7 Weeks!

The boys have reached their seventh week!  Let's pray for a lucky number seven, and continued progress with their feeding and reflux.  The issues from yesterday are now behind us, and they are both doing well.

We were a bit disappointed to learn the cause of William's episode yesterday as it was preventable - the nurse of the day used the wrong flow nipple on his bottle - but our primary nurse will now make sure everyone knows what he needs.  He has a strong suck, and the faster flow caused him to take too much at once.  Both boys did awesome today with their feeds from me, and they are just so cute I never want to put them back in their beds!

The doctor of the week and our primary nurse both seemed confident that Aaron will move back off of the nasal cannula.  His dips in breathing/heart rate are more symptomatic of reflux than apnea, so the cannula probably wouldn't make a difference.  Our days are usually better when their primary nurse is working.  She knows them better than anyone but us, and has faith in their abilities to feed and breathe.  She's also very good with positioning them correctly and spending positive time with them rather than just doing the routine tasks.  She's not as nonchalant about what we do with the boys as some of the nurses, which actually works well with me.  It might not work well with some people.  While they're in the NICU, I want someone who knows what they're doing and wants to pass that knowledge on to me, rather than someone who always just lets us do what we want, when we may not know the best things to be doing.  We went over some of the massage and stretching techniques today, and she is making sure that I spend more time working with them, rather than just holding them :)  It'll be good for them.  PT will go over all of this with us more before they leave.  While all (okay, most) of the nurses are great, I believe her nursing style and her own constant research/growth best fit my needs as a parent.

If you get a chance, check out the song Strong Enough by Matthew West.  If I had time to figure out how to embed it in this post, I would :)  This is one song with an awesome message that has helped and is helping me get through this whole experience, and reminds me that He is here with us.