Please Grow Stronger, Little Josephine

The weekend! I hope everyone had a great work week. With all of these great days lately, we were due for a downer. Nothing too major, it's just that Josephine didn't pass her swallow study test today. I was so confident she would pass, but when I called this morning, the nurse practitioner gave me the sad news. One of the vocal cords is paralyzed but the other compensates. Right now it doesn't compensate enough to protect her airways while swallowing. What this means for us is that she cannot get any food orally as of now. She will get a repeat test in two weeks and we were told that she could pass because she will get so much stronger and bigger from now until then. Besides the swallow study, Josephine has been having a good week. She is on low-flow and is growing every day! She had another eye exam this past which showed that her eyes are still immature but with no ROP. Josie will get another exam in a couple of weeks.


Sofia is doing fine, and is on low-flow (where before she had no breathing assistance). She is currently the biggest. I have been working on nursing with her, and she'll do a couple minutes. She'll either spell (forgets to breathe, resulting in low heart rate and oxygen de-sat) or forget what she's doing. She's coming along, though. Sofia's eye exam wasn't as positive as Josephine. She is the same maturity, but is showing Stage 1 of ROP. This stage is very minimal of ROP and odds are it will resolve on its own. The doctor will check her again in two weeks and hopefully it will be resolved!


Madeline is on low-flow, too. She is ahead of Sofia when it comes to nursing! She is super interested and showing all of the rooting signs during most of her feeding times. She has even received a bottle when I wasn't there and did pretty well. She sometimes forgets to pace herself. If she doesn't pause to breathe in-between sucks and swallows, she de-sats. Because she is so interested, she may master nursing/feeding from a bottle first. Her eye exam showed the same result as Sofia's; Stage 1 of ROP. It would be really sad if their disease gets worse and they'll need surgery, so say a little prayer for them. Surgery is necessary at Stage 4 or 5.

Yesterday, the lactation consultant took a sample of my milk to find out the calorie content. I was so proud that there are 27 calories in every ounce! They say the typical calorie content for a woman's milk is 20 calories! No wonder these babes are growing so fast! :)

Dan's mom, Debbie, and Dan's brother, Pete were able to hold the babies! My parents couldn't this week because my mom was sick and my dad could have been carrying the germs too. The first picture is Deb with Sofia and the second is Pete with Madeline. How cute! I hope everyone has a great weekend and please keep Josephine in your thoughts!