Maddy Makes 5!

The twins have hit a couple more milestones in the past couple days. Yesterday Madeline went over 5 lbs. (This morning she is 5 lbs 1.8 ozs.) Maddy has not needed any supplemental oxygen since Sunday, so it looks like she may be done with cannulas (knock on wood)!

Milo is his big ole' self. He's a robust 5 lbs 9 ozs and is quickly out growing his preemie clothes, which is just fine with us. Milo needs less and less supplemental oxygen lately -- he's down to 21%-23% and the docs cut his oxygen volume down to 1 litre. The boy is still a little jaundiced though, as you may have noticed in the pictures below. Basically, the vitamin rich Hyperalimentation (the IV nutrition given to preemies), which was essential to Milo's growth and health early on, can also cause cholestasis, a condition effecting liver function. Thus, this condition is known affectionately as Hyperalimentation-induced cholestasis. The good new is that it's expected resolve with a course of medicine and Milo is already looking better.

The babies are both very alert these days during their awake periods and really enjoy it when we hold them and sing to them -- hard to believe given my voice but true. They are both still getting most of their feeds through a nasal gavage tube, but they also get a bottle feeding at least three times daily, and both babies also breast feed at least once or twice a day. Both babies still experience the occasional brady and the odd oxygen desat, but those are happening less and less.

So when do they get to go home? Well, they need to be off oxygen, feeding entirely by bottle or breast, making consistent weight gains, and -- most significantly -- they need to go 5 days without a brady. That's probably a few weeks away for Madeline and probably a week or two more than that for Milo.