Day 18!!!

Joseph and Nicholas both had good nights!!! We were concerned about Joseph since he pulled his ventilator tube out, but apparently he is doing quite well on the C-PAP again, so the nurses and doctors are pleased!  He has also become the talk of the NICU too since he's a little trouble maker!!!  He has been tolerating his feedings well, and they will discuss moving him up in volume again today.  His oxygen assistance has remained at 40% throughout the night and he didn't have an episodes, so they are happy with his progress.  If his oxygen starts creeping up above 50% again they may have to reinsert the ventilator, but for now he is holding pretty stable!  His blood work has remained stable as well, and the doctors have been happy with his heart as well!!!

Nicholas seemed to have stabilized last night as well, he was having bouts of apnea but apparently the caffeine worked, and he had a good night.  His oxygen remains in the low 30's right now, but the nurses said since they have been feeding him at shorter intervals his oxygen requirement would increase, so they are hoping that is the only reason he is still at 34%.  Hopefully the doctor will authorize an increase in his feeding volume, and we can see some significant weight gain in Nicholas!!!  The nurses will do blood tests on him this morning to determine if he needs another transfusion, or if the caffeine has helped him to increase his numbers from yesterday.  We're hoping of course he won't need more blood, but the doctors stated that this is perfectly normal for premature babies.

UPDATE 8/28/2013 1:15 PM:  I went to visit the boys before work this morning and both of them were doing really well!  There isn't much news to report from my last post, so I won't repeat myself.  However Joseph now weighs 2lb. 10oz. and Nicholas at 2lb. 6oz. so both boys are growing at good rates!!!  They are looking healthier each day, as the develop their features and get more meat on their bones!!!

This is Nick's favorite sleeping position!!!

Joey, doing the same thing!!! Identical???

UPDATE 8/28/2013 9:05 PM:  Our nightly visit to the NICU was another good one!!!  Vince is able to come into the NICU but only go straight to the waiting room, but he flirts with all of the nurses on his way in!!!  He's becoming a pretty popular guy there!  He's been doing really well, tonight my Wife went to visit the boys first and I stayed with Big Brother, and then we switched!  It's not an ideal place for him, but he seems to be getting used to it!!!

Joseph is doing really well on his C-PAP machine, and his oxygen levels have been lowered to 35%!!!  Hopefully this means that his lungs are fully inflated again, and we won't have to see the ventilator anymore!!!  We know it's still a real possibility that he'll have to go back on at some point, but for now we're extremely pleased at his progress!!!  Joseph has also been increased to 7ml of breast milk every 3 hours!!!  He's an eating machine!  The doctors also ordered for his milrinone medication to be lowered again, and he hasn't had a negative reaction thus far!!!  His heart rate was a little elevated tonight, but he just received a respiratory treatment, and that usually gets him a little fussy!!!  Both boys receive respiratory treatments daily, so nothing to be alarmed about!!!

Nicholas is also doing really well and he has made it back down to only 26% oxygen assistance!!!  He looked really good tonight, and we're hoping they won't have to transfuse blood, but we'll have to see what tomorrows blood test results are.   Nicholas has been given a little different feeding pattern than his brother also.  Instead of feeding him every 3 hours, Nicholas is on a continuous pump, that administers .8ml of breast milk every hour.  I asked why they decided to go this route with Nick, instead of the volume increase every three hours, and the nurses explained that some premature babies handle the feedings at a much slower rate as in this case, so they slow the feedings so the baby can process the milk better.  The last time they increased Nicholas' feeding is when he had some trouble with the ulcer bleeding, so they are going to try this process and see how he does.  So far it has been working great, so we'll keep our fingers crossed!  It's just amazing that we have two boys who look (and definitely sleep) identical, but yet their treatments are so different right now!!! 

The boys were in the exact same positions tonight as they were from my earlier pictures, so if you want an updated look, just scroll up, and that's pretty much it!!!  We still cannot get over the way they both sleep with their tiny butts up in the air! In fact Vince still sleeps like that too sometimes!  I know it's how a lot of babies sleep, but it's funny when we go from room to room in the NICU and see pretty much the exact same thing!  I hope everyone has a wonderful night, and I hope you're not getting too sore from the pushups, 18 (36) today in case you haven't done them yet!!!  Goodnight to everyone, and we will update you tomorrow on the boys!!!