Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Ava's hitting the bottle!

Yesterday at noon was also Ava's first crack at a bottle. before I say how it went, I just need to say that Rachel and I are already struggling w/ comparing these twins to each other. I think that they are doomed for a life of this, though, so they should get ready for it! Here is Ava's feeding 40-something mls, ready to be had...
Here is Ava going to town in our primary nurse's hands. Good Sam NICU has some of the best nurses ever, by the way.
Ava took the whole bottle in 17 minutes! She was a machine! Here is a picture of the aftermath. I am going to have this picture blown up soon so that it is ready for her high school graduation party.The real kicker is that 3 hours later, Ava started showing all the signs that she was hungry again. She should be hungry, b/c they are on a 3 hour schedule, but she was rooting and biting on her hands (all signs that she is ready for a bottle). So, Rachel and the nurse decided to give a second bottle a try. This is very unusual b/c taking a bottle is a lot of work, so they usually start them out on one bottle every 12 hours. Ava took down here second bottle like it was nothing! What an over achiever.

Rachel and I are trying to not get too ahead of ourselves, but some things are really setting in on us. The first is that Ava could come home first, leaving Ella in the NICU. We really do not want this b/c of the craziness that it would cause. The second thing is that Ava could optimistically be coming home in less than a week. Very cool, but this creates quite a sense of urgency to get the house in order. Please pray that God works out all these details while gifting Rachel and I some sense of sanity. Thanks!

-tinny out

2 comments:

  1. Nick and Rachel, This is Michael I work with Roxann. I would like to say that I appreciate both of you for what you are going through. I've been in your shoes and know what is like. I had twins that were early as well. She is now 8 years old and healthy. Her birth weight was 1 lb 11 oz and her brother’s weight was 1 lb 3 oz (he only lived for an hour and 1 minute). (My twins arrived at 24 weeks and 3 days). They say girls are much stronger than boys at this age (but I think that's true all through life LOL). I know that this has been a hard and stressful 5 weeks, but it does get better (well you do have two babies so the night schedule could get a little crazy). I just want to thank you for sharing Ava's and Ella's progress on the blog! I don't think this was an option when my twins were born (and if so I didn't know about it). This brings so many memories back and how much my daughter looked like that is unbelievable. I think parents that have been through the premature birth become more fortunate for what life has given you them which I think makes you bond closer with that child. My thoughts and prayers have been with you and you family since the day that I found out that the babies had came while Roxann and Ray were in Florida. I remember those days when my daughter Courtney would gain an oz, and when she opened her eyes for the first time, when she first started eating from the nipple, all of those things are things that you’ll never forget and keep close to your heart. Congrats on the babies being close to coming home and thank you again for sharing progress, comments, and photos.
    Michael S. Wooldridge

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  2. This is so exciting! Hopefully Ella will catch up to Ava soon and they can come home together! Sounds like it is time to finish preparing the NEST! Let me know anything we can do to help!!

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