One week old!

Cooper gained another ounce today.  Hard to believe they one week old today!

Cooper was taken off of his nasal cannula today too! He also went up on his feedings twice and is getting 24 ml per feeding.  They also took him off one of the IV fluids he was getting so now he's just getting one. Preemies get IV fluids of varying things to help them grow along with the breastmilk. This is just another step from getting them away from the cords and tubes and into a crib without any assistance.

Cooper's handsome face without the nasal cannula - (those stickers were holding the tube on and will come off tomorrow).  He was in an extremelyg good mood tonight and was very expressive and wide-eyed. I think he is so much happier having less tubes on his face.

After not getting any feedings since 5pm yesterday to let her belly settle, they did another x-ray and more blood work on Brinley to make sure her digestion system was back on track and everything is fine! she went back to getting feedings (really low amounts to start with) today at 11am and did great with it so she appears to be ok.

This is how I found Brinley this morning - she always has her hand around her mouth, even in ultrasounds she did, and this morning she officially became a thumb sucker I think!

 

You can't fully see it from this view, but her thumb was fully in her mouth and she was sucking away!

Brandon's mom was here today to help and drive me around and when the nurse offered for her to hold Cooper, she obviously was ecstatic! This is the first time someone other than Brandon or I have held them because when they first came, we didn't even get to hold them for very long, it was just too taxing on them so the nurses didn't want someone other than the parents to do the holding but now that they are off their oxygen, and doing so much better, we are able to hold them so much more (I held them for over 4 hours today, at varying times), so will allow grandparents to hold some as well.

The night nurse from last night rearranged their room putting the couch in between the beds. I don't know if it's going to be ok in the long run because it puts the beds too far apart and doesn't allow for us to hold them at the same time, plus the recliner is more comfortable to hold, but it was nice tonight to be able to sit by each other and hold them at the same time and get our first family picture!

                                                       Finally, pictures of me with a shirt on!! Also now that they babies are doing better, it's ok for us to hold them regularly. Still important to do skin to skin with them but just not mandatory to keep their body temperatures up as much.

                                                       Brinley

                                              Brandon and Cooper