Happy 5 Weeks!

Today our little ladies are 5 weeks old and will be 29 weeks gestation tomorrow.  It's still incredible how much changes and progresses week by week and still day by day.  Since I last updated ...

The girls brain scans came back.  Isa's was clear (like it was in week one) and Celia's showed a category 2 bleed (like it did in week one) but it's a "recovering category 2" which means everything is correcting itself and it's of no concern to the doctors.  They only get concerned with category 3 and 4 bleeds because that could indicate a higher chance of cerebral palsy.  They won't get rescanned until 36 weeks for a final check so we can close this book!

Breathing tubes really seem to be the main focus this week.  Isa decided to pull her throat breathing tube out (again) around 1 am on Monday evening so the doctors put her back on the CPAP (the nose breathing tube that offers less support so she has to work harder on her own).  Her first try on CPAP only lasted 3 hours, but this time around she is doing great.  Then last night (Wednesday) she was having a bit of a temper tantrum during her checks and looking very uncomfortable so our nurse, Meghan, decided to take her tube out to clean it.  She noticed that all her stats went up when she did that.  After discussing with the doctors, they decided to downgrade the CPAP to a high-flow cannula (the lowest breathing support she can be moved to) and so far, she is doing great.  She is much more comfortable, resting well and can even have a Kangaroo session with Dad today!  Anytime we reduce her breathing support, it's possible she will tire out and need to go back up on support but we will see what happens this time around!

Miss Celia is currently on the lowest ventilator settings possible on the throat breathing tube and will be reduced back to the CPAP today!  The doctors are still running a few tests & labs for her kidneys to see if there may be something going on but we won't have those results back until next week.  And she is all of a sudden catching up to her sister in weight - weighting in at 1 lb, 13 oz last night!  Here's a video of her hanging out at the NICU on 5/25/2011



The doctors are very happy with their progress this week and their only orders for the girls are "rest and grow."  Wish that was all I had to do ... ;)