Two & a Half Pounds!

1st pic is Landon with his CPAP mask off;
2nd pic is Daddy's first time holding Landon.







Pic to left is Landon's close-up shot;
Bottom two pics are Logan.



Landon and Logan are now 6 weeks and 1 day old, what a tremendous accomplishment! This past week since my last post has been filled with the usual ups and downs to which we have become accustomed.

First and foremost, some good news - Landon is still on CPAP and doing very well! He is on a relatively low amount of oxygen (anywhere from 25%-35%) and his blood gases have been great. I certainly don't want to jinx anything, but I think his ventilator days are a thing of the past! He is on the CPAP with a pressure of 6 at the moment and if he continues to do well, he will be lowered to a 5 or 4 pressure. After that, he graduates to the nasal cannula, which entails only small rubber tubes being inserted into his nose. What an amazing day that will be to finally be able to see his precious little face free of masks, wires and tape. But I digress....

It wouldn't be a week in the NICU without some bad news sprinkled into our story. Logan received yet another lumbar puncture last week as his head size continues to increase at a quicker rate than normal. The doctors were able to retrieve 5 cc's of spinal fluid and his head measurement actually decreased by 1/2 cm subsequent to the tap being done. The doctors have been in touch with the chief neurologist at CHOP in regards to the placement of a VP shunt and the only determination they can make at this point is that Logan must weigh atleast 2000 grams (approximately 4 lbs., 7 ozs.) before they will even consider performing the surgery. Unfortunately, it looks like Landon will be home with us long before Logan will. No matter, our little fighter (or "Braveheart" as my sister Jill calls him) will persevere and come through it with shining colors, as he always does.

On a lighter sidenote, the boys are both gathering quite a little collection of nicknames that I thought I'd share with everyone. Daddy likes to call them "C-Dubbs" (Logan) and "L-Train" (Landon). Logan's nickname came to light in the first few days of his life when he had an IV placed in his arm. The IV was held down with the placement of an arm board and a lot of tape and since Logan loves lying on his little belly, his arm would have to be laid out flat to the side and we joked that it looked like a little chicken wing. Thus, "C-Dubbs" was born. Daddy decided to name Landon "L-Train" after Lionel Simmons, a famous Philadelphia ex-NBA star. Reason being, when Landon was born, he was extremely long, with big hands and feet and all of the nurses remarked at his amazing length and how tall he is going to be when he grows up. Daddy is now certain that Landon will be our NBA star. As for myself, I have found myself calling them my "bubbies" and I have no idea from where I came up with that nickname! It just came out of my mouth one day when I was talking to them and it fit. Strangely enough, my mom calls them them "her little poopies"! It seems she's already earmarked almost every term of endearment for my beautiful neice Gianna and was struggling to find something special to call her very first grandsons. For some reason, that's what kept popping in her head. As I stated above, my sister Jill calls them "Braveheart" (Logan) and "Big-L" (Landon) since Logan has been our little fighter since Day 1 and Landon has always been our big boy. Along those same lines, my sister Crissy has refers to them as "Big-Ole" (Landon) and "Stringbean" (Logan) - those are obviously self explanatory! I'm sure as the weeks and months come to pass, they will continue to amass a plethora of affectionate little monikers.

Logan has weighed a few ounces less than his little brother Landon since birth but we were thrilled to discover this week that he has caught up and they are now the same weight....2 lbs., 8 ozs!! My babies are 2 1/2 pounds, can you believe it?? They are both tolerating their feeds wonderfully and the doctors are continuing to increase their volume, which is accounting for their healthy weight gains. Logan is now receiving 20 ml's every 3 hours and Landon is up to 21 ml's. We have been lucky in that, given the high rate at which their feeds are being increased, neither of them has developed Necrolitizing Enterocolitis (NEC), which is a terrible intestinal infection unique to micro-preemies. Hopefully, our babies will catch a break and that is one bullet we will dodge during our NICU journey.

I didn't think it was even possible, but I feel more incredibly proud of them as each day passes. They really are my heroes, in every way imaginable.