They turned up her vapotherm today as she's been having more and more episodes of apnea. Turning up the vapotherm seemed to help as the number of events decreased. They won't become overly concerned about her apnea unless it starts occurring more than once an hour. However, during the evening rounds the doctor said not to be surprised if she had to go back on the ventilator. She's been working her little lungs quite a bit these past two weeks and so she's probably starting to get tired. For as early as she came, the fact that she's even gone this long without a ventilator is amazing.
The doc was able to drop Deacon's settings on the ventilator. His blood gas levels have been doing pretty well the last couple of days. They gave him a steroid this morning to help with the swelling he has had in his lungs and throat. They are hoping to give him another steroid tomorrow and then may try and take him off the ventilator. They had told us that they would be very conservative in taking him off, so we feel like progress is being made if they're even considering it.
Deacon has also been getting .4ml/hour of my breast milk. This is day two and it appears that he's digesting it well. Sounds like they'll double his serving portion tomorrow if all continues to go well!
After 14 days, I finally got to hold my son. He must have been pretty cozy curled up on my chest because he was sawing logs! Just like sister, he did really well. Since birth, I have been waiting for the moment when I finally get to hold my kids and just snuggle. I can't wait to be able to do this the rest of their life. Or at least until it's no longer "cool" to cuddle with your mom :-).
They both got swaddled last night for the first time. They use a little onesie to wrap around them. They only wrap their upper body and tuck in their arms because they still have the temperature probe on them and if they cover it up, it shows them being warmer than they really are.
Deacon continues to open his eyes and Avi looks like she's pretty close. They weren't still fused shut last night. Maybe she'll surprise us today! They both also love putting their hands in their mouth now. The nurse had told us that she had even seen Avi sucking her thumb!
PS A LAST MINUTE ADDITION FROM GRANDMA K! - The best part of the day was Janet and Rennie met Tami and Tyler for lunch. They both seemed good and then asked if we wanted to see the babies! Mmmmm....let us think! We got to go up for about an hour and just stare at these amazing little miracles! Neither of us had seen them for two weeks, and then just for a couple of minutes, so it was pretty incredible. Interesting how much their features have changed. You could see half of Avi's face (she was sleeping on her tummy) and although her hands are definitely VERY TINY, she has very long fingers. Her hands and fingers together are probably no more than 3/4 of an inch, if that...probably less than the size of 1/2 a postage stamp! They had taken Deacon off the respirator and are hoping that he will be able to stay off it and just be on CPAP, although there is a strong possibility he might eventually have to go back on. They want him to give his lungs a work out on his own as much as possible.
Mom getting in her first kangaroo session with Deacon
Avigail resting peacefully
