40 Days....

We can't believe it's been 40 days already that Jace & Jocie came into our lives.  Here's the catch up from the past week:  Jocie got put back onto oxygen with the nasal canula on Friday so she was able to be off oxygen for about 5 days.  We are hoping she will be able to come back off of it soon because she seems to be much more comfortable without the tube on her face when she sleeps :)  Jace is still on oxygen but has been improving as he has been requiring less assistance from it.  Jace & Jocie both latched on to breast feed twice.  A couple of other times were attempted but they were just too tired.  They are still getting all of their nutritional needs through the breast milk boosted with a calorie fortifier via a feeding tube through their nose but showing they know to latch, suck, & swallow is a good sign when they make the slow progression from tube feedings to bottle/breast feeding.  Their feedings up until this past week have been on continuous feeds.  They have since been attempted to have what is called consolidated feedings which means the same amount they get within a 4 hour period they are receiving in a 2 hour period with 2 hours of no feeds.  This is an attempt to get them to complete bolus feeds similar to an infant being fed once every 2-3 hours.  They have been having a difficult time with this though as they have been having increased residual and some spitting up but it's a day by day - and feeding by feeding situation.  On Saturday they received their first eye exam which is pretty stressful for the babies.  So far the exam came out as expected with no major concerns at this time.  Their next exams will occur every two weeks.  A couple of fun little "firsts" for us this past week was seeing their first goofy reflexive smile while sleeping (so cute!) and we gave them "sponge baths" (just using wet wipes - no submerging into water just yet).  And, they graduated their diapers up a preemie size!!!  Their sizes now are Jace @ 2 lb. 13.9 oz and Jocie @ 2 lb. 11.2 oz so they are both almost a pound bigger than their birth weights!