Our house in the country

Today brought a lot of changes for our babies--or at least the first changes in a while. Ethan got a new cast today. The nurses weighed his previous cast and it was 47 grams (1.5 oz) and we realized why they hadn't weighed him before and after casting. His cast is wet and weighs a lot more! The nurse estimated that his new one weighs 94 grams, but it was still wet. So, we still really don't know.

It took the nurses 1.5 hours to soak it off last night. They held him in a small basin of sugar water in a heated bed last night. I understand they had to mop the floor this morning because some of the water had splashed out. I'll admit that I was glad we didn't have to do that! I'd rather change their poopy diapers...even the 26 calorie ones that are SO smelly. The nurses call our babies 'the stinky twins' and we don't blame them! They are really gassy and their diapers are something you'd have to smell to believe for such a tiny baby.

The Neonatologist on staff today talked with us about putting Ethan on oxygen. We're pretty torn. Ethan is still having bradys (one again while we were there at noon) and have oxygen desaturations. They aren't sure if he is really getting sick or if he is just having a hard time breathing when he is sleeping really hard. Our main reasons are having another tube on him and it makes his feeding more difficult. Sydney has a harder time because of her nasal canula in her nose. We're going to consult with the Occupational Therapist, Annie, tomorrow to see what she thinks.

The nurses are slowly weaning Sydney down on her oxygen and she is doing well. She is down to 24% today. Room air is 21%, so she is getting close. She has been as high as 30% in the last week.

Here is a short video of Dr. Faux examining Ethan's foot before re-casting. If you listen closely, you can hear what he says about his progress.

Our nurse today noticed that Ethan is having bradys after he gets hot. They are in a heated bed and when Ethan's temperature is higher, he starts breathing faster and then has a brady. She asked the doctor if she could move them into an open crib (while we were there today). The doctor agreed that they had outgrown the bed. He said they'd kept them in it to drown out the noise in the Special Care. Those full-term babies can really scream when they're hungry! So, we were upgraded to an open crib and they moved us to the other side of the nursery where it is quieter. The babies that have been next to us are there short-term and so there is a lot more commotion. We call it our new 'house in the country'.

I thought I would show what it looks like when they weigh the babies--this is before Ethan's casting (a little out of order here at the bottom). They get pretty startled. This is also the only shot we have of Ethan without his cast this morning.

A little clarification on the feeding. We are allowed to feed them for 30 minutes each once per shift (twice per day--shifts are 7-7 am and pm). This is why we feel some amount of stress when they don't do well because we only get two tries everyday. It's hard to gauge when they will be alert and awake to eat and we're finding they need 9 hours (2 feedings) between our tries. The babies are fed 3 hours apart on the same schedule--1, 4, 7, 10. We are thinking we'll move to 1 pm and 10 pm for now and see if we find them awake. It's a little exhausting.

1 pm feeding: Ethan 32 grams, Sydney 22 grams.

10 pm feeding: Ethan 0 grams (slept so hard), Sydney 10 grams.

Ethan technically lost 14 grams today, but that is without his cast. The nurses estimate that he gained 33 grams--5 lb 15 oz. He'll 'gain' a lot tonight with a new cast. Sydney gained 28 grams, 5 lb 10 oz.