Am, Izzy & Seth - Day 3 Update

It is Sunday morning and we are sitting back in awe over the progress that both Am and the kids have made in the past 38 hours since their birth.  Yesterday Am was able to get off the magnesium and the epidural and move to ibuprofen.  That has helped clear her head and remove the drowsiness and yet still has managed the pain well.  Am is the toughest person I know and has done an unbelievable job at forcing herself to get up and move to relieve the gas bubble pain and to expel some of the fluid that was built up from the preeclamsia.  I remember after my kidney surgery how much I fought getting up...and how long I stayed on the pain meds.  Yep, she is WAY tougher than me!  Am looks fantastic and feels great!  She will likely be released either tomorrow or Tuesday.  Please continue praying for her as she still has a lot of fluid buildup, her blood pressure is still high and we are waiting to find out if her liver enzymes have come down.  Also pray for the separation anxiety that goes hand and hand with momma having to recover in a different wing of the hospital than the kiddos.  I have the freedom to go back and forth but Am can only periodically visit.

Because the kiddos were so small, they were admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for special care (part of the Children's Hospital).  They both had to go on respirators to assist with breathing and started out with their little chests heaving and with a lot of grunting.  It was hard to watch.  But through God's grace and some exceptional care from our NICU nurses and doctors, our little ones are doing so much better.  Izzy was actually taken off of her respirator yesterday and is breathing perfectly on her own.  Seth is going to have to keep his a while longer but is still progressing very well.  It is hard not to compare his progress to Izzy's and feel like he is behind but the docs are assuring us that he is doing much better than preemies typically do at his size (especially white males or "wimpy white males" as they refer to them in the NICU - they have the hardest time breathing on their own).

Izzy & Seth will likely stay in the NICU for at least another three of four weeks before being released to go home.  While we would love to take them home with us now, it is wonderful knowing they are in the very best hands.  We have been blessed with nurse after nurse who have loved on our babies and treated them as if they were their own.  I can't possibly thank them enough.  Last night Am was able to come down in a wheelchair to visit the kids and, despite her exhaustion, she decided to try to hold Izzy and to give her some skin to skin time.  Izzy knew right what to do, latched on instantly and received some of the great nutrition that Am plans to supply through breast feeding.  Seth isn't quite ready for that yet but he is receiving some of Am's milk through a feeding tube.  I got to have some good skin to skin contact with Seth while Am was holding Izzy.  They are so tiny but they are also so beautiful and sweet.  It was an awesome and uplifting experience that left us both in awe as to how we have been so blessed by being given these wonderful two children.  God could have given them to anyone and yet he chose us.  We have a great duty now to raise these kids up to bring Him glory!

Here's our handsome boy Seth Patrick:

Love how he has his hand around the pillow.

He kept peaking out to see if anyone was looking at him.

Seth has crazy hair!

This was the stretching Am was feeling all night every night!  Seth loves to stretch out!

And here's our beautiful girl Elizabeth Katherine:

Tell me that is not the cutest face ever!

Check out those little toes!

Izzy has a good head of hair - think how long it would have been if she made it to 40 weeks!

Izzy Says "look everyone, no respirator!"

And just for fun, here is my first attempt at changing Izzy's diaper: