Day 60: Big girls

Emma

Adalyn

Soooooooooo sorry I have been a bad blogger. I promise I will try get back into the routine of posting a new blog every evening...or Dave will if I cannot. Again, there have been quite a few changes since the last time I posted. Let's start with Emma. On Wednesday when I posted Emma was off CPAP. She remained off CPAP through the night, but according to her nurse Erin she looked tired. So on Thursday afternoon they put her back on CPAP. She did well through the rest of Thursday and Friday morning so around 11am Friday they decided to try her off the CPAP once again (what a roller coaster). They also decided to change her OJ to an NJ and discontinue her OG. Well, within the first hour she had about 3 brady alarms and she was retching. So her wonderful nurse Marsha had the idea to give her the OG back and try her on a high flow nasal cannula (on room air) before she got too tired. So that is what Emma has been on since about 12:30pm on Friday, we are so proud of her! She has been doing well, but she continues to have alarms on and off. The doctors are not concerned because she holds her oxygen saturations with all of them and they are all self-resolved. Her feedings continue to go at 11 mL an hour via her NJ tube and her OG tube is open to vent to help with her reflux. She is still definitely struggling with the reflux and has some retching off and on, but has not been spitting up much with the OG. Emma was moved to an open crib Saturday morning and is maintaining her temperature well. Dave gave Emma her first tub bath today and he did great, and so did she, but I am not convinced she liked it a whole lot :). Emma's weight last night was 3lbs 15oz (1775 grams)...way to go girl!

Adalyn is still in an open crib and on room air and doing great. She has a few brady alarms here and there, but not much. Her big changes lately have been with her feedings. Her feeding orders as of yesterday were that she was allowed to try breast/bottle feed 2 times a day and what she does not take by mouth and for the other feedings of the day she gets 36mL compressed over 2 hours. So, she got to try a bottle for the first time yesterday! Dave fed her and she was allowed to take 10mL which she took like a champ in 7 minutes with no alarms and no spitting up. She also got to breast feed in the evening which she did pretty good with, but it made her really sleepy. Since she did so well yesterday, her new feeding orders for today were that she can try breast/bottle feed 3 times a day and she gets 15 minutes to take as much as she can. What she does not take by mouth gets compressed over 1 1/2 hours. The other feedings of the day she gets 36mL compressed over 2 hours. I got to give her a bottle today and she took all 36mL! It took her a bit longer than 15 minutes, but her nurse wanted to let her keep going because she was doing so well with it. She paced herself (coordinated suck, swallow & breathe) and had no alarms or spit ups. We are so proud. Adalyn also got a tub bath today, her's was from me, and she was not real amused either :) Oh, and Adalyn passed her hearing test the other night and Emma should be getting her's today. Adalyn's weight last night was 4lbs 6oz (1980 grams).

A HUGE prayer request that we would like everyone to be praying earnestly for is that God heal Emma's reflux. Her reflux affects her feeding progression and causes her to have brady alarms. But it also makes her uncomfortable, which is the hardest thing for Dave and I to see. Please pray for this so Emma can make progress towards coming home and so that she can be more comfortable. Emma has another eye exam this week so please pray that there is no progression in her ROP. Please also pray that Emma does not have to go back on CPAP and that she continues to make progress in the right direction so that she can come off the high flow nasal cannula soon. Adalyn's final hurdle at this point before she can come home is that she has to take all her feedings by mouth for 48 hours and have good weight gain. So please pray that she continues to do well with her feedings and weight gain. Please continue to pray that God help Adalyn & Emma develop appropriately and that He protect them from infection.