Brothers unite!

The last few days have been so much more positive and I have half a spring in my step again! The boys were weighed on Sunday and Joey Chunka Chops Fox now weighs a hefty 3lbs! 3lbs!!! Little Xander weighs 2lbs 11 so he's not far behind. Joey had another blood transfusion yesterday to boost his Oxygen in his blood as the doctors are keen to get them off Sipap now. It took 4 attempts to get the cannula in and i nearly lost it at the doctors. I think I made one of the doctors a little nervous as after two attempts by the first doctor I asked her to please not do it if she wasnt 100% confident. I think the death stare I gave her following this statement made her decision a little easier  She said she'd leave it for the registrar to do.

Joey has been doing so well since the transfusion and Xander is doing just as well. The doctors are really pushing them to get off Sipap and today we left Xander doing 4 hours off and 2 hours on and Joey was doing 3 hours off, 3 hours on. They cry when they go back on the Sipap machine which is good as it shows they're strong enough to fight it. Come on my babies..you tell them you dont need it anymore!

Every day I get to the hospital and see new babies that have arrived. New babies come in to the pink nursery where we are. This is the nursery for the sickest (or youngest ) babies. We've seen babies come and go for weeks. No one stays as long as we have. We see them move to the purple nursery to the right of our nursery which is for babies who are almost ready to go home but just need a bit of extra monitoring. We can see them through the glass windows looking so happy holding their babies. Once they've done well in the purple nursery, they move on to the blue nursery. This is the exciting one - its to the left of ours and through the windows we see mums feeding, holding and playing with their healthy bundles. When you're in this nursery, you know you're going home soon. One day we'll move out of the pink nursery...it's weeks away but I can almost feel it in my bones!

I'm at the hospital so much and it's been so long now that the canteen workers ask if I'm staff when paying. I'm tempted to say yes..I'm a nurse..no, doctor, no..surgeon! But I won't, instead I say the same thing every day. "No, I'm just visiting my baby boys". Lucky for me, I quite like hospital food! It's like airplane food but the portions are bigger. You never know what surprises you're going to find in your meals but that's part of the fun... Blurgh!

So, highlight of the week. It's a great one!! It happened today and I'll remember it forever. The boys were coming off their Sipap and nurse Julie was on shift. She'd seen me get quite upset over the cannula incident yesterday and wanted to cheer me up. She took Joey out of his incubator and put him in with Xander! On his way in, she put him on her shoulder and kissed his little head. Like a proper baby! She then gently lifted him on to my shoulder and I held him and covered every part of his head with little kisses. I've never held him like that before and I obviously burst into tears. Happy tears! He was nuzzling into my neck and opened his eyes a little. He was so precious and tiny. I could see my reflection in the window and I looked like a real mum holding her real baby! He was in air with no Sipap and no Oxygen...such an amazing feeling. I held him for about 20 seconds and we then put him in the incubator with Xander where the O2 was pumping so they could breathe properly.

Joey was wide awake from his cuddle with me (and probably from being Oxygen deprived!) and he stared at Xander for such a long time! He looked at his face as if he was studying him and then lay his arm down and gently held his brothers hand. Cue floods of tears from me. The nurses were all coo'ing and calling other nurses over to come and have a look at them together as they were just so sweet. Pauline, the parent relations co ordinator came rushing in with the camera and took photos of them. She gave me a little album with their photos in to keep. So precious. Xander was so sleepy but opened his eyes a little to see Joey. He looked at him and held on to his hand as if to say "Where've you been Bro". They closed their eyes and fell asleep for about half an hour. Complete bliss. They were both being monitored and their stats were exactly the same which was great as it meant that they could stay with each other a little longer. Xander then woke up and sneezed on Joey but he didnt seem to mind! Joey then put his hand on Xanders face and Xander patiently let him leave it there...Half an hour later Xander started stretching and looked a bit like he wanted some space! We moved Joey back to his incubator and they've both been doing so well since. Joey was in 22% O2 in his incubator...21% is air so that's amazing!

I can't wait to see them together again and to see them interacting and staring at each other.

We've not had any visitors now since the beginning of Feb as there's a visitor ban to keep viruses at a minimum. Apart from the fact that I'm going slightly mad from being alone all day looking after my two angels it's also sad that our family and friends cant see them growing and developing. I'm sure they'll make up for it when we leave...everyone is welcome to come over and do the 3am feeds when they're home!

Joey

Xander..maybe they are identical afterall!

 

Xander

Joseph

Boys together!

Hi Bro, I've missed you!

Xander starting to get fidgety

"Get out of my bed!"