Kitten, post-meal.

Mouse, mid-meal.

Mouse, asleep.

Kitten, asleep.

How's their weight?

Anna's up to 3 lbs 11 oz, which is up 3 oz over her birth weight. Evelyn is right about 4 lbs 5 oz, which is almost an ounce over her birth weight.

But the really good news is that they gained 70 and 80 grams respectively in a 24 hour period. An ounce is 28 grams, so that means they gained between 2 and 3 ounces overnight. That's pretty close to "smooth sailing" in the weight and nutrition department. Evelyn's getting 44 ml per feeding and Anna's at 35 ml, so we're likely to continue to put up good growth numbers.

What's new this afternoon?

There are days when this city gives you reason to remember the answer to the question, "Why didn't we sell our cars and sign away our lives to buy a place in the City?" Often it's the summer weather, as it has been since about August 4th or so. Sometimes it's the traffic, which isn't as predictable as it should be. Nearly always it's the parking, as it has been every day except yesterday.

But not today. Clear as a bell and 68 degrees, a pleasant drive, abundant street parking, and two good reasons to be here. It's a great place to be and a great day to be here.

And I would trade it all for two empty beds at a hospital in Burlingame. Funny how parenting lowers your expectations.

When can they come home?

There's no hard and fast rule.  Apparently, at various points in the past NICUs had benchmarks like "five pounds" or "full-term birthdate."  We have been told neither.  Instead, it's all about whether the girls are able to behave like full term babies in the most important respect -- by never ceasing their core respiratory and circulatory functioning even during their most demanding activity (nursing).  We don't know when that will happen, but we know it's as much a function of the normal progressive development of the autonomic nervous system during gestation as it is a matter of training.  Expecting the girls to maintain perfect balance amongst respiratory and circulatory functions at 33-34 weeks of gestational age is a bit like expecting a ten year old to drive a car -- there are a lot of aspects of the task that are within the kid's grasp at any given moment, but you can't trust that developmentally he or she is ready for every circumstance that could be presented.

So we'll wait for a green light from the MDs.  It's frustrating to see them doing so well and still know that it will be a while before they can go home.