Kangaroo Care and More

Spencer and I got to practice kangaroo care for the first time today. Spencer, wearing nothing but his diaper, was placed on my chest inside my blouse. This skin-to-skin "therapy" for premature babies was accidentally discovered by doctors in South America whose hospitals did not have money to buy enough incubators for premies. K-care babies grow faster, breathe better, and are calmer than non k-care babies. And of course we moms get the benefits of feeling more involved in our babies' care and bonding more closely with our babies. It was such an incredible experience. I held Spencer on my chest for about 40 minutes. He rested so peacefully, occasionally opening his eyes to gaze up at me. I even had the monumental milestone of my first baby spit-up on my blouse!

Alex continues to recover from his lung problems. His ventilator settings went down further today (indicating that he needs less support). He was his lively self when I was with him today. Unfortunately I didn't get to spend enough time with him today. I barely got to sing and read to him. It really broke my heart when I had to leave his bedside. I'm returning to work full time next week and I'm realizing that I really can't commit to anything beyond working and being with my babies at the hospital. They are going to need me more and more in the coming weeks, as they are able to be held more, begin to bottle and breast feed, and make other steps toward coming home. Sleep may just have to take a back burner to them...it will when they come home, so I might as well start now.

Spencer is doing very well on Vapo-Therm. They now weigh him every day. He's at 2 lbs 6.5 oz. I discovered that the conversion of the boys' birth weights that I was given was wrong. Spencer was actually 1 lb 8 oz and Alex was 1 lb 7.5 oz. I'm going to go back to my previous blog entry and fix those numbers. There is a new 24 week preemie in Spencer's nursery who weighs more than Spence did when he was born. I look at that baby and I can't remember Spencer being that small. It really puts into perspective how much the boys have grown.