Bump in the Road

We just did a quick visit today with the twins. Today wasn’t their best day. Based on how they were doing, we decided to leave them in their playpens (mostly) uninterrupted.  We did clean them up a little and change their diapers, but there wasn’t any cuddle time.

Sophia took a nap during shift change this morning and woke up with very blotchy skin. Her stomach also wasn’t tolerating her feedings.  She had a bunch of gas trapped in her GI tract, so they stopped her feedings.  They did a chest X-ray and a whole battery of blood tests to rule out all kinds of possible bad things.  Most of the test results were back and nothing showed abnormal.  To help remove the gas, they put in a bigger stomach tube that acts like a vent.  Call it an auto-burp tube (it doesn’t make any fun sounds though).

They also did a culture on Sophia’s oozing eye.  The first part of the test came back normal, so (thankfully) there are no organisms growing in her eye.  Seriously though, kids this small shouldn’t have parasites!  The actual culture part of her eye ooze test won’t be back until at least tomorrow though.

The nurses didn’t come out and say “don’t hold your kids,” but they hinted that the kids needed to stay in their playpens.  So, against every bone in Tanya’s body, we didn’t take them out to play.

Larry & Sandy stopped by to see the kids again.  This time I remembered to bring a wider angle lens to get some snaps of everyone.  Here they are with Sophia…

Here’s everybody with Cameron…

Sophia was (mostly) asleep, but was making all kinds of unhappy faces.  Her skin color was much better than this morning, so hopefully things are on the swing back up…

When we first got to the hospital, Cameron was doing well except for not digesting all of his food at one of his earlier feedings.  Tanya popped the lid on his playpen and tried on his new hat from Sandy’s sister Joanne.  Cuteness is here…

We did get to pop the lid on Sophia’s playpen to change her and check her temperature.  She wasn’t overly unhappy today, but she wasn’t really smiling about anything either.  She wasn’t in the mood to try on her new hat.  Hopefully soon…

Sophia has a temperature probe constantly hooked up to her.  That probe feeds data to what’s probably a hundred thousand dollar specialized computer monitoring system.  To make sure that $100,000 system is correct, they take the twins’ temperature every couple hours with a $3 digital thermometer.  I’m guessing this is really just a test to see what kind of mood the kids are in.  Sophia hates getting her temperature taken, even when Tanya or I do it…

Look at Sophia’s giant foot!  It’s actually small.  Really, really small.

After Cameron tried on his new hat, he decided to throw up all over the place.  He was laying on his back, so it didn’t go well for him.  I’ll spare you the details, but Cameron was extremely unhappy.  Tanya cleaned him up (with the bulb sucker thing & other torture devices) and got him settled back down.  It took about 30 minutes, but Tanya convinced Cameron to go to sleep.

It wasn’t all bad news & unhappiness today though.  Cameron’s putting on weight very strongly.  He’s up to 3 lbs 10 oz now.  Sophia’s still gaining, but slower than Cameron.  She’s up to just over 3 lbs 2 oz.  About an hour after Cameron’s puke-fest, he’d settled down enough for him to get his regular feeding.  He’s still getting 10mL every 3 hours.  If he gets more consistent at digesting that amount, they’ll ramp it up in the next few days.

It was horrible leaving them today.  The last thing either of us wanted to do was leave them in their playpens when they felt bad.  It was especially hard for Tanya.  We’re really hoping tomorrow will be a better day for them.

5 thoughts on “Bump in the Road”

  1. Not sure if it helps, but both of my girls had an oozing eye starting about 1-2 weeks old. We were told that their tearducts were smaller than normal which caused clogging, and they would outgrow it by their 1st birthday. They did. Our son never had that problem.

  2. I can only imagine how hard it was to not be able to hold them when they are not feeling well. Hope they are doing better tomorrow!

  3. Praying today is a good day for Cameron and Sophia! Also, for you two. It must be very hard to not be able to hold your babies.

  4. Mary Ann Harness

    It sounds like the twins are getting the best of care – – I am praying for a better day today for them and you. It is never easy when kids don’t feel good, especially when you can’t hold them. What a blessing they are though – – Love and Hugs!!!

Leave a Reply to Mary Ann Harness Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.