more good news

The most important news is that both babies' PDAs have closed! Nora is back on her canula trials (three hours at a time, twice a day). Ryan remains on CPAP but no longer requiring additional oxygen--he may get cannula trials tomorrow. Both babies are starting (or re-starting in Nora's case) "M.E.N." which stands for "minimal enteral nutrition" which is basically a very slow introduction to food. They get 2 mL of breastmilk through their o-g tubes every 3 hours. before each feed, they check for residual milk in their bellies to see if they're moving the food along or if they need a break.

Both babies are scheduled for brain ultrasounds tomorrow. These are done routinely 1 week after birth in babies as premature as Nora and Ryan to check for bleeding in the brain, which, unfortunately is not uncommon.

We both got to kangaroo today, simultaneously. I held Nora and when I would sing to her, she opened her eyes and tried to look my way. she loves her pacifier still and I swear her cry is getting louder already. John kangaroo'd with Ryan. Ryan is also loving his pacifier now and was nice and quiet and happy with daddy the whole time. He is starting to complain quite a bit with diaper changes, which is good, we like him to voice his opinion. We are looking forward to Ryan getting off the CPAP so we can see his sweet face.

I was asked to change Nora's diaper today---I've got to take a picture of these diapers so you can see how teeny tiny they are--it's crazy. Anyway, the nurses told us today that we'll start to become more involved in their care from now on--diaper changes, taking their temperatures, etc. So that's exciting for us as well.

Thanks for your prayers for the PDAs to close! God is good. Now, let's pray for the brain ultrasounds to show nothing abnormal tomorrow.