1-6-11

 The babies were officially 4 weeks old yesterday. I can't believe that they are that old already. Seems like just yesterday I was meeting them for the first time.

Ryan: He is now up to 3lbs. He has successfully gotten off his nasal cannula oxygen. He does still need it occasionally when he sleeps really hard or when he has to much stimuli but is always back off of it quickly. He is now getting 28mL of food every 3 hours. 2 more mL and he will be to a full ounce! We have been working on getting closer to bottle feeding with him. Our step today was dipping a pacifier in milk and letting him get a "taste" of what he is getting fed through his tube. He absolutely loved it! He just sucked like a normal pacifier at first but when we took it and dipped it the second time he went to town on that pacifier! I hope we can start a bottle soon. They tell me this is the longest process of the stay. Suck-swallow-breath is difficult for little guys to learn.

I sure do have some BIG shoes to fill!

But I am getting bigger everyday!

Tyler: He now weighs in at a whopping 2lbs 7oz! I can't believe how much he has grown! Tyler has also reached his full feeding and is getting 22mL every 3 hours. He is wearing his CPAP for 6 hours and then wearing nasal cannula for 6 hours. They are going to try to ween him a little slower this time in hopes he will make it off CPAP for good. I was able to give him his first tub bath today. He really enjoyed it! He is getting super strong and was almost out of his snuggly when I first went to see him this morning. They said he had made it out earlier in the morning.

Escape artist!

Growing big!

We are getting closer to getting all the tape off our face!

Emily: She is doing the best. She is now 3lbs and is off all oxygen. She is getting her full feeds and is at 27mL every 3 hours. She is doing really well with them and is really starting to fill out. I tried a pacifier dipped in milk with her today like I did Ryan. She took the pacifier and then promptly spit it out and had the most awful look on her face! That is not a good sign for breast feeding. I think it is important to like breast milk if you wanna get a bottle of it! No seriously,  she did make horrible faces but she was very sleepy and not really interested in taking the pacifier in the first place. She is so funny with her facial expressions, most of which say, "Mom, you can't be serious!"

Getting ready for the eyes to roll!