Outfits!!! And no CPAP!!!

So what a great visit. First of all, Moe was their care nurse and he is always AWESOME. I got to hold all three of the girls and dress them all in little outfits. It is so good to be able to see their faces.



The girls are really doing great. They got an eye exam yesterday and while we don't know if they're 20/20, we know they're on track developmentally.

Keller (in the yellow) is now past the 3lb mark at 3lb 1.4oz. Quinn is 3lb 6.5oz and Hollister is playing catch up at 2lb 14oz. I'm sure she'll catch up since her and Keller were neck and neck for so long.

Hollister in her purple jumper.

Keller ready for the next rainstorm, or to be a fisherman for Gordon's fishsticks.

Quinn. She is now in an open isolette since she regulates her own temp so well.

Restful day

Had a nice visit to the girls again yesterday. Hollister and Keller are getting much bigger. They are both around 2lb, 12oz; which is what Quinn was last Saturday. Quinn is now around 3lb, 2oz. They are all really eating a lot and it is helping them pack on weight.


Hollister gets herself into the strangest positions in her sleep.



Hollister: OK, I'm done playing SCUBA, can we take off the masks now?

Keller: I hear you sister, lets get off these machines!

Quinn LOVES Kangaroo care. She sleeps sooo peacefully on Katie and I. You can tell she is so comforted by contact.

We are 1 month old!

We are really surprised at how fast time seems to be going. I cannot believe it's already been a month. Keller and Hollister are still on the CPAP machines but, we hope that the drs will re-assess on Monday and take them off which we think is likely. The masks seem pretty uncomfortable and the girls often wiggle to try and get them off. I'd be pretty upset if I had some elephant looking thing stuck on my face too, who can blame them right!? Quinn is doing very well and will likely be our first to come home as soon as she gets big enough. Here are some fun shots I took today with my iphone, Quinn was the only one to get held as Hollister and Keller just looked like they wanted rest.




Hollister and her friend the big purple binkie.



Keller snoozing away after getting her mask re-fitted.

Me and Quinn having some kangaroo time. She likes to grunt and squeal.

Just a quick note

I think I modified the blog to where it is much easier to comment so, please, feel free. We love to hear from you and maybe someday the girls can read all the messages. It is early in the day so there isn't much to report other than the girls had a uneventful night (yay). Jeremy has a long day at school so we will go up to see the girls later tonight after the traffic has died down some.

Two steps forward...

Keller and Hollister are responding really well to being back on the CPAP (the big headgear in the pics). Their x-rays have shown steady improvement in lung volume and there is no indication that either of them have infections. The doctor's best guess is that the girls had developed their symptoms (apneas and high CO2 levels in their blood) due to failure to really exhale fully. They were just shallow breathing and their lungs weren't making full air excahnges. This shallow breathing allowed their lungs to begin collapsing slightly. The CPAP machine helps them by forcing air into their lungs to help re-expand them. Hopefully after a few days of this the girls chests will become stronger and they can come off the machines. Both of them have had virtually zero apnea events since going back on the CPAPs. The down-side is you can tell that the girls really dislike wearing the face-masks. They pull at the hose and skoot their noses out from the mask. I tell them that daddy wears an oxygen mask too some times because its important to keep you healthy.

Quinn, on the other hand, is totally off of any respiratory gear. The only tube on her is her feeding tube. She's maintaining her own body temp and maintains great blood O2 levels with no machine assistance.

Weight update:

Quinn is still out front at 2lb, 15oz

Keller is in front of Holister now at 2lb, 9oz

Hollister lost 15 grams to fall back (slightly) to 2lb, 8.5oz.

Making progress

Yesterday and the night before last were a little hectic. The girls are still doing really well. Keller's initial blood work (CBC) came back negative for infection, we are still waiting on a 48 hour blood culture but it looks like she is ok. Hollister had a blood gas screen come back high for CO2, this means she wasn't exhaling completely and her lungs were holding on to it. What prompted all the tests on Keller was a series of apnea events night before last. After the docs treated Keller for any potential infection they decided to do a chest x-ray on both K and H. Both girls had partially collapsed lungs. This may explain Keller's apnea events and Hollister's high CO2. Both girls were placed back on cpap to reinflate their lungs and give them some help with inhaing and exhaling. The doctor anticipates them not being on it much longer than a week. Already the girls have responded. Their chest x-rays yesterday afternoon showed significant improvement and K has stopped all her apena episodes. H never really presented with any issues other than the CO2 being high and she continues to do just fine. This morning the NICU reports that things are still going well for both girls. Quinn has been totally fine thru all this expect for her billyruben levels. The doctors felt that all 3 girls Jaundice was something called breast milk Jaundice. They aren't sure why, but some women's breast milk causes it. The difference between that and regular Jaundice is that the babies blood levels eventually plateau with breast milk Jaundice as opposed to regular Jaudice where they'd continue to rise. They also don't do anything to treat breast milk Jaundice except keep an eye on blood levels. Quinn's levels didn't exactly plateau like her sisters so, they took her off breast milk for 24 hours to properly diagnose her jaundice (replace the milk with formula and if it is breast milk jaundice, the numbers will go down). Sure enough her levels went down. She is now back on breast milk and they will be keeping an eye on things. All 3 girls continue to gain weight and get bigger. Quinn is our biggest and yesterday when Jer and I went to see them, she looked more babyish rather than preemieish (not a word I know). She has filled out some and was wide awake making really good eye contact and facial expressions. With Keller and Hollister being on cpap we couldn't really see their faces. We did notice that the head gear for the cpap was size medium rather than the extra small they started with when they were born. They are all growing so well :).

Quick update

Hi all. Unfortunately we've had a small set back with Keller. I'm not going to go into too much detail but the dr called last night saying she needed to have an IV of antibiotics and fluids. They took blood to rule out an infection and have upped her caffiene and O2. Her blood work came back within normal range and her temperature has stayed stable too. This morning the nurse felt she was improving but they still don't know what may be wrong with her, if anything. We hope and pray that today is a better day for her and that she continues to improve. This is the part of the NICU experience where we take two steps forward and one step back. We are obviously concerned, but we also know that she is getting the best care possible and a lot of what the drs do is out of caution for the multiple possiblities of what the problem may be, even if the chances are slim. Quinn and Hollister have had a few small issues too but hopefully with their labs today they will have improved too.