Nothing New

Not really any major updates. McKenna is still having a heart drop or two per day which are usually with her feedings. She is still immature and struggles with the suck/breathe/swallow concept apparently and this causes her to choke or not breathe altogether with feedings. She occasionally is drinking two ounces per feeding but for the most part hangs around an ounce and a half.

Mckenna has done well holding her body temperature, so she is still in her crib and bundled up. She has been 4 lbs 2 oz for the past three days and only gaining a couple grams per day. We are hoping today she will hit the 4 lb 3 oz mark. The nurse commented today that the main thing keeping her in the NICU is her size. Of course she can't go home with the heart drops, but she is VERY petite and the preemie clothes still seem to swallow her.

We are continuing to pray for brain development for McKenna and that it would help her learn the suck/swallow/breathe concept. We are praying for weight gain and maturity of the body. Also praying for overall health and wellness. She is such a perfect little angel in our eyes and we want her to be healthy and thriving.

Keaton is doing great. His wellness visit Thursday was wonderful. We really like the pediatrician we chose (Dr Hampton) and she said his overall health was good. He is up to 5 lb 5 oz already. We were able to ask our questions (poor doctor...there were a lot of them) and felt good by the time we left.

He still struggles to burp for us, but one of the NICU nurses told me to just sit him up and rock him a bit...no patting or rubbing and that has allowed for at least one burp per feeding it seems. He is just so sweet and seems to really only get mad when we are changing his diaper, when he needs it changed, or if he isn't fed enough.

We are trying to give Keaton plenty of tummy time when he is awake to strengthen his neck muscles. He does pretty good with turning his head the other direction while on his tummy. Well, if we put it the direction he doesn't like then he turns it the other way but we figure that's a good way to get him to do it.

We are praying still for Keaton's overall health. He gets circumcised Wednesday and even though they say he won't remember it I cringe at the thought of him going through all that pain, or thinking about how hard he will cry when going through it. So we are praying also that procedure goes well.

Also please continue praying we learn the proper way to burp the babies. Not burping them is causing spit-up and gas pains.

Your prayers and love and support sure are appreciated! We couldn't have made it through the past seven weeks without all of you, and we certainly rely on you and your prayers for the future. Thanks everyone!