Great week for the kids

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update.
First and foremost, Grey is doing spectacular. He is taking his feedings by tube, and is 75% to his goal feeds for his weight. His swelling has seemed to disappear, and he is having bowel movements as we hoped. The doc will be shutting off the iv nutrition tomorrow, and we are still looking at a goal of getting him home by Halloween, or maybe the week following. It is likely that he will come home with a feeding tube that is temporary.... and we'll have to maintain that, but seriously... this is a small task compared to what he has gone through. I held him today for quite some time, and he was less grouchy it seemed. More alert. It was quite nice. I also gave him a bath. Seems the little man needed it. So happy to report that!

Lilly and Owen are doing super. Lilly continues to have her fussy periods at night. She is not taking as much food as she used to...comparing it to a few weeks ago. She isn't vomitting like she used to, and really spits up only once or twice daily. Maybe she is just keeping more calories on board, therefore, does not require the volume... I don't know.
We did have our first experience with a night nanny. She offered some different techniques for caring for the kids. She told us about a book called the "Happiest Baby on the Block". Although some of the techniques may be a little "out there".... they honestly seem to work. Swaddling is actually the staple to the technique. When they first get swaddled, they resist for about a minute or two, and then, they seem to sleep quite well after that. She also introduced us to "white noise". Which is kind of odd. It is supposed to mimic the sounds that the babies hear in the womb. Thinking back... if you hear what it is like to go under water in a lake with a lot of activity going on above, and in the water with the boats, it sounds the same way. Kind of like static. So indeed white noise is like static. The book says to play this loud while they sleep. I found it rather obnoxious, but I did buy some tracks on iTunes, and played it a few feet from their pack n play. Not loud, just enough so they could hear it. They slept for 4 hours. It was a dream. I then decided to see if there was any medical studies on this, and indeed... there is. I guess nobody really knows what an infant thinks, but I can't help to think that since they go to sleep faster, and stay asleep longer... even though it's a little "out there"... it works. Many will say it does, and I wouldn't have continued it if it didn't, but it does. Owen got a little sweaty last night. So, I took off his sleeper, and put on a onesy with socks, and he slept super in his burrito like state. I need to read more about it, but it does oddly enough, work.
We loved the night nanny, and plan to get one from the agency once or twice a week until the feedings are stretched for a little longer than 3 hours consistently. It was nice to have a different perspective on some things that I hadn't thought about, or didn't know about. Talking to some of the NICU nurses they agreed that do what works, and swaddling and noise has been used for years to help babies sleep. I feel like we made a move in the right direction.

It was good to work this week. Nice to get back in the swing of things. It's nice to have my in-laws watching Lilly and Owen just downstairs, so when I come down for lunch, or to get a drink... I can look at their pretty little faces.

We've had some adversity with some other things this week. I pray they go away. I have all I can handle right now.