Still going strong

Colin appears to be making the adjustment to his life in the nursery. Now that the nurses are keeping him swaddled, he seems happier: he doesn’t have as many crabby tantrums, and even his fussy times are not as bad. This morning, he spent at least half an hour alert and happy, just looking around and watching me. 

Colin also enjoys being held more often. Without his ventilator to maneuver and with the swaddling holding him close, the transition from bed to arms is much quicker so he doesn’t get as worked up. (He still gets very crabby if we wake him up when we’re putting him back in his bed, though.)

Probably as a result of getting settled in and not fighting as much, Colin has finally started to regain the weight he lost. At his peak, he was up to 2 pounds 8 ounces. He weighed 2 pounds 3 ounces this morning, so he still has a way to go to get back to his peak. His main job right now is to grow, grow, grow. And at least he’s headed in the right direction again. 

John and I have both been able to hold Colin and Veronica together now — and have no pictures because we keep leaving the camera at home. It’s very strange to do this, in part because we have never been able to interact with both babies at once, and in part because it emphasizes how very different they are in size. Veronica’s 6+ pounds dwarfs little Colin’s 2+ and makes him seem very tiny (which he is). Looking at them, you would never guess they were twins. 

Veronica is doing very well with the nursing. She is latching on very well, and has taken her whole feeding by nursing three of the five days we’ve tried. (The other two days she fell asleep very quickly and had to get her feeding through her tube.) I’m only attempting once a day right now — just to get her used to the idea. Next week I’ll try for twice a day and see how it goes from there. 

She also is improving on her ability to tolerate the bottle feedings. Last night she took the bottle two feedings in a row and drank nearly all of her milk before wearing out. This is encouraging, because she needs to be able to take all her feedings either by bottle or nursing for at least 24 hours before they will let her come home.