This Took a Long Time to Upload Edition

Hi All,

I'm going to keep this part short.  The girls are doing well.  They are both over 4 pounds.  Surprisingly Lillian now has an ounce or two over Evalyn.

The weight gain is accelerating.  Yesterday Evalyn put on 150 grams in one day!  Of course she was a bit stopped up at the time.

Evalyn has moved off of the Vapotherm oxygen machine that used pressure to help her breathing, she still has a nasal cannula but only receiving supplemental oxygen and does not require the pressure.

Heidi is experiencing a bit of a panic with getting everything ready for the girls to come home which could be in a couple weeks, but they still have to hit the following milestones:

• Maintain their body temperature; done
• Able to get all of their caloric needs from bottle or breast.
• Evalyn: Making good progress, increasing the number of feedings from a bottle
• Lillian:  Progress is slower with the occasional slip
• A week with no apneas and must be off caffeine:  Both are making moderate progress, still have a way to go here

The girls progress can come in leaps, just like Lillian's weight gain, so we are hoping for some leaps and getting things ready at home.

Now that I've covered that we asked a friend of ours Tristan Whitman to come and take pictures of the girls.  He's a cinematographer/director of photography as well as an Associate Professor of Cinema Practice at USC.  He's got some skills with the camera we lack.  The pictures can be a bit on the darkish side because of low lights in the NICU and it's not kind to use a flash on the girls.

If you click on any of the photos it will open a slide show with larger images.