Eating and Growing

Our boys are now classified as "feeders and growers" by their nurses and doctors.  They are just working on getting bigger and learning how to feed, and then they can come home.  They have been making some pretty great movement on both fronts.

Ty and I have been whispering in their ears to wait to poop until they are weighed for the day, just to give them a few extra ounces, and they clearly have been listening.  Tuesday was a big growing day for both of them.  Carter weighed in at 3lbs, 6oz and Anderson tipped the scales at 5lbs, 2oz.  Yesterday they both seemed to just be maintaining their weight since they had just grown so much the day before, but they clearly were working hard.  Carter weighed in at 3lbs, 8oz today.  3 and a half pounds!!!!  I was celebrating this big gain for him and thinking he was clearly closing the gap between him and his "little" brother.  But then I opened Anderson's chart and saw that he gained as well.  Anderson now weighs 5lbs, 9oz!  Just when we thought Carter was getting close, Anderson widened the gap to a 2lb, 1oz difference.

The doctor was pretty shocked by how much they both gained, so he warned us not to be discouraged if either of them actually loses weight tomorrow.  We are confident they will continue to follow our excellent parental advice to hold that poop in until they're weighed.  Perhaps not so great for their GI tract, but we can work on that later.

As evidenced by their weight gains, they both seem to be digesting their new fortifiers well.  Although you'd never know that Carter's has quite a few more calories in it than Anderson's.  Since they have gained, they are now getting more volume per feed as well.  Carter is getting 33ml (just over an ounce) and Anderson is getting 46ml (just over an ounce and a half).

They are making progress on the feeding front as well.  Carter has definitely taken the lead in figuring out how to eat and surprised us all by taking his full bottle on Tuesday afternoon!  He was being fed by the speech therapist and she couldn't believe it.  He took all 33ml down in under 30 minutes and then digested it all.  He was pretty tired afterwards.  Since then, he and Anderson have been taking around half of their bottles which is good progress.  We are hoping they will continue on this path and start taking the full bottle each time.

Feeding and growing are really our only updates from now on, unless something takes a turn for the worst.  Breathing and heart rates have been great, so no more episodes to report.  Once they get closer to coming home, this will be a bigger deal as each episode of bradycardia (low heart rate) and apnea (stoppage in breathing and low respiratory rate) buys them another 5 days in the NICU.  So if we were ready to head home and Anderson had a dip, we would have to wait another 5 days before he could leave.  It is great because this ensures we have very healthy babies to take home, but I can only imagine how frustrated Ty and I will be at the time if that happens.

A few more pictures:

Daddy giving some love to Carter

Anderson in his great new outfit!  Thanks Grandma Jean.  (In case you were wondering, those are the tiniest shorts in the world and are just as cute as you think they are)

Daddy and Carter again.  They give the boys pacifiers to help them learn how to suck and Carter has got it down.

Anderson in a big boy outfit.  Thanks so much Heather!