What we know…

Sometimes it feels like we know a lot about what’s going on and what will happen; other times, we have no idea what to expect.

The things we know:

Josiah and Lilly are doing better every day.  Lilly is now trying for 7 PO’s (“po” means “by mouth” for non-Latin scholars – Wikipedia explains it) and Josiah is still trying for 6.  Lilly just got moved up today (from 6) and Josiah’s been at 6 for a while.  Some days they do well, other days they exhaust themselves.

Here are Josiah and Lilly sleeping in their cribs:

We   also know they need to stay at the hospital…  The March of Dimes has a diagram of the brain growth that happens from 35 weeks to 40 weeks:

(See the March of Dimes website for more details)

When born at 40 weeks, babies are able to coordinate sucking from a bottle, swallowing what they get, and then breathing when they need to.  When born premature, babies don’t yet have the brain development to be able to do all three.  The feeding progression that Josiah and Lilly are working through is designed to give them a chance to develop these skills.

While they can’t handle their bottles for all of their feedings, they need to get some of their milk via a feeding tube (the tube that goes in their nose).  The 6 by-mouth feedings that Josiah is getting leave 2 (for a total of 8) that he gets through his feeding tube.  This lets him have a chance to rest until his stamina is up.

We also know that they are well taken care of.  Today, we came in to find Josiah wrapped in his set of new coordinated blankets.  We put blankets into a drawer beside their cribs and the nurses use them as needed throughout the day.  We were excited to see him all wrapped up in matching blankets – not for being stylish or matching, but because when the nurses notice and care about those kinds of little details, you know they are paying attention to little details in their medical care as well.

 

 

We also know they are funny and entertaining:

Lilly eating with her bunny hat…

Lilly sleeping with her bunny hat…

Lilly waving her arms around…

Lilly waving her arms around still…

 

Things we don’t know:

We have no idea when they’ll be home.  Beth and I are estimating a week for Lilly and two for Josiah.  At this point, it’s really to our benefit to not rush Lilly so she can keep Josiah company instead of rushing home to their room.  Visiting him at the hospital once she comes home will be unbelievably challenging!

We have no idea what it will be like when they get home.  We can try to imagine it and are extremely excited, but it’s such a huge change that we can’t wrap our heads around what it will be like.

 

A few days from now, hopefully we’ll be writing about our experience bringing Lilly home!