3 Weeks, 2 Days (GA: 31 Weeks)

Nanette is status quo.  She improved to a certain state and has remained there for a few days now.  She still gets crampy, hemorrhages, and occasionally passes clots.  Although these remaining symptoms are erratic, they have not stopped.  But she has not had another episode of heavy bleeding (and ER visit!) so we are hopeful that she is still progressing in the right direction.

Dad felt pretty good below the neck today.  My throat is still really sore and my head hurt throughout the day, but my body is not weak and achy as it was the last couple days.  I woke up this morning at 3am just soaking wet.  My sleep-clouded mind thought Nanette must have poured some water on me.  I had on a collared PJ top and the whole collar was soaked.  Unlike the previous couple nights, I had slept peacefully; so I was surprised to wake up in such a cold sweat.  After changing every scrap of clothing I was wearing and flipping my pillow over, I fell fast asleep once more.  A couple hours later, I woke from a dream that someone had turned the humidifier in our HVAC system to 100 percent---essentially creating rain from the floor vent into our room.  Sure enough, I was soaked again.  After I told Nanette my story she reminded me that she had to change her pillow at night for the same reason the week after her c-section.  I understood better that my little sickness---with it's sleepness nights, pain, fevers, chills, head and muscle aches, and weakness---is merely a small, but accurate window into what Nanette has had to put up with the last three plus weeks.  My conclusion: She's more of a trooper than I am.

Gabe is still doing well.  He has gained weight and is up to 1600 grams (3.5 lbs).  The nurse said he in an isolette, which, althought commonly used for multiple types of incubators, is a step down from the Giraffe incubator he has been in.  It means he is regulating his body temperature better and is progressing toward an open-top crib.  He needs air temp of 30degC right now and once he is down a couple more degrees he can get the crib.

Gabe will get another head ultrasound tomorrow to check on his brain and CSF in his ventricles.  His head (Occipitofrontal Circumference---OFC) grew a little more the last day or two, but not as much as earlier in the week.  However, note that volume in a sphere is proportional to the cube of the radius---so a linear increase in volume will not yield a linear increase in circumference.  For a constant increase in fluid volume, the circumference would only increase as a cubed root.  In short, a small increase in Gabe's measured head size will mean a much larger (cubed) increase in total volume in his head; so we should expect the daily/weekly OFC increases to decrease even if the fluid continues to build up.  (That was a long way of saying, don't get your hopes up yet!)

The nurse, Jenna, told us today that Gabe is so cute (the word she really used is, "sooooooooooooooo", but that seemed too juvenile to write shortly under a discussion of cubed roots).  It helps to hear this description since it's been a long time since Nanette and I have seen the twins:  10 days for Nanette and 5 for myself.

Zeke has started back on milk again.  He is at 7mL today and is tolerating it.  He is back on CPAP at 5cm of pressure after two grade 4 As and Bs (apnea and bradycardia) last night.  Grade 4 is where the nurse has to manually pump air into his lungs.  The nurse tonight said that they have ordered some blood to give to him, possibly in the morning.  His hematocrit has been low and they will check it again tomorrow.  Zeke appears to be doing OK for having an infection.  He has not been nearly as bad off as Gabe was when he had sepsis (there I go again, comparing my twins---everyone says not to do that!).  Zeke is up to 1330 grams (2lb 15 oz., which was Gabe's birth weight).

We just called the NICU and we are happy to report that the operator has smiled on us and the whole hospital-calling population:  normal and peaceful hold music has been restored.