Weaning!

We had our appointment at Vanderbilt yesterday and the boys get to start weaning off their oxygen! They are doing really well and have been gaining the perfect amount of weight, which is important because it shows that they haven't had to expend extra energy on breathing. If you can believe it, they both weigh 8 lbs 6 oz! Yes, Max has caught up to his brother. After our last appointment a month ago, the doctor said we could start feeding both boys the same amount. I guess Max is happy with that because he's gaining weight like crazy! They are both eating almost 3 oz of breast milk every 3 hours (I am still pumping for what seems like all day every day) and we can continue to increase that amount a little every week. Eventually we will be able to feed them completely on demand, but as they are starting to come off oxygen we don't want to give them too much fluid and risk overworking their hearts and lungs. We did get the okay to let them sleep up to 5 hours at a time during the night if they will do it, which is very exciting! We have actually let them sleep longer than 3 hours at night on occasion, even though we weren't sure it was allowed, and they have made it 4-4.5 hours a few times. What a difference that makes in our day!

We will begin the weaning process by taking the boys off oxygen for a few hours during the day and seeing how they do. They will wear a pulse oximeter, which is a cord attached to their foot that measures the amount of oxygen circulating through their blood. As long as the oxygen level stays above 95%, then we can keep them off oxygen all day long. We go back to Vanderbilt on June 30th and assuming the boys continue to grow well and their oxygen levels remain high, we can take them off oxygen at night too. So we still have at least a few more months on oxygen, but we are very encouraged and relieved that we get to start weaning them now. As usual, thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers that everything goes well!

Here are a few random pictures. Have a great weekend!

These identical twins are really starting to freak us out. They were just hanging out on the couch the other night and all of a sudden made this random pose at the same time. Exact mirror images. Weird.

Some more comparison pics! Max in his car seat the day he came home from the hospital on April 10th - weighing slightly more than 4 lbs. Notice the 3 head support cushions, his skinny legs, and his pacifier that is about as wide as his face.

Tyler on April 10th at about 4 lbs

Tyler on the left and Max on the right in their car seats in June weighing more than 8 lbs. Only 2 headrests, bigger legs and the pacifier looks a bit smaller compared to their faces.

Even though the boys are on Prevacid to help with their acid reflux, they still spit up every once in a while after feedings. We've found that if we hold them upright on our chests for a while after they eat, they don't spit up. Because this is nearly impossible to do when one of us is feeding both boys by ourselves, we've come up with a new set-up on their boppys. They seem to like it and it works!