Next milestones

We are in kind of a strange stage with their development. In some ways, the future milestones don't seem monumental, but in other ways they are extremely important.

The things we are currently working toward:
Jenna:
Working toward getting off cannula all together. She's dropped down to 1/2liter, which is almost nothing, but can give her just a lil more O2 if she needs it. That's usually around feeding. The Dr.'s debated removing the cannula all together & strappin the cannula on Only at feeding time if she needed it. She still tends to get overzealous at feeding and forgets to breath, so that was likely. In the end, the Dr's decided to bump her bottle feeds up to 3x per day, so they didn't want to make too many changes at one time. Feeding burns quite a bit of calories, and takes a lot of their energy. She will most likely be off cannula within a week or so.
The other thing she's working on it getting more and more bottle feeds in per day.

Blake:
He's working on maintaining his O2 saturation levels while breathing on his own. So far he's been doing great, even during feeding sessions. That in itself is an amazing development. Dr. Su and I were talking about that last night. Given his Pulmonary Hemorrhage (bleeding in lungs), he's been amazed at his breathing progress and is very very pleased. Kim and I think that one of the reasons he's done so well is that he approaches things cautiously, which has helped during feeding. He's not over eager, so he feeds, swallows, & breathes. Because of this, he's a little slower than the therapists and Dr's would like to see, but as a result, he maintains his O2 much better. So it's a bit of a trade off. One that I'm more than happy to take. ;)
The other thing he's working on is increasing his feeds per day.

Those are pretty much the big things in their lives. Breathing, feeding, and growing stronger. In some ways it can seem somewhat boring as all they do is sleep, & feed, but that's pretty much what babies do (don't forget poop... fun). But..... seeing them improve their feeding skills, increase their feeding, and do better breathing on their own is Very Very exciting. We can see them growing stronger by the day, and that in itself is an amazing thing to witness & be a part of.

So.... I order to graduate from the NICU, they need to take all their feeds via bottle, and do a good job of breathing on their own. Being off cannula is not in itself a hindrance to going home, as they do send kids home while on cannula, but it would be ideal. Dr. Su said that the babies will usually slowly increase their bottle feeds, then when they are on 4 or 5 per day, they usually make a breakthrough and quickly jump too all feeds via bottle. So we've got something to look out for. Once they get to the point where the Dr's feel they have met all the criteria to go home, they will usually hold onto them for another couple days just to make sure everything goes ok. Then they are home bound!!!

While we remain on guard for unexpected complications, it's also time to start really getting ready for them to come home. They've only got 3 more weeks until their original due date, and it's looking like that's about when they will be ready to Graduate!
Then the real adventure begins!
-J