One Week

Yesterday the boys turned one week old. They have come so far! Nickolas came off the ventilator after just a couple of days, and they have now both ditched their IV's and are increasing the amount the eat every feeding.

Unfortunately we've been horrible at taking pictures because we just enjoy every moment we have with them. But here are a few.Monday night was Nickolas's first time trying a bottle.

He preferred sleeping to sucking, swallowing, and breathing. They are both struggling with this concept.
Last night Josh had the opportunity to try. Nickolas did a bit better, he was actually sucking a bit, but when Josh paused to burp him he went right to sleep. The nurse was rubbing his face, pulling the feeding tube he had tucked in his arm pit, more face rubbing. He was out. Until the nurse went to start preparing the feeding tube, he needed to check to make sure she was gone. He did this a few times, it was funny.Doesn't this just melt your heart?
This was the only good picture I got of Tristan last night. When he was awake we were too busy talking to him and replacing his oxygen tube in his nose he kept pulling out. I can't believe they've figured that game out already. Tristan is so smart! Josh put it really well last night. Most infants just kinda look around, but Tristan really focuses. He takes everything in. I swear he smiles at me, sometimes even mischievously.

The big question other than "How are they doing?" is "When are they coming home?" I'm going to give you the best answer I've got. Usually they say around their projected due date, which for these guys was Sept. 17.

There are 4 major things they have to be able to do to come home. In no particular order...

1-Keep a steady body temperature. There are 3 numbers on their isolets that have to do with their temperature. The temperature we want them to be, the temperature they are, and the temperature of the air in the isolet to help them achieve this. I don't remember exact numbers, but I definitely noticed it was not as warm sticking my arms in the holes of the isolets last night to touch them, so they are doing better at controlling it themselves.

2-All feedings taken from a bottle. Like I said before, they are increasing the amount they eat every time, and digesting it well, but the bottle thing is still a challenge. Its a difficult concept for babies that were born at such a young gestational age.

3-Breathing on their own. They have the oxygen tubes in their noses, but really they are there in case of apnea episodes, which they are still having. They just forget to breathe. Its very common in preemies. So basically it blows air for them for those instances, but they aren't really getting much extra oxygen. The air you and I breathe is only 21% oxygen. Nickolas's oxygen is set at 22%, and Tristan's at 23% as of Monday night (they haven't mentioned if its changed since then).

4-Gaining weight while meeting all the above criteria. All that stuff is alot of work for such a small person. They will probably focus their energies on one thing at a time, maybe get close to mastering one then moving to another even, but it will definitely take some time, and as long as they have mastered the above 3 and are gaining weight, then it will be time to join us in our home.