Day 56: Lots of changes

Thank you all for you prayers! We had a much better day today. We had a care confrence today with Dr. BR and it was very encouraging. We have never heard him so enthusiastic and optomistic before. He said that if we would have asked him when the girls were born if he thought there was a chance they could go home without oxygen he would have said no. He said he has not seen 25 weekers go home without oxygen before. However he said that he feels pretty sure that as long as there are no major complications neither of our girls will need to go home on oxygen. That is awesome! He also thinks that both girls are on track to come home at or even before their due date. I am going to try plan on the due date still so that I do not get my hopes up. He also said that he would be very suprised if Emma's ROP progressed to anything that would affect her sight at all. At our care confrence we talked about Emma's need for CPAP. He feels that she is ready to be off it and said that he thinks the reason it did not work out monday was likely bad timing. So he talked us into trying her off CPAP again. He had a good talk with the other neonatologist that was on as well as the girl's nurse so that no one "jumps" into putting her back on it. He wants to make sure that she has a fair chance this time to prove herself. So we are praying that Emma gets to ring in 2010 CPAP free with Adalyn. Emma's weight tonight was 3 lbs 11 oz (1665 grams). Earlier today they started compressing Adalyn's feedings over 2.5 hours. Dr. BR said that if she tolerates that they will likely go down to 2 hours tomorrow. He also decided to move Adalyn's feeding tube from an OG to an NG (in her nose instead of her mouth). As long as everything goes well we get to try give her her first bottle this weekend. I have been able to let her nuzzle at the breast twice, but she does not do a ton yet. Adalyn is still in an open crib and doing great maintaining her temp. Her weight tonight was 4 lbs 3 oz (1880 grams).

Some news about the frustrations I was having yesterday. The hospital got their formula order in so we do not have to worry about them running out of that again any time soon. Also I got a call from one of the financial counselors at Spectrum Health and they will pay the premium to have the girls stay on my health insurance. The girls have Medicaid because they are in the hospital over 30 days so I was going to drop them of my insurance and let Medicaid be their primary. However, it benefits the hospital in terms of reimbursement for them to have a private primary insurance so that is why they are willing to pay that premium. That is awesome because that takes away part of that financial burden from Dave & I.

Holy Spirit,
Thank you so much for answering so many of our prayers Lord. Forgive us for ever doubting Your presence or wondering if You are still holding us in Your hands. Lord I ask that you please help Emma to stay off the CPAP for good this time. Please give her the strength and maturity that she needs. Lord also give Adalyn the strength that she needs to be able to handle her compressed feedings. Help her to digest her food well and to have minimal reflux. Please continue to help Emma with her reflux so that she can go back to gastric feeds. Father continue to protect both girls from infection, and help them to continue to grown and develop well. Help Emma's right eye to heal and for their to be no progression of her ROP or any additional signs of ROP in her left eye or either of Adalyn's eyes. Lord thank you so much for the many blessing and miracles you have blessed Dave & I with in 2009. Lord we look foward to walking into 2010 with You and our beautiful twins. Amen!