A (not so) typical day

Yesterday afternoon I had a great idea for today's post. I would keep a log of everything I did in one day. I'd log the girls' feeding schedule, how they were fed, what I did, any feelings I wanted to share, etc. That way I could have a record of what hospital life was like during our stay here.

Then today turned out to be not as predictable as I thought it would be. There is no such thing as a "typical" day in the special care nursery. So instead you get to read about how incredibly unpredictable this place can be. It's probably more entertaining this way anyway.

Today's not so typical day actually began with last night's not so typical evening. So I'm going to start the 24 hour clock at 8:00 PM on Friday, November 12.

8:00 PM Charlotte's Cares: At 8:00 Brandon and I go into the nursery. We see our favorite nurse, but she isn't in charge of our girls. Instead it is our least favorite nurse. She's not a bad nurse - we just don't have personalities that go well together. She micro-manages me WAY too much. I don't do well with micro-managers. Charlotte is already awake so the nurse has taken care of weighing her and changing her diaper. I start nursing Charlotte. Brandon and I talk a little bit but we are both pretty tired. I'm looking forward to sleeping because Charlotte learned how to take a bottle today. That means the nurse can bottle feed her at 11:00 and 2:00 and I wont have to come in until 5:00. Brandon is just about to fall asleep. I tell him to go on to bed, but he decides to stay around until I start nursing Lydia. This picture was taken a couple hours earlier when Brandon learned how to feed Charlotte with a bottle.

9:00 PM Lydia's Cares: At nine we move over to Lydia's room. I start changing her diaper. She's had a very bad diaper rash the past couple days. The night before she had a little bit of blood in her stool so she'd had an X-ray of her belly. The X-ray didn't show anything bad so we figured the blood was from the rash and started using cotton wipes and prescription diaper rash cream. Well tonight she has blood in her stool again. (And the same nurse finds it, maybe that's why I don't like her.)

9:15 PM Lydia is examined: The nurse calls in the Nurse Practitioner who examines Lydia. Lydia screams the whole time despite Brandon giving her a binky and holding her head with his palm. The whole time Lydia is screaming the NP is explaining to us why they are concerned. She is worried it could be a bowel problem that preemies are at risk for called NEC. She has some other theories about what it could be so she orders another X-ray and some blood and stool tests. I don't really listen because I'm so distracted by Lydia's crying. I just want to hold her.

9:40 PM Blood Tests: Lydia is wrapped up and put into my arms, but I can't feed her because if she really does have NEC feeding her would only make it worse. I start to tear up because I don't want my little girl to have any problems. Brandon says a quick prayer to calm our nerves. As soon as it is over Lydia gives me a look that says, "relax Mom, it's me - Baby B. They always worry about me, but I always turn out fine." This calms me down a little bit. Lydia also calms down and patiently sucks on her binky and looks around the room. She goes through her whole collection of crazy faces. Brandon says she is the Jim Carry of babies because she has so many funny faces. The lady from the lab shows up to draw Lydia's blood. Lydia cries a little bit when she has her heel stuck, but then she calms right back down.

10:00 PM X-Ray: The X-ray machine and tech come into the room. Brandon and I have to leave while Lydia is X-rayed. Brandon holds me while we wait outside. I'm worried Lydia will cry but she doesn't. Soon she is back in my arms. We all wait calmly for the results. Brandon even starts making me laugh about something. The nurse keeps bringing us information on all the things that Lydia might have. I tell Brandon I don't want to know anything about them until we find out what she has. I don't want anything extra to worry about.

10:40 PM Results: Our favorite nurse comes in to see how we are doing. She reminds us that she told us Special Care is a roller coaster ride. She's in there when the Nurse Practitioner comes in and tells us that Lydia does not have NEC. Our favorite nurse talks to the NP about what could be causing the problem and they decide it could be the milk fortifier we've been adding to Lydia's feedings to help her gain weight. They take her off the fortifier and get another prescription diaper cream. Lydia is cleared for a feeding. We figure she is too tired to try to nurse so we let the nurse tube feed her. Lydia's falling asleep so we leave her.

10:50 PM Ice cream and laughter: To relieve tension we make root beer floats and take them back to our room. We watch 2 episodes of the Simpsons from a DVD a friend let us borrow. I also pump milk while we do this. The Simpsons end just in time to turn on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" at 11:40. Laughing at his monologue makes us feel good enough to go to bed. We read scriptures, say prayers and fall asleep after midnight.

2:00 AM Pumping: My alarm goes off and I pump milk for about 20 minutes. I run it down to the nursery, and head back to bed.

4:30 AM Time to Get Up: Brandon's alarm goes off and he gets up and starts getting ready for work. I get up just as he's about to leave at 5:00.

5:00 AM Lydia's Cares: I head into the nursery and go into Charlotte's room. She is sleeping soundly. The nurse (still my least favorite one) comes in and tells me that Charlotte and Lydia switched care times over night. It's actually Lydia's turn. I go into Lydia's room. The nurse takes care of changing Lydia's diaper because it is basically a medical procedure now. She hands her to me and I nurse her. Lydia sucks for about 5 minutes and then conks out. I hold her to see if she wakes up and wants more, but she doesn't. The nurse tube feeds her the rest.

6:00 AM Pumping: The nurse said that Charlotte would wake up around 6:30 for cares. There is a breast pump in Charlotte's room so I go in there and finish pumping out the milk that Lydia didn't get. I read "The Family" by Kitty Kelly while I do that. It's about the Bush family. I don't really care for the subject but I love the biographer. This is the third Kitty Kelly book I've read.

6:30 AM Charlotte's Cares: Charlotte wakes up and I change her diaper and nurse her. She's been on room air all night and has been doing fine without the oxygen tubes up her nose. She also has her NG tube out. So she doesn't have anything taped to her face. She falls asleep after about 13 minutes so I put her back and head to my room for some sleep.

7:00 AM Internet: Before falling asleep I decide I need to check my e-mail. I do that and then I take a quick cat nap.

8:00 AM Lydia's Cares: The day nurse is on duty when I get to Lydia's room. I've never met her before, but she seems nice. She lets me know that the 12 bed nursery is quickly filling up. She says if they need to they will move the girls to an over flow room in the back. It isn't the nicest room, but at least they will be together. I'm all for this idea. I start nursing Lydia. Lydia doesn't seem interested in nursing. I tell the nurse to heat up some milk and we will tube feed Lydia. As soon as she starts warming up the milk Lydia starts sucking. She goes for 13 minutes and conks out. We decide that Charlotte will be bottle fed instead of nursed at her 9:00 cares. That way she can have the warm milk. While I'm nursing we hear a call come in that a baby needs to come to special care. This means we need to move. Charlotte gets moved first and then Lydia.

9:00 AM Charlotte's Cares: I go into the new room and start taking Charlotte's temp and changing her diaper. The pediatrician comes in and checks Charlotte. We talk about Lydia and the pediatrician says that everyone is pretty sure the blood is coming from the diaper rash. The nurse brings Lydia back and gets her all hooked up. My girls are in the same room! The nurse adds fortifier to Charlotte's milk and hands me the bottle. I feed Charlotte. Here you can see both beds in the same room.

9:30 AM Breakfast/Shower/Pumping: Once Charlotte is fed and wrapped up in her bed again I head over to the kitchen and eat breakfast (cheerios). Then I go to my room and take a shower. After the shower I pump milk while typing the first part of this blog with one hand.

10:50 AM Relaxing: I run the milk over to the nursery before Lydia's 11:00 o'clock cares. She gets tube fed for these cares so I don't need to be there. I head back to my room and work some more on this blog. I also do my make up, blow dry my hair and straighten up the room a little.

12:00 PM Charlotte's Cares: Normally Charlotte would take a bottle during this feeding instead of the prior one, but everything has become a little screwed up. I decide she should nurse this time. I get to her room a little early. I can't figure out which baby I am there for. Once I remember it is Charlotte I spend the next few minutes writing a schedule on the window. I include what kind of feeding we would do for each cares. I do all of Charlotte's cares and am on minute 8 of nursing before the nurse comes back to check on me. I think this back room will fit my independent nature perfectly.

12:30 PM Lunch: I'm done nursing Charlotte and so I grab some lunch (Cup of Noodles). Then I remember I need to pump so I go do that.

1:00 PM Relaxing: I enter a few items into this blog post and then take a 1/2 hour nap.

2:00 PM Charlotte AND Lydia's Cares: According to the new schedule it is time to nurse Lydia. She's awake when I come in. The nurse changes her diaper and says the rash is looking smaller. I'm about ready to start nursing Lydia when we hear Charlotte wake up. 2:00 has been her feeding time almost from the beginning so I'm not surprised that she's waking up. We decide to try nursing them simultaneously. I'm a little nervous because 1. I've never done this. 2. I've never even tried the football hold with either of them. 3. I'm pretty certain Lydia will do okay, but I don't know about Charlotte. Thankfully the nurse is really patient and helps position the girls. Soon I have one girl under each arm and they are both sucking hungrily. After a while they start to open their eyes and stare at each other. Lydia seems especially interested in Charlotte. Charlotte seems more interested in nursing.

3:00 An extra free hour: We finish nursing and suddenly I find myself with an extra free hour. I think I'll try nursing them simultaneously more often. I head back to my room and pump the remaining milk. (There's not much). I call my sister Emily to see if she has read my swaddle bath post. Her baby hated baths for a long time so I want to make sure she reads the post. We talk for a while.

4:15 Visitors: I head out into the lobby because I'm expecting visitors. Soon my Aunt Vera and my cousins Alex and Melissa show up. They come bearing fresh fruit and other goodies. We head back to the nursery so they can see the girls.

4:30 Charlotte AND Lydia's cares again: We go to the back and take a peek at the girls. Charlotte is awake and within a few seconds Lydia is too! It becomes apparent that both of them are hungry. I hurry and find the nurse and ask her to start heating up milk for the feeding. I change both diapers. Lydia's diaper rash is looking better. Melissa holds Lydia while Lydia gets fed through her tube. I bottle feed Charlotte. I'm glad both girls are awake because the are more fun that way.

5:15 Back in my room: Both girls start falling asleep once they are fed. We leave them and head back to my room. I show everyone the pictures of my C-section because Melissa wants to see them. Vera is a nurse and tells us about what we can see in the pictures. We talk and laugh for a while. Brandon comes home and is excited that he was able to see our visitors.

6:00 Dinner: Vera and my cousins leave. Brandon and I go through the goodie bag and eat some of the food. We also have left overs from last night's dinner provided by our branch.

6:30 Nap Time: Brandon and I take a nap on our bed. At one point Brandon's phone rings. It is someone from our Bountiful Branch presidency asking if we will say the prayers in Sacrament Meeting the next day. Brandon tells him that we probably wont be there tomorrow.

7:50 Charlotte's Cares: We wake up and go over to the nursery. Charlotte is awake so we take care of her and I nurse her until she falls asleep after 13 minutes. Here is Brandon helping take care of Charlotte.

8:30 Lydia's Cares: When Charlotte is done nursing we wake Lydia up and do her cares. Her diaper rash is much smaller and looks less red. Thank goodness! I nurse her until she falls asleep after 8 minutes.

And so ends 24 hours in the hospital. I can't believe what a day this was. I read over the stuff I wrote at the beginning of the post and I think to myself, "was that really last night? It feels like a week ago." I can hardly remember the stuff from early this morning. What a day!

Charlotte and Lydia go to the spa

I don't know much about taking care of babies - at least I didn't until I had two of my own. I still would be pretty lost though if it weren't for the amazing staff at LDS Hospital's Special Care Nursery. They have taught me everything! From changing a diaper to burping a preemie to putting bows in hair with Elmer's glue. On Wednesday they taught me how to give our girls a bath that they loved. Just look at the content face on Charlotte. Both she and Lydia were perfectly calm during their swaddle baths. I know that quite a few newborns cry during baths so I'm going to share all the details of how to do a swaddle bath. That way those of you with little babies, or babies on the way, can learn how to do it. I'm also going into detail because this was probably the most fun activity we've done at the hospital, and I want to remember how to do it when we get home.

Before I start I have to give credit where credit is due. This is a picture of Charlotte, me, and Stacy. Stacy is an Early Intervention Specialist. Which has to do with language therapy. Of course our girls aren't learning how to talk, but she is an expert on other things related to language development. For instance she gave the girls their hearing tests - which they both passed. She also taught me basically everything I know about nursing. And to top it all off she is the nicest person. She taught me about swaddle baths and every thing I write here I learned from her.

Okay here is the list of supplies.

• Square or triangle of fleece for swaddling
• Infant tub with angled surface or sling (We used a storage bin with an angled baby sling.)
• Baby wash
• Cotton Wipes/Washcloths
• Small container for water
• Warm towels and blankets
• New diaper and clean outfit

Preparation:

• Gather needed supplies
• Decrease lights and noise
• Prepare water with a depth of about 2 inches and a temperature of 99 to 101 degrees Fahrenheit
• Slowly undress baby.
• Remove diaper.
• Turn baby so she is on her side.

Steps:

1. Place triangle of fleece on you chest with the longest side on top.
2. Pick up the baby while the baby is on her side. Babies prefer to be transported on their sides because it keeps their arms and legs together instead of flailing around. It makes them feel more collected.
3. Place the baby on the fleece so that her neck is touching the top of the fleece. Wrap the baby up in the fleece.
4. Place the baby on the seat in the water. Place her high because she'll have a tendency to scoot lower.
5. Get the fleece wet by scooping up water with your hands. You want the fleece soaking wet. The wet fleece will create heavy pressure which reminds babies of being in the womb. Since the water is warm it will help keep the babies warm which they love as well. You can see in this picture that Lydia loves the way the warm fleece feels.
6. Start washing body parts one at a time. Beginning with the legs.
7. Only unwrap one part at a time and keep the others wrapped up. This is why you want to use a triangle piece of fabric (or a square folded in a triangle) All the edges make it easy to keep your baby wrapped up.
8. Don't forget to rinse as you go.
9. Wash the baby's neck by putting soap on one of the cotton washcloths. Carefully wipe around her neck in the folds under her head.
10. Wash her eyes by wiping them with a wrung out wash cloth. Don't use soap. Wipe from the inside out.
11. To wash the hair you first have to fold up a wash cloth and place it across the baby's hairline. This will keep soap and water out of her eyes. Then wet her hair by wiping it with a wet cloth. Rub the soap in the wet hair. (A little goes a long way). Rinse hair by gently pouring water from the clean container onto your baby's head. You will want to hold the folded washcloth down so it doesn't slip.
12. Once your baby is clean get two warm towels and place them across your chest. You will want one just a little bit higher than the other.
13. Unwrap the baby from the fleece. (She will cry when she feels cold and you will know what a regular bath could have been like) Pick her up and place her in the towels on your chest. The higher towel should cover her head and the lower one should be around her neck.
14. Dry your baby off starting with the hair. Make sure you dry off all the creases on her body.
15. Once she is dry you can put her diaper back on, dress her, and wrap her up in blankets.

I asked Stacy how long babies enjoy this type of bath. She said until about 4 months or when they start playing with the water.

Brandon and I both loved bathing our girls this way. It was so relaxing. I helped with Charlotte's bath and Brandon did Lydia's. This is the type of situation where I love having twins. We both get a turn to try something new with our girls.

Anyway, I hope you learned something.

I've been waiting for this!

Today Charlotte and Lydia met for the first time since they were born. I finally have pictures of them together. Despite umpteen ultrasounds we never got a very good picture of both babies at the same time. After they were born we had to wait for them to be healthy enough to meet. They've been cleared for getting together for a couple days now, but we just haven't had the opportunity. 'Today I decided that it was time for them to meet.

Lydia also must have decided that today was a good time to meet because she woke up half an hour early right when I finished nursing Charlotte. I heard her fussing, and Brandon checked on her. I told the nurse I wanted them to meet and she got right on it and wheeled Lydia in. We put both girls together and took a bunch of pictures. The girls seemed pretty comfortable with each other. The size difference is pretty apparent in this picture. They are about a pound apart.
Both girls are just about back to their birth weights. As I held both of them I couldn't help wonder how they both fit inside me.
All too soon it was time to take Lydia back to her room to change her diaper and do her exams. I can't wait until they are home and we can keep them together all the time.

Tomorrow I'll do the post about the girls swaddle baths. Sorry for the delay, but this was just too cool not to blog about.

Uh Oh - We're in trouble

Lydia graduated from her incubator today at 3:00 am. I was in there nursing her when the nurse switched the beds. Then when I came back for the 6:00 am feed I went to her bed and thought, "Why is Charlotte in this room now?" I had to stare at the baby for a minute and try to remember what color bows the girls had. After a while I could tell it was Lydia, and when I unwrapped her I totally knew it was Lydia, but for a few seconds I wasn't sure. I guess this is the beginning of the fun we will have trying to tell our identical girls apart.

This is Charlotte.

And this is Lydia. See what I mean about them looking the same. Of course, it's easier to tell them apart when they are unwrapped, but I don't know how long that will last.
Here is a picture of Lydia's room with her incubator still in it. I love the quilt that was over her incubator. All the pretty quilts and clothes that you see on the beds and on the girls have been donated. I'm glad because we don't have any preemie size clothes - yet. We'll get some if the girls still need them when they leave the hospital.
And here is Charlotte's room. I love the wood floors and the rolling hospital beds. I'm thinking if I ever design a nursery for a home I will do it a lot like these special care rooms. (Only more homey feeling)

Tomorrow I'm going to do a post about the swaddle baths we gave the girls today. If you ever had a baby cry during a bath you will want to read my post. I'll tell you about a way to give a baby a bath that they will love.

Random thoughts and observations from the last week

Today the girls have bows in their hair for the first time. The nurse last night wanted to make them look girlie. Here is Charlotte. She's our little burrito. I love wrapping her up tight in her blankets. You can't see it here, but all her wires come out the bottom of her blanket. It's like she is some sort of electronic devise being charged for use later. I'm told that one dad said, "Now I have my blue tooth baby!" when his baby was released from special care. (Get it - Wireless)

Lydia is getting weaned off of the incubator this week so expect to see some clothes on her in the next few days. Pretty soon she will become a burrito baby too.

Here is a pic of Lydia with her gloves on. The gloves are to keep her from pulling her NG tube out again. She looks like a little boxer. Her eye is a little swollen because it got irritated with all the tube drama. So she really looks like a boxer with a hit to the eye. (Sorry she wouldn't turn her head so you can't see the eye.)

I've had a lot of random thoughts over the past week. Here are some of them.

Living in the hospital

• I had tons of ultrasounds and NST tests here before the babies were born. I used to joke that the hospital was my "home away from home" I had no idea how true that would be. I now live on the other side of the wall from the room where I had all my NST tests.
• Living in a hospital is like living in a really low security prison where everyone is on the honor system.
• To get to labor and delivery, special care, or the post-delivery rooms you have to have the hospital staff open the doors for you. There are usually a lot of people in the waiting room that glare at me and Brandon when we show up and the lady lets us through the doors without even talking to us.
• Bringing groceries and home supplies into the hospital is a little odd. I'm sure there are people that look at us and think, "how long are you planning on staying?"
• Right now I am really spoiled because it is almost like I have a nanny (the nurses that take care of the babies) and a maid (the cleaning lady in charge of the special care nursery.)
• We randomly picked this hospital because it was where our Ob-gyn had rights. We've come to love the staff and facilities here.
• Every time a baby is born the staff plays a lullaby over the PA system. I love hearing it at random times through out the day.
• There is a whole drawer full of Oreos in the room for parents. I think I just might be in heaven.
• Obviously I'm loving the wireless internet here. It's going to be hard to go back to our internet-less apartment. I'm thinking of asking Santa for an internet subscription for Christmas.

Experiences with the babies

• New born babies usually freak me out because they are so skinny. I've always been afraid to hold them because they don't look very cuddly. However, I've never been afraid of holding my own babies. They are skinny, but I love their little arms and legs.
• Before the babies were born I hadn't changed a diaper in probably 15 years. Thanks to training by the wonderful nurses I am now a pro at it, and can change a diaper even with all the crazy wires and tubes.
• Our room has an elevator near by. We hear it go up and down all day and I imagine it sounds like what the babies heard during their time in me.
• When you have a baby you loose all your privacy concerns. After everything that was done during labor and delivery I have no issues nursing the girls while the nurses and lactation consultants help position the babies.
• I found out the common term for what Charlotte had when she was first born. Up until Sunday it was always referred to as a Nemo Thorax or just a Nemo. Now doesn't that sound cute? Then on Sunday I found out that is the scientific name for a collapsed lung! I'm glad I was blissfully ignorant for a week.

Other stuff

• We have been so blessed by all the gifts and donations given to us over the past few weeks. It's almost to the point where the only things I need now are stamps to be able to mail thank you cards to all the selfless people who have given to our little girls.
• I feel bad for women who have their babies and then go home from the hospital within the next day or two. I've learned so much from the nurses and doctors here. Sure I wish we could go home, but it's nice to have someone near by to answer questions like, "how long does RSV season last?," and "should she be making that noise?"
• As much as all the wires bother me I also appreciate them. I like that I can quickly verify that my little girls are breathing regularly with normal heartbeats and getting enough oxygen.
• On Sunday I went to church in sweat pants, because I didn't think to grab a skirt when I went home to pick up more clothes. No one cared.
• Brandon and I do get out. Yesterday we went downtown and rode tracks for the first time together. It's something we've always wanted to do, but haven't done in four years of knowing each other.
• We love visiting with those of you who have been able to stop by. Thank you for taking time out of your day to see us. And thank you to those people who have brought us food. We are very happy that we don't have to survive entirely on Cup of Noodles.

When the girls can come home

Many of you want to know when we will be able to bring the girls home. The doctors have told us to hope for two weeks, but plan for four weeks after delivery. Basically they will be ready to come home when they reach the age for a full term pregnancy. The due date was November 29th so they should be coming home around then. Several months ago I made a paper chain to count down to my due date. Now I'm using it to count down to when the babies should be ready to come home.

So what are we doing in the meantime? And what criteria do the girls have to meet before they are released from the special care nursery? Basically they have to be able to eat all their food through their mouths and gain weight.

Ever since they were born they received their nutrients in two ways. The first way was an IV that pumped sugars, lipids (fats), and antibiotics into their veins. The IV basically preformed the function that the umbilical cord would have done if they were still inside me. The downside to the IVs is that the lipids are basically the consistency of Elmer's glue. Pushing that stuff into the tiny baby veins was very hard on the veins. The IVs were constantly "going bad" and so they had to be moved from vein to vein about every 12 hours. Thankfully both girls were taken off their IVs on Sunday. I'm so glad the IVs are gone. I'm so much more comfortable holding the girls now that I don't have to worry about accidentally pulling out an IV. Also there are now 3 less tubes to worry about getting tangled. (We started referring to the mass of wires and tubes as Charlotte's Web) Here is one of the monitors on Charlotte's foot. I call it her ET foot.

The second way the girls get their nutrients is though milk. Unfortunately, we can't just feed them the milk through nursing or bottles like a full term baby. The suck, swallow, breath actions are very intense. (Try drinking through a bottle sometime - its hard) They are so intense that a small baby can use up more calories trying to eat then they gain by eating. Using up all the energy leads to weight loss - which we don't want. Each of the girls has a tube inserted in their nose that leads down to their stomachs. Milk is put into the tube and it feeds into their stomachs. This lets them get food without effort so they don't loose any weight. This is how the girls ate all their meals for the first couple days.

Of course we can't leave the tube in their noses forever so we are slowly teaching them to nurse. Each girl eats (or feeds) once every three hours. So in a day they feed 8 times. The day is broken up into two twelve hour shifts. So each girl is fed 4 times per shift.

We started out on Level One of the feeding protocol which meant I nursed each girl once every twelve hour shift. So out of four feedings I nursed them for one. As of yesterday we moved onto Level Two of the feeding protocol. This level lets me nurse them for two feedings per twelve hour shift. So I nurse them two out of the four feeding per shift. Each girl must show she can do two things for two consecutive days before she can move on to Stage Three. They are: 1. She must nurse for 10 minutes or more and 2. gain weight.

Stages Three and Four involve feeding the babies by mouth on demand instead of a strict schedule. I'm not sure of all the details because we aren't there yet. I'll blog about them later.

Charlotte and Lydia are both very good at nursing, but they approach it very differently. Lydia is less than 4 pounds, but she nurses like a pro. All I have to do with her is position her right, give her a minute to collect herself, and then she is off. She sometimes nurses as long as 23 minutes. She sucks so hard that her little cheeks get dimples. It is so cute to see this little peanut of a girl eat so much. She seems to know that nursing is her ticket to getting bigger and getting out of the hospital. Here are her itty bitty feet. (I'm not about to post pictures of me nursing)

Lydia also has developed a habit that shows she is eager to nurse. This morning I went in for her 3 am feeding. The nurse said, "it's I good thing you are going to nurse her because she pulled out her NG tube(the tube going in her nose to her stomach). I'll replace it next shift." I nursed her and went back to bed. The nurse replaced the tube for the 6:00 am tube feeding. When I came back to nurse at 9:00 am, the nurse on duty then said that Lydia had pulled her NG tube again. I nursed her, and the tube was replaced for the 12:00 pm tube feeding. When I came back for the 3:00 pm feeding the lactation consultant told me that Lydia had pulled her tube out for a third time! After that we found some baby mittens to keep Lydia's fingers from playing with the tube. They seem to be working so far. Here are Brandon and Lydia. You can see that she doesn't have a tube taped to the side of her cheek. (She even pulls the tape off her face)

Charlotte has been more of a challenge to nurse. She had such a rough start in life that she gets stressed out kind of easily. I expected her to be like Lydia who is up for anything at any time. Instead Charlotte gets worked up and freaks out. If she becomes upset while getting her temperature taken, her diaper changed, and any other measurements taken she will stay upset when it is time to nurse. She would latch on to my nipple and cry because the milk wasn't available immediately. We would try everything to get her to suck, but she was so worked up she couldn't focus. Eventually she would suck, but she would be so exhausted from crying that she would fall asleep after only about 5 minutes. Here are her tiny feet.

After about 3 of these frustrating feedings it dawned on me that this was my child. I knew what her problem was - I had the same issue. I can't focus when I am hungry and stressed. For example, today we went grocery shopping. We were in a hurry to get back to nurse Charlotte so I was rushing to find everything on the list. I was standing in front of where all the cheeses were, but I couldn't calm down enough to actually look at the individual blocks of cheese and find what I needed. Brandon finally had to grab the right cheese.

Once I figured out what the problem was I knew how to fix it. We had to keep Charlotte calm.

So now we change her diaper and let her calm down afterward. Then we do any measurements and let her calm down afterward. Then we place her on my nursing pillow, and let her get used to being there. And finally I pull out her binky and she latches right on. It will take her a minute to figure out that she needs to suck, but she gets it after a while and then she goes to town. We've now had 5 out of 5 "no drama" feedings and everything is going much better. Here we are after one of our good feedings.

We also make sure to keep her calm between feedings. She had an Echo cardiogram today to check on a chest murmur the doctor heard. He suspected it was nothing, but wanted to make sure. (It turned out to be nothing so don't worry.) Charlotte was good during the Echo, but afterward she started hollering. Brandon and I were just finishing up a meeting with all the people who are giving the girls care and so we went over and got her dressed and wrapped up again. Then I rocked her until she fell asleep. At her next feeding she was as relaxed as a baby can be and ate for over 10 minutes.

So anyway. To sum up this long post. The girls can come home when they can eat all of their meals through their mouths like normal babies. It's going to be a long process, but we are making progress. I'm glad that I can be just down the hall from them. I know that they wouldn't be nursing as well if I had to drive down from Bountiful every day.

The church is true every where

Since it is Sunday I thought I would do a post about some of the service we have been shown by the LDS church. Brandon and I are now members of two separate LDS branches. We are members of our branch in Bountiful, and we are members of the LDS hospital branch.

Our branch in Bountiful has been wonderful. I am especially grateful for the amazing Relief Society Presidency. They hosted a baby shower for me and two other girls who are expecting babies. The shower was held the Saturday before I went into labor. After the shower I jokingly told my visiting teaching companion, "Now I can have my babies." 36 hours later I was a mother. Here are two pics from the shower.

Our Relief Society President also found us car seats. She notified the Stake RS president about one of the other woman's need for a car seat and mentioned that we were having twins. It just so happens that the Stake RS president's daughter had twins about 10 months ago and her twins had just outgrown their car seats. She donated them to us. The really amazing thing is that we found out about the car seats hours after I paid tithing on some money that was given to me as a gift. I'd been debating about paying tithing on that money, but finally decided I should. That day we were told about the car seats. Then Brandon went to work and a lady there told him that she had told her mother about us - and her mother told her ward - and her ward started getting stuff together for us. They had a cradle all ready for Brandon to pick up and later they donated a crib too. I'm told that they have even more stuff for us. I can't believe how much people are

willing to give -especially people that don't know us.

Now that the babies are here and we are living in the hospital we also belong to the LDS hospital branch. (I guess "LDS hospital ward" would be too confusing.) Today we went to the church services here. I felt the spirit strongly as soon as we walked into the auditorium. Most of the people that attended were service missionaries from the local stake (this is kind of the case with our Bountiful branch as well.) The service was only half an hour long but it was so touching. I was bawling through half the hymns. I bore my testimony about the love of our Heavenly Father. I said that we sort of randomly chose to have our babies at LDS Hospital, but now I see that we were guided to this place. We are so lucky to have the opportunity to stay here and be together as a family.

Another lady got up and bore her testimony about her father's nearly fatal carbon monoxide poisoning and the events that kept him alive. Later we found out more of the details. Here is a news story about the miracle that happened while we were having our own little miracles last week.

After sacrament we went to Relief Society for half an hour. I was immediately accepted as part of the group and everyone wanted to know about Charlotte and Lydia. I love the bond that we sisters feel. I left the two meetings feeling a spiritual uplift that I didn't know I needed. I'm so glad that Heavenly Father remembers all his children.

Speaking of Heavenly Father's children, here are the two latest pictures of my favorite two little girls.

One of the nurses gave Charlotte a mow-hawk. You can see she is being given a little bit of oxygen. It's nothing serious, she just needed a little help keeping her blood oxygen levels up.

This is a typical Lydia face and pose. For some reason she reminds me of my sister Lindsey.