Frick Twins: Day 4

Sorry for the delayed update today, been working the phones tracking down a breast pump this morning.  Managed to find one to rent locally, which after talking to a few different providers who said best case scenario was ~2 weeks made me so happy I about cried.  Amazing how tied in I’ve gotten to pumping J  Speaking of which, Raechel’s milk is starting to come in.  She went from 2ml/pump yesterday to more than 7ml in her most recent.  The boys are consuming 7ml and 17ml (Jameson a little less until his stomach gets used to food, he’s supplemented with a glucose+protein+minerals drip).  So she’s ramping up well to be able to provide those antibodies, etc that you can’t get from just formula.

 

Boys are doing pretty well today, a little more stable in their breathing and vital signs, but still periodically erratic as is normal with preemies at their age.  They have monitors on their heart rate, oxygen, and respiratory rate.  When they get outside range on either side, the machine starts beeping.  Makes for a very anxious parent to hear that sound, but again, very normal for their stage of development.  Hoping for some skin-to-skin “kangaroo” contact for the first time later today where they lay the baby on Raechel’s chest. 

 

David Jr., Lauren, and Kathy brought by some keepsakes to watch over the babies, which we really appreciate.  St. James and St. Henry now have their eyes on the babies, and a beautiful cross hangs over each of them.  They are going to have the most decorated nurseries in the NICU.

 

We can kind of laugh about it now, but here’s the contraction history Raechel was keeping track of on her iPhone app when we drove to the hospital.  Remember that Henry arrived at 3:11 and first contraction was at 1pm.  Typically when you’re sub-5 minute contractions you go to the hospital, and when they’re every 2 minutes it means you’re entering final phase of birthing.  I remember as we were driving I asked how far apart they were and she said, “30 seconds.”  I about crapped myself and said, “What?!!!”  Granted, she was measuring the end of one to the start of another vs start to start as you’re supposed to measure, but you can imagine the anxiety and adrenaline as we’re driving in the car.

Contraction App