Thursday, January 7

We've had a disappointing day. After we heard about Andrew not doing very well, we got ready and headed to the NICU. The doctor gave us updates on all the babies and showed us Andrew and Mattie's x-rays. Andrew had a blood gas that came back bad. His CO2 levels were high, so they did an x-ray to check. His left lung was over inflated and his right was small and murky. When we told you that they were going to purposely deflate his lung, we didn't really know what that meant. It only means that they keep Andrew on his left side, so most of his air intake goes up to his right lung, and his left lung will get smaller. He had another x-ray a few hours later and there was improvement. He was still on quite a bit of oxygen to help him out. They also decided to give him a blood transfusion, which will help his levels to improve. One bright note is that Andrew is off of photo therapy. He's still hovering around 1lb. 14oz., but is getting 8ml of milk every four hours.

Mattie's x-ray showed a small right lung and a murky left lung. She's also getting quite a bit of oxygen to help her. Her feedings are increased to 4ml every four hours, and she's off of photo therapy too. Her blood oxygen levels continue to go up and then go down every few minutes. So, the alarms go off when they're down, they'll stop for a few minutes, and then they go off when she goes too high. These up and down levels, the babies doing good one day and not the next is starting to frustrate us. We know it's a long haul, and we've been prepared for the bad days, but we wish those babies were big and at home. We try to stay as even keel as possible, but it does get hard.

On the very bright side, Adelaide is doing awesome. It's hard to not look at her and wonder why the others are not doing better. She's now taking 24ml of milk every four hours, which is the max for a baby her size. They're discussing taking out her iv line they put in last night since she's feeding so well. She will also be getting fortified formula, which will help her get even bigger. She's now 2lbs. 5oz. They are slowly weening her off her oxygen and hope to challenge her tonight by dropping her levels to see how she handles it.

Kevin's been working at home this week and has a shoot tomorrow, so it will be tough getting back in the swing. Tara had a tough time today with the news about Andrew, and she just wants time to move along faster. She longs to hold those babies and have them home. It will be even tougher as she prepares to go back to work on January 19. Once the babies come home, she'll continue with her leave.

Praise
Adelaide doing so well. Full feeds, weening of vent, and iv line removal.
Andrew and Mattie off of photo therapy.
Andrew slowly improving from this morning.
Dinner being left on our door step. The meals have been an awesome blessing.
A bag of baby supplies left for us by another couple at the NICU.
Work for Kevin.
Sleeping in for Tara.

Prayer
Andrew and Mattie's lungs to inflate to proper size, be clear and functioning correctly.
Andrew's blood gases would improve.
Mattie's monitor levels would improve.
Mattie's feeding would increase.
Kevin's video shoot.
Tara preparing to go back to work.