Chronological age: 12 days; Adjusted age: -2.2 mos.

As the days have accumulated, we have found ourselves in something like a routine. Bear’s and Button’s days are structured around their Cares, which is what the NICU has termed the tri-hourly baby maintenance and feedings they receive throughout the day. Meghan’s day is similarly structured around providing the girls their meals every 1.5 hours while recovering from her C-section. What time isn’t spent on these activities or sleeping is devoted to visiting the little ones. Visits are planned around their Cares times, as it is during these times one gets a chance to change their impossibly small diapers, take temperatures, and, most importantly, hold these tiny little miracles.

These baby holding sessions, known colloquially as kangaroo-time, are facilitated by the attending nurse and last at minimum 1 hour, capping out at 3. Scientific research suggests these sessions are wildly beneficial to the baby, but we’d happy participate even if that weren’t the case.

Button, despite her low birth weight, has been “thriving.” Since being taken off the ventilator 8 days ago she required the minimal degree of support expected for a baby of her gestational age. Like Bear, Button requires a CPAP and is wired up to extensive monitoring, but we note that though she is noticeably less heavy than her sister, she is no less loud.

Bear has had a hard road. She was on a ventilator for 6 days, just being taken off this last Monday. She had a tear in her lungs that leaked air into her chest, resulting in a pneumothorax and advancement of PIE, a terrifying condition that threw us sideways. The tear seems to have healed itself and the air was vented via a chest tube that was removed last Sunday. These procedures required sedation, namely fentanyl, which has kept her rather placid this last week and a half. She has also required greater intravenous support than Button right up until this morning when her PICC line was removed. As of right now she is doing well and, though PIE is still present, her stats indicate gradual improvement and we hope for real recovery and lessened long-term effects.

Meghan has remained in Green Bay throughout these early days at an AirBnB we have rented just a few minutes from the hospital. Casey and Birdie (one of Lucy’s many nicknames) have split their time between Sister Bay, Gigi’s house and the AirBnB, ensuring Lucy can see her mom often and still attend her beloved school, maintaining some semblance of normalcy in this abnormal time.

By appearances, Birdie has handled this all extraordinarily well. Between flawlessly dealing with her mother not being home for 24 days and counting, and being bounced back and forth from dad to Gigi, she has maintained such a wonderful, joyous demeanor. Her resilience and vigor gives us such hope as to what Button and Bear might someday become.