Week 9

Another eventful week for the two little treasures.  If you remember earlier on I mentioned that the Bay were listed by assistance required, from Bays 7+8 which are the most assistance, down to Bays 1+2 which are for babies requiring the least assistance. 

Jack is in bay 5, his respiration needs to improve a bit more before he gets moved further down the numerical ladder.  We were hoping he would graduate to an open crib over the past week and he didn't disappoint.  He put on a massive 250 grams over the past week, now weighing in at 1.975kg.  He was moved to an open crib and even better he has been moved from CPAP breathing assistance down to a lesser form called High Flow (Ella was put on this about four weeks ago and is now breathing unassisted for the past two weeks).  You'll see in some of the below photos it's far less of an obstacle to see his little face!




Jack in his open crib - note still on CPAP at this point

 

Jack on High Flow



Jack wrapped up like a caterpillar





Jack dressed and looking like a regular newborn!

 

Loves his bath now

Ella gave us a massive surprise in a good way - Anthea came in on Friday and Ella has been moved to Bay 1!!!!  She's a clever little girl and requires little assistance so has been moved to the minimal care area.  She put on around 220 grams and is at 1.718kg, soon enough she'll also be in an open crib.  We are really starting to look forward to having them home now!  Anthea has tried both Ella and Jack with breastfeeding which is their next major development step - this is normal to start them trying at around 34-35 weeks.  Both of them had a go at it, they have the idea of what to do but not quite the stamina yet - pleasing signs though. Ella has had some problems with eczema but that is also under control at the moment.

The entrance to Ella's new home!

Jessie was singing to Ella and brushing her head

Top view - she's cute!



I really like this one, Jessie was seeing if Ella would suck on her knuckle



Jessie looking after her little sister

Just another example of the outstanding team in the NICU.  This nurse's name is Jess and she has a great connection with kids.  Here she's teaching Jessie and Dylan, the brother of another one of the premmie's how to make Pom-Poms.  Jessie even now has an 'official' nursing ID badge which she thinks is pretty cool!