Help

We are grateful for so much help and support from so many people. Caring for two preemies with lots of needs sure is exhausting and challenging at times! If you missed the information about meal sign-ups, they are being coordinated by our friend, Lauren. If you're interested in bringing a meal, please email Lauren at laurenstrahan@yahoo.com.

Another friend has organized a google calendar for us for other types of help (dishes, cleaning, errands, childcare). If you are interested in viewing that/signing up for anything, please email Lahela at klisaacson@gmail.com.

My mom is here right now, so many of the household things are covered for awhile, but when she leaves it would be so wonderful to have help. We'll be posting our needs as they arise, so check the calendar often if you'd like! :)

Hazel's tired

For some reason, Hazel is really fatigued and struggling to finish her feeds. We called the pediatrician and he's concerned. We just need to watch her closely now. We really hope she's not coming down with something, We do NOT want to end up back in the hospital! We think she just needs a little extra O2 to give her her energy back, so that's what we've given her today and it's definitely helping, We just don't know what caused the fatigue. Please pray for her - that she stays healthy and starts eating better without needing O2 24/7.

One-handed tasks

On another note, I am getting pretty good at doing lots of things with one hand that I would normally do with two, because there's often a baby in one. For instance, this and the previous posts were typed with Jude on my left arm. Like this ...

Are you sleeping?

This is the most common question we get these days. The most common answer we give is ... uh, not really. We still have not managed one night where we can get them both to sleep at the same time for any length of time. Last night we managed 11 pm to 2 am, and we were feeling pretty good about that!

So much of the stuff we read about babies and feeding and sleep is simply not applicable to our situation, given the high level of extra care these babies require, including a highly intentional feeding schedule, added calories and anti-reflux formula, post-feed holding (to prevent spit-ups), highly intentional sensory stimulation, and cocktails of medications.

The good news is that it seems to be paying off for both of them. Hazel weighed in at 9 lb. 1 oz. tonight, and Jude turned in a 7 lb. 13 oz. weigh-in. In addition, they both seem to be steadily progressing in other developmental areas, as far as we can tell. Thank God.

Now to teach them the difference between day and night ...

Jude

Jude didn't get the same photo shoot that Hazel got upon discharge, but we did snap a few shots! Christen will take some pictures of him soon! Yay! We can't wait!

Jude has been eating so much since he's been home. He eats about 1 and 1/2 times what he was being fed in the NICU. Maybe that will help him gain weight! He's only thrown up a few times, which is good. I think he would throw up every feeding if we didn't take precautions, but what we're doing seems to be helping. We also introduced breast milk back into his diet to see how he'd tolerate it. So far so good! The pediatrician said to give it a try since the antibodies in the milk are so good for him. We mix it so that it has the same number of calories as his reflux formula, so he's not losing any calories. He is very difficult at night. He cries a lot and doesn't want to be put in his crib or to sleep. He sleeps great during the day, but seems inconsolable at night. We're working on it, but think he's probably very sensitive to transitioning home. Hopefully he will feel more comfortable soon.

Sleep

Noel, Jude, and Hazel enjoying a few zzzz's this afternoon while I worked on scheduling all of Jude's follow-up appointments.

Pictures

My friend, Christen, took some newborn shots of Hazel recently! We were hoping she would be sleeping a bit, but she was wide awake! We'll get some sleeping ones later. Here's a link to Christen's blog: http://www.christenbphotography.com/blog/ Thanks, Christen for capturing so much of our journey so beautifully! If we have time, we'll post more of them later. But, time is not something that is easy to come by right now.

As for us, it's been a crazy day. We had appointments at the pediatrician and the eye doctor today. Never again will we do 2 appointments in one day! (We didn't plan it that way, but one got rescheduled). We basically had no sleep last night and only managed very short naps today. No shower for me and 2 major vomits from Jude to clean up. Hopefully Jude doesn't turn into a crazy man tonight like he has the last 2 nights. Luckily, my mom will be here again Thursday!