What a Week

We have had a crazy, slightly scary, exhausting week. Eleanor spit up and choked on her feeding on Saturday night. She was bright red, eyes popping out of her head, gasping--I even had to turn her over on my arn and give her a couple pops to the back. When she could finally breathe again (seemed like 20 minutes--probably was 1) I held her for the next hour. But when I put her down to sleep, she set off her apnea monitor three times in a row. I called the doctor the next morning, and they didn't like the sound of that, so they had us go to the emergency room where Eleanor had an x-ray and was admitted. The film was clear, thank goodness, but that wanted to observe her overnight anyway. They ended up doing an MCR (sleep study) on her to check her breathing, and since we were there, to see if she was ready to come off the oxygen. She was fine the whole night, but still has 12% periodic breathing, even though her oxygen saturations are fine. So we came to a compromise: she can be off of her oxygen whole she's with us, but when she is put down to sleep, she has to have it on. This is great because now I can actually walk around the house with her. We've been pretty much tethered to our bedroom since January 4, so this is a real treat! The only problem is that Adam hasn't been checked yet, so he needs to stay on the oxygen all the time. Walking around with Eleanor, but leaving Adam in his bassinet causes much guilt--so we don't get out of the bedroom as much as you would think.
Adam has also had his issues this week. On Monday, he started breathing rapidly (60 times a minute--you try it--it's worse than it sounds) which can be the first sign of a respiratory infection. Once again I called the doctor and into the office we went. His pediatrician listened to him and said he doesn't hear anything in his lungs, he has no fever, and is still eating a ton, so we'll just watch him. On a positive note, the doctor weighed him and he's now 12 pounds!
Our pediatrician plots the twins' growth on a regular growth chart--for their actual, not adjusted, age. This means that Adam is very close to being in the 3rd percentile for weight for all 5 month olds. Eleanor is as well, since they don't expect girls to weigh quite as much. I am hoping that by eight months, both kids are solidly on the regular growth chart. On the preemie growth chart, Adam is off the top!! An Eleanor is at the 98th percentile. Thank goodness they like to grow--their lungs are growing then, too.
Unless something comes up, we don't have another doctor's appointment until March 14 when we see the polmonologist again. By then, I am assuming both kids will be off the oxygen. But I've thought that before and it hasn't happened--I shouldn't jinx myself. Then we have immunizations again at the beginning of April. Five more shots...I don't remember getting nearly the number of shots that babies do today. I guess it's a good thing, but screaming babies who are cranky for the next 12 hours is not my idea of a great time.
Both Eleanor and Adam have started smiling much more often--and Eleanor even does it in response to my smile! Only problem is, then I start crying right away because it's so sweet. I'm sure she's getting confused--Mom is messing with her head already.

Here are a few pictures of the nursery. I went to Pottery Barn Kids last week and finished off the room iwth the rug, thanks to some gift certificates given to us at the showers.