Day 13!!!

The boys had a good night with minimal episodes!!!  That's always the news we want to hear in the mornings, so the day is off to a good start!  My Wife and I went to visit the little munchkins this morning, and they are very stable right now.  Joseph's oxygen assistance is a little elevated to 55% which has raised concerns for the Dr. since he was down in the 30's earlier this week.  The doctor stated that she would be decreasing his fluids because his lungs may be getting too moist and obviously don't function as well if that's the case, but they have to be careful because they need to keep enough fluid in him for his heart to function properly!  So the medical staff is walking the fine line with him again, but the doctor also reassured us that these issues are common in premature babies and that we were likely to experience these types of fluctuations for a while!  Joseph lost 10 grams which is not even half an ounce so he's still at the 2lb 7oz mark, but they are increasing his feedings again today so we hope to see that number rise soon!!!

Nicholas had a great night and actually gained 10 grams!  Interesting how one lost 10 and the other put on 10!  He is still weighing 2lb 2oz, and has remained relatively low on his oxygen levels between 28 and 32 percent.  The doctor is going to reinstate his feedings today as well, starting slow at 1 ml every 12 hours.  They need to monitor his GI tract to make sure the bleeding doesn't occur again, and they are continuing to give him Zantac for the acid build up of the stomach.  The GI doctor said we would need to be careful with feedings because if there is an irritation the acid build up could irritate it even more and we could fall back into the same situation as earlier in the week.  So he will remain on Zantac for the next 12 weeks according to the doctors.

The overall report is positive though, and the doctors are really happy with Nicholas' progressions and hope to see improvements in Joseph after his fluids are decreased a little.  They will also be taking Joey off of the NO2 today, and hopefully they can get that large piece of equipment out of his room!  Once they remove that piece, they may be able to put both boys in the same room, but for right now being next to one another is okay with us!!!

Joseph having a good morning, get that O2 down buddy!!!

Nicholas not wanting to be bothered today!!!

UPDATE 8/23/2013 9:15 PM: Today was a good day for the boys!!!  Nicholas was very active when we went to see him this evening, but he has been tolerating his feedings fine, and they are not finding any residual left in his belly so if that keeps up they will increase his feeding volume on Monday.  They will not make quick changes to his food intake though because of the bleeding the other day.  Nicholas was also down to 26% on his oxygen, which is very close to the target of 21%.  When we were there he seemed to be doing really well on his oxygen saturation, so I'm hoping the next update has him at room air!  Nicholas had hardly any episodes today, so hopefully that trend continues into the night as well!!!

Joseph also had a good day today, he did have a few more episodes, but again nothing alarming to the nurses.  The doctor was also able to take him off of his NO2 machine today!!!  We pray that he is able to stay off of the NO2 from here on out, but we know they will monitor him closely just in case.  Joseph's oxygen assistance also came back down today to 50%, which is a good sign.  As I mentioned earlier the doctor was a little concerned about his oxygen creeping up over  50% again, but he seems to have settled back down, and hopefully he can slowly get back to the mid 30's by tomorrow!!!

Hopefully if you're participating in the push-ups you're not getting to sore!  Just in case you forgot today was 13, and if you're participating in double (one push up per each boy per day) it's 26!  Pretty soon I'm going to have to start breaking them up!!!  But watching those two boys fight through this makes the push ups seem like nothing!  We appreciate all of your support, and hope to keep bringing you good news day in and day out!!!  I hope everyone enjoys their weekends!!!

Nicholas just waking up!!!

The most inappropriate picture I'll ever post here, but apparently Joseph wasn't too happy to see me!!! I hope I don't have to point this one out, but we were cracking up!!!