BIG progress!

Today was such a great great day! When I called the NICU last night they told me they would like to wait until morning to try to get the boys off their vents. So this morning when the phone rang at 7 a.m. I knew what had happened. They moved them straight to nasal canula (forced room air through prongs in their nostrils) and skipped CPAP altogether. We are SUPER excited about that. When I went to visit them during their care time I got to hear them cry for the first time since the OR. They were not able to make any noise with the breathing tubes in. Although they still squirmed and scrunched up their faces and looked as if they were crying. Brody sounded a little hoarse from the tube being inside of him. The Neonatologist said it looked like the boys were showing signs that they want to be weaned off of the nasal canula altogether because they both keep pulling it out of their nose and chewing on it! Since they are not showing any signs of distress they will start the weaning process and will soon be breathing just like you and me!

They have removed Brody's arterial line through his umbilical cord. I didn't realize how far that went into his body until they started gradually pulling it out. It went up at least four or five inches from his belly button and into an artery right near his heart. He didn't squirm or even wake up while they were pulling it out and only bled a little bit. I think this means that we will be able to hold him soon too!

At noon when I went back to visit they said the boys were ready to get a feeding tube put in and start being fed breastmilk. So far they have only been fed nutrients intraveneously. I am especially excited for this because I've been working hard to get my milk to come in. The milk is given through a tube in their nose and goes into their tummies by gravity. I held the tube of milk up and it only took about four or five minutes for it to go down. I think this will satisfy them better because their tummies will be full (versus having the nutrients "fed" intraveneously). Sometimes they cry and the nurse has said, "I know...you're hungry." She explained that even though they are getting the nutrients that they need intraveneously their tummies are still empty. That can't feel too good. I would cry too! Their care times are going to be every three hours instead of every four now that they are getting breastmilk. The boys have a slight case of jaundice but the breastmilk will help them with that as well.

I've made a slide show of the boys. If you'd like to watch it, click here: http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=juliestenen&SID=252553&Show=Y&p=