On Our Own (Sort of)

It has been over a month since we have posted. Most attempts end when someone spits up, needs to be fed, or needs to be changed.

Grandma Brown helped for about 3 weeks after Grammy Evans went back to Hawaii. We were on our own to deal with both babies. We had some big milestones as Grandma Brown left to make things managabe. They sleep from the 9:00 feed until about 1:00 and again until about 5:30. We used the 1:1 system so that each was responsible for their baby and how much food they got through the night.

Aunt Michelle came over to help Mom after she got home from work (around noon) until Dad got home from work.

Mom took the babies to Dr. Antall on the Friday before Grammy Evans came back from Hawaii to help out. Both babies were doing well.

Cambria was 10lbs 2 oz and Aegean was 9lbs 7oz. We think they are over 11 lbs now.

The doctor said we could discontinue using the Apnea monitor when we are ready. He suggested we start leaving it off for longer stints during the day. Aegean came home and never put the monitor on again.

Mom forgot to tell Dr. Antall that we ran out of his medications, so Aegean discontinued those as well.

The only change is that Aegean continues just under the red blood cell count limit because of being behind when he was taken off food during his NICU stay. We are giving him extra iron in his morning bottle to help him catch up.

Both are like normal infants at thsi point. They have started hitting all of the developmental stages. Our favorite was the smiling stage. We aren't just bottle holders and diaper changers anymore! You can see one of the pictures below where Aegean smiled when Daddy came home from work. He is a bit more selective at his smiling targets, but Cambria will smile at anyone. She also lets you know when she isn't happy.

I wanted to add that we got the bill from the NICU. Dr. Jadali kept telling us the cost was $10,000 /day. Cambria spend about 15 days and Aegean spend about 30 days. The bill was more like $1500. Insurance covered most of it as it was supposed to. I want to thank all of you Aetna carriers that helped fund bringing the babies back home.

Grammy Evans extended this stay to about a month and a half. We know we can manage on our own, but we also appreciate the help more than before too. Hopefully they will be sleeping through the night by the time she leaves.