Open Crib, here I come!

We were so excited to find out this afternoon that JD was moved out of his isolete into an open crib today!!! It is the same as the regular bassinets that full term babies go into when they are born - very exciting day for us all! JD has been working on keeping his body temperature up for a few days and he did well with it so they have moved him out of "the box". It's so awesome to be able to look at him up close and personal when I walk in and not have to look through the glass. We hope that Cole will be a week or so behind him; he has a bit more weight to gain before he'll be able to move out of his little house. They usually like the babies to be about 1500 grams before they can move - he's at about 1110 right now so within a week to 10 days, he should be there. Maybe a bit sooner if he's feeling really ambitious!

The sleep study results came back this weekend. I don't know why they called it a sleep study because it had nothing to do with monitoring their sleep; but anyway, JD has severe reflux, which we already knew. Luckily it doesn't appear that he has acid reflux though, so that is a plus. It just means that he is not having acid sitting in his esophagus as he reflux's. He has an appointment with an ENT doc tomorrow so it will be interesting to see what he has to say. They are going to take a look at his throat and belly from the inside (apparently not too painful and very quick as they just put a tiny scope down to look around). Cole's results were actually a bit better than JD's - they said that he does not have reflux too bad and many of his apnea episodes are due to prematurity. In other words, he will grow out of it and get better as he gets bigger. We were very happy to hear this, especially because we thought he was worse off with the reflux than JD was. Their apnea and brady episodes have gotten a lot better over the last few days so I think with their growth and the meds, they are doing MUCH better.

Both C. and I got to hold the boys for a while today - they were doing great. They stay awake so much longer now when we are there and definitely recognize our voices. Both are really doing well with their pacifiers so we're hopeful that bottle feeds are not too far off at this point. But until the reflux is under control, they will stay on the continuous feeds through the feeding tube.

Not much else to report tonight ~ all in all, they had a very good weekend. We are so thankful for every day that goes by that they are doing so well. We couldn't ask for anything more. Here are a few photos from tonights visit. It's nice to be able to take pictures of JD without having to look through the glass! We took a few with Daddy's hand in the photo so you can get some perspective on how small they still are. JD is weighing in at about 3lb, 3 oz and Cole is about 2lb, 7.5 oz. They are really starting to pork up!

JD





COLE