Easter Capes



Rylan Egg Hunting



It's Easter today, and Rylan has been really having a ball....He had no less than 4 Easter egg hunts, and has discovered chocolate for the first time. He was running all over the parks looking for Easter eggs and generally having a blast.



We found him him yesterday, after he had strayed off a little, with a chocolate face that looked like Augustus Gloop from Willy Wonka...Upon further inspection, he had bits of tin foil wrap in his mouth, so we knew he had found some chocolate and devoured it, wrapping and all. Hilarious.



This week we received a wonderful gift from my work crew at REC Solar. A UPS box arrived on Friday, and low and behold; a nice signed card from a group of REC friends/colleagues, and Tiny Mights Capes. That's right...Capes.



TM!



Sara had drawn the "Tiny Might's" a few weeks ago, and its become a hit....The twins dressed up as superhero girls, wearing their TM capes.....



TM Capes Front



Apparently one of the REC Solar crew, one Matthew Woods, had taken the drawing and sent it to a friend who is a seamstress in Redondo Beach, CA....She replicated Sara's drawing to perfection, and voila! We have the TM capes!

I can't wait till the girls get older and don their capes for Halloween....They will need to be continued superheroes to get out of the NICU, with full wonder twin powers activating! Now they have their capes to take them on their way......Awesome! Thank you to the REC team for such a heartwarming gift....Lots of smiles created now and in the future!



TM Capes Back





Easter has brought some better news from NICU.

Ashlyn:



As a recap:   Ashlyn had PDA surgery last Tuesday afternoon, and her recovery was pretty rough. There were some very dark moments on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Last I wrote, she was very sick and in trouble.

The better news today is that she may turned the corner for the better. Her O2 requirements have decreased, and although still on a breathing tube, she is stable. They are even talking about extubation tomorrow, which is good. Her xrays and looking a bit better, so her potential fluid in the lungs is small. There are still treating her for an infection, although they don't seem to be able to verify that she has one. This is also very good news.

All in all, good news-especially from where we were a few nights ago, which was fearing the worst. If she can get extubated tomorrow, and back on the CPAP things will be moving back in the right direction.
Hanna:

Growing! She's weighing in now at 3 lb and 13oz, so nearing the important 4 lb mark. They have increased her feeds, and she continues to grow. Most of the news is good.

Her problem, as identified last week by her first ever echocardiagram (echo), is her PDA.....We now know its there, and she still has a loud murmur. Nothing to be done about now, as her condition is known as an "asymptomatic PDA", in which she isn't showing distress. She is actually doing great!

However, one way or another, her PDA duct is going to have to close. She is either going to be able to do it on her own, which may take weeks/months...perhaps even a few years. Or, she is going to have to have some sort of surgery to close it. The doctors say they there is a less invasive surgery than Ashlyn had, that places a "coil" in the PDA duct to block it, that kids can have when they are 6 months- 2 years old.  She may be a candidate for if her duct does not close on its own. We'll keep our fingers crossed that she stays "asymptomatic", and that that damn duct closes on its own....CLOSE DUCT CLOSE!

Sara is trying to get her to nipple a bit during the "care times", and Hanna has even suckled a little here and there.

Happy Easter to everyone-Thanks for all the love and support.