Packing on the ounces

Ty and I visited the boys this morning and were very happy to see that both of them gained weight yesterday.  Carter is now up to 2lbs, 2oz and Anderson is 3lb, 3oz!  The doctors want the boys to gain a half an ounce or an ounce each day, and they measure this over a week.  For example, Carter didn't gain anything yesterday, but today he gained 2 oz, so he's essentially covered for not growing yesterday.  They just start to talk about adding other supplements when a child hasn't gained at least 3.5oz (half an ounce per day) in a 7 day period.  That's a long way of saying, the boys have grown and are right on track for where the doctors want them to be.

Carter's stomach and fissure on his bottom both seem to be healing.  He has had no other stomach issues and no more blood in his diapers.  He is still on the nasal cannula for breathing assistance, but the assistance is very minimal at this point and the doctors hope to remove this next week.  He originally looked much lighter in skin tone and hair color than Anderson, but we were not sure if this was just because Anderson had so much more hair.  As Carter's hair continues to fill in, it looks darker and darker.  We still do not know if they are identical or fraternal.  They look fairly different right now, but that is perhaps related to the rather sizable weight difference between them.  We will have to wait and see as Carter fills out a bit more if they look alike.

Anderson is still doing great.  Ty got to hold him yesterday and he was definitely making motions like he was going to breastfeed!  Ty kept reminding him that he was the wrong parent to try this little maneuver on.  The nurses told us that babies typically do not coordinate their ability to suck and swallow (skills needed for breastfeeding) until about 32 weeks (gestational age).  The boys will be 32 weeks on Sunday, so they may begin assessing if Anderson looks like he is ready to start working on feeding.  Hopefully they will also include some instruction on identifying the hairy chest (e.g., Ty's) and knowing this is not the one to try for food.

Ty and I have been going together in the evenings so that we can hold both of them at the same time.  We will try to take some pictures again soon and hopefully Carter's cannula will be removed so you can really see his face.  But for now, here is what we think each of their smiles looks like:

 This is Anderson's smile.  We need to get a better one, now that his cannula is gone and his feeding tube goes in through his nose.

This is a pretty recent one of Carter.  Ty keeps referring to him as Skeletor (any He-man fans), but he looks less and less like him as he puts on weight and his face fills in.