Eating Update

My last post was about my kiddos and their progress with nursing. They were 33 weeks then, and they are now 38 weeks. The last month has been extremely stressful. There is still not much I can do for them, and now they are finally old enough that we can try and learn to breast feed. However, things did not go as smoothly as I would of liked them to. I did not expect them to be perfect by any means, and catch on right away. But, I was hoping that after a few weeks there would be considerable progress. They were just not catching on. So after a lot of thought, and prayer, and talking with friends who have gone through similar things, we decided that it would just be best to bottle feed them. I still pump everyday, and they get half breast milk and half formula, but this just seemed like the best option.

So how are they doing? Ella is my little rock star when it comes to eating. Currently she can take up to 3 bottles in a 12 hour period. That is pretty awesome. We are working toward eating 75% of her food orally. Once she has done that they will feed her ad lib. So, when she wakes up, they feed her. If she can continue to eat her food this way for 48 hours, then she can come home!
We are pretty optimistic, and I'm really hoping she will be home within the next couple of weeks.

Wilson is working hard, but not quite there yet. He has had a set back because of his stuffy nose. The previous oxygen machine he was on (high flow nasal cannula) was humidified and heated air. When they switched him to a regular nasal cannula, where the air is just coming from the wall, it is only slightly humidified and not heated. This has caused him to have a really stuffy nose.
Because of this he can't breath as well, and we think this is causing him to not eat as well as his sister. They tried putting him back on the high flow machine to see if it would help clear his nose up. It really did not do much, so they gave him a head box. The head box is his own little humidifier helmet. It pumps in nice warm humidified air along with the oxygen he needs. This has really helped his nose. He no longer has booger rocks (as I like to call them).
Wilson also has reflux issues. Over the last few days it has started to act up more and more. The doctors are not overly concerned about it because he will eventually grow out of it. However, it does interfere with his eating as well. Hopefully we can figure something out to help him.