Good News
Thomas was looking a LOT better today, according to the nurses. I didn't actually see him yesterday, but I thought he looked pretty comfortable today. He was back on bubble CPAP at room air (21% oxygen) as of 7am and was putting up good numbers on his monitor. They decided against another x-ray and/or dose of Lasix because he didn't seem to need it. Yay. He'll continue on his antibiotics until the cultures come back negative after 48 hours; thus far, we have every reason to believe that they will indeed come back negative. We're not really sure what caused his temperature drop and apnea episodes, but he seems to be back to his normal self, or at least close to it. Thanks for your prayers! Oh, and he is 1 ounce shy of his older sister Hannah's weight at birth (6lbs 8oz). He'll probably surpass it tomorrow.
Charlotte is getting a bottle at every other feed (they are all on a 3 hours feeding schedule) and is doing okay with it. She took the full amount at 11am today but has often been taking only half of it before tiring out. When that happens, they just finish the feed thru her tube. She still needs a lot of pacing help; meaning, she would suck and suck and forget to breathe if we/they let her and still needs more time and practice to learn the coordinated suck-swallow-breathe pattern. That said, she continues to grow like a champ and is just barely shy of 6lbs!! The biggest news for her, though, is that her ROP has regressed; she currently has no ROP in either eye! What an answer to prayer! We pray that it stays that way for both her and Thomas.
Audrey has had mild stage 2 for the last two exams, so we'll see how she looks this coming Tuesday at her next exam. She is basically 5lbs at this stage. Although she's the smallest, she still seems to have the lead in the race to discharge. She's eating well, finishing her bottle at every other feed, and will likely start to take even more of her milk via a bottle before long. She still has a bit of tachycardia on occasion, but for the most part, all of her statistics (heart rate, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate...) are stable and good. It will be so strange to NOT have a monitor on these babies at home.
Some of the biggest news of the day is that our insurance approved a transfer of the babies to Stamford Hospital, which is significantly closer to where we live. Everyone seemed surprised with how easily/quickly they approved the request. I'm guessing our Connecticut based insurance gets a much better deal at Connecticut hospitals... Regardless, it's exciting news. The NICU at Stamford has 16 beds (I think), so we'd represent a decent percentage of it (unlike our current setup in which we are 3 of ~80 babies!). They're anticipating some discharges over the weekend, so they might have room as early as Monday. Crazy. I'd love for Thomas to join his sisters in a stable state off of CPAP prior to the move, but I suppose there's no really important reason that that needs to occur. We will see how they all progress and what the hospitals have to say early next week.
Audrey enjoying her Wubbanub pacifier while getting one of her feeds thru her tube. Here's hoping she's learning to associate sucking with feeding and feeling full!