Four Marshmallows: Three Days Old!

Sunday, March 29

Brylee

Brylee is doing amazingly well, especially considering that it was her we were so worried about to begin with. Her most recent echocardiogram showed basically no problems. She will have one more test before she is discharged, just to be safe, but otherwise her heart is perfectly fine. Her bloodwork shows that her body is slowly stabilizing itself.

Today while the nurse was feeding her, she decided to kick the IV out of her foot. The staff decided to leave it out since she was being weaned off of fluids anyway, and hasn't needed any medication lately. Currently, the only treatment she is receiving is a calcium supplement and time under the jaundice lights.

Brylee sunbathing

Ellison is improving as well! Today her oxygen cannula was removed, so she is breathing all by herself now. She also stopped receiving antibiotics, which were being given to her as a preventative measure due to her increased red blood cell count and the possibility of infection. The blood transfusion she received Friday night was a partial transfusion, meaning that blood was taken out of her body, and replaced with a type of saline to thin out her blood and get it back into balance. It seems to have worked great! Her levels have slowly been returning to the normal range, which is exactly what the doctors had hoped for.

She is also spending time under the jaundice lights, like her sister. She has not been able to feed yet, and therefore gets her nutrition from her IV. The staff hopes to remove some of her lines tomorrow, and then try to begin bottle and/or tube feedings. Her feeding progress will probably be much slower than Brylee's to be sure that her digestive system can handle it.

Ellison

Even more high tech than Devyn and Kinley's jaundice treatments. These girls even get a light-up mat that they lay on so they are sunbathing from all sides!

We can finally get a better look at Ellie's pretty face, even though it's still red from the tape from her oxygen tube.

So, what do you think? Are they identical or fraternal? All signs point to identical. Brylee and Ellie have the same blood type and if the diagnosis of twin to twin transfusion syndrome was accurate, then they must be identical (TTTS can only happen between identical twins).