Friday Eve

(Heather with an unfortunate haircut, but seeking out her Papa's voice with inquisitive eyes)

Our friend Jen Robertson has been visiting and providing us with a ton of support this week, which has been fantastic. It is great to not only be able to visit with her, but have her basically do everything around here. Okay, I'm exaggerating... a bit. She has really taken on so much and it has made a big difference in being able to get us out to the hospital to spend time with the babes.


In addition, my work colleagues have plied me with a couple of absolutely delicious meals, which has, again, made getting Jennifer to bed and getting to the hospital at a reasonable time possible. Even then, the days have been long.

(Emily aglow from her oxygen saturation sensor)

A shortage of rest (and perhaps accumulated exhaustion) have not been gentle on us. I have unfortunately being showing all the signs of coming down with some kind of stomach bug. It feels like it might be a mild flu, because I'm also getting a bit of chest congestion. The long and short of it has been that I have not really been able to visit the girls in the hospital for the last few nights. Given the vulnerability of all the kids in the NICU to infection, it would be irresponsible to risk taking anything (or anybody) infectious in there. Besides, the nurses in there would kick your ass. I have to console myself with reports from my wife and, by phone, from the NICU nurses, and focus on getting some rest and putting this bug (if it is a bug) behind me. It's a true curse for a father so eager to be with his new daughters.

:(

(An earlier picture of Heather, with that uncomfortable looking scalp IV)

All of which to say that the following brief update is second-hand news. Heather went on CPAP briefly, but came off of it (was it yesterday, today?) and seems to be doing well. Emily has had a couple of spells that make me wonder whether or not she may be going back on CPAP as well, but that's just speculation on my part. The nurses attending to all of the girls feel that they are a bit on the low energy / lethargic side at the moment; however, it seems that all blood tests have come back negative and there is no sign of infection. The medical staff have stopped worrying about it so much, but are keeping a close eye on things. My father-in-law, Bill (the retired pediatrician) feels that this is probably just a phase they are going through. In my mind, that kind of makes sense, given that they have had a fairly exhausting week, for 30 week, 3.5 pound baby girls, what with all the needle pokes (exhausting crying), changes, probes, exams, etc.


Janet is off visiting the girls tonight, so I hope to have more to report (and a few more pictures) in the next day or so.


The number one question I am getting asked these days is: can you tell them apart? Well, they are young babies and all bear a striking resemblance to each other at this stage, but we are fairly confident that none of them are identical. Heather seems to have darker hair (and, at the moment, a funky haircut because of two intravenous lines they had to put on opposite sides of her head) than Emily and Heather. Emily and Heather look quite a bit alike in my book, at the moment, but I'm sure that, with time, we'll begin to observe some differences. In the meantime, the nurses suggest that we paint their toe-nails with different colour polish when the come home, just in case!