The Hale Hat-trick

Luke is 5 pounds 9 oz and 19 1/2 inches long.

Henry is 5 pounds 15 oz and 18 1/4 inches long.

Recent happenings include August being stepped down to a low flow canula as opposed to the high flow one he was on. August is continuing to take a bottle a day and will hopefully be increased to two bottles sometime this week. The boys have to take 8 bottles per day before they can come home. Luke is still on Sipap and is coming down on his oxygen needs. The plan is for him to stay on Sipap until later next week and then step down to a high flow canula with a boost of steroids. Hopefully, the extra time on Sipap will help his little lungs get that much stronger and help him to continue to put the weight on. Luke is taking a bottle per day. He's not taking a full bottle, but he's giving it all he's got. Luke's got a corpak tube (feeding tube that goes to his intestine) that goes in his mouth and it makes it hard for him to get a good seal on the bottle. The Sipap is also not doing him any favors!! Henry continues on his two bottles per day. One word for Henry is sloppy. He sometimes forgets or lacks the coordination he needs to take the bottle. He can go to town on a pacifier, but the bottle throws him off a bit. He's getting there though.

Luke weighs 5 pounds .2 oz and is 19 1/2 inches long.

Henry weighs 5 pounds 2 oz and is 18 inches long.

August lost an ounce this week. He didn't get fed last week beginning Monday night through Friday afternoon due to his surgery at Children's. He was on fluids, but no steaks and potatoes. Luke is making up for lost time. Henry is slow and steady.

By the way, all the pictures of the boys when they're together were taken by a couple of the boys primary nurses, Valerie and Sara. They surprised us with the pictures for Christmas. They also took the sweet pictures of the boys with the red and white hats on. It was quite an undertaking getting the guys all together for the pictures. The nurses had to manage giving them oxygen between pictures. Have we mentioned how much we love the boys nurses?

Ashley

Luke is 3 pounds 14.5 oz and 17 3/4 inches long.

Henry is 4 pounds 3.5 oz and 16 1/4 inches long.

August, AKA Pipes, is obviously putting his calories to good use. Luke, AKA Bones, is on a medication to help his lungs. The medication has caused him to lose a little water weight. The good thing is that Luke's O2 needs are way down with this medication and he's on his way to getting put on the canula. So, we were disappointed a little by his weight loss, but are not too concerned about it because his lungs are looking really good. Henry, AKA Chubs, is still looking good and is as feisty as ever.

Everyone keeps wanting to know when these guys are coming home. The answer is, we don't know. My due date was Feb. 3rd and we had hoped to have the boys home around that time. They've all got to be able to suck, swallow and breathe. Henry got to enjoy his first bottle on Monday. He took about 5 ml's and did great. Henry has the worst reflux and right now is on a feeding tube that goes straight to his intestine to bypass the stomach. We were surprised when he took the bottle so easily and had no projectile vomiting or brady's. He'll keep getting a bottle daily and his intake will be increased. Henry loves his pacifier and definitely has the sucking part down. When he initially took the bottle he really went after it and then realized something was coming out and got a confused look on his face and stopped sucking. He would tentatively suck some more and then stop. When he was given the pacifier after the bottle you could tell he was really thinking about it, wondering if stuff was going to come out of the pacifier. He slowly sucked on the pacifier to test it out and then started going to town on that thing. That little kid's a real thinker.