Update Nov. 18th

It's been a rough 1-1/2 weeks. On Saturday Nov. 8th Faith was reintibated. The Dr.'s think she had a bronchiospasm. Basically she clamped down and refused to breath. They tried to stimulate and bag her without results as well as doing chest compressions so the only choice left was to let a machine breathe for her again. They aren't sure what caused it other than the nurse was able to get a large mucus plug out of her later that day. Fortunatley she was only on the ventilator for a couple of days and last Friday they put her back on the nasal cannula at 3 liters of flow 50% O2. She had done ok for 1-1/2 days then Sunday her C02 was too high so they put her back on CPAP. She also has quit a bit of adema in her face and eyes. At this point they aren't sure why however she did look better last night. She is recieving 46cc's of breastmilk with PM60/40 powder added to it as the fortifier since she cannot handle the regular human milk fortifier due to the high phosporus content. Her eyes are slowly continuing to get better. She weighs 2480 grams or 5lbs. 8 ozs. Her bones are healing and the ortho people said they look really good. She is no longer getting caffine and had to get some blood last week. We are happy to report her creatinine continues to go down. It was 1.6 on Friday. I will have to look up what normal is however I know it's below 1. They are doing her labs 2 times a week, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Ashleigh is an amazing growing little girl. I took her to the Dr. on Nov.8th as I stated I might in the previous blog. She weighed 7lbs 8ozs!!!!! Nothing new was added medication wise for the reflux and the Dr. is fine with the 1 time a week bowel movement. She obviously is using up the breastmilk! On Nov. 14th she went to get her Synagis shot to prevent RSV and weighed 8lbs.! She had her 4 month check up yesterday and weighs 8lbs. 2 ozs 20-1/4 inches long. The Dr said she will probably reach her gestational weight by 9 months possibly sooner. He aslo said the color of her eyes now are what they are going to be. They are a bluish gray. She has a large bald spot and her hair is lightening up to a browish red. She is smiling more, follows very well and starting to have more wakeful periods. Unfortunatley those periods tend to be at night when her overtired parents want sleep!

Parker is wanting to help with Ashleigh more. When her apnea monitor goes off he goes running to help make it stop. He even asks to hold her on occasion. We took him to see to his first movie in a movie theater on Sunday. We saw Madigascar 2. Great movie however Parker wasn't as excited about it as we thought he would be. The boy wouldn't even eat popcorn! Needless to say it was nice for the 3 of us to get out of the house. Thank you Aunt Courtney for staying with Ashleigh!

I'll pick and choose some new pictures since I know everyone would love to see what the girls look like now that they are getting so big. Watch for updates later today.

Love to all!
Michelle

Update Nov.7th

We got some good news today. Faith's bones are healing well and they removed her harnass. They are still very thin and they Dr.'s made some changes to her meds earlier in the week to try and help her bone density. They added straight vitamin D and Calcium suppliments. She was getting a combination type med before. They also moved all the kids to 3A since they did a deep cleaning of room 3B. She is now by a window :) She weighs 2260 grams or basically 5 lbs. Her eyes were checked yesterday and continue to improve. She is currently on 4 liters of flow at 40 % O2. They will continue to ween her. She is getting 1 feeding by bottle every day. The nurses wait for us to do it if we are going to be there. She has also been more alert and they want to ween her from the isolette to an open air crib!!

Ashleigh is doing well. She is still only pooping once a week and spits up a lot. We may take her to the Dr. today or tomorrow to make sure she doesn't have any abdominal issues. She does tend to cry a lot when she is put down to as well as arching her back. She had her eyes checked on Wednesday and she has no stage in her left eye and stage 1 in her right eye. I'm not sure of her weight since she hasn't been weighed in 2 weeks. My guess is she is getting close to 7 lbs.

Parker is talking more to Ashleigh and even asks to hold her. When she was crying this morning he got her pacifer for her....too cute!

Todd and I are still happily exhausted and hope Faith will be home in the near future!

Michelle