Hi Big Boy

I’m happy to announce that Colin has nearly hit the two pound mark — last night he weighed in at 1 pound 15 1/2 ounces. The weight he has gained since birth has really filled out his frame. Half a pound doesn’t sound like much until you realize it is one third of his birth weight.

Unfortunately, while Colin has been gaining weight, he is still struggling with his breathing. Yesterday the x-rays showed what appeared to be an infection in his lung, which might explain some of his problems. The doctor started him on an antibiotic right away, and we are hopeful this will clear up the infection quickly.

That did mean, however, that poor Colin has to go at least one more day without food, which is making him crabby. (I understand, it has the same effect on me.) Colin has gotten used to having food in his stomach, and now he will open his mouth and make sucking noises and then cry (silently, of course, but it’s obvious he is crying when you look at his face). It is hard to watch him and know he is hungry, but not be able to do anything about it.

He has continued to have many desats, and the nurses have been forced to raise both the pressure and the oxygen levels on his ventilator several times to bring him back up. Today, after our morning visit, the doctor called and left a message saying they had switched Colin to a different ventilator because he was concerned the one Colin had been on was putting too much pressure on his lungs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t dig my phone out of my bag in time to catch the call, so I didn’t get more details. John is there now and will find out more.

Veronica has also suffered a small setback in the form of an increase in the number and frequency of her bradys. Because the cause is most likely reflux, we started her on medication this morning. It will take four to five days for it to start working, so we should know by the end of the week whether that was indeed the problem.

On the bright side, Colin and Veronica got to have a nice visit with my family. We learned from our mistake when John’s family came to visit last week — and we left the camera sitting on the counter at home. This time we brought it with, and remembered at the end of the visit to actually pull it out and use it. So here are a couple of new photos of Veronica, the only one who can come out and play right now.

Ethan wasn’t able to come in, but we did open the shades so he could see his little sister and brother. He was excited to be able to do that again, and is looking forward to his next visit.


Grandma with Veronica:


Grandpa with Veronica: