Tuesday, August 20, 2013

9 Weeks Old!

Monday, August 19

Plenty of good news to share today! Where to begin??? Well, first of all, the Marsh family is moving! We recently sold our house and have been looking for a new place to rent. Talk about poor timing, huh? So, on top of spending time with the girls, preparing my classroom and plans for the new school year (and substitute), and all the normal day-to-day chores, we've had to look for a new home. After weeks of looking, we FINALLY found a great house we will be happy to bring the girls home to. Now the challenge is to try to get packed, moved, and settled before the girls get out of the hospital. Wish us luck!

More importantly, Kinley had her brain MRI this morning. My stomach was in knots all day worrying about the results. As you've probably read on the blog, two Grade 1 (small) bleeds were discovered in Kinley's brain when she was a couple weeks old. She has had a few head ultrasounds over the past few weeks, and another problem was noticed more recently. She also has a small PVL, which means a small section of her brain was affected by decreased blood and/or oxygen flow. Well, we are still waiting to speak to another doctor, but the preliminary report sounds positive. The doctor reported that Kinley has a bleed only on the right side of her brain, so I assume that means that the bleed on the left is either gone, OR it was only a small bruise /no bleed to begin with. We still do not know how this may or may not affect her in the future. Only time will tell, but for now we are quite pleased with the findings. More details to come after we speak with the other doctor...

Since Kinley is getting close to coming home (the nurse predicted less than a week), it was time for her to have a hearing screening. She passed with flying colors! And tonight before her bath, she weighed in at 5 lbs. 7 oz.     

Both girls have been getting fussy during feeding times when given bottles. We think it's because they have been nursing more often. The milk in the bottle is mixed with an additive which adds extra calories, and it changes the taste and texture of the milk. The girls can clearly tell the difference and prefer the real thing instead! The doctor agreed to reduce their calorie count down to 22 per ounce, which means that less additive is mixed in. Hopefully this makes it harder for them to realize we're slipping them the extra calories.

Tonight was bath time again! Dad had already spent a few hours with the girls after work, so cousin Courtney and I returned to the hospital late tonight for the event.

 Devyn was not in the mood for a bath!

I think Devyn would rather be eating...or sleeping.

 We survived....but Oops! We forgot to weigh her! 
 
 Giving mom the "evil eye" for torturing her again.  
 
 
Kinley's turn....
 Sucking on Mom's arm during the bath. I think she's hungry!
 
 
 Kinley enjoyed her bath much more than her sister!
 
 
"We're done. Now feed me, I'm starving!"  -Kinley

 The syringe is full of Devyn's dinner: Mom's milk mixed with the extra-calorie additive. It gets hooked up to her feeding tube and a machine releases it slowly into her tummy.

Devyn with Mommy

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