The Twins: September 22nd- Special day already!

I was up around 4am breastfeeding and decided to go run my milk to the nursery and ended up chatting with the girls nurse for a little bit. She told me we definitely needed to do kangaroo care with Anabell today that we all would love it! By time I got back to my room I was so excited I figured I would never go back to sleep! I heard about Kangaroo Care a couple weeks ago when the lactation nurse came to group and talked to us and was so excited then and just thought it was so amazing. For those that don't know, Kangaroo care is where you hold your baby on your chest and have skin to skin contact. Originally this was done in special circumstances to help mothers of preemie's bond with their babies, but now it has become a regular practice and is highly encouraged by this hospital for sure. It turned more important after a NICU in South America ended up running out of incubators for their NICU babies and had to strap the babies to their mother's to keep them warm. What they found was the babies that were strapped to their mom's actually had more regular breathing and heart rates, improved oxygen blood levels, longer sleep periods, more rapid weight gain, reduction of calorie wasting excess movements, decreased crying, longer periods of alertness, opportunities to breastfeed, earlier bonding, increased likelihood of a shorter hospitalization, improved head growth, and better developmental testing scores later on. So now they recommend parents do Kangaroo Care with their babies in the NICU for at least an hour everyday. Originally I thought as long as they were over 28 weeks we could start right away, but since Isabell is so small they want us to wait a week so she can hopefully gain some weight. But one of the nurses today was thinking Jim could do Kangaroo care with Anabell tomorrow and while they are doing that I could do it with Isabell.

So this afternoon I did Kangaroo care with Anabell, which was so sweet and precious. She was so calm and relaxed. A few times she tried putting her little hand in my mouth and it made my heart flutter at the touch of her soft little hands. I'm so excited to do the same thing with Isabell when she is ready. These little girls mean the world to both of us. The pictures shown below I think describe this moment best of all.

Isabell has already had quite a journey today, she had to have a pic line put in to help her heart's blood flow. This should help relieve some of the work her little body is already doing. In addition to the pic line she is having her dopamine supply removed because her lungs are developing so well. Keep fighting little girl Mommy and Daddy are by your side the whole way.

Finally we were able to change both their diapers, Jim was so nervous changing Anabell and working around the wires and her little body. Pretty good job for his second attempt at changing diapers. Isabell was a little tough as well working around the wires. Its funny because this may be the only time we ever actually look forward to changing their diapers :)

Well we are going to get back to the girls again tonight to see how they are doing...

Love,

Heather, Jim, Anabell, and Isabell