Bottle Time

It's been quite the whirlwind this past week and a half. We were a family of three, and that changed to 5 in just a matter of hours on March 23rd. I really thought I was going back to work that day, not having 2 babies 5 hours after I checked into the hospital!! But now I can't imagine not having twins. It has been exhausting driving to the hospital every day to see them. We just want to bring them home. We tried to bottle-feed the girls the other day. Vanessa was not interested and slept the whole time. Valerie took a couple sucks. However yesterday Vanessa drank the ENTIRE bottle (36 mL)!! Ryan stuck the bottle in her mouth and she started chugging away!! Valerie took about half. We were so excited. There are 3 things they need to do in order to come home: 1) Bottle-feed at every feeding for 48 hours 2) Gain weight 3) Regulate their body temperature on their own. They're still in the incubator, but not hooked up to anything except the feeding tubes. The hard plastic from the incubator provides a little heat for the girls. So once they start eating more, it'll be a snowball affect: they'll gain more weight and be able to regulate their body temps. Hopefully in 2 weeks they'll be ready, that's our goal!!