Owen Takes a Huge Step – Updates for Wednesday

First of all, many apologies but I have no new pics tonight.  I try to take them when I see an appreciable difference in their appearance or we get lucky and they are awake or they are being weighed and don't have their masks on.  Lying in their Isolation chambers everyday often means that there isn't much outward change in them, though their little bodies are doing so much on the inside to change and grow. 

Apologies again that this post may be short.  I am very tired, my wife is already in bed, and the stress of work, getting our new home ready for the babies, and worrying about my four precious one's (yes my beautiful, recovering wife often gets lost in this ordeal that I write about.  For this I shouldn't be forgiven.  I love her with all my heart and she is a true inspiration in selflessness for what she bravely went through to get the babies to this point). 

Okay, maybe this won't be a short post.  I'm over-tired, and now endeavoring to just make sense for a paragraph or two.

Owen took a huge step on Tuesday and was removed from the Si-pap.  This is the device that would provide some assistance in breathing for him via various breathing frequencies.  He had gone down from twenty breaths a minute to five on the Si-pap and then Tuesday he was taken off of it.  Now he just gets a little oxygen through a C-Pap to make sure his body stays saturated with O2.  In the day and a half since, he has done extremely well.

When Nikki and I were at the hospital last night, sitting by Owen, he had just had his diaper and bedding changed and was beginning to settle in.  He was quite interactive with my wife and there were some nice moments of him grabbing her finger and staring up at her.  It was easily the most touching moments so far in that I felt that he was actually understanding that we were his parents and he was trying to acknowledge that. 

At one point, we actually witnessed one of these spells that I have been writing about, where he stops breathing and his heart rate crashes.  Interestingly, he was very agitated during that time, so it may have just been a malfunction because he was moving around so much, but he looked really uncomfortable and Nikki got visibly upset by the ordeal.  She feels their discomfort and pain, not that I don't.   I am so full of gratitude that they have made it to where they are, and that while there is sometimes one step back, (and no parent wants to see their children in pain) we are more often taking two steps forward as a family.

Owen has been "eating" more now too, getting 1cc of breast milk every hour and tolerating it well.  His small intestine seems to be passing waste well and is actually on a colostomy bag now.

Noah is off his antibiotics for his belly issue and today was his first full day on breast milk again.  He is getting 1/2cc every hour.  He continues to grow and looks terrific.  He's now 2lbs 9oz and with his blond hair I am beginning to wonder if some 6'4" German bodybuilder is not his true father instead of me (kidding…but I think we should get a paternity test…just kidding…secretly wondering if the all night Walgreen's has a home paternity test…I'm a kidder).

I was surprised and honestly a little perturbed to hear that they attempted to move Bella off the Oscillator and extubate her of her breathing tube today.  The normal process is to go from Oscillator to Ventilator and then to the Si-pap (where she is extubated).  They kind of skipped an important step there, thinking she was ready, because she was doing so well on the Oscillator.  She was fine for about an hour on the Si-pap but then crashed again.  So they had to put the breathing tube back in and at least she is on the ventilator right now.  No, big deal, she is still improving from even the beginning of the day and she really is trying her hardest.  You can see her struggling over the machine and attempting to do her own breathing.  It's difficult to watch because you just want her to relax and let the machines make her better.  She didn't seem very restful the last few days but she will often calm down and rest if you put a hand on her head and another on her bottom.  Just a bit of pressure and she seems to like that. 

Okay, so I guess this turned out to be a lengthy post after all.  I truly enjoy writing these updates, but even at that, it felt like it was going to be a chore tonight.  Once I got into it, it flowed and took less than an hour to write.  If you forgive my grammar mistakes I will forgive you for being anal retentive (again, with the kidding.  I'm too much).  Thank you very much to everyone for your kindness and love.  All five of us thank you.  Right now I have a date with a pillow and my beautiful wife…just in time for her to get up for the midnite breast pumping.

-Papa Charley