Day 3 - 63 Days Until Due Date

I feel like once this is all done Alex and I will be neonatoligists with the tons of information that we are learning about premies and how you care for them. It's kind of fun talking to new nurses on shift changes because I feel like I am taking an oral test on what I learned with the last set of nurses.

First I just wanted to give an update on Alex. She has been amazing. Other than the first afternoon she hasn't used a wheel chair and has been making multiple walking trips to the NICU each day. Every nurse we run into can't believe that she just had a C-section. I'm sure the adrenaline of everything and the need to be with her babies is pushing her harder than she normally would have pushed herself. Her percocet and motrin are helping a lot too :-).

I think Alex and I are both starting to realize how overwhelming these next few months are going to be. Our brains try to trick us that because they have done so well these first few days that they are going to be coming home, but the reality is that it will be a long couple of months. We have such respect for our friends that have already gone through all of this. I guess like most things, you really don't understand stuff like this until you go through it.

The boys are continuing to make improvements. It is so great to see them not intubated. You really can see their faces and a little bit of their personalities. So far Winston is much more relaxed which is so funny because he was the one that moved constantly while in the womb. William who was crowded out by Winston is super feisty. He hates being bothered when they have to move or change him and loves tugging at all of his lines.

A little update on each boy:

Winston continues to do really well on room oxygen. That means that he is breathing the same amount of oxygen that we are. He wears a forced air oxygen line that blows the oxygen into his lungs to help make it easier for him to breath. Winston wins the pooping race and was the first of the two to have a bowl movement (when I say bowel movement I mean the tiniest speck of poop you have ever seen). On the down side Winston seems to forget to breath more often than his brother. We learned what Bradying is yesterday, which essential means that they stop breathing and their heartbeat drops below 60 for a moment. Usually all the nurse needs to do is reposition them and they quickly bounce back. As unnerving as this is for us to get used to I guess that it is really common for premies and is a big reason why they are in the NICU and each have a nurse by their side constantly. The best thing with Winston is that Alex got to hold him for the first time yesterday. It took him a while to get situated but once he was in place he was in heaven and help Alex's finger the entire time.

William is still doing great. Like his brother he is adapting really well to regular feedings of milk and formula through his feeding tube. No poop yet, but hopefully he won't be too far behind Winston. He has had much less Brady episodes than Winston all though he needs a lot of adjustments during the day with the amount of oxygen he requires. I have learned how to help the nurses with their cares they do on the babies every three hours and got to do two of them by myself yesterday with William. It is so great to be able to help take care of them. You take their temperature, clean out their mouth with a minty sponge, rub their scalp witha tooth brush, change their diaper, and reposition them. The best part of working with William late last night was that he was the first of the two to wake up for an extended period of time. Usually they just crack their eyes open for a second, but last night William opened his eyes the whole time I was working with him and just looked at me. I guess I am really going to love being a parent because it just melted my heart.

Both of the boys also got a visit from their grandparents yesterday. We love seeing them interact and I was grateful to be able to give each of them a blessing with our Dads.

Anyways I am done rambling for today. Here are some pictures for yesterday. Thank you everyone for your support, thoughts and prayers. They really are felt.

Winston without his breathing tube

William awake for the first time

William staring at me for the first time

Alex holding Winston

Grandma Davis touching Winston for the first time

A little video of William awake