Stephen bottle fed the boys this morning. William was a champ! He took 25ccs (slightly under an ounce), and our nurse said it was the best feeding session ever. Hopefully he can keep it up! Aaron took 10ccs by bottle, which was also great. I'd love to get the feeding tubes out some day :)
We did have a few events that remind us why the boys are still in the NICU, and will need to be there for a little while longer. William's blood gas levels today showed that he's retaining carbon dioxide, so he will definitely need the nasal cannula for a while. The cannula helps him to expel the CO2. He may get more lasix if he still has fluid in his lungs, which could also be causing the high CO2 levels. This should just be a result of being a preemie, and should resolve as he gets bigger.
Both boys had apnea (or apnea-like) episodes today. I was not present for Aaron's, but William was laying in my lap when he had his. He stopped breathing for a good few minutes, which felt like forever to me. Our nurse took him back to his bed to stimulate him and give him air manually, and she was not panicking, although I was about to scream for every nurse to rush to his bedside. I did finally ask her if she needed help, and I believe she called someone else over just to placate me. She explained after he came back up that apnea is self-limiting - he's not sick and he WILL start breathing again. This was unlike his episode with Stephen yesterday, since yesterday he was in the middle of a feed and could have aspirated. These episodes are relatively brief and will not have any long term affect on the boys. They will need to end, though, before they can come home.
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