Big Day!

First, the babies will be staying put, for now. They are going to have another ophthalmologist check them on Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully neither will need any immediate treatment and neither will have to go anywhere. If one or both do need treatment, then they would get moved to another hospital. We are REALLY hoping they won't need treatment!

Will has had an exciting morning. Big boy got his first bottle!!! I got to feed him his first bottle with 5 mL in it. He did awesome. He kept his stats stable the whole time. He didn't desat or drop his heart rate and he didn't choke. He sucked it down in a couple minutes!! He will get one small bottle each day to help him learn to coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing.

Lindy is having a big day too. Her endotracheal tube is a little small for her and therefore she has air leaks. In rounds today they talked about putting in a larger tube. Since they have to take one tube out, they decided to let her try CPAP. They gave her a dose of steriods and she will get two more doses. Hopefully this will help her out. It would be so great to get her off that vent. It's been so neat seeing Will without all the stuff on his face and it would be so fun to see Lindy like that too.

So an eventful day for the family. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

An Interesting Week

This week has flown by so far. For the most part it has been good. The biggest news is that Will has continued to do well with the CPAP. So well that on Monday they allowed him to do two, two-hour nasal cannula trials. This is where he wears the small nasal prongs that just provide him oxygen. Like the little old people that carry oxygen around all the time. He did really well with his trials so on Tuesday they allowed him to have a few three hour trials. Again he continued to do well. Finally on Wednesday they said he can stay on nasal cannula! It is so exciting because we can see his face and hair now! They can still put him on CPAP if he seems to be getting tired and needs a little bit of help.

Lindy has continued to move along as well. Her biggest news is that her feeds are condensed to 21 mL over 30 minutes. Then she doesn't eat for 2 1/2 hours. It's almost like getting a bottle (but through a tube into her stomach!) She is tolerating them so well. She continues to grow each day but she is still on the ventilator. Her settings are low but her oxygen requirements are all over the place.

The not so good news is that the babies may have to take a field trip next week. Both babies have been having their eyes checked for retinopathy of prematurity, something that can happen when babies are provided oxygen. They both have Stage II, out of five stages. At this point they just need to be checked weekly. They were checked yesterday and need to be checked next Wednesday. Unfortunately the pediatric opthamologist will not be here next week. He says they have to be checked because the disease can progress rapidly. There is only one pediatric opthamologist at Brenners. He wants Will and Lindy moved to another hospital next week so they can be checked and if necessary can receive treatment. They will only be gone for the most a week, they will come back to Brenners. They are also moving two other babies who are a little worse than Will and Lindy. That is the plan for now. We actually don't know where they will go. Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Charlotte would be the options. The worse case scenario is that the babies would end up in different hospitals. Apparently Duke and Chapel Hill are almost always full and hard to get into. The doctors will be figuring everything out today and hopefully will let us know when and where. We will do and go where we have to save their sight, but it is going to suck!

Anyway, here are some recent pictures of Lindy and Will.

Will sucked his thumb for the first time this week!
Will is enjoying the nasal cannula so much that he is smiling about it!
Here is Lindy, chilling on the vent. She got that crazy IV out of her head yesterday and it looks so much better!
Lindy taking an afternoon nap.

New Pictures of the Sweetest Babies Ever!

I know this website is dedicated to the babies, but did any of you catch the Wake Forest versus Maryland game on Saturday! What a game. I actually drug myself out of the NICU and went to the game. I'm glad my time away from the babies ended up being so exciting!

Anyway, back to the babies. It was another quiet weekend. Except for Drew and his first poopy diaper experience! He was changing Lindy's diaper Saturday evening and it went from a wet diaper to a poopy diaper in the midst of the diaper change. Four diapers later there was poop all over Lindy and the inside of her isolette :) Drew stuck with it as long as he could and finally had to call in reinforcements from the nurse. I unfortunately missed the entire thing. It was his first poopy diaper, but the nurse said that it was worth 10 poopy diapers!

The babies are doing well. There really have not been many changes lately. The only major change is that today they started condensing Lindy's feeds. Right now their feedings are on a continuous pump. They will now start giving her certain amount of feeds over a shorter period of time. For instance, instead of getting 21 mL over 3 hours, she will get 21 mL of two hours and then have one hour off. They will eventually go to 21 mL over 1 hour. They try to get her to where she can eventually eat a bottle every couple hours. It might seem confusing, but it is a good step in the right direction.

Here are some new pictures of the cutest babies EVER!!!

The FIRST picture of the babies TOGETHER!!!!!

I was holding Lindy and Drew was holding Will. We got them as close together as we could, seeing as they are still attached to plenty of cords and IV's and tubes, and whatever else! This is the closest they have been since they were in the womb!

Will, with the CPAP blocking most of his face!

A picture taken during Lindy's second attempt off of the ventilator.
Will and his first camo outfit. He is all ready to go fishing and hunting with Papa!
Sweet Lindy in a pretty new outfit.
Here is a view of downtown Winston-Salem. This is the window we look out of from the hospital. It's a pretty picture that I couldn't pass up.

Our second family portrait. Saturday was a great day. We got to each hold a baby and then go watch Wake beat Maryland in overtime. They can't get much better than that!
Our babies LOVE to lay with their hands up around their face. The nurses try to swaddle the babies and they always get their hands out and up to their heads!
Wide-eyed Lindy in a pretty pink outfit.
Peaceful Will, still chugging along on CPAP! It's been over a week!
Will wore his first collared shirt today and he looked so spiffy. He was wearing his Sunday best. He was ready to go to church with Daddy. He can't wait to meet all his friends at Palmyra UMC!

3 Pound Babies

Since Lindy's reintubation, things have been very quiet. Yesterday marked one week off the ventilator for Will. We are so proud of him! He has to be reminded to breath every once in awhile, but overall he has done great!

Lindy is enjoying her ventilator. It is a lot easier for someone (or something) else to do all the work! We'll eventually get her off too.

The babies are both over three pounds now. Will is 3 pound 11 ounces today and Lindy is 3 pounds 2 ounces. You can really tell that Will is packing on the weight. He has started to really fill out. Lindy still looks pretty small. Will's preemie clothes are starting to fit pretty good and some of Lindy's still swallow her! I can't believe my one pound babies are now over three pounds!!

Hope everyone has a good weekend. Go Wake!!

The Baby Girl Got Tired

Lindy was reintubated (put back on the ventilator) around 11pm last night. She was requiring too much oxygen support. She'll probably be on the ventilator another week and they will probably try again. This will give her time to grow and get bigger. It took Will three times so maybe the next time will be it for Lindy too!

Will on the other hand is rocking on CPAP! The ventilator is just a bad thought for him now!

Another Extubation!

Lindy was extubated today around 1pm. She did really well with the transition and had a good afternoon, sans ventilator. We are hoping she continues to do well. She has to try and keep up with Brother Will. Will is still off the ventilator; it's been over three full days! We think, we hope, that this means he is done with his ventilator! We're are keeping our fingers crossed!

Third Times A Charm????

First off, Will does not have an infection! We were very happy to find that out. Since he did not have an infection, they decided to extubate him again on Friday. They took him off the ventilator at 1pm on Friday and has done well all weekend. He seems to be doing better this time than the last two times so we are hoping that this is it!

Miss Lindy is very close to being extubated, we are just waiting for her oxygen requirements to decrease a little. Her ventilator settings are very low, providing very little support, but for some reason she seems to need a little more oxygen. We think she will be extubated early this week. It would be great for this to be the week they both get off the ventilator!

Will weighed 3 lbs 3 oz yesterday and Lindy weighed 2 lbs 11oz. They are both eating now. Lindy was finally started and her feeds have been increasing slowly. She is up to about 4.5 mL per hour. Will was up to 7 mL per hour but he was producing too much stool out of his ostomy and therefore they had to decrease his feeds. They are really starting to put some weight on though!

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Here are some recent pictures.

I don't know if you can see it very well, but Will got his hair brushed and he got his first ever part in his hair! The nurse said he was a big boy and needed a part!

Our Little Cowboy (sorry the picture is turned the wrong way)!
Miss Lindy without the tape on her face! This is really the first time we've seen her without the tape on her face. Isn't she beautiful?
Lindy was happy about something, she was smiling away. Although it's hard to catch in a picture!
Sweet Baby Lindy, a picture taken while I was holding her one afternoon.

Miss Lindy and her favorite purple hat.

Will with NOTHING on his face!!!! Isn't he so cute?Another Will with nothing on his face. I caught the tail end of a smile!
Unfortunately it was back to the CPAP, but look how cute he looks!!