Update June 30 6:20 PM: Add Bloody Stool section

Bottles

We’re getting closer to having at least Aspen taking a bottle. Per Sam’s visit this morning she only needs to do another few good binkie trainer sessions before we get to work on bottle feeding. This is another huge step forward for her. Elizabeth seems to be a little behind Aspen, but is also doing pretty well. We’ll have to wait and see if she’ll ever take breastmilk, though.

Multiple Nurses

The last few nights and days we’ve actually had two nurses for the girls, one for each of them. According to the nurses this comes down to the layout of the NICU. Room 7 is across the hall from room 1 (Elizabeth). Apparently the baby in room 7 is intubated and their nurse can only have one other baby to watch. That has paired them with Elizabeth and then Aspen gets a different nurse in room 2 that is also watching the baby in room 3 (if not a third) which is next door to Aspen. There’s even a window between rooms 2 and 3, though we try to keep the blinds closed.

We haven’t particularly liked that system. It’s weird having them split that way. It also doubles the chance that one of the nurses is one we aren’t as fond of 😜. We’ve generally had good luck, but we still don’t like it.

This morning we were somehow back to just one nurse. Sounds like they traded amongst themselves to make that happen. We’ll see if it sticks for tonight’s visit.

Bloody Stool

After I had published this, we got a phone call from the nurse practitioner. Aspen has now had a bloody stool like her sister did last weekend (see Cribs). This is a real disappointment because of how close she was above. She’ll be off of feeds for at least 24 hours. As with Elizabeth, so far it looks like it’s just a protein sensitivity rather than something more serious, so that’s good, but we’ll have to revisit breastfeeding as we see how they do.

Pictures