Our First Week

We've made it through a very long week with many ups and downs.  Words really can't express how we're feeling and everything we've gone through, but I'll try to do what I can. We are humbled to know that so many are praying for us. We have really felt the strength and overwhelming power of those many prayers that have been said in our family's behalf and want to thank you. I really think that is what has gotten us through this week.

Each day our boys are with us is a huge blessing and we're enjoying every minute we can spend with them.  Being born at 26 1/2 weeks they have so many challenges ahead of them. Basically in a nutshell, the doctors have been focusing on their major organs (heart, brain & lungs) as these are not fully developed at this young age. They are in very critical condition and will be for the next few weeks. We've learned very quickly that being in the NICU is a roller coaster with many ups and downs every day, hour and minute. We'll take all the ups we can get. Here's some great little miracles we've seen this week. Both boys had very unstable blood pressure the first few days of life. They both are now doing great with that and are totally off all their blood pressure medicine and are able to stabilize this all on their own. Yesterday, Ethan was able to breathe on his own and now has a less extreme ventilator. Instead of continuous support with rapid breaths, this new ventilator will let him do most of the work and support his lungs when he forgets to breathe on his own or when he's not getting enough oxygen with the breaths he's taking. Andrew is not far behind him and we hope that in the next day or so he'll be on the same type of ventilator. Both boys have lost quite a bit of weight and today Andrew weighed 1 lb 14 oz and Ethan was 1 lb and 12 oz. Because they have become a bit more stable the last few days, they both got their first feeding of my milk. It's a very tiny amount (1 ml every 6 hours)...but we're excited and hopefully some of their weight will come back soon!!! Although, there are a lot of complications that can happen when they introduce this milk, we're now praying that their digestive track can handle this. We've been told that feeding will be another big hurdle we have ahead of us.

As for me, I'm still trying to recover and wishing that this process would go much faster than it is. I'm still trying to take it easy, which is hard for me. I'm one who 'keeping busy' keeps my mind off of things. But I have a wonderful husband who is helping me so much and family who is so close.

 Here are a few pictures of our little warriors!

Andrew just relaxing before having his "cares" done

Andrew's tiny feet

 Ethan as he is getting ready to transfer hospitals

Stephen holding Ethan's Hand for the first time

We have noticed a few things to tell these little boys apart. Andrew has dark black hair and Ethan has lighter brown hair (although it's hard to see in pictures)...we'll see how this changes over time. Also, Ethan's toes are farther apart with a little space between two of them on each foot, where Andrew's toes are much closer together.  It's fun to see how each different nurse that works with them notices and comments on their different little features.