Our Second Trip to the RSV Clinic

Today we bundled up the babies against the -21 temperature and took them to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) to get their second round of anti-RSV medication. RSV is a potentially serious respiratory infection that most children get in their first two years of life - for most babies, it is usually a bad cold and cough. For premies, however, it can be life threatening. If they catch it, many end up in hospital on ventilators... certainly something we've seen enough already!

This anti-RSV medication prevents the proteins from the virus from binding together, and so if they were to catch RSV it should be far less severe. Because they were under 32 weeks when delivered, they are eligible for the treatment. They had their initial dose three weeks ago, and after today will return for a subsequent dose every month until the end of the flu season in March or April. The nursing staff is wonderful, and we were in and out of there in an hour and half. This included weighing each baby in order to calculate the proper dosage. I'm somewhat shocked to announce that Keith and Colin are almost identical in weight: a whopping 10 pounds!! To think they were 3lb 14 ounces and 2lb 12 ounces less than 11 weeks ago (not counting the weight drop that is inevitable after birth) is absolutely astonishing. Evelyn is also on a remarkable growth curve and tipped the scales at 8lb 9 ounces.... the nurses who saw them three weeks ago were equally impressed by their incredible gain.

In other news, we have switched the babies to a four hour feed schedule (1,5,9) which means we've gone from 8 feeds a day to 6. This has been a glorious achievement, as our schedule is a lot less chaotic and we usually have at least one good, usable hour between every feed. This also means we're getting a bit more sleep - although they still wake early to ensure you don't miss their bottle prep! We find they're slowly recognizing day and night, and we try to keep them up a little now during the day on their activity mats which seems to help them sleep better at night.

We also managed to get Christmas pictures done at home in outfits that Edward's mother graciously provided. I'll be posting those a little closer to Christmas, but while they are not studio quality by any means, they are (at least to us) hilarious! Getting everyone corralled was like herding cats - and getting everyone to sit up and look towards the camera was, well, impossible. Edward, my mother and I enjoyed the process; although it's clear that not all the babies shared our enthusiasm... with the exception of our Miss-E. She's happy for a change in routine (and she got to wear a tutu) as long as she gets to observe the situation to her satisfaction.