Thursday, 4/22 (evening)

We got to spend some quality "skin time" with Oneta Simone Wednesday, but during our visit she suffered a minor setback. She was unable to hold her oxygen saturation levels and the doctors ordered an x-ray. They found that she still had some residual fluids in her lungs and made the decision to put her back on the oxygen canula. Although we were reassured that this is quite normal for a preemie of her size, considering all she has been through. Nevertheless, even such relatively small setbacks as this make it that much more difficult to say goodbye to her in order to go see her brother.

We headed down south to Irvine to visit Robert. Let me just say YES, it is VERY tiring visiting both babies on opposite ends of the county. One day after Oneta was transferred it was just Robert and one more in the Irvine NICU, but the very next day they had four more admissions to fill all six available spots. Everyone has assured us that she is first in line to go back, it is just a matter of having space. With the progress Robert has been showing us it is just possible that she takes his spot!

The babies are fed 8 times a day and the nurses had tried to increase his bottle feedings from every other to bottle-bottle-gavage (if we haven't explained already the gavage is how they feed them through the feeding tube - it is a large syringe full of breast milk that is put in a machine that slowly administers the milk through his tube). Two bottle feedings in a row proved to be a bit much for our little Robert, and he is back to taking every other feeding by bottle. On Thursday afternoon, however, the nurse suggested Mandy try and 'breastfeed' him (not a true feeding since Mandy had recently pumped and so had little milk to offer) to see how he would do. He began sucking straight away, impressing the nurse and delighting Mandy (who said that, on first impression at least, breastfeeding her baby is infinitely more pleasurable than pumping with a machine). Given our initial success, the nurse asked that Mandy alter her pumping schedule in order to coordinate a visit with his feeding time on Friday. That way she should be able to provide him with a full meal as long as he is ready to take it. It was exciting to watch his first attempt at nippling. He then spent some time resting on his mother's chest, and we were paid a visit by an OB/GYN, who discussed his circumcision with us. We will likely have it done on Friday, although we do not want to interrupt his feeding progress.

Simone did much better on Thursday. While Rob was holding her she pulled her canula out of her nose but held her oxygen levels fine. She was on the lowest setting of oxygen and pressure, but the doctors wanted to make sure she held stable for a while before they took it off.