Our Strong Girls

We would like to start out this post by first and foremost thanking everybody for their kind thoughts and prayers for our family. We can't not express how wonderful it feels to have so much love and support for us and our girls during this time. 

Today at the NICU was so much better than yesterday. We continue to see a lot of forward progress from Haylee, and Rylee isn't too far behind. Today we were able to hold Haylee while she was swaddled and it was such a great feeling to be able to look down in her face and have her look right back at us. After a couple hours of cuddle time together the nurse put Haylee on a bottle for her 2:00 p.m. feed. This was the very first time she has ever been introduced to a bottle, and did a phenomenal job! In order to be discharged one of the criteria is that a baby has to be able to complete a feed within 20 minutes, she did her first ever bottle in 15! It was so amazing to see her put everything together in order to drink from the bottle. She was able to work out sucking, swallowing, and breathing with little to no problems! We were so proud of her!!!

As far as things go for Rylee, she is still on her oxygen tube but it was reduced to .5 liters and 21%. This was great news, as she is handling her breathing well at such a low level. She is our little fiesty fighter, and is turning things around very quickly. Before we left today the RN told us she would probably have Rylee completely off her NG tube tomorrow, as well as move her feeding tube to her nose. We can't wait for that to happen. The RN also told us if all goes well she is going to try to bottle feed Rylee for the first time tomorrow. We are so excited to go in tomorrow and see what happens! Also, while we were back in our room we got a phone call, all of Rylees' test have come back negative, so it does not appear that she has an infection!! The blood culture still has 48 hrs to be fully complete, but within the first 24 hrs there are no signs of infection.

We discussed with the nurse some more about what the requirements would be for the girls to go home and she gave us a list of criteria they had to meet. The list consisted of 1. They have to be at least 35 weeks (which the girls will reach on the 17th of August. 2. Be able to take a whole bottle within 20 min. 3. Be able to regulate their own body temperature. and 4.  Weigh at least 1800 grams, which is about 4 lbs. If Haylee keeps going the way she is, she may be able to leave around then. Rylee, though progressing in all areas is still a little small. She was at 2 lbs 15 oz today, so hopefully she continues to gain weight steadily. 

 RN bottle feeding Haylee                                                          

Rylee and mommy hanging out