Making progress

It is amazing the progress that these little babies are making. Daniel and Kathryn are now bottle feeding every other feeding (they feed every 3 hours). They have been off the caffeine for a few days and have not had any episodes of apnea or bradycardia which means they will not have to come home on any monitors. Daniel weighs 5lb 8.7oz and Kathryn weighs 4lb 7.8oz. Anna is up to bottle feeding twice a day and should start every other feeding in the next few days. She is still in the incubator, but we expect her to be out either tomorrow or Saturday. They wanted to wait until she reached 1700 grams to take her out of the incubator. She weighs 3lb 11.3oz., which is 1680 grams. She is averaging a 35 gram weight gain a day so if she continues with that average, she'll be out tomorrow. We can't wait to see her in an open crib. She will also be taken off of the caffeine in the next few days to see how she does breathing on her own, without her daily shots of caffeine.

The babies qualified for the Synagis shot, which is given for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). Most children get RSV by the time they are 2 years old. In most people, RSV is cold like symptoms. In preemies (especially multiples), it can be much worse. The Synagis shot does not prevent them from getting RSV, but it could limit the severity of the symptoms if they were to get it. Daniel and Kathryn received their shots today and Anna will receive it next week. It looks like Daniel and Kathryn could be home next week sometime. Anna is not far behind - hopefully only a few days.

Kevin is going to Avalon, NJ tomorrow with friends for a golf weekend - OK the golf is secondary to the beer. Well, actually, he is only going for one day this year because he doesn't want to be away from the babies for too long. My, how things have changed! Kevin and his friends are known for having more guys weekends than any group that I have ever met. Interestingly, this year, 3 of the guys in the group have had babies within the past 3 weeks. Even more interesting, one of the babies, Aiden (son to our friends Bobby (LB to some of you) and Kerri), was in the room next to us in the NICU for a few days. Luckily, he got to go home today.