Three Months!

September 15 marked three months of M&M. Since twins are generally born at around 38 weeks (rather than 40), they'd have made their debut right around now had they gone to term. For a change of pace, Maddy celebrated the big event by sleeping though most of the day while Milo hogged up the attention.

Milo wears his hat jaunty style, while Maddy dreams of having no more hoses up her nose.

Milo came in at 6 lbs 2.8 ozs and is now wearing infant size clothing exclusively. As you can see his color is much better, though he still has some jaundice. Dr. Kao is attending M&M for the next couple weeks, and she plans to take a more aggressive approach with resolving Milo's nagging problems. His liver medication was increased significantly, and Dr. Kao is keeping Milo on a stronger dose of diuretics to help address his lung issues and hopefully get him off the cannula once and for all. Look for a less puffy and less yellow Milo in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, he's doing OK with his feeds. He gets several meals a day the hard way -- by bottle or nipple. The rest he gets through his nasal gavage tube (that little white hose that makes him look a little like a Borg Baby). Realistically, some of these nagging issues spell a longer NICU stay for Milo. Optimistically, we're hoping he's home by this time next month. We'll probably do his hernia surgery a couple months after the home coming.

Milo and Mr. Bear. Take a look back at the August 17 post to compare his growth.

It was a restful day for Maddy, who basically kept her eyes shut entirely during both of my visits. Although she had a couple lively interactions with Mom. The little girl weighed in at 5 lbs 9 ozs and is straddling between preemie and infant sized clothes. Maddy isn't taking any other medications, other than her vitamins. As you can see, she's also still got the rubber hose up her nose, which means that several of her feedings are still getting gavaged. She is getting much better an nippling, and the feeding-related bradys are becoming less and less common. Once she can nipple (breast or bottle) all feeds without pooping out, the NG tube can come out and we'll be one step closer to the wire-free baby we've been dreaming of. Maddy feels the same, and typically pulls her feeding tube out about once a day.

Maddy all snuggled up.

Elaine holds Maddy while Dr. Kao, Blanca, and Teresa perform rounds. To the left in the dark scrubs is nurse Lisa, who was Maddy's very first primary nurse.

Maddy, Mom, and Mr. Bear.

Milo looking startled but he's really just yawning. Amazing the difference lighting makes.

Hopefully, both babies will be photographed from home this time next month. The pictures should be a lot more interesting then -- I'm working with limited props at the NICU.