Day 16!!!

The boys were a little fussy last night as their oxygen saturation was fluctuating throughout the night, and both boys have had to increase their oxygen needs.  This is a little concerning to us of course, and the nurses although not in panic mode yet, are wondering why they are creeping up a little bit.  The boys' nurse last night has informed the doctors, and they are going to monitor the boys and draw some blood gas samples to see what may be going on.  The nurse said this is not unusual for premature babies however, and that we can expect to see ups and downs throughout this process.  Of course my Wife and I knew this would be the case, so we are not getting discouraged by the news from last night, and hope the boys can start stabilizing their oxygen today.  We will go visit the boys later this morning and give them a little pep talk!!!

Joseph, our little trouble maker, had the most ups and downs for his oxygen levels last night, and currently is in in the low 60's on his oxygen assistance.  The good news with Joseph is that he is handling his feedings well, and has made it back to his birth weight of 2lbs 8oz!  We figured he would start putting on some weight fairly quickly with the amount of feedings he has been getting.  We will keep an eye on him today, and say a lot of prayers that his oxygen levels come down, and he won't have to go back on the ventilator!!!

Nicholas has also been handling his feedings well, and we will expect those to increase today after the doctor takes a look at him this morning.  The nurse said he had a nice healthy bowel movement with no signs of blood which is a welcoming sign to us!!!  Nicholas has had his oxygen increased to 35% today and like his brother, they will draw a blood gas sample to see if they notice anything out of the ordinary.

The morning update could have been a little better of course, but we are still very confident that they boys will be okay and they will continue to grow stronger every day!!!  They are both putting on weight now, and hopefully that trend will continue as their feedings are increased.

Joseph getting some snuggle time with Mommy!!!

Nicholas in his little cocoon! He looks so peaceful!!!

UPDATE 8/26/2013 4:45 PM:  So Joseph had to go back on the ventilator today, which isn't a shock to us at all, but of course we had hoped this wouldn't have happened!  The Doctor called this morning to let us know that his oxygen levels have been creeping upward because his right lung had collapsed.  Now as bad as I thought that sounded, the doctor explained that this is not unusual and when the boys were first delivered they mentioned this would be a possibility being that the lungs are the last things to develop in the womb.  The doctor said that their air sacs (alveoli) are being produced by the thousands every day, and little Jr.'s respiratory muscles just aren't strong enough yet to bring in enough air to fill all of those air sacs up!!!  After his ventilator tube was reinserted today, Joseph's oxygen requirements were down in the 30's, which is quite an improvement from 70% which he had reached early this morning.  Of course, after all of the stress of having his tube reinserted little Joey was stressed and his heart rate became elevated, but the doctors have been watching him closely and said this is a typical reaction after the ventilator is reintroduced.  Poor little guy, his heart doesn't need the added stress, but we know he will be okay!!!  The doctors said they hope to have him off of the ventilator within 72 hours, but whey won't rush him off of it.

Nicholas on the other hand seems to be doing pretty well thank God!  He is up to 2lb 4oz, so he's quickly catching up to his brother the trouble maker!   Nicholas has been pretty comfortable the last few times we saw him which is shown in the picture above!  His feedings have continued to produce good results, and there still hasn't been any signs of blood in his stool!!!

It seems that these boys don't like Monday's, the first Monday Joseph gave us issues, last Monday was Nicholas' turn, and now back to Jr!  The good thing is though, the boys have had far many good days v. bad, and they have really been a joy to watch so far!!!  We know with the continued prayers and support from all of our family and friends these boys will be fine!!!

UPDATE 8/26/2013 8:45 PM:  We got to visit with the head neonatologist this afternoon, and we discussed Joseph's situation in depth.  He was very reassuring in letting us know that this is most likely a very mild set back, and one that he had explained could happen to the boys right after we met him on August 11th.  Joseph's lungs are underdeveloped like in most premature babies, so he is confident that after 48 to 72 hours he will be able to remove his ventilator and Joseph will be back on his way to a strong recovery!!!  Joseph's heart rate was of little concern to the Dr. right now, he already consulted with the cardiologist and they both agreed that had this lung collapse happen two weeks ago, they would have been very concerned about over stressing the heart, but since his heart has been getting better, both the neonatologist and the cardiologist have a positive prognosis.

Nicholas, is being typical Nicholas!!!  He is still holding is oxygen levels at 36%, but when we were there this afternoon they had brought it down twice, and his numbers were remaining stable, so we hope on our late night updated that he is in the 20's again!!!  We are really starting to see the features in Nicholas, and today he looked so much like Vince it was scary!!!  He was opening his eyes for us and looking at us today like "Be Quiet!!!" but we of course couldn't stop talking to him!!!  We are still hoping to see both boys together in a room soon, hopefully after they take the ventilator out of Joseph!!!

As you already have, please continue to keep our family in your prayers during this stressful time, our little boys will give us fits every now and then, but we're sure they're just preparing us for their mischievous  behaviors later on in life!!!  The push up count is at 16 today (32 if you're doing double since there's two boys!!!) I know it seems like day 15, but we have to count the first Sunday they were in there too!!!

Little Joey, back on the ventilator, but looked comfortable!!!

Nicholas doing what he does best!!! Looking like big brother too!!!