9 weeks old!

The boys had another great day today. Addison is 3lbs. 6.8oz. and Riley is 2lbs. 10oz. They both finished their bottles for the nurse at 6am. They both only had a few events.

Today when I went in, Addison nursed for only 3-4 minutes and then he started to nod off so I wanted to give him his bottle so he at least got some sort of oral feeding before he fell fast asleep. He again, took his entire bottle. His nurse added 4cc extra in case he spit any out but he took all 38cc, after nursing.

Riley tried so hard to latch but his cannula kept coming lose and getting in the way. We got it tight against his face again and I tried a bigger nipple shield. He nursed for FIFTEEN minutes with the nipple shield. The nurse and I were ecstatic. He eventually fell fast asleep and we put his regular feeding through his tube.

Just a quick little story about today. After I was finished holding Addison, I had him lying on my chest while we got out Riley. I asked the nurse if she could take a picture of me holding both of them and when she gave me Riley, he was fussing and crying and he kept pulling out his cannula prongs. Addison just laid there and stared at Riley. He didn't blink or move his eyes. It was like he was completed fixated on his brother.

So, anyways, I was talking to the nurse about why the boys have kind of come to a standstill on their oxygen settings. They were quick to get them off the cpap and now they're just kind of sitting at 2 litres on the high flow. She gave me a whole big thing about how they don't want to push them, they're having apnea episodes (but only 4-5 in a 24 hour period. less than when they were weaned off the cpap), and they usually don't go lower than 2 litres on the high flow because the heat and humidity added isn't very effective when it's really low. I guess they'll go to the regular cannula and she did say there's a good possibility that would happen in the next few days.

I asked about when they'd be moved to an open bed since they've been holding their own temperatures for days. She said that they won't move them until they're 1500-1800 grams. Addison has passed 1500 but he's still being fed primarily through the feeding tube and they need to be taking oral feedings since there's nowhere to hang the syringe for the tube.

So, we've got a new set of goals to work for and hopefully, we'll start to see some progress that will result in their homecoming in a few weeks.