Still waiting...

Well we thought that we might get to bring Harper and Lily home on Thursday.  Their feedings had been (quickly) ordered to be bottle fed every three hours.  This sounded a little soon and surprising but we didn't ask any questions because they have done so well up until now so we just figured this was them being the overachievers they seem to be!  Well on Thursday morning when I went to help bottle feed at 11a.m. their nurse told me that they really struggled to meet the demands of bottle feeding through the night and by morning were taking the milk through their tubes again which of course means no going home quite yet.  It isn't that they can't do the sucking the bottle and breathing thing.  They can do this quite well however, this activity takes a lot of energy for these little babies and what happens is they actually start burning more calories attempting to feed than they receive from the milk.  We know that they were working too hard and neutralizing the caloric intake because in the last 3 days their weights have stayed the same as opposed to gaining 1-2 ounces per day like they have been doing up until this point.  So we stopped the round the clock bottle feedings and switched to alternating bottle and tube feedings.  This is NOT a set back.  All this means is that Harper and Lily gave a firm answer to the question, "are you ready to feed all day like big babies do and go home?"  They answered, "not quite, we need more time Mommy."  And that is just fine with me.  They are still premature!  Yesterday was only the 36 week gestational age.  Even if they were 6 and 7 pounds born this early they may not be doing as well as they are now.  To be bottle feeding at all only weighing 4 pounds and less than 36 GA weeks old is very good.  We are so proud of them.  

We will continue to encourage these precious babies and hopefully be talking about bringing them home soon!