Two Week Update

Wow! I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since we became a family of five! Here is an update on everyone.
Lainey:

Lainey is doing great! She is just about back up to her birth weight and is on "full feeds" which for her weight is 25cc's. Her feeds are being fortified, which means they are basically beefing up my breastmilk so she is getting more calories. Her PICC line is being removed today too...no more IV's!!! She is back on the nasal canula and having fewer breathing events...though she likes to pull her canula out and suck on it. It is so cute, she puts it in her mouth and just looks around like, "who? me?! I didn't do it!" She has been very alert lately too, opening her beautiful eyes...still not sure what color they will be though. She is starting to fill out now, but is still a teeny little pumpkin!

Emery:

Emery is also doing so well! She is off the nasal canula, on room air now! She still has her PICC line, but hopefully that will be gone in a few days. She is a couple days behind her sister on feedings because she was on medication to close her PDA and they halted her feedings for 36 hours. She is up to 10cc's and they will go up 2cc's every day until she is at full feeds. She is also almost back to her birth weight. She is a feisty little girl! She likes to snooze, but when you do something she doesn't like, oh boy, she will let you know! But she is easy to soothe and I love that I have the ability to soothe her!

George:

This is how George's isolette has been since his surgery. It has been important for him to be left alone to heal...it is hard to see him like that and not be able to do anything for him. As hard as it is, the best thing we can do for him is to leave him be right now...it is a very helpless feeling for us as his parents.

We were able to sneak in a quick picture of him...he is still pretty out of it, they have been keeping him on morphine for pain. Poor little guy has so many pokeys in him right now. We were delightfully surprised today though. When we got to the NICU we saw that he is off the oscillator and on a regular ventilator again! This is a step in the right direction. He is getting steroids now too for his blood pressure, I think he has one more dose. A side effect of the steroid is that it can also help to clear his lungs...a good side effect! His x-rays have been showing improvement. He is still very puffy from all the fluids, but hopefully this time next week, he will be good as new and showing us what is real personality is really like! The doctor said that if he has a good night tonight, she'd like for us to hold him tomorrow!!!

Here is a picture of the oscillator that he was on until today...it is very "industrial" sounding. We are glad to see it go, that is for sure!

I know some of you are really wanting to visit right now. With George healing slowly, we hope you understand our reasons for holding off visits. Hopefully next week we can have a few more visitors, but right now, his recovery is the most important thing.

Oh, and Lainey's cranial ultrasound on Tuesday showed that the bleeding has stopped but the ventricle is enlarged. There will be another u/s tomorrow to see if the ventricle is getting larger or smaller. They will also make sure the spinal fluid is flowing ok. I will update when we get the results of the ultrasound.

We are exhausted but that's ok. We couldn't be happier to have our babies here and getting stronger. I'm sure it's nothing compared to when they come home! haha!