No tubes Mom!

Boy, it's been a while since we've seen JD without tubes!



He's got everything out now and is bottling like a real baby. It's tough to get him to take the whole thing but he's doing a great job. He usually falls asleep before he's finished so we are working on keeping him awake better. He's only taking 45 cc's right now, which is about an ounce and a quarter so you can see that it doesn't take much to tire them out. We took the car seat in tonight to have the "car seat test". They have JD sit in the carseat for one hour and monitor him to make sure that he sats (oxygenation saturation) above 90 the whole time. This is actually a tough test for these little guys. But they want to be sure that while they are in their carseats, they won't have any episodes. Makes sense to me. We'll see how he does with that....

Cole is doing great too - they have weaned his oxygen down to 1/8 of a liter still and room air; his episodes have decreased a great deal and he's eating more now. They have switched him to compressed feedings instead of continuous so this is a great milestone for him. He's following the same path as JD so we're hopeful that he's catching up!

Here's a recent picture of Cole from today.



I have also included a few photos of their cribs - just showing how we have decorated their little "space". There are lots of sentimental things in there for the boys - many things that have been given to them by the nurses and other caregivers at the hospital. What an amazing place the AAMC NICU is. We feel so blessed to have them taking such wonderful care of our children.

This is JD's crib.



And this is Cole's crib.



I plan to spend my days now at the hospital for most of the day, doing as many feeds as possible so that I know what I'm doing. I also am trying to spend some quality time with Cole since he will have to stay once JD comes home. It will mean less time to spend with him during the day which will be hard. But hopefully he'll be right behind within a week or so. We're getting closer to Homecoming!