Happy Birthday

Today, Lilly and Josiah are one month old.  On one hand, it is hard to believe it has been a whole month.  On the other, it feels like we’ve been living at the hospital for an eternity.  It is sad that they’ve only been able to lay next to each other 3 times and are otherwise in what must seem to them a frighteningly large crib by themselves.  We’re sad that instead of soft classical music or lullabies, the sounds that they fall asleep to are the beeping of monitors and chaos of the NICU.

We’re excited for the progress they’ve made.  The scheduled c-section was for March 23rd – poor Bethany would still be carrying them all over the place for almost another month!  Instead, they’ve hatched and (with plenty of help) have learned to breathe on their own, to keep themselves warm, to open their eyes and make funny faces.

Yesterday, we got a chance to talk with the nurse about a timeline for going home.  Josiah gets 4 chances each day to take one of his 8 feedings by mouth.  If he successfully takes 4, he’ll graduate up to 6.  Lilly is one step ahead of him, getting 6 chances each day to take her feedings by mouth.  Once she successfully takes all 6, she’ll move on to being able to take all 8 of her feedings by mouth.

With a couple small exceptions, the feedings are their last hurdle before coming home.  If Lilly were to take her 6 feedings today, her 8 tomorrow, she could potentially come home on Tuesday (after taking all 8 feedings, they take their feeding tube out but the babies have to do okay one more day before being set free).   While that is exciting, she’ll need a few more days than that (but it’s entirely possible she’s home by the end of the week).  Waking up and drinking 1.25 ounces of milk every 6 hours is exhausting for both of them now.  Yesterday, Lilly took a stab at all 6 of her feedings, but the last couple she was just too worn out to finish.  As they build their stamina over the next several days, they’ll both make their way to their final goals.

Bethany and I would normally be arriving at the hospital and getting ready to feed Josiah but we opted to take this morning to rest and slow things down a bit to avoid over-exhausting ourselves.  We’ve had tons of help over the last couple weeks which has helped us keep things under control.  Unfortunately, we’re the only ones who can rest and get sleep – we’re trying to make sure we don’t overlook that.

We’ll head out to the hospital in a couple hours and the day will pick up momentum like the days before it, but it’s felt great to rest for a bit this morning.

[Since we haven’t been to the hospital since Bethany’s post yesterday, there’s no new pictures for me to share with you – you’re out of luck! Scroll down to see her post and the pictures if you haven’t seen them yet]