Reunited and It Feels So Good

Or it did for me at least. Gabrielle had an appointment with an ENT at Columbia yesterday so after we finished, we went by the NICU to say hi to Alaina. We didn't go into Alaina's room to make sure Gaby wouldn't catch anything but the nurse brought Alaina to the door so she could say hello to her sister. The girls haven't been together since Alaina was transferred to Columbia three months ago so I was excited to see them reunited.



But as you can tell from the photo, the girls didn't share my enthusiasm. They slept the entire time! Oh well. It was still nice to see them together. There's been a lot of debate over whether the girls look alike or not. Some people think they're impossible to tell apart while others think they look totally different. Seeing them side by side, I don't think they look like each other at all. There's a resemblance but that's it. Alaina's nurse agreed with me but another nurse walked by and asked if they're identical! I guess everyone's going to have their own opinion. I decided it would be fun to see what you all think so I posted a poll. Cast your vote on whether Gabrielle and Alaina look alike.

As Alaina gets older, she's getting bored at the hospital so we bring her toys from home to keep her occupied. She has stuffed animals, a crib soother and a mirror, all of which she loves, and yesterday I brought in her swing. Gaby's not a huge fan of the swing so I wasn't sure if Alaina would like it or not but just a few seconds after we put her, she was in heaven! She spent hours swinging away and staring at the little toucan toy. She didn't even want her binky, which for Alaina is miraculous.


Here are some more pictures of our little ham.




She's up to 6 pounds 14 ounces now and is doing really well with her feeds. Today the doctors are starting to compress them to try to prepare her for coming home. Here's what that means -- Gaby (and most babies) eat a certain amount every three hours per day. Since her surgery, Alaina has been getting continuous feeds through a feeding tube in her stomach so it's easier on her body. Instead of eating 60 ccs once every three hours, she gets 20 ccs continuously every hour for three hours. It would be impossible to feed her like that by bottle at home so they now have to start training her body to take larger amounts at one time. Today she'll get that 60 ccs over 2.5 hours instead of 3 hours. If that goes well, they'll start giving her the 60 ccs over 2 hours, etc. until she's taking it all in one sitting via bottle. This is going to be tedious process but once it's complete, she can come home. The doctors think it will take 3-4 weeks for her to get through the whole process. We're keeping our fingers crossed that our little peanut will do well so she can come home!