Tuesday Update

The girls continue to be moving in the right direction.

Ava was taken off her oxygen today and seems to be doing well without it. Yesterday she reached her feeding goal rate (20 mls every three hours) and tonight she will start on fortified breast milk, which will help her gain weight. She continues to not need an IV, which means that she is only hooked up to leads (which monitor her heart rate) and the feeding tube, which is now going through her nose. They tell me that having the feeding tube feed through the nose is more comfortable and allows her to work on sucking with the pacy. The only concerning thing with Ava is that her brain scan showed tiny cysts around her brain. The doctors didn't seem that concerned about it and plan to scan her again in about 6 weeks. We are going to get more information on this tomorrow.

Ella continues on oxygen and they tried to wean her down to 1 liter, but that only lasted 6 minutes before they needed to bump her up again. I think they are going to try weaning her again tomorrow. She is going to receive 15mls of breast milk every three hours and hopefully reach her goal rate tomorrow (20 mls.) The TPN was stopped and they may be able to take out the PICC this weekend. Ella's brain scan came out normal.

I have been going to the hospial every morning and for the past two days they have let me kangaroo both of them together. Yesterday was the first time the girls were able to be next to each other since delivery. Ava is really funny when she is kangagooing with her sister, because buy the end she tries to move as far away from Ella as she can. I think she is tired of her sister already.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their continued support and prayers. Daddy and I would not be able to survive this season in our lives without you.

-Rachel