Our latest adventures

The quick update:

I’m not sure if we’ve already passed any of this on yet, so if we have, forgive the redundancy…

Josiah is now in an open crib (not his isolette). 

He has also crossed over 4 pounds and, as of earlier tonight, weighs 4 pounds, 4.5 ounces.  He has been breastfeeding once a day for the last two days and is getting better with it.

His sister thinks breastfeeding is an Olympic sport and takes it very seriously.  On her first try (I’m pretty sure Beth mentioned this already), she got 28mL – a full feeding for her.  Typically, babies would only get 4-8mL. if any, on their first try.  Since then, she has had one huge feeding each day – yesterday was 44mL and tonight was 52mL.  Those make her prescribed 32mL feeding look like a snack.  Tomorrow Lilly gets to graduate from 2 breastfeedings per day to 3.  One more step towards her escape from the hospital.

One of the nurses talked with us today about some discharge-related paperwork.  It’s still a ways off, but we’re excited that the hospital is starting to think about setting us free.  One of the tests they have to pass before being discharged is to sit in their car seats for an hour with no heart rate abnormalities.  I think both Beth and I will have a hard time seeing them in their car seats and not just making a run for the door with them.

With Lilly and Josiah’s breastfeeding schedule, we are spending what feels like the entire day at the hospital.  Each morning, it takes an hour to an hour and a half to change my bandages, then another half hour to get bathed.  Beth has to pump before and then after all of that, which adds another hour.  We end up burning 3 hours of time getting ready before we can even leave the house!  When we come home at night, we go through another hour of bandage-changing and then stumble into bed.  Adding this time onto the hours and hours we spend at the hospital makes our days fly by.

I’m healing slowly.  Those of you that catch the Twitter updates at the top of the page will have already seen a comment on the CVS prescription debacle from Thursday and Friday.  Thursday night was my last dose of pain killers and Beth had kindly called the doctor to have a refill authorized.  They said they’d call it over to the pharmacy for us.  On my way home from the hospital on Thursday evening, I called to see if it was ready – they told me they didn’t have anything on file for me.  Of course, the doctor’s office was closed…  Beth and I both were inclined to trust the doctor’s office more than the pharmacy (it’s a small office and less likely to get missed there than the chaotic pharmacy), so we called back several times throughout the evening to get different employees hoping someone would look in the right place.  After I called 3 times that evening (and later found out Beth also called 3 times while I took a nap), I gave up for the night.  I skipped my night dose so I could take it in the morning (I had to be in at work for a few hours on Friday). 

In the morning, I called the doctor’s office and asked them to follow up.  After two hours, I called to confirm the pharmacy had the prescription ready and – you guessed it – they said they had nothing for me.  I called the doctor back again (at this point, I figured we must be calling two different stores) – the lady who answered the phone said she had personally called it in yesterday and heard the girl next to her call and check on it a couple hours earlier.

I called the pharmacy back and asked, for the 8th time now, about my prescription.  The person on the phone says “Yes, I have it right here – it has been ready since 7:00 last night”.  I thought I was going to lose my mind!  I talked for a while with the pharmacist about what happened and got excuses like “Sir, we are all only human and sometimes mistakes happen” and “Sometimes it doesn’t show up on the computer” and “Maybe it was misplaced and someone found it”.  Unfortunately, they are the only 24-hour pharmacy nearby…

 

Bethany picked out these pictures to share from our trip to the hospital today:

 

Lilly

 

 

 

Josiah

 

 

Josiah’s “old man” wrinkly face…

 

 

 

This outfit is hilarious because it actually fits him well.  He has a couple that fit like this and they make him look like a real person with legs and arms but it draws attention to how TINY he is!

 

 

 

We continue to ask the staff about the milestones between where they are today and where they need to be to go home.  We’re excited with each day’s progress (and weight gain, improvement in feeding, etc) and especially thrilled with the increased time they stay awake and we get to visit with them.  It’s hilarious to sit and talk with them and watch their facial muscles move all around, watch them try to work their eyes (and eventually go cross-eyed), watch them figure out their fingers, etc.  While hooked up to their monitors, we get to learn exactly what they find comforting and what is annoying – it’s great to have Josiah sleeping on my chest and find out that when I rub his back just right, his heart rate settles down and he sleeps better.  Beth loves seeing Lilly calm down when she quietly sings to her.

We are anxious for the time our visiting can be in our living room and not the painfully uncomfortable chairs in the crowded hospital rooms.

We’re both exhausted and have a doctor’s appointment at 7:45am tomorrow.  We can’t say thank you enough for your support!