K&K, Holding Rebecca, Joanna extubated

What could have been a stressful and miserable day turned into a great day of smiles. Katelyn and Kenlee stayed with us at a hotel last night and it was awesome. We got up this morning and went to Waffle House. Then our plans were to go to the zoo. As we found out, it was every other person's plan in Cincinnati. We got stuck in zoo traffic just trying to get back to RMH so Katelyn could go to the bathroom. Luckily, we made it - and we just stopped for her to use the bathroom a few minutes before if you know what I mean. We went back toward the zoo which is just down the road from RMH. Traffic was sitting still and the minutes we had left with the girls was dwindling quickly, not to mention the rapidly approaching time to pump. The best I could estimate, we would have approximately 37 minutes of actual zoo time. We decided to abort the mission and we bribed Katelyn with ice cream and a park. I think we had ambitious plans because we just wanted to do something awesome for them. We located a park not far from there and headed there to spend a couple of hours. We had a great time and got lots of pictures. Then we got ice cream which took the place of lunch.

We had told Joanna's nurse we would be there at 2:00 because they were going to take her intubation tube out. A little after 2:00 we got there and they removed the tube. She reacted perfectly. She went onto the CPAP machine which is just a pronged tube into her nose. She had another ultrasound today of her head and abdomen. Her abdomen ultrasound was ordered because they noticed something while doing her echocardiogram yesterday. What they found today was something on her liver. It was something bright on ultrasound but was not an active bleed. The radiologist and the resident that reported to us don't really know what it is. The dr. told us she really don't think it is something to worry about, they will just follow up with another scan. Her head ultrasound was about the same as the last one. It is a grade 2 on both sides. It is a small bleed but nothing to be concerned about right now. Again, they will follow up with another scan to check progress. An occupational therapist has started working with her joints and positioning to try to overcome some of the problems from her fetal conditions.

Mom got to hold Rebecca tonight (kangaroo care). They just placed Rebecca face down on Jessica's chest to provide warmth and so she could hear mom's heartbeat. They both absolutely loved it. They had been talking about taking her tube out also, but she had to have a setting increased on her vent so it will be delayed a little. I get to do the kangaroo care tomorrow, we'll see how she does for me.