The latest

It looks like they will be discharging Lisa today from the hospital, but as of 10:30 PM last night, a decision hadn't been made on Lorelai yet. She's doing really well, but she is pretty small. She's down to about 4lb 8.6 oz. It's a fairly normal amount of weight to drop after birth, so they are no concerned. They may just want to keep her checked in for a day or two more so they can monitor her temp and feeding, and get her to start putting on some weight.

The really great news was that we were able to go down to the NICU last night and spend some quality time with Reese. We checked his temperature (which was excellent), and changed his diaper, which was full of muconium, really sticky, tar like black poop that all babies have. This was also a really good sign. Of course it took us a while to clean him up, and during that time he decided to have another poop, and let the liquid artillery fly, thoroughly soaking Lisa's hand and much of the incubator. I think we went through about 10 wipes cleaning him up.

Once that was done, they weighed him (4lb 8.8oz). Then I dressed him in some snazzy PJs and we took him out of the incubator, and Lisa tried to breast feed him. It took all of about 30 seconds, and he hooked right on and started sucking. We don't know if he was able to get anything, but he kept sucking for about 15 minutes, and is a complete natural. After that Lisa just held onto him for another twenty minutes or so, and rocked him to sleep. I can't express how amazing this kid is. He's super patient when we were cleaning him up and only cried when he got a little cold. He watches everything you do, and listens to your voice. Lorelai likes to struggle and cry when you are changing her, and likes to be swaddled really tighly, but Reece just takes each environmental change like it is something to be studied.

Reece is probably going to remain in the NICU for a while yet. He needs to really start eating, and their requirements for letting him go are pretty stringent. He currently has what is called a PIC-Line in him, which is an IV placed in the top of his head, with a catheter that runs all the way down through an artery to his superior venacava (sp?) and they feed him that way. He has to be able to eat at least as much as they are putting into him via IV before they will move him out of ICU.

Lisa is doing really well. We're going to get a family room at the hospital so she can stay with the babies and try to feed them every 3 hours. I've been doing the day shifts so I can be there when the doctors come through, and Lisa's mom has been helping out at night. There's been some really long days this week. Yesterday was the shortest of the week for me, and I was at the hospital for about 16 hours, and that's be the short day so far. Lisa gets 2 hour cat naps a few times a day when we send Lorelai down to the nursery for a bit.

Anyway, that's about it for now. More updates to come as things change. I need to finish my breakfast and get back to the hospital.