Update on the Babbies

Both of the little monkeys were doing pretty well tonight. Get this: Isaak is now off all breathing assistance. Will this last? There is a good chance it will. He tried to go off a couple of weeks ago but couldn't quite hack it, however, he has been doing fantastically well from a respiratory standpoint and they finally decided to try again.

He's up to 4ml per hour on his feeds and is processing everything well. They are trying to get the right balance of oral feeds and TPN via IV that will help him pack on the ounces but not provide too much fluid. If they give him too much total liquid, they are worried that it could lead to pulmonary edema and we don't want that! If weight gain really becomes a problem, they will have to back down from the oral feeds and increase the IVs. We'd prefer not to do that as having a good balance helps to minimize the risk of complications and liver damage.

Penny weighed in at 1220g tonight and Isaak at 1280g. He's been up and down a bit, so we are hoping he will stay on an upward trend as he really needs to be between 1.8 and 2.0 kilos prior to the ostomy repair surgery. He looks *great* right now, with pink little skin and is just generally really active.

Penny had another pack of HMF added to her feed (that makes 5). She is doing OK from a respiratory aspect but her little brother really ran right past her. It appears that the epo might be kicking in though, as she has been running at 25% O2 the last couple of days (vs. the 30+ she's been running the last two weeks). Little girl decided she didn't want mommy and daddy to leave this evening and had a moderately long but not very deep brady and desat spell. Since the events mentioned in the last update, she's been *much* better overall (no desats to the 20s or neopuffs readied.) If the epo is successful and she continues the steady weight gain, the spells should start disappearing soon.

We'll try to get some pictures up before the end of the weekend.