Good news! Thank you for your prayers. Over the weekend, the doctors took Aiden off of the oscillator and put him on the regular ventilator. He seemed to be doing so well on the ventilator that today they decided to try taking him off of the ventilator and putting him on CPAP, the long nasal prongs that the other two were on previously. That has been a more difficult transition for him, but sometimes it takes time for the babies to adjust, so we will see. Unfortunately, we still do not know what caused the previous episode where he suddenly began to de-oxygenate, so we are praying that he will be able to handle all of these changes with no further episodes.
We were able to hold Aiden for the first time this weekend when he went back on the regular vent, so that was very special. Also at the end of last week, they started feeding him in small increments. After some starting and stopping, he now seems to be tolerating it well and they are slowly starting to increase it. He is now up to 13 cc’s of milk every three hours as of tonight, and weighs nearly 3 lbs., which is great! Please continue to pray for him.
Ethan and Evan are doing so well — they are both still breathing well on their own with the nasal canula oxygen, and are having fewer apnea / bradycardia episodes. They are now both up to 30 cc’s of milk every three hours, and Evan’s central line was removed this afternoon, so they are both officially off of the IV’s and solely on feeds through their g-tubes. Of course, they still sleep quite a bit, but they are both very active and alert, and are busy frustrating their nurses since they have both figured out how to pull out their tubes and wires! Evan is more laid back but is such a big boy — he is now over 4 lbs. and has a little double chin! Ethan is more long and lean, and is up to 3 lbs., 11 oz. He has figured out how to roll himself over and move himself around in his bed when he wants to change positions.
All three will have repeat brain scans tomorrow morning, since they will be three weeks old on Thursday. The doctors will look for them to continue growing and putting on weight in the next couple of weeks, and then they will try to start them feeding on their own from a bottle rather than through the g-tubes. Please continue to pray for all.
Some recent pictures of the boys are below. To see all images, click here.
Evan sucking his fingers
Ethan stretching
Baby Aiden and Daddy
Ethan smiling
