CRAP CRAP CRAP

Yesterday, after little or no weight gains, the girls finally had BIG gains!

4.16.12

Addie - 5lbs, 5oz

Charlie - 4lbs, 6oz

Today I came in to crap news all around. Both girls LOST weight this time.

Addie - 5lbs, 3oz

Charlie - 4lbs, 5oz

Now their nutritionist is upset and has discussed with me the options. "I don't want to tell you not to nurse..." she said several times with undertones of "Just let us feed them our way and fatten them up." We can go to powdered fortifier, rather than liquid fortifier which they are on now. The problem is that they started on the powdered fortifier and spit it up constantly. They had no tolerance for it. We've decided to try alternating their nursing sessions and nursing them both on the same side. For example, Addie will go first on the right side, then Charlie will feed on the right side. Three hours later, Charlie will go first on the left side and Addie will then feed on the left side. Because I am producing a lot of milk right now, the girls may not be getting the fatty hindmilk that comes at the end of the feeds. If I nurse them on the same side, one baby will get the much fattier milk every other feed.

Addie is below the 10th percentile for weight and Charlie is below the 3rd percentile for weight.

Plus, when I came in this morning and said, "How are the girls," our nurse Diadje (sp?) told me that Marinka had to stim Charlie last night. That automatically resets the clock to at least seven more days. We were really hoping that we were in our last week here. Now we're guaranteed at least one more week. The girls went off the caffeine yesterday, so in about 5 days we'll see how that affects them, too.

Once again, life in the NICU...two steps back.

Oh...and another argh. The identical boys across the hall whose parents we've become NICU friends with, I heard this morning that one of them is off their NG. That means they're taking bottles well enough to take all their feeds that way. That's a near guarantee that they'll be going home soon. They were born two weeks before the girls, but their corrected age is eight days younger.

UPDATE: Everything I wrote above was discussed during rounds. And then I burst into tears. I am feeling so frustrated. The doctor and NP's said I am one of their most dedicated moms and maybe their best nursing mom ever. One got me water, another got me tissues. They all stopped everything to try to talk me off the ledge. I'm sure it's not the first time they've had a mom like me. I decided to take the 2pm feeding off and come home to sleep. They suggested that maybe I need a break. Yikes.

Oh, and on the way out of the hospital, I slipped on something wet on the floor. My right leg flew straight forward, my left foot did not. In fact, my left foot chose to stay put. So I landed flat on my left kneecap. Yup. That's my day.

UPDATE AGAIN: When I went back for the 5PM feed, I got some better news finally. Charlie had taken her 2PM bottle completely in under a half an hour. We need both girls to be able to do this for any and/or all feeds before they come home. And Addie had her head sonogram redone today, and there is NO bleeding on her brain. Last week they had said that they can be misread, and apparently that is what happened. No brain bleed for Addie. Whew.

Charlie will not be having a blood transfusion at this point either, because though her crits are low, her retics are quite high. I can't remember if I posted this the other day or not, so I thought I'd add it on.