NICU - Day 10

Another day of baby steps forward! We went up to the NICU around 11:30 so I could feed Charlie this morning. He nursed well without needing a supplemental bottle afterwards. I only got to cuddle with him for a short amount of time though because Alex was ready to eat right after that. Alex also nursed well without needing a bottle and he and I sat together for quite a while after he was done. He is finished being under the photo therapy lights and his skin color really does look much better. Both the boys are now dressed in little preemie outfits. . . even those outfits look so big on them! But they look so precious and it won't be long until they can fill those outfits in!

We went back again this evening around 8:00. (Thanks to the Potters for staying with Lucy!) The nurse had just weighed Alex - he is now up to 3 lbs, 13.5 oz! She was getting ready to weigh Charlie and he is now 4 lbs, 5 oz. Because of this added weight for him, it means that they will begin to slowly turn down the heat in his incubator to see how he tolerates holding his own body temperature up where it needs to be. This is just another step towards being ready to come home! I nursed Charlie and he did well but quickly fell back asleep. Alex was a little sleepy this evening, and not very interested in much of anything. After taking his temperature and changing his diaper and everything, he finally decided he would eat for  little bit. He nursed for about 7-8 minutes and then decided he was done. Michael tried to feed him a bottle but he would push his little lips together as if to say, "just try to make me eat!" Whenever Michael would finally get the bottle in his mouth, he would scrunch up his little face as if you were trying to force him to eat something awful. We finally decided to just let him sleep, since that's obviously what he wanted to do. He was going to get the rest of the bottle through his NG tube. . . slowly, since he had already eaten some with me. But a few extra calories won't hurt that boy. . . he still needs to reach 4 lbs before they can even let him try to maintain his body temperature on his own.

Overall, another good day. It just gets harder and harder to leave them every time. We are so thankful though that they continue to grow and thrive and are counting down the days until the whole Flack family can be together under one roof!