Today is the day the babies were officially due to be born. Not much has changed in the past week or so really. Harry continues to be in air only, and Joe is spending more and more time in air, mainly needing oxygen for feeding. On Monday the oxygen is being installed but the way Joe is going, we won't even need it. He was only in oxygen for about half an hour all day today which is wonderful.
Both babies continue to take around half their feeds by bottle and the other half by tube. If I am completely honest, I think both could manage bottles all the time if they had to, but I suspect that it's easier for the nurses to put the milk down a tube than take the time to bottle feed as both are quite slow.
We will have a few appointments once the babies are home. Harry will have to go and have blood taken weekly for a while as he is still on diuretics and sodium supplements and they have to monitor the levels carefully, but hopefully he will be weaned off them in around a month or so. Both will also be seen by the cardiologists to to check their heart murmors have resolved fully, and I suspect Joe and possible Harry will need to be seen again to have their eyes looked at. Oh, they will also be seen in the audiology clinic, and Joe has a follow-up appointment for his hernia. Phew.
Once they are home, we will have open access to the childrens ward at the hospital in case I am ever worried, or they seem poorly. This means I can bypass seeing the GP or going through casualty which not only will save time, but also will limit their exposure to germs.
The official coming-home date has been set for Wednesday, after their eye exams. We could have come home on Tuesday but it would have meant being back on the unit for 7am on Wednesday for the eye test. With the best will in the world, I'm not sure I could have got us all up, fed, dressed and there for that time so agreed it was best to wait a day.
Jason came to visit today and had lovely cuddles. Pics coming up.
Weights on Wednesday were: Harry 6lbs 11oz and Joe 5lb 13.5oz. Huge boys now!
quite amazing they are coming home right around when they would have anyway if full term!
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