March 26, 2008

Reese continues to improve. Today she had her IV hep-locked (the IV is still in her, but there are no IV fluids running). She got her first bottle feeding this morning; it was 20 ml, and she took it all. She gained weight; she now weighs 3 pounds 5 ounces. Her color continues to improve. She is on 21% FiO2, and has had her flow turned down to 2 liters/minute; and, she continues to maintain blood oxygen saturation above 92%. Today, while Randall was holding her, he accidentally kinked the supplemental oxygen tubing; during that time period, her blood oxygenation never got below 88%. This evening Shelley got to give her the second bottle feeding of her life; she got off to a slow start, but once she got started, she did well.


This first picture is from this morning. You can see the surgical area with Steri-strips on it.


This next picture is Randall holding Reese.
This picture is from this evening. It was taken just before Shelley gave her a bottle. We had to shield her eyes from the bright light in order to get her to open her eyes.
This is Shelley giving Reese a bottle. This is the second bottle that Reese has ever gotten.



Shelley got to breast feed Ryan and Rylie today. Ryan did not do very well. Rylie had good effort for about 10 minutes. Both Ryan and Rylie continue to gain weight.

Randall got to hold Ryan during one of his tube feedings. Ryan has been having problems with his blood oxygen saturation dropping while he is getting feedings, and it does not seem to matter whether he is getting a bottle feeding or a tube feeding. Today, Randall was massaging his foot; as long as his foot was being massaged, he kept his blood oxygenation from 98%-100%. Anytime that Randall stopped massaging his foot, his blood oxygenation would drop down to 90%-94%. It would appear that Ryan just needs a good foot massage when he eats.

We got so caught up in taking care of the babies today that we forgot to take pictures of Ryan and Rylie.