Keeping us on our toes!

The girls had a good day yesterday. Madelyn, as usual downed her bottle in no time and is now going to receive a few feedings via bottle/breast per day. Emma did well, but at the end of her feeding she had some trouble and scared me pretty good. She desaturated pretty low and wouldn't come back up. I got to see that "blue" color that we so often hear about. A little while later she was fine as could be again. Their transfusions went well and as of right now, they will not be needing another.

We went in this morning to attend rounds and they were happy with the girls progress and wanted to give them a day with no changes. We asked about re-weaning them from the isolettes and they'll be trying that tomorrow. We were a little unhappy about Emma's o2 level (39%) when we came in, but eventually the nurse got her down to about 33%. We did the feedings and I had Madelyn and Christian had Emma. Emma got almost all down and did pretty well. However, about an hour later she started de-saturating and wouldn't come back up. We both got to see that "blue" color this time. Because of not being able to bring herself out of the desat without help, they decided to do an x-ray and blood work. Her belly was a bit distended so they did a belly x-ray as well. Her blood work came back fine, no signs of infection. Her lung x-ray showed signs of chronic lung disease, but this is another common preemie affliction. Her stomach x-ray showed what they think is just bowel so they gave her a glycerin chip to help her along. When we left her O2 was down to 29% and she was doing well again. I have a feeling it will be a few days before they up her bottle feedings per day. It was a little scary today, but everything looks good now. This is one of the many ups and downs they talk about in the NICU.

Mady had a great bath today and I didn't even have to up her O2. She was so alert this morning. Her eyes were wide open for most the time we were there. I guess realistically, they won't be leaving for another 2 weeks. We keep saying "2 weeks" as our standard answer, but that's always what we think! In 2 weeks they will be term for twins (36 weeks) so perhaps that will be the week!