Brooke's Triumphant Return!

Good news: Brooke made her triumphant return to the NICU today! She’s been feeling better and she’s got her energy back, so it was time to go see the babies. And what did Brooke get to see?

Annaleigh on CPAP!

Lily on BiPAP!

Charlie… is cute!

Annaleigh has recovered so well from her surgery that she skipped BiPAP and went directly back to CPAP. Basically, she’s breathing on her own and just getting her oxygen put directly into her nose. Lily’s steroid treatments finished and she was put on BiPAP. Unlike last time, she’s managing well so far. Her numbers are good and she’s not having too many episodes. This is a huge step for both girls!

Charlie is doing well but he’s not ready for any respiratory reduction just yet. He breath rates are down from 46 yesterday to 40 today (that’s the number of times the respirator forces a breath into his lungs), but his pressure is up from 15 to 16 (that’s the amount of pressure the respirator needs to inflate his lungs). They’ve started him on a similar course of steroids to the one Lily was on and they’re hoping that he builds some lung strength over the next week. The other change is that they’ve been feeding him slowly with a machine that stretches the feeding time out over an hour rather than the couple minutes he’s been used to. The hope is that by spreading out the feedings he’ll be able to tolerate the fortifier better so he can get the extra calories and gain some weight.

The only other news of the day is the weights. Annaleigh has surpassed Lily again and is now five grams heavier (960 grams to 955 grams). Lily is eating and getting the fortifier so I have a feeling that she will add weight faster. The plan is to start Annaleigh’s feedings maybe as soon as tomorrow. Regardless, Charlie remains the biggest—he’s the Chunk!


The only drawback to Annaleigh being put on CPAP is that we don't get to see her pretty face as much. We've really gotten to see how beautiful she is over the last few days, so we're hoping that she doesn't need the CPAP for too long.



Lily is much happier on her stomach, but she can't be on her stomach too much with the BiPAP tubes in her nose, so she's hasn't settled down much. She keeps her hands up in front of her face or on her head; everything seems so dramatic to The Bug!