In due time...

Who could have imagined that life as a NICU mom would be so busy? My days are consumed with waking up, pumping, showering, pumping, going to the NICU, pumping, holding the babies, pumping, feeding the babies, pumping, maybe eating in there somewhere, and maybe a little more pumping. Thankfully I have a hospital-grade pump at home and I can use the NICU's pumps while sitting at the babies' bedside. It's still so difficult to leave their bedside, even to run to the cafeteria for lunch. I don't spend many waking hours at home, so I apologize for not putting more pictures up recently. We will download a few more pictures and I will get them on here soon.

Kai and Katherine are doing amazing, as always. Over the past couple weeks, we have been working mostly on eating, sleeping, and growing. They have not had many 'events' in the past few days, and we are in the clear of ever needing CPAP again! Well, never say never, right? But they are doing so well with their breathing, and they only have an occasional drop in heart-rate or oxygen saturation while eating.

Kai is just over 4 pounds and Katherine is around 3 pounds, 4 ounces! My little oinkers! They are learning how to breastfeed and bottlefeed now, and they eat every 3 hours. We breastfeed once a day and they bottlefeed once or twice a day. The other feedings go through their NG tube so that they can conserve their energy. Feeding is a lot of work for them and it is literally exhausting for them. They sleep very easily after eating, which is good because preterm babies grow when they sleep.

They are 35 weeks now, and have been delivered for 6 weeks! It seems like just yesterday that they were born, yet these past 6 weeks have taken forever. We are hoping to have them home by their due date, and the thought of another 5 weeks in the NICU is hard on the heart. Being a labor and delivery nurse, I know what 35 weekers do, how they eat, etc, and I'm finding it very difficult in the last couple days when comparing Katherine and Kai to a 35 weeker who was just born. I never really thought much about preterm babies who need to physically learn how to eat. Both breast and bottle feeding are taking some time, whereas a typical 35 weeker would know just what to do. I cannot do this to myself, nor to my beautiful babies. There is absolutely no comparison to the type of growth and development that takes place in the uterus vs. in the outside world. They say that for every 1 week in the womb, it's like 2 weeks in the NICU. I know my babies will learn how to eat and will do wonderful with it soon. And I need to keep my patience, because they have come so far, really....so incredibly far from where we were 6 weeks ago. I can't help but want to push them and get them home in my arms. But they will get there, in 'due' time.