Big leaps in the right direction

Well we have certainly been busy these last few days. The girls are both doing phenomenal. Renna now weighs 3lbs. 11oz. and Reagan weighs 3lbs. 7oz. Reagan is determined to catch her big sister. They are both making so many advances the last two days. I will do a paragraph for each to make it less confusing.

Renna began yesterday with getting off of her vapo-therm which is the oxygen that she has been on that is pressurized. She was off of it for about twelve hours and then had to be put back on a regular oxygen canula. She seems to be doing great with it and they have it set at a very low setting. Hopefully she won't need this very long. They discontinued her IV nutrition and lipids and tonight the plan is to take her off of the dextrose solution she has been on! She also got to try "non-nutritive" nursing with me which is basically really hard for them right now. It is just a practicing for nursing later. Renna's milk feedings have now gotten moved up to 30mls. every three hours. This is considered full feeding and is where Reagan is right now also. What amazing accomplishments Renna has made in just this short week. We are really starting to see her personality more as she seems to be feeling so much better and being awake more now. She is our little smiler!

Reagan continues to do well with the "non-nutritive" nursing and so got to start trying to nurse for real today!! It is really hard because it makes her really tired but she is really trying. I think she is determined...or maybe stubborn like her mom (and daddy too)! Reagan did start having a few more episodes of slow heart rate and forgetting to breathe, so she got her second blood transfusion yesterday. This seems to have made her feel better and she has had less episodes today.

Now there are several large leaps that they have both decided to make together that started yesterday. Both girls got their feeding tubes moved from their mouth to their noses. This is a great step because it means they can practice sucking and nursing easier. So the next step was they also got to try nipple feeding, which is a gigantic leap! So they both had their first bottles yesterday. The nurse fed Reagan hers and she drank it all! Then Adam got to feed Renna her first bottle last night...she did wonderful and drank it all as well. As if that wasn't enough they also got to wear clothes for the first time! Now you can imagine how excited I was about that. Getting to dress my sweet little angels for the first time. We will definitely post some pictures later of all their cute little outfits. We appreciate everyone who got us preemie outfits as they are now going to be put to good use. So yesterday they stayed in their incubators swaddled in blankets. When we got there this morning and took their temps they were both really hot and their beds were turned down as low as they could go...so you guessed it....they are both out of their incubators/warmers now and are in a crib together! I can't tell you how amazing it is to see them swaddled together and sleeping in a crib! They have done great with it so far today and are keeping their own body temp up. We hope that this continues. They are now both getting three bottle feedings a day and doing pretty well. So many huge leaps in two short days. Adam and I are pretty proud parents right now. Can't wait to see what they get to do next. We will try to post some pictures soon.