Saturday, April 9, 2011

5 Weeks, 1 Day (GA: 33 Weeks)

They boys are still doing well.  We found out that Zeke had his third and final head ultrasound and all was normal.  He will not get any more routine head ultrasounds.  He no longer has an IV and his feeds are at 30mL every feed.  He is getting a slight calorie supplement to help him gain weight.  Both Zeke and Gabe are on a hi-flow machine with 2 liters of oxygen per minute.

Gabe is off his reflux/ulcer medicine.  So now the only drug both he and Zeke are getting is caffeine.  Gabe is also getting vitamins with iron since his hematocrit is still low at 28%.  Gabe's head is still showing normal growth and his fontanelle remains soft.  This is great news since it continues to show that his enlarged ventricles do not appear to be related to hydrocephalus.  He will get his next head ultrasound on Monday.  Also, Gabe had his first eye exam and his vessels are normal for his age.

Nanette continues to improve and is getting more and more strength every day.  She held both boys with skin-to-skin contact for about an hour each yesterday.  Skin-to-skin means that Nanette wears a hospital gown from the waist up and the boys rest on her bare chest.  Next week we will start the process of teaching the boys how to nurse.  The first step will be a non-nutritive feed (post breast pumping) where the breast is used essentially as a binky.  It just gets the babies used to the idea of eating by mouth.

No comments:

Post a Comment