Ups and Downs

It's been awhile since our last post and there's lots of details as always. Last week from Sunday to Thursday was like heaven in the NICU. For those that have never experienced the NICU life, it's an every day rollercoaster. It's something I never wish any parent to have to go through as it is so hard being so helpless sometimes and watching your child go through tons of tests, needle pokes, laying in an incubator crying when you want so bad to hold them and comfort them. So when you have an uneventful day or hour even, it is heaven.

The boys both were doing really well on the cpap machine and we were so excited and proud of them as that was the longest they had gone on them. Ethan had a very eventful day starting on Thursday were his heart rate and oxygen levels kept dropping and it wasn't just once and awhile it was over and over again. We watched as this was happening and during these moments your heart is in your stomach and you just feel sick. They did some tests and it came back showing he has a urinary tract infection and that was most likely the cause of his levels dropping along with being tired and needing a break from the cpap machine. So Friday morning Ethan went back on the ventilator. Similar level drops started happening more with Caleb and he also went back on the ventilator on Saturday.

Sunday we spent the day with the boys for their first Easter! We decorated their incubators with Easter decals.

Over the past weeks they have both been going up on their feeding levels every day and tolerating each level really well which is great! They even were taken off of this IV fluid they have been receiving since birth which is also a big step. They started yesterday a fortifier that they add to their milk which has calories, calcium, protein, etc that will help them gain weight faster, build stronger bones, etc.

On to the topic that sits heavily on our minds this morning... yesterday I arrived to visit the boys and I am always updated on how they are doing in between the time I call in the morning and when I get their in the afternoon. Caleb's nurse Tasha starts out by informing me that Caleb started seizing not long before I got there. My heart dropped. Did it drop because memories flashed back to Tyler and him seizing...partially and because you don't want these things to be happening to your son period. They had to give him three different medications to control them as he was still having breakthrough seizures with the first one they always try. It was the hardest thing watching him twitch and there is nothing you can do but pray and ask God to make them go away. They were able to get them under control, but it sedates him to the point of not responding to our voices much or anything. Because of the sedation, his blood pressure was low and his urine output stopped so they had to put him back on a medication to help that again. As of this morning, his blood pressure is back to normal and he had a plentiful amount of urine in his diaper this morning! I know, too much information, but these little things when you are going through all of this mean so much to us.

As of right now, Caleb received a cranial scan this morning and we are waiting for the results. He also I believe will be getting another EEG today. The doctors had not done rounds yet on the boys so more information will come to us today on their plan with the medications he is on to control the seizures, etc. I just pray that these seizures will be taken away from him.

And of course we cannot forget Ethan... he is doing really well since his rough day on Thursday! We are not sure of the status of his UTI yet but they are treating it with antibiotics so hopefully that will take care of it.

Some precious things that just make you smile through all of this.... we caught Ethan with a finger in his ear the other day and after he was done scratching it or something, he just let his finger hang there in his ear for five minutes. Too funny! When I change their diapers sometimes they fight me, as small as they are they are super strong already. One of the times, I don't remember which son it was, just threw his legs up at a 90 degree angle, like he was saying to me "just get it over with mom". These boys are just so amazing and the personalities they have already even when they were born so early.

Please continue to pray for them as they go through the every day ups and downs of being a preemie and also if you will pray for Dave and I for the strength to stay postitive even when we have hit a bump in the road.