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(DISCLAIMER: I started this post yesterday morning but just didn’t have the energy to finish it. So I have added to it and just put todays date where there is new info)

That is what the doctor told us the other day. It is not a matter of if but when they will get an infection, all preemies do in the NICU. Their bodies are just not ready to fight off things. Yesterday Derby’s lab tests were showing the signs of an infection coming on. They drew more blood to send for a culture and started him on antibiotics. I am glad we managed to take some pictures holding his hand yesterday morning because when we came back up to say goodnight they had put an IV in his other hand. It looks like he has two nunchucks attached to his arms now. It scares me thinking “Did we not wash our hands enough, was it something we brought into the NICU?”. Hopefully the antibiotic they started him on will be enough to take care of it.

UPDATES:

• Loen: Has been a champ with her feeds. They went up to 4 cc’s every 3 hours. They were going to up her to 5 cc’s last night but she had some left in her stomach when they checked her. So they let her rest and will try 5 cc’s today. They have been adding a fortifier to my breast milk to give her extra calories. She has been pooping, which makes us happy. Still having the problem with her lungs sounding “wet” and dropping her oxygen level. The nurses say the twins communicate by setting off their alarms in tandem. It is funny but we will sit there and one twins alarms will go off and then the other. Yesterday they were going off because their oxygen level was the exact same rate. Loen has been opening her eyes more, I wonder what she sees. 11/6: Her feeds are now up to 6 cc’s and she has already pooped twice today. I think she is being a show off because Derby isn’t pooping. If she can tolerate the 6 they will move up to 7 cc’s. So she is getting 2 ounces of breast milk every 24 hours. Pretty amazing for someone who is only 1 pound 13 ounces. The results of her echo last night showed no PDA. I asked why they keep doing them if they show negative and the doctor said in very premature babies the hole can reopen so they will check periodically if their blood pressure of pulses seem off. She said on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the worst they see in a 24 weeker and 10 the best) Loen is a 7. They changed her linens last night and now she is looking very girly with her pink incubator blankies that Fauxma Dee made. We also put her new hat that Meemaw T made on her for awhile. She started to get cranky so we took it off, but we got pictures of all the cuteness.

• Derby: Tolerated his 1/2 strength breast milk last night and has been moved to full strength today. Hasn’t pooped since Friday which is starting to concern the doctors again, so he is back to getting enemas. His lungs are little worse than Loen’s. He may have pneumonia because the chest xray looks hazy. They sent down a sputum specimen from his breathing tube yesterday along with the blood. It will take a couple of days to get those results. As we often say he is doing ok. Not good, but not bad. He is hanging in there. He also lost some of the fluid that was around his face. He doesn’t look as puffy now. 11/6: After his first feeding of full strength breast milk they checked his stomach after 3 hours (the tube that feeds them goes into their stomach. They can draw back with a syringe to see what is left in their stomach). Anyways Derby did not digest any of it so they stopped his feedings and ordered an abdomen xray. There wasn’t an obstruction but things still aren’t moving down there. He hasn’t pooped since Friday and he is starting to get puffy again. They are going to give albumin and lasix (a diuretic) to try and draw off some of the fluid and later give him a stronger diuretic. After all that is done he will get another enema to try and get him to poop. Derby has had a significant air leak in his breathing tube for the past couple of days. It could be from growing a bit and the tube was too small for him now. They were trying to compensate by turning up the oxygen level but his alarms were going off constantly. Last night they finally put in a larger breathing tube and it seems to have helped. They felt the air leak was stressing him out as he had to also go back on the Dopamine for his blood pressure and insulin because his blood sugar was going up. His echo from this morning was also negative and his blood tests are looking closer to normal regarding an infection (he will still get the antibiotics). Derby’s rating on the wellness scale is a 5, he is middle of the road. The doctor said he is doing what most 24 weekers do and he isn’t exhibiting anything unusual. I had a small melt down in the NICU when I first saw Derby this morning. The tube that goes down his stomach was draining bile and some of it had come out of his mouth. So he had a green stain around his lips and on his tube. I started crying when I called Tadd. He left work and came to the hospital. It is hard for me to deal with all of this alone and yet I don’t want anyone around me except Tadd. Once he got there the doctor came over again and said the same things she had told me earlier but it didn’t sound as dire when Tadd was there. The nurses have been wonderfully supportive and said this is the hardest part of the NICU journey, the daily ups and downs. Especially with twins when one looks good and the other is struggling.

Ok enough of me bemoaning everything. How about some cute pictures of the babes.

I made new signs for their incubators. The old ones looked like they came out a coloring book:

Loen opening her eyes. She is getting quite good at it:

Loen being a princess in her new pink bedding:

Wearing her new hat:

The Hallock family sent the tiniest clothes I have ever seen. I cant wait to frame them once they grow out of them:

Derby and Tadd. He loves his daddy:

Derby with his new toile and blue incubator blankie:

How cute is his butt?!!! Tadd wants it to be known this was all me and Derby cant get upset at him years later:

Derby’s new threads from the Hallocks:

One last thing. People have been calling Loen (pronounced Low-n) LEON. I’m sorry but who would saddle a girl with the moniker LEON?!