4 Weeks Old

Four weeks ago Thomas, Gracie, Cienna and William arrived! It has been amazing to watch them grow. As of last Saturday all of them have had their PDA surgery. Last Friday William finished his antibiotics and an echocardiogram revealed that his patent ductus was still wide open and his heart had enlarged in an effort to compensate so surgery was scheduled the next morning. This week he has been recovering and today he was able to be held for three hours, a great sign of him moving forward and doing well. When we provide kangaroo care (holding a baby skin to skin) we monitor the baby's vital signs to determine if it is a "good thing" or causing the baby stress. When it is stressful for the baby his/her oxygen saturation will drop and/or heart rate and respirations will increase. While holding William today his oxygen saturation shot right up and remained high! He looked so peaceful and happy.

Right now the babies are in the stage where they are learning to digest momma's milk. This is no easy task since they were born so early and the signal between the brain and bowels isn't firmly established. As a result, the babies each have a feeding tube and milk is carefully measured according to the ability of the particular baby to digest and process it. Thomas is in first place. Two-thirds of his nutrition now comes from milk and today he had TWO stools and both were no longer meconium but resulted from digested milk. By the end of the week it is possible that 100% of his nutrition will be from milk. Fifty percent of Gracie's nutrition is from milk and she is getting better at digestion. Cienna is getting about one-third and William is just starting up again since he had to be off all food due to surgery.

They are growing before our very eyes. This week...
Thomas grew 9 oz and is 2 lbs, 14 oz
Gracie grew 8 oz and is 2 lbs 13 oz
Cienna grew 8 oz and is 2 lbs 2 oz
William grew 6 oz and is 2 lbs 13 oz

Here are pictures of them taken the day after they were born followed by pictures taken this last week as well as a picture of me from what seems like a lifetime ago.

Thomas (top), Cienna (left), Gracie (right), William (bottom).
Thanks Josiah for the layout!