This week in Quadville...

Ricky Shane zonked!

Heath Allen having a look around.

Steven Tyler laid out as usual.

Leah checking out Aunt Kristi

Leah working her tongue. Don't ya just love the little cap!

The babies did well through the weekend. On Sunday morning Heath had to have a chest and an abdominal xray because his abdomen was distended he was desatting more, making them have to turn up his oxygen. His lungs were sounding coarse and were whited out more on the xray (not good). So they started him back on breathing treatments every 6 hours and chest therapy. The bubble cpap causes more air to fill up the stomach, so they will watch it and did another set of xrays on Monday. Saturday evening and Sunday you could tell he just didn't feel good. He was fussier and just wiggling around more than usual for him. And the extra activity coming from other babies around him was upsetting him more when I tried to hold him on Saturday. So come Monday morning, his lungs looked better, but his abdomen looked worse, and he had to have blood (not uncommon in preemies with immature RBC"S). His small intestine was what they call "stacking". It looks stacked on top of each other, more defined on the xray and distended with a lot of air. This is worrisome for NEC- necrotizing entercolitis. NEC is when tissue in the bowel dies due to inflammation or infection. So they have to watch for air in the bowel wall and free air in the abdomen (means the bowel could have perforated due to the air in the bowel wall). So they gave him a suppository to help him poop and cut out the extra calories/protein in the breastmilk and repeated the xray that evening at 8pm. It was better with the bowel less defined. So the xrays on Tuesday and Wednesday were better and then today's was questionable again. So they repeated it again a few hours later and gave him another suppository. The radiologist said it was OK, NO NEC. Thank goodness. But we're keeping a watchful eye on him. The nurse said his bowel sounds are good and his abdomen is soft.

Also on Monday, Princess Leah surprised us all and got moved to the Progressive ICU (PICU). I called that evening to check on them, and oh by the way, we moved your little girl to progressive! She was doing great and actually had her O2 turned down to 1Liter and not having any problems with her feeds so she got promoted!! I knew she would beat the boys. GIRLS RULE!!! Ricky and Ty were doing good on Monday. the nurses were chasing them a little with their O2 %, they both tend to drop their sats during feeding time.

Tuesday, Ty got a little blood also because his hematocrit was at 25.6 and he was symptomatic (has periods of low heart rate and can't keep their O2 saturation's up consistently in their normal range, get too low). It perked him right back up!

The child life specialist's Melinda and Jada gave me "My early arrival baby journal" which is geared toward the premature infants. It touches on the milestones that we look forward to in the NICU. Thank you ladies for the baby books.

Yesterday was interview with Channel 5 News!! Talk about being nervous. My husband's words of wisdom for me were, "Glad it's you and not me. Try not to sound like a hick." Thanks Sweetie!! I'll try not to say ya'll to much! But all in all I think it went Ok. Dr. Levy and I both interviewed and then they got some shots of me with babies. They also filmed me holding Leah, she loves the camera! She was wide-eyed and just smiling! She's Miss Photogenic!

And after all that Ty got moved over to the PICU with his sister! Way to go Bro! Aunt Kristi got to hold Leah and hear her little hiccups. She sounds like a baby puppy. Randy got it on tape on Friday. It's too cute.

Sunday, Leah was also busy being passed around. Granny and I were over talking to Heath when Leah's nurse comes over and says, "You need to bring the camera, Jenna's holding Leah." WHAT?!?! I had just told Jenna the day before when she asked when she could hold Leah, that she'd have to wait till she got a little bigger. Well, I guess not. The nurse asked her if she wanted told hold her little sis and of course she said yes! The nurse said she had a little sister in the NICU when she was a kid. She thought it was important for her told hold her sister too. So there I find Jenna all smiles holding Leah. She did a great job and loved every minute of it. Then we passed on to Granny and then Nana. Granny about put Leah to sleep rocking her. But she was all smiles. She is the most animated at this point.

Their weight's as of today were: Ricky Shane-3lbs 6oz, Heath Allen-3lbs 0.6oz,

Steven Tyler 3lbs 2oz, and Leah Grace-2lbs 10 1/2oz.