Feeding

The big news here is that Elizabeth has taken a few bigger bottles. It was our wedding anniversary last night, so we saw the girls early and then went out for dinner. We called in later that night to check on something (see below) and the nurse informed us that she had taken 20 ml. I think her highest before that was maybe 11, but more like 9. I had to ask to make sure she was talking about Elizabeth, not Aspen.

She did it again at this morning’s visit. I had the chance to try another bottle with her, and while it took about 30 minutes, she took a whopping 34 ml! According to our nurse this morning, even before that, she was up to about 20% by nipple the previous day, which was more than double the 9% she took the day before. These are great improvements for her.

Sister (Aspen) has also been doing well, though not with quite as much improvement day-over-day as Elizabeth has been having recently.

Echo

We did get some other “big” news yesterday. After we had visited in the morning, we got a phone call from the nurse practitioner. Apparently, during rounds they discussed a slight heart murmur that they have occasionally been hearing in both girls. It isn’t particularly unusual, but they determined that they should check it out. They ordered an echocardiogram for both girls just to make sure.

They got the girls through that process about 2 PM and then waited on the results. When we got there about 5, they weren’t back. That’s what got us calling after our dinner. I guess they did get Aspen’s back, but not Elizabeth’s. Nothing unexpected on Aspen’s, just a small hole between the two sides of the heart, but all newborns have that.

While in the womb, because the lungs aren’t being used, there is a hole in the heart between the two sides. This allows the blood to bypass the lungs. After birth, with the change in pressurization after the umbilical cord is cut, that whole is supposed to start closing off.

It was explained to us that as that closes off, it may become “louder” because of the smaller orifice. That is likely what is going on.

As of this afternoon, we still haven’t heard back on Elizabeth’s results. Hopefully we’ll have something soon.

Again, overall they’re doing great, just slow and steady progress.

Pictures