Saturday, March 14

Jason and I had a great visit with the babies today. Both were looking around quite a bit while we were holding them. I just keep imagining holding them once they are at home and I wonder how I will ever get anything done. I can just see myself holding them for hours, just watching them.

Both have been doing real well. Blake has been doing well with the CPAP rate of 10. We are sooo happy and sooo relieved that it seems he has "grown up" enough to handle this part of the weaning process. Poor little Blake had a little bit of a bloody nose after being suctioned and when the prongs were being placed back in his nose. No matter how careful and gentle the RT (respiratory therapist) is, sometimes a bit of bleeding is nearly inevitable. Their blood vessels are so close to the skin and with their skin being so thin, it is hard to avoid at times. He didn't seem to mind too too much, didn't even desat. Jenna is also doing well on the CPAP settings of no rate and a "PEEP" of 7. We are pretty sure that she will be taken off of the CPAP and placed on cannula on Monday (as long as she continues to do as well through tomorrow). Once she is on cannula, we will get to see so much more of her face....no big tubes and the only tape will be in smaller strips and is clear. Blake hopefully won't be too far behind her....maybe a week or so. We certainly do not want to rush him. Until a recent conversation Jason and I had the w/e, I sort of put in the back of my memory bank, the severity of Blake's pulmonary hemorrhage that he suffered at 36 hours after birth. I recall the morning that it happened. Jason and I were sitting in my hospital room talking and I decided to call the NICU to check on the babies. I remember the tone of the nurse I spoke to being very serious, as if she did not know exactly what to say or how to handle the situation. She responded with, "Well, they are working on him right now, we were about to call you. We've had to resuscitate him". I told her we would be waiting in the waiting room. Jason wheeled me down to NICU. Both he and I were still suffering from the extreme shock of the delivery of the twins as well as exhaustion. We knew this was serious but are finding out now just how serious it really was. At the time, we were told that the next few hours would be vital as far as his survival was concerned. He had bleeding in his left lung and stopped breathing. He had to be resuscitated. We prayed and prayed and put faith into our precious baby boy for the strength and will to live that he had already exhibited by surviving delivery. Thankfully, with everyones' prayers and positive thoughts along with Blake's will to fight, he beat HUGE odds. We have come to find out that most babies who experience bleeding in the lung(s), do not survive the hemorrhage. So, needless to say it is understandable that he has needed to take the weanign of the CPAP a bit slower. We are certainly not rushing him an dfeel he has done very well considering his history.

Now that things have slowed down quite a bit, Jason and I have been reflecting on the early days of our NICU experience. I am amazed and so extremely grateful for how far we have come. This journey so far has been nothing short of incredible and miraculous. We have been truly blessed that even having faced some life threatening situations, our precious angels are still with us. We can not wait to have them home with us to share our lives together.

I just called in to get a VERY LATE night update. Jenna is on 21% O's (room air)!!! Go Jenna! She weighs 3lbs 12 ounces. Blake is also doing well, one brady all day I believe. And he did it!!!! He is at 4lbs!!!! Yay Blake.

Til tomorrow.....