Wednesday, March 17

Happy St. Paddy's Day! We've had an OK week so far with the babies. Tara had the chance to spend extra time with the babies today because of her spring break.

We've been waiting a couple of days to update because we thought we'd have some good news on Adelaide, but wanted to wait to announce it to make sure it was going to happen. After her great weekend of bottle feeding, we were really hopeful when the NICU called and asked us to bring a car seat in on Monday. The staff performs a car seat study on each baby before they leave the NICU to ensure they can breath properly while sitting in a car seat. The position is something they're not used to. Well, we brought the car seat in, but found out that she struggled with her bottle feeding Sunday night and all day Monday. The staff has tried several different techniques (reducing calories, changing length of time between feeds, waiting on her to wake up hungry to feed, etc.) to help her over the last few days. She's had moments of doing well, but she doesn't do it consistently. So, for now, the car seat study is on hold. Adelaide weighs 6lbs. 12oz.

Mattie continues to feed from the bottle when she cues that she wants to. If she's alert and is rooting around, then they will try to bottle feed her. She's done really well most of the time, but does have moments where she's not interested and can't take the whole bottle. She's making slow progress, and the therapist said that she is a "textbook" preemie when it comes to feeding. It takes a lot of energy for her to feed, so there are times when she's too sleepy to eat. Mattie has been weaned a little on her nasal cannula and weighs 5lbs. 3oz.

Andrew is doing really well. He had a great blood gas on Monday with his carbon dioxide levels in the 60% range. He now alternates on CPAP and nasal cannula every six hours. He sure does hate having the CPAP mask on though. His weekend nurse tried him on his first bottle on Sunday. He did pretty good for the first time. The staff now tries a bottle every twelve hours with him. He's slowly getting better. He gets very excited when he starts on the bottle, so they have to pace him. He starts sucking so fast, they have to take the bottle out of his mouth to give him a second to breathe. Andrew is 5lbs. 6oz.

Praise
The babies will be 3 months old tomorrow.
Finishing the nursery.
The call for a car seat study even though it hasn't happened. We got pretty excited.
Adelaide improving on her feeds.
Andrew's great blood gas.
Mattie improving on her bottle feeds.

Prayer
Adelaide will consistently feed from the bottle without bradying, and her acid reflux would go away.
Mattie would continue to improve on bottle feeding and being weaned off her cannula.
Andrew's gases would continue to look good, and he would do well on the bottle and be weaned off the CPAP.
Andrew's slightly abnormal EKG would not lead to any complications. The girls EKGs were perfect.