses spent over an hour and a half, while Zoe had to lay perfectly still, trying to get a central line in. Notwithstanding their best efforts, they were unsuccesful and little Zoe had to spend the rest of the night getting poked repeatedly while they moved her IVs around. But all was resolved when they finally got the central line in the next morning and Zoe's pain and discomfort vanished (for the time being).

As time goes on, it does seem like days like these are spacing themselves out and the babies are starting to act more and more just like little babies. Sadie is really working hard on nursing, while Zoe is still focusing her efforts on breathing, but they are both completely and entirely adorable. While we are utterly drained, running back and forth to the hospital every day and completely without sleep, every single second is 100% worth it. We will take this kind of exhaustion any day.

Anyway, enough about us, here are some recent pics of the little babes.

Sadie's over four pounds now so she's gets to move to an open crib soon. In preparation for the move, she gets to wear clothes while they lower the temperature in her isolette. Here's a shot of mom and dad getting her dressed for the very first time--thanks Auntie Christa for being there to commemorate the moment :).

And here she is in this adorable outfit that her nana bought for her:




When she's in her isolette, she keeps warm with this beautiful hat, handmade by her Cousin Judy (thanks Cousin Judy!!):



And here's Zoe in her matching hat, being snuggled up by her nana on her dad's side:

Now that Zoe is no longer hooked up to CPAP, she gets to come out of her isolette more often. She's still a bit sensitive to the world outside her isolette, but there is nothing she loves more than being held by people who love her--while she has her binky. This little girls could not be any happier:

And finally, here's a shot of little Sadie, just because we had to: