Meeting the Grandparents and Great Grandparents!

Feeding Time!

Morgan Loves her binky!!  She likes to hold on to it but often pulls it out of her own mouth.

This picture shows how the babies are positioned to eat.  Preemies digest their food better on their stomachs and it also helps open up their airway.  You can see the tube hanging down from the top.  That has my milk in it and it flows down by gravity.

This is Marianna waiting patiently to be fed.

Slipping into a milk coma!

Just Getting Comfy!

The girls definitely have their own personalities!  Morgan (1st and last pic.) likes to get out of her tucked in position and free her arms and legs.  Marianna is starting to open her eyes more but she likes to grunt a lot.  We call her the singer.  The babies are usually wide awake when they are feeding.  They are placed on their stomachs to help them digest their food better and to open up their lungs.  They get their diaper changed just before feeding and are now in the next stage diaper, which is still preemie.  They are still huge on them and need to be tucked in a lot. 

New Incubators!!

     The girls no longer need the first type of incubator with all the bells ans whistles.  They are now in small ones and will remain in these until they can maintain their own body temperature.  Ken's mom made the pink blankets to go over top. 
     Morgan and Mari started physical therapy yesterday with Barb.  She was amazing!  She checked all their reflexes, strength, and flexibility.  The girls were relaxed and wide-eyed.  They really impressed Barb with all that they were able to do at this stage.
     Many things have changed in the last few days.  The girls no longer have their pic lines in.  They now take their medications orally through the tube in their mouth that goes to their stomach.  They are now up to their full feds which is around 23ml which is 3/4 of an ounce.  The doctors said they are not gaining as much weight as they want them to so they are increasing the calories added to my breast milk.  They would like them to gain a 1/2oz. to 1oz. a day.

   

No More CPAP!!!

The girls no longer need the CPAP anymore!  They are now on the high humidity nasal canula all the time.  That means they are working a little harder to breathe but it is good training for them.  The first picture is Morgan and the second picture is Marianna with daddy.  You can see their faces a lot better without the CPAP on and we are really starting to tell them apart.  Morgan has darker skin and darker hair and Marianna is a lot lighter.  Their skin color is much better and they don't need to be under the lights anymore.  Their apnea spells (forgetting to breathe)  are down to just a few each day. 

Kangaroo Time!!!!!

Kangaroo care is when the parents get to snuggle up skin to skin with their little ones.  Research shows that premature babies do so much better when they have skin to skin contact with their parents.  Both the parents and the babies seem to relax and their heart rate tends to slow down a little making everyone calm.  We get to kangaroo twice a day for one hour at a time.  While kangarooing, we talk to them and read them stories.  They get all cozy under warm blankets.  This is such a great bonding experience for all of us that we look forward to every day!

Life in the NICU

So far we have been very lucky to have our own room.  We are getting very used to all the noises and alarms.  The nurses are incredible at explaining everything in great detail.  They are also letting us do a lot more now like take their temperatures, change their diapers, rotate them, and clean them up.  These pictures are from the first week the girls were in there.  They have many tubes and wires attached.  They were off the ventilators the first night and on the the CPAP which forces air and reminds them to breathe.

Happy Birthday!

On Thursday, July 7th we had a Dr.'s appointment with the specialist.  Everything was going well.  The babies looked good and we were one day away from the 28 week mark the Dr.'s were pushing for.  I went home to rest and later when I got up, my water broke!  We rushed to the hospital and found out that Baby "A" (Morgan) had little fluid around her.  Baby "B's" sac, (Marianna), was still in tact.  They kept me overnight and I saw a specialist the next morning.  An ultrasound discovered that Morgan had very little fluid around her and she wasn't moving much although her heart rate was good.  They sent me back to my room and gave me some glucose through my IV to see if that would get her moving more.  A few hours later, a repeat ultrasound was done and Morgan was still the same.  The doctors decided to take the babies immediately by c-section.  About an hour later, we had 2 beautiful, very little, girls!

 

Private Room

Up in the NICU at Sisters there are many rooms.  Most rooms have several babies in them.  In those rooms you will most likely see other parents, many nurses, and hear many alarms going off.  We are fortunate to have our own room, the "E" pod.  There is always 1 nurse who takes care of our two girls.  We don't see other parents or hear other alarms going off.  It has been a wonderful experience just focusing on our babies. Here are some pics of the room.

The Twins Have Arrived!

Morgan Alivia Kuriscak and Marianna Nicole Kuriscak were born on Friday, July 8, 2011.  Morgan came at 3:58pm weighing 2lbs. 4.9oz. and she was 14 3/4 inches long.  Marianna came at 3:59pm weighing 2lbs. 6oz. and she was 14 1/2 inches long.  The girls were born at exactly 28 weeks so they were 12 weeks early.  They will be in the NICU at Sister's Hospital probably until mid. September.  The Dr. said babies usually go home a couple weeks before their due date.  My due date was not until September 30th.