Graduation Day!

Last night, Veronica “graduated” out of the most critical section of the NICU and into one of the nurseries. Her progress has been very fast and consistent, and the only problems she has been having (jaundice and an occasional drop in her heart rate) are “normal” and should clear up shortly.

Perhaps most exciting about this move is that we will now be able to set up a time when Ethan can come into the NICU and meet his little sister. I know not being able to meet the twins has been hard on him, although he has been taking it quite well. So as soon as we can get his immunization records picked up, we can talk to the head nurse and schedule their first meeting.

Colin, unfortunately, will remain in the critical care section for quite some time, which is understandable given how tiny he is.

The doctor is not sure the vein in Colin’s heart closed. The vein appeared closed in the echocardiogram, but his blood pressure is still showing too large a gap between the numbers. This leads the doctor to believe it has not closed. (The vein may be opening and closing, which would explain why it appeared closed in the echo picture.)

They did a repeat echocardiogram last night, and if it does remain open, Colin will go back on the medication to see if a second round will close the vein. If not, we’ll have to bring in the cardiologist and see whether they should try a third round, or if Colin will need to have surgery to tie off the vein. Please pray for success on the medication — I would really prefer not to have Colin face surgery already.

Although he is still on the respirator (and will be for a while), Colin remains stable and they have been able to lower the amount of pressure and oxygen he needs. It’s hard some times to reconcile the rapid pace at which Veronica is progressing with Colin’s much slower progress. Intellectually, we know that he will take a much longer time to catch up to where he should be. Emotionally, the comparison between the two makes it seem slower.

Right now, the doctors think Veronica should be able to come home at about six weeks (so mid-August). Colin is probably going to be in the hospital for at least 3 months, though. So we will be able to continue to ease into the practicalities of having twins.