Got Milk???

Sorry for being MIA for a day, but WE had to catch up on some much needed rest!!!

So here's the latest and greatest with our gals! We will start with Miss Alexis first today. Alexis has been pretty quiet the last couple of days. She had her pick line put in her right arm yesterday and is just learning to cope with that. We did find out from Alexis' last heart scan that she has something that they refer to as a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). Basically a quick explanation of a pda is.... a persistent connection between the aorta and the pulmonary artery after birth. This connection is called the ductus arteriosus, and it is normally present before birth. In most babies, the vessel closes within a few hours to days after birth. In some babies, the ductus arteriosus remains open (patent) after birth. PDA is more common in premature infants, but it can happen in full-term infants. It is twice as common in girls as in boys. So, Alexis is currently being treated with some meds to try and close up the ductus. She will have a repeat test on Friday so we should know more then. Dr. Simon (the girls doctor this week, the docs work 7 days on then 7 days off) assures us that at this point he is not majorly concerned about Alexis' pda issue.

Onto Miss Addison....she also has been relatively quiet the last few days. Yesterday Addison officially started eating breast milk. Of course this is all given to her through a feeding tube connected to her stomach, but the good news is that she is tolerating it well. They have upped her feedings from every 6 hours to every 3 hours and she seems to be responding well!!

I seriously think that both girls already have their father wrapped around their little fingers. He just melts every time they grab a hold of his finger. Addison has such a strong grip and Alexis is just so dainty. It's getting easier and a lot less overwhelming to touch and interact with each girl. Terry and I both take turns changing each one and helping with their assessments every day. One day he does Alexis & I do Addison and then the next day we switch. It really amazes me how they really do know that we are there with them. Both girls can be really fired up, crying and agitated and all it takes is for one of us to place our hand onto their tiny little chest and start talking to them and then they calm down. They keep telling us to keep talking to them because it actually can help them develop faster. At this point we are willing to try anything that will help us get our baby girls home as fast as possible!!!

We continue to ask for your continued prayers. While our girls are continuing to thrive we are not even close to being out of the woods yet!!

(I've been trying to uplod videos of the girls for the last 45 minutes. Apparantly, I'm having serious issues with videos lately!! GRRR!!!)