Exciting Progress

As I wrote last night, Josiah’s caffeine was stopped today.  He was also advanced up to 8 POs (did you have to look that up or do you remember the term?  or do context clues save you the trouble?).  Overnight, his feedings went well and the doctor thought he was ready to try 8.  Lilly was also advanced up to 8 POs.

Josiah has become a bottle-feeding machine.  As I wrote the other day, his feeding trouble (at least when I was feeding him) was because I was cramping his style and slowing him down.  Today, with a bottle feeding every 3 hours, he’s kept his energy and been going strong all day.

Lilly is proof that even babies this little have such funny personalities.  She takes her bottle with her eyes closed most times.  She’ll squirm and wake up, look around, but when the bottle goes in her mouth, she closes her eyes the whole time.  We think she’s got a bit less stamina that her brother, but we’re just as excited for her.

While talking to the discharge coordinator, we mentioned how we expected Josiah to come home a week or so after Lilly.  The discharge coordinator (who we admit has typically given very optimistic time estimates) said that when they get to 8 POs, the babies typically progress very quickly and there’s a chance they both come home very close to each other.

Technically, they could both be advanced from 8 POs to the “on demand" feeding tomorrow (where the nurses stop feeding them a doctor-prescribed amount on a rigid schedule and instead let them wakeup, cry, and take what they want from the bottle).  After a successful day of “on demand” feeding, they could be eligible to go home.

Neither Bethany nor I expect we’ll be bringing the kids home on Wednesday but we are extremely excited that we’re in what we hope to be the final countdown.

 

Here are some pictures from today:

Josiah doesn’t like when we withhold his bottle while trying to get a picture of him…

Lilly asleep

Our “station” at the NICU – Josiah on the left (Beth is holding him in the picture) and Lilly is on the right.

Josiah asleep…

      Lilly starting to wake up…

Josiah out cold while I’m taking his temperature…

Bethany thought it would be funny to take this picture of me passed out in the chair beside Josiah’s crib.  It had been a long day!

 

As far as them coming home:
At this point, it is a day-by-day thing – our best guess is “a few days” and we won’t know any more until we hear from the doctors that their feedings have been advanced (at which point our guess becomes “any day now”).  Like us, the doctors and nurses can only guess at how well the kids will progress through the next couple stages… 

We’ll keep you updated with what we know.  We’re hoping this is an exciting weekend!