One day at a time

Here it is, 11:30 at night and I can’t figure out where the day went or when I should find time to blog.  I’ll try yet another day of quick updates and share my intentions, yet again, to have time tomorrow to go into more detail.

Today, Beth and I got to hold both Lilly and Josiah.  Lilly is off of her CPAP and onto a high-flow cannula.  She no longer has the white stocking hat, the blue/white tubes, or the plastic and velcro mustache.  When she sleeps, you can see how relieved she is not to have all that equipment!

Josiah is still on CPAP and as of our 11:00pm phone call to the NICU, will probably stay on it for another day or two.  He is, however, breathing much better.  When we talked to a nurse early this morning, she let us know that his nose was very dry and he had blockage that was making his breathing very difficult.  With some saline mist, they loosened everything up and his breathing is great.

Josiah had a PICC line inserted today (see Wikipedia for more information) – they had been changing his IV around too frequently and wanted to move to the PICC where it would last longer.

Both were diagnosed with moderate PDA (see yesterday’s post) and are receiving neoprofen (see drugs.com for more detail than you want…) to help close the valve.  As a result, their feedings have been suspended and they are back on IV fluids (with 1cc of breastmilk every 6 hours to keep their appetite).

Here are our pictures from today:

I’m holding Josiah.  They want us to hold them close to our chest to keep them warm and let them feel our skin, breathing, heartbeat, and to hear our voices.  It also makes for a pretty unique napping condition for both the baby and us!

 

Both Bethany and I, each with a baby tucked in.  With two, they pinned our curtains together, giving us the “Family Suite” instead of just a small curtain around the isolette.

 

Bethany and Lilly.

 

Lilly sleeping with her hand curled up beside her face.

 

Lilly peeking an eye open – both she and Josiah had their eyes open frequently while we were holding them, but never at the right time for a good picture.

Last one of Lilly sleeping/peeking.

Josiah with his mustache and pacifier.

 

Josiah was funny sleeping with his hand up beside his face like that.

 

Bethany has fallen asleep and I am overdue.  We are continuously thankful to hear from everyone and hope that, until we are able to contact you personally, sharing our stories and pictures can be an expression of our thankfulness.