“30 Weeks” or “How old are they anyway?”

(Mom, Dad, and Emma Jane)
If the girls had remained in utero they would be 30 weeks today. When you talk to nurses and doctors they still think of them this way. Developmentally that is where they are at. Tomorrow will be 4 weeks since they were born (I know, can you believe it has already been 4 weeks since all this started, more than that since Mary Jane’s water broke). For the next couple of years, even if everything goes smoothly and well they will be developmentally “behind” by 14 weeks because, well they are 14 weeks younger. Eventually those 14 weeks really don’t matter. But for now…
All this begs the question, how old are the girls? It seems to me, that what we do is start the clock at conception and then restart it once they are born. Which on average works since the majority of babies are born right around 40 weeks, but there are a large number of children born early or late and we are zeroing them out with the others and then calling them developmentally behind, when really they are right on target for their actual age.Just something to think about

(Cindi, Mom, and Emma Jane)
Cindi left today. It was a quick visit. We enjoyed having her. She was particularly excited this morning when they gave her a sticker for each of the girls and not just one of them. (see picture).

Mary Jane and I have had the opportunity to see a few full term (or nearly) babies recently and have been stunned at how big they are. At some point you just start to adjust your expectations to what you are seeing on a daily basis, without realizing you are doing it. These so called newborns look like huge giant babies who could sit on ours.
The girls already had their head ultrasound. We haven’t heard anything yet, but are not worried. We’re heading back to the hospital soon and I will try to send out a quick update tonight.

(Parker hugging a pink elephant)

Cindi Poops Pizza

Amazing what a lack of commas does to a sentence. You ever see that book “Eats, shoots, and leaves”? Consider this my tribute.

Cindi Burger Barrett came to visit us today.

She’s one of Mary Jane’s friends from college and has been avidly praying for us and the girls and decided to trek her way over from Nashville to offer moral support and to see the cutest girls ever. (That’s right…I said it. Tom heard me going off on this rant a few days ago and seemed to think I was biased in my opinion because I am their father. I want to assure you I am not. It is an objective fact, proven with hard scientific evidence. After a series of uber scientific studies were done it has been verified that Parker and Emma Jane are, {after Mary Jane} the cutest babies ever. You still doubt? I offer you exhibits ‘q’ and ‘vv’ for your own study.)



It has been fun to see Cindi. It has been a while since we could hang out together. She told us fun stories about her recent adventures. Including a nasty little run in with a bottle of peppermint while she was in Africa. Cindi is a nurse and has developed a strong disliking for the smell of peppermint because it reminds her of the smell of poop. Why poop? Well at the hospital they use a peppermint smell to mask the smell of poop. It doesn’t do a good job and you are left with smell of peppermint poop in you nostrils. This, of course, is disgusting, and after years of this she has developed a nasty association in her mind. So Cindi is in Africa and some of the people on the trip with her had a glass bottle of peppermint with them, and because life is ironic, the bottle breaks, all over her clothes, leaving her smelling like peppermint all week, which of course reminds her of…
Speaking of poop, this is a sign hanging in each of the babies’ rooms

It always makes me chuckle a little. I think it's because there is a picture of a specific baby. As though they are saying if this baby.... We enrolled the girls in a study. They collect the stool rather than have it thrown away in order to learn more about something called Necrotizing Entercolitis (or Nec for short). Nec’s a pretty stinky thing and if looking at the girl’s poo will help them figure out how to prevent it…then look away.
All three of us went out to dinner; we had pizza, and then came back to the hospital again. There we got the chance to give Parker a bath. Which, come to think of it, is something I haven’t mentioned yet. We have gotten the chance to give them baths recently. It tends to make them really mad, but it’s a lot of fun and leaves you with a clean smelling baby.
They both had good days. Tomorrow is my day off, so I get to spend the whole day with them (very excited about that). They also get their next head ultrasound tomorrow.
Blessings,
The Broges