snuggling

David and Ethan are getting 2- 33 ml bottles of breastmilk a day now, and breastfeeding once a day.  The rest of their feedings are still given through the NG tube.  They are doing really good!  They will take the first 20 ml easily with the bottle, and then the nurse usually has to force down the remaining 10.  They were both 3 lbs 15 oz today!  Almost to 4 lbs!!!  They are both off their O2 sat monitor, and doing a great job regulating their body temp too.  So the main thing we are waiting on is getting them to eat on their own!  David pulled out his NG tube twice today.  I hate that they had to put it in again, but it least we know he is getting stronger and has a little fight in him!  I love these boys so much!

Week #3 in NICU

Ethan and David are doing great!  On Monday they started learning to breastfeed and take a bottle of breastmilk once a day.  It was a slow start, but today Ethan took 16 ml and David took 12 ml when they nursed!  Ethan is 3 lbs 14 oz today, and David is 3 lbs 12 oz.  They are growing great!  Here are some pictures from this week.

They were snuggling together today!  Precious brothers!  They love to be close to each other.

Pictures from the rest of the first week and Update

Ok, I am finally going to catch up!  I may just have to post pictures later, because that can be time-consuming.  Nothing else really changed much the rest of the first week.  The babies both came off of the phototherapy by the end of the week because their bilirubin levels were down.  They were both able to come off oxygen from the nasal cannulas and have been breathing completely on their own ever since!  I've been able to hold them every day, which is pure bliss :)  Here are a few more pictures from the end of last week:

David

Ethan

Ethan when he had the nasal cannula

On Monday they turned 1 week old!  Yea!  They did head ultrasounds on both boys to check for any bleeding in the brain, which is fairly common with premature babies.  Everything came back completely normal- praise God!!!  That was such a relief.  They are going up with their feedings (pumped breastmilk through their feeding tubes) every day, and they are tolerating it wonderfully.  It is so cute to watch them being fed.  Their little eyes get heavy toward the end, and sometimes they will even suck on their thumb or fingers.  They are happy boys with a full belly.  On Tuesday they moved them into the same isolette so they could be together!  It is so precious to see them right next to each other!  Makes me happy that even though I can't be there all the time with them, they have each other!  Also they were able to increase their feedings enough so that they could stop their IV fluids.  Now that they no longer have IVs they can begin to wear premiee clothes :)  Finally, I got to hold both of them together at the same time on Tuesday.  It was incredible to be able to hold both of my precious babies!  Ethan kept stretching his little arms and head, pushing David over.  And David was content as could be, slept the whole time.  Today (Wednesday) their bilirubin levels had gone up again, so they had to separate them again to start the phototherapy again.  But hopefully they will get it out of their system in a couple of days, and then they can be together again.  They have almost come back to their birth weight- Ethan was 3 lbs 7 oz, and David was 3 lbs 5 oz today.  They are adding a human milk fortifier to my breastmilk to add some calories and help them bulk up.  I think that about covers the last few days!  They are doing amazingly well, and we are so thankful to God for all He has done and is going to do!