Many Thanks and an Update on our Little Troopers

So obviously this has been a crazy couple of weeks. I mean, it wasn't like it was normal before but Isaak's whirlwind transfer to UNC and sudden surgery have added a whole new element of insanity. Tomorrow marks one week since he was moved over there. Maintaining a presence at two hospitals, home and work has been...challenging. Bekka spent a couple of nights at the Ronald McDonald House and a couple with our friend Scott. I suspect both of us will be crashing his pad more than once as we try to split our time between our two beautiful babies. I spent the week working, visiting Penny and somehow squeezing trips to Chapel Hill into the equation.

So yeah. It's been nuts. We have some serious decisions to make as to where our babies should be and how we are going to manage all this. I'm sure it will become clear in due time.

After Ollie, we really had hoped to be the folks helping others rather than being helped. Never did we anticipate we'd be receiving kindness from so many, so soon. To everyone that has been helping out and checking in and just generally being useful: Thank You. From the bottoms of our hearts. Thanks Amanda M. for coordinating so many people and being the usual kind and caring person that you are. Thanks Amanda H. for coming down and helping us during this wacky week (love ya sis!). Many thanks for everyone trying to bring or provide meals - we have been here with such randomness that we've had to postpone many of them but I know we are going to need them and will enjoy them in the future. Finally, a big (40 gallon?) bag of gratitude for Lisa and Jenny for taming the lawn monster. Being away from home and getting 3 inches of rain had sorta turned the yard into a small pasture. Hopefully I can keep it under control now!

And now what you really tuned in for:

Penny continues to be a little rock star. She is doing well on Vapotherm and the nurses bump her oxygen up and down depending on how she is doing sat wise (and whether she is on her back or tummy - she really loves her tummy). She is tolerating feeds with no residuals and is now up to 17ml every 3 hours. Thanks to this eating regimen, she has managed to get up to 860g (1lb 14oz). She had been experiencing a bit of tachycardia this week so they decided to take her off caffeine to see how she responded. She responded by not only lowering her heart rate but by having almost no bradycardia episodes. It's pretty amazing for a 29 weeker to be off the juice, but she is.


Isaak continues to be a strong little fella. He has a long road ahead of him, but for now the doctors are astounded at how well he is doing recovering from the trauma of surgery. He really had been starting to turn a corner before the NEC set in and I think he just resumed that path afterwards. We won't have any idea on his long term prognosis for weeks yet, but in the short term he is a model patient. Of course, he is being fed exclusively intravenously right now, but has still managed to gain weight and is currently at 960g (2lb 2oz).

That's all for now. We'll have more updates this weekend and hopefully I'll have the time to get some new pictures up.