January 31, 2010

My apologies to the Followers for not posting anything yesterday...even bloggers need a day off to play in the snow :)

After fighting through the snowfall, Mom and Dad were finally able to see their twins yesterday. Will is still doing great just being on the nasal oxygen and I hear there are good pics of his cute little face to post here soon (posted below as of 1pm). Mom got to do a 2 hour holding yesterday since his numbers all looked good after the first hour. He's still eating all 2CCs of his food so it hopefully wont be long until they increase his doses. Next week Will is scheduled for another catscan and EEG.

Tenley had fluid in her lungs again today so she had to have the Lasix powder treatment again to help with the absorption. Her blood counts were also low so she had another blood transfusion. She's still on the assisted breathing machine instead of the osciallator but they keep having to raise her oxygen levels so she may end up going back to the oscillator. The nurses ensure this is pretty standard...Will is just a little over-achiever. She's still eating all 4CCs of food and is off the billi light for now.

More pictures can be found at
http://www3.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3370363009/a=16759548_72699886/

Tenley and Daddy's finger

Will having quality time with his Daddy and Mommy

January 29, 2010

Tenley is off the oscillator!!! YAY!!! She's still on the assisted breathing machine but its a lot more comfortable for her than the full breathing machine. They increased her feedings to 4CCs at 1:00 and by her next feeding at 3:00 she had digested all 4CCs. She's still on some pain meds to help her get some much needed sleep. Hopefully the assisted breathing machine will aslo aide in her sleeping better.

Will is up to 2.5CC feedings beginning tomorrow. Daddy and Mommy will be going to the hospital tonight. Hopefully Daddy will be able to do the Kangaroo hold for today (he's only to be held 1 hour a day at this point). They turned his CPAP (oxygen machine) all the way down. If he does well on that setting for 24 hours they will remove that huge head gear looking apparatus and just put him on the nasal oxygen. If he does well on the nasal oxygen, he can then go up to two Kangaroo holds a day for an hour each time.

Pics!

Will just loves being photographed. He feels that he can be snapped at any angle and any lighting.







Tenley, on the other hand, is a bit of a recluse.

January 28, 2010

What a great day!!!
What a day for the Kinloch family. Mom was able to hold Will! Thats right, Becky was finally able to hold one of her babies...her son. :) All I know is that it was some sort of hold called the "Kangaroo"? ... Will was nestled in her tank top and immediately calmed down after being a bit bothered by all the movement. My Dad was there to take pictures so I will be posting those sometime tomorrow. There's still a long road ahead but as long as there are days like this, it makes it all seem so much easier.

Tenley is still a fussy little thing and is sometimes too busy fussing to actually sleep. She may be put on a stronger pain med which will help her get that valuable sleep she needs. X-Ray results today found a bit of fluid in her lungs. A little bit of powder was injected to hopefully absorb it all...no big worries there. Daddy arrived in the evening to change her poopy diaper and inject her tri-hourly feeding.

A Few Pics

Tenley sleeping like a frog catching some billi light rays

Will passed out on his belly with his oxygen

January 27, 2010

Will-i-am is rockin and rollin today. His weight is slightly up from yesterday and has been off the ventilator entirely since last night! I guess the little guy just wanted to come off the pain meds. He spent 3 hours today sleeping like a log on his belly...his newfound favorite sleeping position since being off the oscillator. Mommy got to inject his feeding today and also spent quite sometime with her pinky being squeezed by his little hand...awwwwwww. He had his arterial line removed today (what that is I dont entirely know) but it was some kind of line being removed from his belly button. Anything being removed from these babies is good enough news for me to post even if I haven't the slightest idea what I'm talking about. Today was also the first time both Mom and Dad heard one of their babies crying. For now, his cry sounds remarkably like that of a newborn kitten but I'm sure in time it will become more manly ;)

Tenley is an infamous little wiggle worm. She got her diaper changed by Daddy today and has increased her food intake to 2.5 CCs every 3 hrs and eats it all! She had a bit of an incident today...she took out her breathing tube which caused a bit of an uproar in her room. We think she may have done this on purpose though because they reincubated in a different angle (facing her left instead of right) and ever since she has been breathing much better and even had her levels lowered for the first time in a few days. The nurses are typically faced with a fussy Tenley when changing her diaper or moving her around and for the last few days they did not get such a fight. They thought she was coming down with something so they tested her for several viruses. Turns out she just wanted another blood transfusion because she's been her regular fussy self ever since.

January 26, 2010

Tenley - a bit of some backwards progress for her today, but it is all par for the course of premie-hood. She is now on NO2 which helps in aiding her breathing. Due to the breathing issues, they decided to not increase her food intake, but she is still on the 1CC and is doing well on that amount.

Will-I-Am - busy day for this little guy yet again. He is doing a great job with his food intake...eating most of what is being fed to him. They actually tried to take him off the ventilator (assisted breathing machine) today however right when they went to take it out he stopped breathing. So, they are going to try again tomorrow. He will be coming off the pain med which will not only help him breathe better on his own but will also get clearer EEG results (next week sometime). He is going to stay on the Phenobar becuase of the high level brain bleed putting him at risk for seizures. He weighed in at just under 2 lbs today. Daddy got to hold him breifly while the nurse was changing his sheets and weighing him. When Bill went to pick Will up (no diaper since he was going to be weighed) Will must have been so excited that he pooped right then and there...Oops! Daddy also got some good pictures of Will on his belly...since he's off the oscillator machine its much easier for him to get into different positions. I'll post those pics as soon as I get them.

January 25, 2010

The bad news for the day is that Mommy is sick with a stomach (GI) bug that is going around the hospital. So, she was ordered to stay away from the twins for 48-72 hrs. Although this is a big bummer, it will finally force her to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Tenley - She's being a good little eater (apparently genes from her Daddy) and is keeping all her feedings down. They are going to increase her food intake tomorrow. She is still on the oscillator (machine which does all her breathing) and isn't too happy when they try turning it down to a lower level. She's content with this machine and its settings for now, so no changes there. Pretty much status quo for her.

Will - Catscan reults are in....good news is that there was no additional bleeding in the brain since the last scan. The new news is that the left side is worse than the right side...although both sides are still the grade IV in severity. We aren't entirely sure what this means at this point, but as long as its still not bleeding we are happy. More good Will news: he's off the oscillator (huge news!) and is now on the assisted breathing machine at a very low level. If he keeps it up for 24-48 hrs, he will be considered stable and can then transfer into his sisters room when there's an opening. He is going to have another EEG (not EKG as stated previously) since he's off the oscillator to test for seizure activity again. At 6pm tonight he will get his first dose of milk...YUMMM.

_Aunt Rachel_

January 24, 2010

At 9:00pm tonight, the twins will be 1 week old...

They had another busy day of visitors. Grandma and Grandpa Lewis, Aunt Jen and Uncle Curtis and, of course, Becky and Bill.

Tenley - Weighed in at 2 lbs and 2 oz today. Some of which could be due to swelling from the IV fluids but considering her birth weight of 1 lb 13 oz, this weight gain in a week was fantastic news. She is still digesting a good amount of her milk (roughly .7 CCs every 3 hrs). Her central line went in last night and will hopefully be able to be used tomorrow...trust me, her little legs and arms will be more than appreciative.

Will - He came off the Dopamine last night for his low blood pressure (yay!) and has since maintained good readings (double yay!). We're keeping our fingers crossed that he won't have to be put back on that. The Neurologist will be assessing him tomorrow to see if he can come off the Phenobar for the seizure suppression. He did some good looking around again today...I think he wanted to meet Grandma Lewis. He's still not getting any milk but as long as he has days like today, it wont be too far off in the future.

I miss the little ones but I know they are in good hands. Thanks again to everyone for your support, kind words and prayers. Becky and Bill are more than grateful. Feel free to post all your messages as they read this on a daily basis.

_Aunt Rachel_

January 23, 2010

Busy day for the twins today vistor-wise. Bills parents arrived in the morning for a few hours, then Becky and I stayed from 11 - 4. At 4:00 Grandma Lewis and Bill were arriving for their visit.

Today was my last day seeing the twins until the baby shower weekend (yes, its still on!). I have to say, I had a pretty good send off. Becky and I were both able to touch both of their heads and legs/feet which calmed both of their stats. Its so awesome feeling their toes wiggle in the palm of your hand.

Tenley - Is currently off the billi light so we could see her beautiful face again. She is digesting her milk quite nicely. The last feeding she digested .7 CCs of the 1CC amount given. Her breathing levels are consistant .. again, slow and steady for her. They attempted to put in her pic-line today (to avoid having so many needle sticks every day) but it didnt take so they are trying another side tonight.

Will - Was also off the billi light so we could see his handsome face once again as well. His blood pressure rates were running really low so he got put back on Dopamine which has helped to stablize his rate at this point. They lowered his breathing levels last night due to good numbers however in the morning was put back up to the higher level. By the time we left this evening, he was going to get dropped back down again to a more reasonable rate. So, until his numbers get more stable, they will not be attempting any milk feeding. He also had an EKG to determine if there was any seizure activity and it was found that he didnt have any such activity...yay! His overall brain functioning was lower but that could be due to the seizure medication. They will take another EKG at some point after the seizure medication is out of his system.

_Aunt Rachel_

January 22, 2010

Tenley - Slow and steady still for this cutie. She appears to have gained some weight but has yet to open her eyes. She has the longest frog legs I've ever seen! She was off the Billi light for 24 hrs but is now back on it...par for the course. She had her last dose of the PDA medicine and the test results showed the artery closed...yay! It is possible it could open again but its good that she responds to the treatment. She got her first 1CC of milk today via tube feeding however only digested .1 CCs. This, again, is just par for the course...getting her body use to digesting mom's milk. She keeps getting fed this amount every 3 hrs until next week when they hopefully increase it.





Will - Will is on his down swing, which we were warned is common for the boys. He had a pretty big crash in his stats and has since had some issues. His catscan found grade IV bleeding in the brain which is the highest level. The blood is in the brain tissue and cannot be reversed, we just have to hope and pray it doesn't get worse. He has his next catscan next week so we'll know more then. For now though, it could just be nothing or something that will show in later years (seizures and learning disabilities are a few of the possibilities). He has also perhaps had a seizure and is on Phenobarb to suppress future episodes.

Jan 20, 2010

We saw Will's eyes today!!! They were a beautiful blue. Tenley is off the billy light (which requires a very fashionable set of shades over her eyes) for now but may need to be put back on tomorrow, however we got to see her pretty little face which was quite a treat. Neither are on breast milk yet but we are hoping they will be by the end of the week (intervenously). Tenley had a succesful catscan and we will find out Will's results tomorrow afternoon. Will's PDA (artery thing in the lungs) closed on its own so he will not need medicine for that...Tenley's medicine for getting rid of her PDA will end tomorrow evening. Mom and Dad are tired but are hanging in there.

_Aunt Rachel_

Announcing the birth of Tenley Joy and William Colquhoun IV!

I'm proud to announce the birth of Tenley Joy Kinloch and William Colquhoun Kinloch IV!! At 9:00 pm on Sunday, 1/17/2010, William was born at 2 lbs, 2 ounces. At 9:03 pm, his little sister got lonely and followed his lead at 1 lb, 13 ounces.

William (wearing the stylish diaper):

Tenley (going au naturale):