Catching Up

Prior to the boys' VP shunt surgeries, William was up to taking a bottle or nursing every other feeding, and John-Raven was taking a bottle or nursing a few times daily. After the surgeries, they took a few steps back. William was on IV and John-Raven was just tube feeding. Since then, they've slowly been catching up to their former selves.

Now they're bottle feeding and breastfeeding most of the time. The oxygen monitors were removed because their levels have been stable. Once the feeding tube is removed altogether, the boys will be close to coming home.

I also need to do some catching up. Since I've fallen behind on my posting, here are several pics.

Below and Above: Phone pics of Mom giving William a bath last week. The arms look blurry because he was wiggling them around in excitement. (Or terror?) I've since bathed him and John-Raven, and both tolerate the process fairly well (to an extent).

Below: I placed my hand in this pic from last week to give some perspective on William's size.

And below, a few pre-surgery pics. These are from a digital camera that we left in the NICU so the nurses could take pics while we were away. I think they had fun. (The nurses and the boys.)

Don't they look like a couple of little old men?

-"Say, bubba, whachoobeenupto?"
-"Eatin'. Poopin'. Sleepin'. A li'l screaming."
-"Say...'em nurses sure are cute."
-"Yep."

Can you tell which is which?

Above: I think they know each other's feet more than their faces. That's what was in front of them for several months.

They're gaining weight and eating more. It's only a matter of time before they're adding their cries to the chorus of screaming infants around Briarwood.