It's been a quiet couple of days at the NICU. Maddy has been plugging away on her cannula and Milo is still alternating between cannula and CPAP every four hours. Both babies are being weaned from their isolettes as they are better able to regulate their own body temperatures. Maddy is almost there, and may be in an open crib by next week. Milo isn't too far behind, but isn't quite there yet. When Milo is also ready to make the switch, they can be co-bedded. The babies haven't been together since they were in the womb, and it will be interesting to see how they react to being back side by side. It will also be nice to take a photograph of the two of them at once!

We're continuing on with recreational breastfeeding, and Milo is proving to be more of a natural at it than Madeline. They're both still in the training phase, though. Case in point - occasionally they get a big gulp of milk and they're so surprised by it that they forget to breathe for a little bit. Don't worry, though - they start right back up again, and they won't do this much longer. Now that they're almost 34 weeks, a lot of the coordination of breathing, swallowing, and sucking will come together, and their jaw muscles will start to get stronger. Thankfully, the NICU nurses are very skilled at getting babies to breastfeed, and the NICU also has a wonderful lactation consultant who helps with nursing activities, so we're in good hands.

Now that the babies are 2 months old, they are also due for their vaccinations. For some reason, state law requires babies to be immunized at 2 months of age, regardless of whether they were born prematurely. So the little ones will be immunized against all kinds of scary things on Friday. Hopefully they'll take the shots well. Stay tuned.

We got to give Maddy a bath for the first time on Tuesday night, which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately the few pictures we snapped of the bath didn't come out so well, but Maddy was really alert afterwards and we got some great pics of her with Dad.