Brandon holding Dad's finger
Katelyn with her CPAP on in her Dad's arms
Brandon in his Dady's arms
Brandon
Brandon and Mom
Brandon and Mom (look at that white hair!)
The T-tube that was in Brandon's gut.
Brandon snuggled up on his belly for the first time.
Mom enjoying his contentment as much as he isKatelyn is doing great and making good progress. She is growing and is very close to 3 lbs. She was moved to a new bed and they are even talking about taking her off of the C-pap machine soon and we will be able to see a lot more of her face. She received her first shot to help treat the hemangioma on her lip. The doctors feel confident that with a couple more weekly treatments it should go away in a couple of weeks.
It will still be a while before she comes home. Her next big challenge will be working on feeding. Right now she is being fed continuously through a tube into her intestine. The process of moving her feedings to her stomach and then from a continuous feed to regular feedings and then on to nursing can take quite a while. They said that it is often difficult for most babies to be proficient and nursing before about 36 weeks (gestation age). She is only 32.5 weeks now. It also can take much longer than that, so for now we can’t really count on any dates but we are certainly happy with her progress.
Brandon had a big couple of days. On Wednesday he had a final contrast study to see how everything was moving in his bowels. It looked good and on Friday they removed his T-tube. He seems to be doing really well. Brandon appears to be very content now that it has been removed. They want to watch him to make sure he doesn’t get an infection from that area where they removed the T-tube. Once they feel confident about that, they are going to work quickly to take him off of the ventilator. It might be possible that it will only take a couple of days before they try again. They are however slowing down on the amount they are increasing his feedings each day. Nothing to worry about but he showed some signs that made them want to move cautiously. I can’t remember what his last weight was because he goes up and down all the time but he is growing and is somewhere around 2lbs. He is doing so well that the nurse told us that she was going to ignore us during our visit while she took care of the babies that needed more attention. It was nice to hear this because for a long time, he was the baby demanding a lot of attention.
One great thing for us is that now that he has his T-tube out we were able to hold him for the first time. It was a pretty exciting event for us. He also seemed to really enjoy lying on his stomach for the first time.
It will still be a while before she comes home. Her next big challenge will be working on feeding. Right now she is being fed continuously through a tube into her intestine. The process of moving her feedings to her stomach and then from a continuous feed to regular feedings and then on to nursing can take quite a while. They said that it is often difficult for most babies to be proficient and nursing before about 36 weeks (gestation age). She is only 32.5 weeks now. It also can take much longer than that, so for now we can’t really count on any dates but we are certainly happy with her progress.
Brandon had a big couple of days. On Wednesday he had a final contrast study to see how everything was moving in his bowels. It looked good and on Friday they removed his T-tube. He seems to be doing really well. Brandon appears to be very content now that it has been removed. They want to watch him to make sure he doesn’t get an infection from that area where they removed the T-tube. Once they feel confident about that, they are going to work quickly to take him off of the ventilator. It might be possible that it will only take a couple of days before they try again. They are however slowing down on the amount they are increasing his feedings each day. Nothing to worry about but he showed some signs that made them want to move cautiously. I can’t remember what his last weight was because he goes up and down all the time but he is growing and is somewhere around 2lbs. He is doing so well that the nurse told us that she was going to ignore us during our visit while she took care of the babies that needed more attention. It was nice to hear this because for a long time, he was the baby demanding a lot of attention.
One great thing for us is that now that he has his T-tube out we were able to hold him for the first time. It was a pretty exciting event for us. He also seemed to really enjoy lying on his stomach for the first time.
Even more good news….
As I was posting this I got a call from Amy. She was holding Katelyn and her mask seemed to be bugging her. You can see why if you look at the pictures above. The nurse decided it was time to downgrade her mask to a little tube in her nose. She seems happy and we can see her face much better!
I almost forgot to mention. They have tested Brandon looking for a potential long-term problem. We got the tests back yesterday and they where all negative. Of course there is always a chance of problems but this was a big relief for us. It was a really good day.
As I was posting this I got a call from Amy. She was holding Katelyn and her mask seemed to be bugging her. You can see why if you look at the pictures above. The nurse decided it was time to downgrade her mask to a little tube in her nose. She seems happy and we can see her face much better!
I almost forgot to mention. They have tested Brandon looking for a potential long-term problem. We got the tests back yesterday and they where all negative. Of course there is always a chance of problems but this was a big relief for us. It was a really good day.
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