Merry Christmas

Emma does not get her Christmas Wish

She will stay on the monitor for the next 2 weeks. The doctor downloaded the results from the monitor and saw that she has irregular breathing patterns that may or may not be the reason for her heart rate drops. We are still hopeful that it is due to immaturity and she will grow out of it. If she still has episodes during the next 2 weeks and they see the same irregularity when downloading the monitor again, they will order a scan of her brain stem to determine if there are any issues. Since they did the cranial u/s in the NICU, we don't anticipate they will find any problems.

Santa's visit

They couldn't stay awake for it, but Santa was nice enough to take a picture with James and Emma anyway.

Wired for business

Emma had an appointment with the cardiologist on Friday. The doctor said she looks excellent and couldn't hear any issues in his stethoscope. He put her on a holter monitor for 24 hours because they noticed a slight electrical impulse issue when they ran the holter monitor in the NICU. If the monitor comes back clear, he will release her. If they still see the issue, they will continue to monitor her in the future.

Monday we go to the Pediatric Lung Center so they can download the information from her heart rate monitor. She continues to have episodes (none serious) so I am not sure she will get her Christmas wish to be off the monitor.

James and Emma in their party clothes

Today started out by relaxing and hanging out on the sofa watching the political talk shows.

Emma and James then went to their first Holiday party. It took us 2 hours to get out the door and we had thoughts of not going at all, but we made it and we are glad we did.

Reflux test

We received excellent news yesterday that there is no reflux to James' non-functioning kidney. Sean took him to his procedure and said that he was a trooper. We are waiting for the final report from the doctor.

Happy 1 month birthday

Emma spent the weekend getting to know her grandparents and a couple aunts. We were all a little nervous about the heart rate monitor, but so far everything is going well. The alarm has gone off twice. The first time she was choking on some medication so that doesn't count as an episode. The second time she was sleeping angelically in her grandmother's arms. The alarm rang twice but by the time anyone got to her, she had self corrected. She goes to the cardiologist next Friday for a follow up and the lung specialist the week after that. Hopefully if things continue this way, she could possibly be monitor free for Christmas.

Both sets of grandparents returned to their respective states leaving Sean and I on our own with the twins. James and Emma must have sensed this and cried for an hour after they walked out the door. They must have realized that things were going to be ok because they had a good evening and a decent night in their cribs.

Emma had her follow up doctor's appointment with the pediatrician on today. She is now 6lb 13oz and the doctor said she is petite but very healthy. James went along for the ride and they put him on the scale as well. He is now 8lb 8oz. This pictures gives you an idea of the difference in the size between the two.

James has his kidney reflux test (VCUG) tomorrow so all good thoughts and prayers you can spare would be most appreciated.

Look who is home:)

We were told yesterday that it was a possibility, but we didn't get our hopes up. Today she cleared her cardio test and made it 5 days with only minor episodes.











We will post more pictures later. Thanks to everyone for all their amazing support during these last 4 weeks. We could not have done it without you.

Emma had her ECG on Tuesday and the results were normal. We are still waiting for the results of the 24 hour holter monitor. Emma had a good day today. She had one spell late in the day and self recovered. Hopefully the rest of the evening goes the same way and it will be a trend that shows she is growing out of her spells. She was very tired today after her busy day yesterday.






James went to a friend's house for a pasta dinner tonight. It was cold and rainy so we bundled him up.