The Roller Coaster of the NICU

So people have tried to prepare us for the ups and downs of the NICU experience. But no one can fully understand what goes on in the NICU until you experience it for yourself. 

Mia is making leaps and bounds. She came off of her CPAP ventilator on Monday and has been riding high since. She is up to full feeds now and weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce. She has become a "feeder... grower" as the NICU nurses call it. Mal has gone out to the stores and bought little onesies that Mia is now wearing everyday. The best part of her being off of CPAP is we can hold her more easily and more frequently. Along with Mia making all of this progress is the fact that she is becoming more and more of a princess (like her mom)... more and more she develops and shows her little personality. Simon says that when he looks into Mia's eyes the reality of him saying no to her becomes more and more impossible. 

Brynn is getting better, but it seems that he is the one that likes all the attention. One day he will be doing great and the next day if he feels like no one  is paying attention he will let people know about it (he does this by setting off his alarms). We knew that Brynn's biggest challenge would be his lung development. And so far he has passed all of the doctors expectations. However, he is a little roller coaster. Brynn was making progress and the doctors were pleased with what they saw. We had our game plan set and were working toward our goal. But how the NICU works the doctors switch by shifts and some doctors have different ways of getting the babies healthier. A week ago Wednesday we left the hospital after Brynn had his 8 o'clock care. We then received a call in the middle of the night saying that they were making changes on his ventilator... this is not what the day doctors had in mind for Brynn... to make a long story short we came back to the hospital to find that Brynn had taken a couple of steps back. By that night he was back on track and everything was going well... until the next morning when we called to check on Brynn and the doctor said "I really don't know what is going on with Brynn and we need to make some changes... it could be infection, or that his lungs are sicker... or...." Mal and I went into the hospital and found out that the doctors had changed his ventilator from a conventional vent to a high frequency vent (don't ask me to explain, it would take forever in person let alone on a blog). So this ventilator seemed to do the trick. But along with the change because of how this vent works Brynn had to be sedated. He showed how much of a fighter he is because it took two doses of fentanyl (a form a morphine) to knock him out. The vent was working great until the roller coaster ride began again. Yesterday Brynn decided that he hated this vent and told the doctors that he didn't like it by setting off his alarms throughout the day. So the doctors made the decision to move him back to the ventilator he was on before the move. Now Brynn is doing better and the doctors decided to start a steroid treatment to help his lungs develop more in the hopes that we can get him off the ventilator and onto the CPAP machine. But it is not all bad. Brynn has put on tons of weight... he is up to 2 pounds 5 ounces and is up to full feeds. We are so excited about his eating because this will help him grow and become even stronger. We are hoping to get him back over to OSU on Monday because Mal and I love the doctors he has now and for him to have consistent doctors looking after him would be the best thing for him (the NICU doctors rotate monthly between OSU and Childrens). And the doctors he has now will be over at OSU starting in May.

Have no fear, Simon has taken some great updated pictures of the babies and will post them tomorrow!! he PROMISES

Thanks for all the continued prayers and support!!

LOVE THE FRASERS