doing alright

So, the boys continue to stay stable. Addison continues to tolerate his 22 calorie fortified breastmilk. He hasn't thrown up or have the slightest problem since yesterday. When we went to see them today, Addison was wide awake but lying on his tummy. He kept pulling up his head and trying to move around so I kind of cuddled him in my hands to get him to settle.

Riley is still tolerating his 1cc feedings. He's been getting 1cc, every 4 hours, since yesterday afternoon. It may not sound like a lot, but every little bit of breastmilk will help him get stronger.

Sorry about the major glare on the picture of Addison. It's sometimes hard to get a picture through the isolette but I wanted to show this one so you can see how tiny he is in relation to my hand.

I wanted to add to this post instead of starting a new one. We called this evening to check in on the boys and got quite the update.

Addison decided that 6pm seemed like a good time to pull out his ventilator tube. Just this morning, I had asked about holding him and they expressed concern that he might pull out his tube and that it was traumatic to put a tube in. That was all I needed to hear to convince me that they needed to be a little stronger before I held them. So, back to this evening. Apparently, when a tube gets pulled out, it often leads to more problems like not tolerating feedings, needing higher vent settings, sometimes infections, etc. After he was intubated, he fussed for about 20 minutes, made a major poop, and took his next feeding. He, knock on wood, didn't seem to have any lasting issues with being re-intubated. He is now up to 15cc (3 teaspoons) of breastmilk and still getting the 22 calorie fortifier. He is down to 28% oxygen and his ventilator is set so that it's only giving pressure when he's not breathing on his own and he hasn't had to "ride the vent" in 2 days! He's been off of the lasics for a few days but he's also now off of the diruel.

Riley is still tolerating his 1cc of breastmilk but his IV blew again tonight. They were able to get a new line in his foot but they are talking about trying again to get a PICC line. He is still on antibiotics (now on an infection specific antibiotic) and his cultures are still coming back positive for infection and they'll continue to take cultures until they come back negative. He's still set at 50 breaths per minute and is at 33% oxygen.