Day 14!!!

Last night went great for the boys!  Joseph is handling his 5 ml of breast milk every 3 hours great, and Nicholas has been doing great with his 1 ml every 12 hours.  Both boys have remained at the same oxygen levels throughout the night, which is a good sign, especially for Joseph.  We hope he is able to come down a little bit today, but we know the nurses and doctors won't rush it.  When we go see the boys later today we're hoping to get kangaroo time with both of them!!!  As long as they are below 50% on their oxygen we can do that, otherwise it may be too stressful for the little guys!

We get to spend some quality time with Vince today, we're taking him to see some firetrucks and other safety vehicles, and for those of you that know Vince, this is right up his alley, and then off to a birthday party!  My Wife and I both need this time with Vince, we can see that he understands things are not exactly the same as they were just a few weeks ago, but he will get used to it, and the bonding time is important for all of us.  We have been showing Vince some pictures of the boys on a daily basis, and he kisses my phone when we show him, it's really a precious moment for us every time he does that!!!

Speaking of pictures, I hope I didn't offend anyone with Joseph's grouchy picture yesterday!  It was too good not to post, and I needed the humor in these stressful times!!!  I hope everyone has a great Saturday, and we will keep you updated throughout the weekend!!!

UPDATE 8/24/2013 5:00 PM:   Today was the day I finally got to hold Joseph other than just in his incubator!  My Wife and I went to see the boys earlier this afternoon and it was right before both of their feeding times, so my Wife took Nicholas and I took Jr.!  The boys are being fed through a feeding tube of course, but as it was being administered we got to hold the little munchkins!  Nicholas and Mommy did great together, and he stayed out for about an hour with her!!!  Joseph and I did great as well, he got his 5ml of breast milk and laid on my chest for about 45 minutes without any alarms going off!!! 

Both boys are doing well, Joseph is still in the 50% range on his oxygen, and Nicholas in the mid to high 20's, but both of them are remaining stable, and showing signs of improvement.  Joseph and Nicholas both gained 20 grams since their last weigh in, and we're hoping this trend continues from now on, with no more weight drops!  Nicholas has been tolerating his feedings fine and they will increase the frequency of feedings to every 6 hours, but still keep the 1ml mark for the weekend.  Joseph may be bumped up to  6ml of breast milk as early as 6:00pm today, but we'll wait and see. 

It was exhilarating to have both boys out at once, and hopefully we are closer to having them in the same room, so my Wife can hold one and I can hold the other together!  They were wide awake today and they were very responsive to both of us!!!  It's amazing to see them developing right before us, and we know it's a long way to go, but looking into their little eyes we know they're going to come out of this stronger and healthier!!!

I think this is a smile from Jr!!! 

Little Nicholas cuddling up to Mommy!!!