Look...No tubes!!!

The last couple of days have been very exciting for us. All 3 babies got their feeding tubes out and look so good without them. In order to get the tubes out, they had to finish all of their bottles in a 12 hour shift. Kathryn was the first to accomplish this and actually got her tube out on Saturday night - the first day she was allowed to try to have every feeding with a bottle. Daniel was a little slower (normal for boys, according to the doctors) and was able to get his tube out today. The big surprise was our little Anna. She went from having only 2 bottles a day to no tube in less than 24 hours. She also was taken off of the caffeine today so we have to wait a few days to see if she has any episodes of apnea or bradycardia - so far she is doing great off of the caffeine. The babies have to pass a car seat test in order to be able to go home. They have to sit in their car seat for 30 minutes without having any episodes of apnea, etc. Daniel and Kathryn were tested today. The nurse left them in the seats for an hour and they both passed. Kathryn had 1 episode of bradycardia where her heart rate dropped. She has a couple of these a day so they may consider sending her home on a monitor, but we will find that out in a few days. So, it appears that we may be able to bring at least one of the babies home within a week. They will not give us any definite date, but the nurses said that normally once babies are off of the feeding tubes it is only a matter of days before they are able to go home. We can't wait to get them home!

(Pictures above are Daniel, Kathryn, Anna - the red cheeks are from the tape that was holding in the tubes.)