Another milestone reached
We have some very good news. The girls are growing a lot! Emma reached 1500 grams last night which is a big milestone for her. If you remember, I spoke about the VSD she has in her heart which will require open heart surgery to correct. If Emma growth became stunted, the doctors would have had to open up her chest to put a band on a major vein to prevent blood leakage into the lungs. This would have enabled her to gain enough weight before the VSD surgery would go on. Well, since she's reached the minimum surgical weight, we can avoid placing a band on her. Whew.... one less surgery is one less risk. Now, the doctors will still need to go ahead with the VSD surgery, but we will wait as long as possible until that happens. The doctors told us that it would be best if we could wait until she was at least 7-9 pounds (3000 - 4000 grams) as the extra weight will provide strength. The more strength she has the more likelihood of a successful surgery... I don't want to think about what an unsuccessful surgery means. Anyway, things are progressing very well for her. She's still on the CPAP, but she is put on the on the nasal cannulas each day for an hour or two. We are also starting to see some small signs of reflux in her as well. However, she's been very interactive with us and loves it when her dad (that's me) shows her a special newborn picture book.
Ella has been growing too. Yesterday she reached the 6 pound milestone. She's a little chubby one now. She's been growing like mad, but she's still having some breathing problems. She was forced to go back on the CPAP a few days ago because she was just having too many bradys. She was also have a lot of reflux as well. All of these things were just making her one pissed off baby, so the doctors huddled and came up with a new approach. They first changed Ella's feedings from scheduled (happening 4 times a day) to continuous (very slow but maintained flow). They also put her on Ativan, otherwise referred to by Ellen as "baby valium". These two things had an immediate effect. Ella calmed down significantly and her breathing became more consistent. Within 2 days the doctors were able to put her back on the nasal cannula and she is now a much happier baby.
Ella is now off the Ativan but is still quite happy. The doctors discovered that Ella is also mildly asthmatic. This is not a big deal, and is common in very young babies, but it does need to be treated. Thus, every couple of hours the respiratory therapist gives Ella an inhaler of albuterol, a drug to help relieve the asthmatic symptoms. She has been responding very well to this treatment. She has very few bradys now (about 1 or 2 a day), and its clear that she'll graduate to a crib in a few more days. Wow. What a difference this has been.
So that's the latest on the wonder twins. I did add a few more pix to Flickr, including some really cute ones of Ella in a swaddling blanket.