First Week in the NICU

Wilson under the lights

Monday the 15th, will mark 1week of Ella and Wilson in the NICU. They have been doing fantastic, and we could not be happier.
The biggest worry to me was their breathing, and their little lungs developing.
With babies that small their lungs are really delicate of course, and they do not want them to deflate all the way because they most likely cannot get them inflated again, this is because they tend to be really sticky inside.

Ella under the lights

They started out  intubated. It is kind of scary to see them hooked up. Luckily we were warned on what it was going to look like, so we were not too freaked out. The machine pumps really fast, sending lots of little bursts of air into their lungs. This prevents the lungs from deflating, but it also makes the babies shake or vibrate.

A cuddly little boy

Wilson was only on this machine for a day, and Ella was on it for about two. They then went down to a C-Pap machine. This machine is more gentle. They just have a nasal cannula, and the machine gently pushes air into the lungs to keep them open. Once again Wilson and Ella were only on this for a couple of days, and then they were able to breath on their own.
Currently at one week they just have a nasal cannula and are hooked up to oxygen that can we adjusted. They are breathing all on their own now, and there oxygen levels have been between 21% (which is what we normally breath) and about 30%.
I am so grateful that they are doing so well. I think a big part of their success is that I had steroid shots. The first round was a few weeks ago, and then I had another round the Saturday and Sunday before they were born.

Dad changing Ellas diaper

A big yawn for a little girl

Update: I wrote the first part of this blog early this morning, and then we went and saw them this afternoon. They are still doing great, but they have there oxygen turned up a little more. Premature babies sometimes forget to breath. We have only ever seen Wilson and Ella do really well, and excel and make strides everyday. Today however, as we sat by Wilson's bedside he was having these episodes of not breathing (they call them A's and B's). He never fully stopped breathing, but he would drop from 70 breaths per minute down to 20 breaths per minute. His heart rate would drop from the 160's down into the 90's. It completely freaked me and Justin out. We know that this is just something that these babies do, and they will probably struggle with this for a while. Eventually I told Justin I needed to leave. Sitting there not being able to do anything was to stressful. I knew the nurses were there and watching, and that they would take care of them.

Wilson loves to be on his tummy

Both are also doing well with eating. At first they are just on just vitamins. Wilson was able to start food very quickly, and Ella followed a couple days after. She had some icky green bile in her tummy that prevented her from starting as fast.
Right now Wilson currently takes 15 oz of milk every 3 hours, and Ella takes 10 oz of milk every 3 hours, and the amount goes up quite often.
Its interesting how they are fed. They have the food in a syringe, and the tube goes directly to their tummies. Before they feed them they check how much is left in there stomach. They just suck it out with the syringe, and then put it back in. They told us yesterday, as long as the residual is less than half of the last feeding, they don't worry about it.
They recently changed the way both of them are fed. There heart rates would drop when they had a feeding, so they changed it so over a course of 30 minutes there food is slowing injected through the tube into the stomach. This makes it a little less overwhelming for there tummies. They have been tolerating the feedings much better since they changed to this method.

They also get a brain scan. They usually wait to do this between day 7 and 10. We will not have the results from these for the next couple of days. Update: The brain scans came back clear, there is no bleeding in their brains.

We are just so thrilled on how well they are doing. They will hopefully be moved to a new unit in the NICU within the next few days (it just depends on space). The great thing is they will have their own room together. And we will also be able to hold them. Right now they are on Minimal Stimulation . This means we can only touch them when the nurses do their cares. At 8:00 am, 2:00pm and 8:00pm we can go help by changing their diapers and taking their temperatures. At that time we can also
touch them. But coming soon I will be able to hold them. That will be an exciting day.