Some quiet days

I am happy to report that no news has been good news this week. Maxwell has now been off the Inhaled Nitric Oxide for nearly 4 days, and is doing great. His oxygen needs have been consistently in the 45% range, which is really good considering his body is now responsible for absorbing the oxygen from his lungs without the aid of the INO. His blood gasses have really been quite good and they have been able to adjust his vent pressures down to 37 from 40. We are happy with the progress, and Max just seems happier and healthier than he has in a while. He has been opening his eyes, following the sound of our voices, he appears to make some significant breathing efforts on his own (despite the ventilator) and perhaps the best part is we have been able to hold him a number of times in the past week. Max has been doing very well with his feedings (and poopings) and has broken into the 5 pound club!! 5 pounds 2 ounces to be exact. This is likely still overstated because of the edema in his head, but we will take it!!

Wes continues to be Wes. Kate and I often talk about how he is going to be our angry child. Then again, I may have been a more angry child if my life has started with as many hurdles as these little dude have had to face. His fiestiness continues to be a source of stress for his nurses because he can quite easily pull his CPAP apparatus of his face...and he does this regularly just to keep them on their toes (way to go buddy!!). His oxygen needs are still in the 40% range and he just cannot seem to make any moves in the right direction from that range. My personal theory (I am not a full doctor yet) is that his weight gain is a little behind and if he could pack on some ounces and hit a growth spurt, maybe his lungs would grow a bit and have a little more surface area with which to exchange oxygen into his blood stream. This theory is not backed with any actual medical facts, but it sounds reasonable enough to me. He tipped the scales at 4 pounds 5 ounces last night, so he is heading the right direction. He had a little issue with a feeding the other day and spit up some of the breast milk. The docs have moved him to a compressed feeding over 1 hour instead of the "gravity" feeding that he had been getting. They are not too concerned with this event since it has only happened once, but do not want to set him back from a nutrition stand point, hence the compressed feeding. Max is actually on a "drip" feeding which simply means his food is delivered constantly. This is largely due to the fact that he is still on the jet vent.

Kate actually got to hold both the boys at the same time the other day, albeit only for a minute or so. I am bummed I wasn't able to be there, but it really warms my heart to see my twin boys near each other for the first time in almost 11 weeks. I never thought that the first picture of my wife holding our boys would include $100,000 worth of medical hardware!!