Day 5!!!

Today is the day that my wonderful wife finally gets to come home!!!  I know that Vince, Gucci (our dog) and I have really missed her since last Tuesday, and we are excited to have her back today!  The boys are in good hands and will continue to get the care and attention they need.  The NICU here has been amazing so far, and the care and love that they have given to Nicholas and Joseph has been second to none.  I'm not sure what other hospitals NICU's are like, but we have been blessed to live so close to this wonderful place where everyone treats you with such kindness and really explains all of the situations that are going on with your child.  The nurses have been especially helpful throughout this journey so far, and continue to provide my Wife and I with all of the on-goings of the two boys!  We owe a lot to the people here and we will continue to thank them throughout this journey.

It's an early update from me because I'm floating on cloud 9 right now.  We just got back from the NICU after spending a little over an hour with the boys!!!  I got to hold Nicholas for the first time!!!  My Wife and I also got to help feed Joseph for the first time as well!!!  Both boys have been doing good throughout the night so hopefully it is a sign of things to come today!

First time I got to hold Nicholas!!!

Joey's awake!!!

He's a really cute little guy!

Dad feeding Jr.!!!

Mom Feeding Jr.!!!

UPDATE 8/15/2013 1:15 PM:  Well my Wife was discharged from the hospital around 11:15 today, and we spent a lot of time in the NICU with the boys before we came home.  It was difficult for both of us to leave them, but we keep reminding ourselves that they are in the best care possible, and their progress has been directly attributed to their own will to fight, everyone's outpouring of love, support and prayers and the care and service of the fine people in the NICU unit at Edwards.  We will be going back to see them this afternoon and hopefully get to hold Nicholas again, and get a status update on both boys.  Nicholas' head scan came back clean yesterday, and I have to correct myself because he didn't have an EKG he had an echo cardiogram, which was being reviewed by the cardiologist.  Joseph has his third echo today and hopefully that little heart is less stressed and beginning to show signs of shrinking a little bit!!!

Nicholas had a few episodes last night (heart rate drops below 100 bpm) which apparently is normal for babies at 27 weeks, but the staff has been by his side the whole time making sure it's not signs of something more significant.  We spoke to the boys' doctor today before we left and she was happy with how they were both progressing, so if she's happy then were happy!  Hopefully we will get to hold Jr. soon but I don't want to rush anything with him, and he has a little attitude on him right now anyway, which is probably a good thing!!! 

UPDATE 8/15/2013 5:45 PM:  We just received a call from the Dr. stating that Joseph's heart is looking better and that they were really pleased with the echo cardiogram today!!!  They are seeing better blood flow from the heart to the lungs, and plan on taking him off of the medication that opens the duct between the pulmonary artery and the aorta, to help close that up, so they will be watching him closely tonight to see how he responds!  Nicholas' echo showed that his duct between the aorta and pulmonary artery never closed after birth, which is common in premature babies, and since he has been doing pretty good since the first day the Dr. said that having that duct open now would could potentially do more harm than good.  So they will give him 3 doses of a medication to close that duct tonight too.  Kind of funny that one is coming off of medication to close the duct and the other going on for the same reason!  The Dr. has been pleased by both boys progress though, which brings a little comfort to us for the first night away from them! 

Little Nicky with Mommy!!!

Little Joseph wearing Daddy's ring....as a bracelet!  Just some scale here!

For those of you who don't know my wife called her Grandpa, Posey.  Both Nicholas and Joseph have these cuffs... their in good hands!