Two Cuties Come Home

What a miracle! At only 33 weeks and 6 days gestational age, Taerik and Keira were released to come home today!!! No more tubes, wires, or monitors. They spent only 17 days in the hospital. We are praising the Lord for His goodness!

On Monday, the doctor told us that in order for our babies to come home, Rob and I needed to spend a 24 hour period with all three of them in the special care nursery. I guess that this is hospital policy for unusual cases, such as multiples, preemies, or inept parents. Hoping we were not considered the latter, we went up Tuesday at 1:00 in the afternoon and spent the night with our babes. We were responsible for all their care. It was actually a good experience for us to work into this major lifestyle change with doctors and nurses close by. After a busy evening of feeding, monitoring, and changing, Taerik and Keira were cleared to be discharged at 3:00 PM today. So, our family grew by two overnight and eagerly awaits the arrival of our last little munchkin.

Drake is doing awesome, too! The doctors keep reminding us that he is actually performing quite normal for babies at his age. The other two were just remarkable. Little Drake seems to be a bit more laid back and we know that in his own time he will decide it's his turn to come home, too. His doctor suggested that it could be as soon as this weekend, however we're not holding our breath. It seems more likely that it will be next week sometime. That's still in time for Mother's Day, so keep praying! Drake should be moved to an open crib tonight sometime, as he was doing well at maintaining his body temperature. Also, his IV is scheduled to come out tonight. His last hurdle is taking all of his bottles by mouth, without the feeding tube. While on his heart medication, he had been getting all of his nutrients from his IV. The meds also caused him to retain a lot of water. Now that he is off of those, he is doing much better and starting to look a lot more like his brother. In order for him to come home without monitors, he also needs to have no apnea's lasting longer than 10 seconds through Sunday. Babies need to go for 7 days without these and his countdown started last Sunday. Until his release, either Rob or I will go up every day and spend some quality one on one time with our last little bundle.

At last nights assessment, the babies were all weighed and measured. As of that time, their stats were as follows -

Taerik

4 pounds, 14 ounces

16 inches long

Drake

4 pounds, 10 ounces

17 inches long

Keira

5 pounds, 1 ounce

16 inches long

We are once again praising God for His goodness! Though tired from a long night Tuesday, and another restless one scheduled for this evening, our hearts overflow with thanksgiving for these precious blessings! We wouldn't trade them for the world!

Keira & Taerik

Drake

Just waiting for Drake