DAY 7—THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2008

KATIE - After the second day home, Katie is doing very well. She is still very sore and misses being closer to the boys in the hospital. We are trying to visit the boys 2-3 times a day to feed them and change their diapers. The nurses are feeding them and taking great care of them when we can't be there. Katie's blood pressure is still borderline on the high side and her feet and ankles continue to be swollen. But it's best that Katie rest as much as possible and heal up before the boys come home.

ANDREW - This morning we found out that Andrew had started to develop a bit of air in his left chest. A routine x-ray was done about 6am this morning to see how he was doing. The initial x-ray showed a small dark patch in the lower part of his left chest. Due to his position it wasn't very visible. The NICU Doctor immediately ordered a second x-ray, and at 8:30am he received another. The second x-ray showed a small amount of air was filling his left chest. The Doctor thinks that a small amount of air is leaking from his lungs caused by a slight elevation in pressure from the ventilator. They immediately put him on 100% oxygen, reduced the pressure on the ventilator and increased the suction of his chest tube. Sometimes when newborns are on ventilators for a period of time, air can find its way into the chest cavity through tiny holes in the lungs. Another x-ray was done at 12 noon and it showed that their interventions have worked to reduce the air in his chest and his body can now help to absorb the excess air. He has also begun to reduce the amount of swelling in his body. He continues to pee quite a bit which is helping. Early this morning the nurse in charge of him said he opened his eyes for brief moment when they we changing his diaper. Overall he still continues to progress and heal. Unfortunately we can hold Andrew yet and we can't only touch him very briefly. We feel so guilty that we are able to interact more with Aaron and spend more time with him. But we know that his little body needs time to heal and he can only tolerate only a little stimulation.  We know that eventually we will be able to hold him when he is ready. (PICTURE: Andrews little corner of the NICU)

AARON - Today Aaron is having another good day. His 8:30 am feeding went very well, except he was so awake he didn't finish his bottle. He wanted to keep looking around the room to see what was going on. Overnight the nurses gave him an enema to help him move his bowels. He hadn't been pooping very well the previous day. So today he seems to be doing better. Yesterday Katie brought in several receiving blankets and a quilt which she made. The nurses took the blankets and made up Aaron's crib really nice with Mommy's love. The nurses stated that all of the other babies were so jealous of Aaron now. At his 2:30pm feeding he was able to finish his bottle in about 10 minutes, we were so proud of him. (PICTURES: Proud Mommy and Daddy)

We can't say enough of how wonderful the NICU and Special Care Nursery (SCN) nurses are. They take such good care of our little babies and for all of the other babies there. They have a lot of patience not just with the babies but with the parents who frequently visit. They are constantly exposed to warning bells going off on many of the monitoring devices throughout the NICU and SCN, but they still keep attending to the babies with love. We haven't had a bad nurse yet. The NICU and SCN are truly heaven on earth. (PICTURE: Aaron's decked out crib)