Celia & Isabel: We love boring weeks.

It has been a pretty quiet week which is exactly what we want. A boring day is a good day in our eyes. A few eventful things are worth mentioning however.

In Sam's last post he mentioned how Celia was downgraded on the ventilator to a CPAP (the breathing tube that goes through the nose instead of down the throat, offering less support so she needs to work harder on her own to breathe). She did so good for 3-4 days but then just got too tired to keep up with the extra work. Her desats (drops in oxygen) started to increase and a few significant bradys (drops in heart rate) accompanied so the doctors made the decision to go back to the good ole' throat tube. The good thing is we know exactly where she is at in terms of breathing now and in a few more weeks, they will try again with the CPAP. At 28 weeks, her lungs need a little extra help for a little bit longer. And lots of her energy was going to breathing so her weight started to decrease a bit. At 1 lb, 9 oz, Celia needs to reserve all the calories she can to keep growing!

And as the story continues to go, Isa followed in her sister's footsteps. Isa was downgraded to the CPAP but after 3 hours was re-intibated with the throat tube (I am sure there is a medical term for "throat tube" ... but somehow this is the one term I don't think I have learned yet)! Like Celia, the doctors will wait a few more weeks before trying the CPAP again during which time her lungs will get stronger, she will get bigger (currently Isa is a giant weighing in at 1 lb, 15 oz) and she should do great on the CPAP the next time around.

Isa continues to have desats into the low digits which is slightly concerning since this shouldn't be happening as much since the PDA surgery. It could be a function of a variety of things - she has reflux and needs frequent suctioning so her air ways get blocked often in the day, she is still such a preemie and just needs time to get bigger & stronger, etc. They will keep an eye on it and hopefully she just outgrows it.

Celia today had another party with her electrolytes with her potassium elevating to over 8. Like in the past, the doctors main concern is a change in heart rate when potassium levels get this high. However unlike last time, they were able to bring her potassium level back to 4.5 within a few hours (versus half a day). A few more tests are being done to figure out why this happened again (revisiting the kidney issues, the endocrine issues, etc). Right now it's a mystery.

Both girls had their one month brain scans today to do a final check for brain bleeding & structural changes. We should have those results by tomorrow morning but have good feelings they will be a-ok.