Two little steps forward

We woke up this morning early (well … pretty normal for me, but very early for John) and went to see Veronica and Colin before the first shift change in the NICU. It was well worth the effort — overnight Colin was switched back to the regular ventilator and seemed to be tolerating it quite well. And, as we were celebrating that news, Veronica’s nurse asked me if I wanted to watch as they took out her ventilator because they were ready to do that now. Yeah!

So Veronica is now breathing on her own with just oxygen (through a cannula in her nose). She was very happily sucking on her first pacifier when I left to come back to my room. (She had already managed to get her thumb in, despite the ventilator, several times yesterday.) Perhaps one of the most exciting “side effects” of this was that we were able to hear her cry again. While crying babies are normally a bit distressing, when your baby hasn’t been able to make any sound, crying is music to your ears.

And while Colin is still on the ventilator, we’re relieved that he no longer needs the extra support of the oscillating ventilator. We also are encouraged because the doctor already has been able to lower the amount of oxygen Colin needs since the switch.

On a totally different note, I was very excited yesterday when I got to change Veronica’s diaper — my first in many years. It was so tiny and I had to work around all the little cords and tubes, but I managed to survive it (and so did she). It was nice to be able to do a “normal” parenting task for her.

While parenting a newborn in the NICU is a different route than we had ever envisioned, John and I feel very close to the babies and love them very much. And we remain cautiously optimistic and looking forward to eventually bringing them home.