6 days old

Where do we start?! The babies change so much each day, let alone 6 of them! I'll try to get most of this straight - we didn't bring our notebook today. :) I'll try to make this brief and avoid the medical lingo as much as possible. It's amazing how much Nich and I know! Also, we did get their official weights and measurements back (they were too fragile when they were first born):

Brennan (Baby A) 1 lb 4oz and 11 inches long
Landon (Baby B) 1 lb 7oz and 12 3/4 inches long.
Katelyn (Baby C) 1 lb 5oz and 11 3/4 inches long
Brooklyn (Baby D) 1 lb 3.5oz and 11 3/4 inches long

These were really big babies! The NICU staff was really excited when they found out their sizes! The average size of a 23 week baby is 1 lb 1oz and 11 1/3 inches long.

Each baby has had a kidney, heart and brain ultrasound in the last few days. Kidney's of all look good and are filtering out what needs to be filtered. Other great news, they should be eating in about 10 days! I've got plenty of milk stored up already for them! In each of their hearts, they found a blood vessel (ductus arteriosus) that has not closed properly. When I was pregnant and receiving Indmethocin, they found from an ultrasound, signs that this vessel was closing early in 2 babies so had to stop my dosage of the med. Turns out, it didn't close completely from the medicine or naturally. The cardiologists have seen their screens and didn't feel the problem was serious enough to warrant surgery now. Everything else in their hearts look great (a victory!!). Their brain scans came out a little different so I'll describe them below, along with baby specific updates.

Brennan - Steady rider with the hiccups! He has pretty much stayed in the middle of the pack. He's been doing really well and winning the hearts of the nurses. Many have signed up to care for him. This has helped us in building a relationship with the nurses and they're more comfortable with him. Win, win situation! :) As far as his brain scan, the preliminary results show he has a brain hemorrhage in both sides. It's called Intraventricular Hemorrhage (or IVH). There are different grades, but they believe Landon has a grade 3 in both hemispheres. Tomorrow we should learn the results of a repeat scan. He is on a conventional ventilator and slowly being weaned off that.

Landon - He is our big stinker! I believe he's up to his birth weight now. He has been the slowest to tolerate change. From the beginning, we've been concerned about him. He is on a High Frequency Oscillator, which is a different kind of ventiliator (Katelyn was on it too). This bounces his chest and gives him oxygen differently. They are weaning him slowly off this and hope to switch to a conventional ventilator like Brennan and Brooklyn. He has been able to come off much of his Dopamine (blood pressure med) as it is starting to stabilize. :) As far as his brain scan, the preliminary results show he has a brain hemmorage in both sides. It's called Intraventricular Hemmorage (or IVH). There are different grades, but they believe Landon has a grade 3 in one hemisphere and grade 4 in the other. Tomorrow we should learn the results of a repeat scan. We will deal with these challenges as they come, for now we are so thankful we have him!

Brooklyn - She has been our trooper! She has tolerated the most change and is weaning off most medications and taking less of her ventilator. They were concerned about a small air bubble they found in an artery near her live/stomach area, but have since rechecked her and everything looks good. Brooklyn does not seem to have a hemmorage. Initially they saw a grage 2, but the second scan showed it had disappeared. She moved in with the boys today!! Now when we visit we only have to check in with 1 room and hear reports from 1 team! This will be so much easier for us to stay on top of all the babies health. I'm not sure if she gets a different team of nurses, but we really want to thank her nurses for the amazing care they've given her!

I'll try to label the posts medical update, so those of you interested can search for these, others can just take joy in the victories and pray for the weaknesses! This is a totally different world for us, and we feel as though we've been thrown in but between the doctors and nurses are keeping our heads above water. We've been to see them most of the day everyday. Every part of the hospital seems to know us (doesn't help we have a million wrist bands!)

I could just sit and watch them breathe and move every once in awhile. I'm in awe of how perfectly formed they are. God knows what he's doing - he knit each of them together in my womb and they are fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:13.