Nicholas and Joseph : Day 55!!!

Okay, I'm back on track after a few off days, some of you know what I'm talking about, but now back to solid updates on our two growing boys!!! As you can tell from last nights brief update Nicholas is now over 4lbs!!! He hit the 4lb mark on Wednesday night on the mark, and last night he put on 75 grams to bring him to the 4lb 2.75oz!!! As you can remember from Joseph he is now able to go into an open crib, and as of last night around 2:00 am he is in his new "open air" home!!! The fact that both of our boys are now out of their incubators is an amazing accomplishment to this point and a wonderful milestone for our family!!!

Nicholas, aside from growing at a great pace has been doing great with his breast feedings, and last night I got to bottle feed him for the first time!!! I must say it's not as easy as one may think!!! With Vince it was pretty easy, give him the bottle, burp him in between, and continue until he's done, then burp again, simple enough right? Well with Nicholas I have to first hold him so he is on his side, almost like carrying a football, then you have to give him the bottle a certain way so he can pool the milk in his cheeks and swallow, instead of swallowing directly because he could choke! I then have to count the number of sucks he makes at the bottle and then give him a break in between to let him breathe, but I can't remove the bottle because he'll have to start the process all over. Burping him is another task that I have yet to master properly, although after a few tries I got one good one out of him, but I'm so scared to "tap" his back with fear of hurting him!!! The nurse said I had such a nice rhythm going and was being too gentle that I was putting him to sleep!!! But finally he did his thing and continued eating. It's amazing because basically he's learning how to eat properly! I was pretty nervous needless to say, but he was able to take 32ml out of the whole 34ml that he is on from the bottle while I was feeding him!!! Nicholas remains off of his oxygen, but the nurses said don't be surprised if he has to go back on while learning to eat because it's a taxing on their little bodies and he may not have the strength to handle everything yet, but so far so good!!!

Joseph is one fast growing little baby!!! I can't believe that he is nearing 5lbs, in such a short period of time!!! Joseph was able to breast feed yesterday as well, and he also was being helped by the speech therapist. Why a speech therapist for a preemie you ask? I was thinking the same thing, but apparently the speech therapist is able to help the boys develop their sucking reflex properly!!! I tried to feed Joseph last night but he wasn't having the bottle and started to have episodes when we made the attempts, so instead Grandma G. got to hold him while he got his feedings through his NG tube!!! Joseph is now up to 37ml of breast milk every three hours, and we are hoping by next week he hits that 5lb mark!!!

Both boys will be receiving their third dose of the epogen today for their anemia, and so far so good, but we'll continue to monitor their progress!!! To this point both of the boys' Grandmas have gotten to hold Joseph, and Grandma G. has gotten to hold Nicholas too. It's nice to see the Grandmas able to hold the boys, and next we'll need to get the Grandpas involved, but I know at least Grandpa G. is a little nervous, but we'll get him to do it!!! Due to some unforeseen circumstances I had to take a few days off of double push ups, but was back at it this morning with 110, so hopefully if you're continuing to participate you feel great!