April 6, 2010

Wow!!! How cute were those Easter pics?!!! What a great surprise...thanks for posting those.

Both babies had their eye exams and got good results. No more eye exams for two more weeks. Also, twice now (with some assistance) Mom has breastfeed both of the babies at the same time!

Will - Today was a big testing day for him. He had his EEG and head ultrasound. The ultrasound showed improvement, the clots are dissolving! The EEG showed zero evidence of seizure activity however his brain has an overall decrease in activity due to the brain bleed. So, they are keeping him on the Phenobar and actually raising his dose due to his weight increase. If they notice him being more lethargic then they will consider lowering it back down again. Once the brain bleed resolves (all the clots dissolve) then taking him off the Phenobar will be reconsidered. Until then, he has to stay on it. He's now off Zantec for his reflux and is on Prevacid and Arithomycin (sorry for any type-o's there) which is definitely helping...he can do big, full gulps of milk now without having any brady's (he almost gets 1/3 of his full feed during his sessions with mom!). He's off the continuous feed and is now getting full doses of 38CCs every three hours. During his last physical therapy session, they determined he had "tone" (common with brain bleed preemies) which means he likes to constantly contract his muscles. He was quite receptive to physical therapy though so we're being optimistic. Today was also his last day for being on the inhaler (Flovent) to assist with his breathing.

Tenley - She has finally found the joy in being held, so much so, in fact, that she is often times grumpy if simply laying in her crib. She was recently tested to see if perhaps she was aspirating into her lungs because she would brady and "d-sat" (have very low oxygen levels) during breastfeeds. The test showed this was not the case (however it was cut short due to her brady-ing in the middle of it), so they were advised by the Occupational Therapist to force her off during feeds when she has a big gulp or two to prevent this from occurring. Tonight they are going to try to bottle feed her for the first time in two weeks. She had two days of non-bloody stools however today she did have another one. Mom is still partially on the non-dairy diet but the Doctors are leaning towards this not being due to an allergy.