Keep Your Fingers Crossed

As of last night Brandon was 5 lb 7.0 oz and Colin was 5 lb 5.2 oz, and both have been doing great with their bottles. They are now doing "ad lib" feedings where they take as much milk as they can handle, with a minimum of 40 ml, a goal of 46 ml, and a max of 60 ml. They haven't had any milk put down their NG tubes in 2 days, and their nurse said she would most likely remove their NG tubes tonight - yay! In fact Dr. Perigrino came by today to check them out and he said that if they do not have any more spells and if they continue to take their bottles like they have been that they MAY be able to come home on Monday!! Now there is a lot that could happen between now and then that could change that, so I am trying not to get TOO excited at this point (easier said than done). The boys still need to pass their "car seat test" which is where they are strapped into their car seats for at least an hour to make sure their respiratory rate and heart rate remain normal while they are in that position. They will do that test some time this weekend. It's also possible that one or both of the boys could have a spell, which would automatically mean another 8 days in NICU. Their last charted spell was on July 12, which is why Monday July 20 could be the day they go home, if everything else keeps going well. And if one of the babies has a spell and the other doesn't then most likely one baby will go home while the other gets an extended stay in the NICU, but I'm going to think happy thoughts that NEITHER will have any more spells - period! :-)

Bill took the RAV4 by the Virginia Tech police department today to have them install the car seat bases. I heard through my Mothers Of Multiples (MOMs) group that they do a really good job installing those and are very thorough. So now we have two car seat bases in the car which serves to remind us that the boys will be riding home very soon!

When I got to NICU today their nurse (who happens to have 5 year old twin boys herself) had Colin and Brandon all snuggled up wrapped together in a blanket. The first picture below was taken after I peeled back the covers. They were both konked out and Brandon didn't seem to mind that Colin's elbow was all up in his face :) I took the second picture later in the day when both of them were wide awake looking around. They'll look even cuter tomorrow when those pesky NG tubes are gone!




Tomorrow Mom and I are going to take the Infant CPR class. Bill and I took that class 2 weeks ago but since Mom is going to be watching the babies for their first 6 months after they come home we thought it would be a good idea for her to take the class too. Mom is very excited about watching the boys when I go back to work, but they may wear her out and she decide to go back to work herself instead ;-)

Here is a short video of the boys from today's visit. And lastly here is one more video that is a glimpse into our future where we need to feed and diaper two fussy boys. Neither of these videos are all that great, we just haven't taken any videos in a while and this is all we got today :)