(Not quite) equal time for Colin

I was finally able to hold Colin on the 11th. His nurse told John that morning that I would be able to kangaroo with him if I wanted. He had been relatively stable for a while, so they were willing to try it. So I came prepared, and was rewarded with a snuggle that lasted about an hour and 15 minutes.

We weren’t sure how well Colin would be able to tolerate the transition and being held, but he settled in right away, sighed and fell asleep. His saturation and heart rate levels evened out right away, and his respiration settled back in to the right zone very quickly too. He just kept snuggling down lower on my chest so that we had to move him back up several times. If my back hadn’t been killing me, I could have stayed like that forever. But he needed to get back “home” to his isolette anyway so he would have time to settle back down before they had to do his blood gas levels again.

John was able to kangaroo with Colin last night, and also enjoyed the experience of finally being able to hold our little boy. Unfortunately, later last night Colin starting have problems with his saturation levels again, so it likely will be a while before he has stabilized enough for us to try holding him again.

Because Ethan has camp in the mornings this week and next, John and I have been able to go over to the NICU together and spend time with the twins. We only get about an hour and a half with them, but they each have one of us with them so they’re getting double the benefit.

Veronica continues to do well. She is still having the bradycardias (she had one last night after John left, and one this morning while we were visiting), so the nurse thought they were going to increase her caffeine to try and get them to stop. Her feeds (of breast milk) continue to increase in volume, and she does not seem to be having any trouble with digesting the milk.

Colin was still desating (low blood oxygen saturation levels) while we were there this morning, and they have increased his oxygen on the ventilator as a result. We need to keep him as still as possible until he stabilizes again, which means minimal contact with him. I was able to hold his hand for about 45 minutes, and that seemed to help some.

Ethan was finally able to meet Veronica — which was the high point of the past two weeks for all of us. Since that is really his story, I’ll update his blog (www.vegheadtales.blogspot.com) later this evening with the complete story for those who would like to read it. I also will post some photos later today.