Greetings, all.

We are becoming increasingly familiar with the routine of the NICU. In some ways the overwhelming sight of the rows of monitors, incubators, and other machinery has faded over the past several weeks. The nurses joked with us that we no longer had the "deer in headlights" look as we entered the room. What was once shocking--seeing our babies being 'bagged' to help them breathe--has become almost normal. As new babies enter our section, we can see that initial shocked look that the dad has as he first visits the unit. Usually, a day or two later, the mom is wheeled into the unit and has that first reunion with her baby. These initial reunions are amazing, they are a frequent reminder of these small, but growing, miracles we have received.

Over the past two days Jonas has been very stable with his ventilator. He has been on the Drager ventilator, he was moved down from the high frequency a couple of days ago, and has been in gradually decreasing amounts of oxygen. Several days ago he was needing over 60% oxygen. The last two days he has been in the low 30% to high 20%. He continues to do well with his feeding. He is now up to 5.5 ml an hour. In late breaking news...he is now receiving all of his nutrition via milk. This means his PICC line was no longer needed and at 4pm it was removed. The key benefit of the PICC line being removed is that it can be a gateway for infection. With it gone, the nurses do have to prick his foot from time to time for blood, but it is a worthy trade-off.

Elsa continues to be a stable little girl. Her oxygen needs have crept up a bit over the past several days but the doctors and nurses are happy with her progress. Yesterday she received a slightly larger tube for her ventilator. The positive of this switch is that it greatly enhanced the efficiency of the machine. The potential drawback is that it might cause more irritation in her throat. She is also receiving all of her nutrition via milk and is currently at 5.0 ml per hour. Jonas passed her up yesterday, but we are encouraging her to catch up when she is ready.

We thank everyone for their prayers of healing for Elsa and Jonas. In the days ahead, we ask for prayers of healing for Jonas and Elsa's lungs. We also pray for Elsa's brain bleed to continue to heal.

(The pictures: Elsa checking us out; a perspective shot of Elsa's bed with the various bells and whistles (literally); Big Poppa with Elsa's footprints)

*Jonas was not purposely left out of the photo session. His agent indicated the lighting wasn't right so he will be back in our next update.

God Bless,

Dan & Mari & Elsa & Jonas

Clothes!

Greetings!

There is not much to report (which is good news). Both babies go up and down a bit on how much support they need on there ventilators, but they are pretty stable. Elsa is up to 5 ml of milk an hour, which is the max for her weight, so that is very exciting. Jonas is right behind at 4.5 ml per hour. We are thankful for every day with them and continue to pray that their lungs will heal and they will be able to work toward breathing on their own.

The biggest news of the day is that Jonas got to wear some clothes! Grandma Jeanne bought them each a shirt and a hat. As I was washing the clothes I was laughing at how small they are, but of course they are still a little big. Elsa did not get a chance to wear hers today because she was needing more oxygen during her handling and it seemed best to let her rest instead of bothering her more.

Thank you for continuing to think of us and pray for us.

God bless,

Mari, Dan, Elsa & Jonas

Four Weeks Old!

Greetings!

What an amazing day! For days there has been talk of changing out Elsa's isolette (this happens periodically, just to keep them clean) which would mean that she would need to be held for a small amount of time. Today it happened and I was able to hold her for the first time. Her eyes were wide open and looking at me the whole time. As my mom says, she just melts your heart. It took a team of three to make this happen, including a respiratory therapist who was "bagging" her the whole time while she was not hooked up to her ventilator. It was an amazing, special moment for me and I was so thankful to those who made it happen. Elsa continues to stay stable on her vent. Her PICC line clotted last night and they had to take it out, but the good news is that they are thinking she will not need it anymore. She is up to 4 ml of milk an hour, which means she does not need any additional fluids or nutrition. Again, amazing.

Jonas also had an incredible day. He was down at 29% oxygen when I came this morning and stayed in the 30% range for most of the day, AND he is back on the Drager ventilator, coming off the paralytic drug and doing very well. It was fun to see him moving around and getting rid of that extra water weight. His blood gases continue to come back with positive results. If he continues progressing well, the doctor said he may be able to be extubated soon and graduate up to using a mask for oxygen support. The steroids seem to be giving him a great boost. We are so thankful! Jonas also had a face tape change today. It was nice to see his whole face again for a moment.

Sadly, we learned today that our friend Aiden, who was also born at 24 weeks, passed away last night. Our hearts are breaking. Please pray for his mom, dad, and brother. It reminds us how precious life is.

God Bless,
Mari, Dan, Elsa & Jonas

Finding Patience

Greetings, everyone.

In just a couple of hours, Elsa and Jonas will be four weeks old! We are starting to notice how much they have both grown and changed. Their pictures from just a couple weeks ago look so much different than they are now. Elsa has tufts of dark hair growing and Jonas has long blond eyelashes! Elsa is getting stronger. She has pulled her ventilator tube out a couple of times over the past few days. This keeps the nurses running, but they are really impressed with her strength! Both kids are 'tolerating' their feeds and are getting 3 ml an hour. Elsa is doing so well on her nutrition that she no longer receives additional fats. Milk does a body good!

On Wednesday night, Elsa did decide to give us all a little scare. She had two seizures during the night. When we called in the morning this news was rather scary and startling to hear. The doctor met with us later in the afternoon to get us up to speed on her night and the news of the day. Elsa had another brain scan done because of the seizures to see if there was some connection. Apparently there are many reasons for seizures in premmies and this was done to start ruling out causes. The doctor indicated that the brain scan suggested that there was some healing occuring by the blood clotting and beginning to disappate. The seizures may have been some misfiring in the brain while it heals. There are no certainties but we were stunned by potentially good news! I think we both felt very nervous in the long walk from the car to the NICU that morning and were expecting to hear the worst. While we were with her yesterday and today, Elsa was stable and allert, looking at us with her big eyes.

Jonas began his steriods treatment for his lungs on Wednesday. Since then he has gone back and forth on how much sedation and oxygen he has needed. He was up to 96% oxygen for much of the day Wednesday, but today was in the 25-35% range. He has actually been moved down a little bit on his vent support which is good but it is still too soon to know if the steriods will be the ticket. While sedated he tends to retain a little bit of water. This impacts his weight but even if we add a bit for the water, he is looking chunky! He is right around two pounds and growing.

In some ways the past four weeks have flown by. It is amazing to see all the changes. We know we still have many months ahead of us in the NICU. We are finding ways to be patient for the future as we continue to pray for strength and health in each coming day.

God Bless,
Dan & Mari & Jonas & Elsa

Keep on growing and growing and growing...

Greetings, all.
It is always amazing to enter the NICU and be surrounded by information about Elsa and Jonas. I can tell you their blood sugar and the subsequent medicine they would receive if it is outside of a specific range. I can watch on the monitors how many breathes each receives from the ventilator and what level of support the ventilator is providing. Hanging by their bedsides are several IVs and syringes filled with very specific amounts of vitamins, medicine, fats, milk, electrolytes, and more! Every four hours, or more when necessary, Elsa and Jonas have their blood gases measured. There is so much information that it is so easy to get distracted by the machines and the activity. When we see both of the babies looking around we hope that all the fuss outside will become a long forgotten memory. We do hope, and I think we really do believe, that they will remember the soft words, gentle caresses, and whispered prayers that we send through the isolette doors.

Elsa continues to have good days. She had a little bit of a hiccup yesterday and was moved back to the Drager ventilator. She has been fairly stable and continues to move down on the ventilator settings. Today, Elsa weighed in at 1 pound 9 ounces! The nurses have continued to monitor her heart for a slightly open artery that normally closes on its own with full term babies. Some times it sounds like it might be open and other times it is not noticeable. This is fairly common with premmies and they will continue to monitor.

Jonas has been stable the past two days. Today at 6:00pm, Jonas started to receive a small dose of steroids to help his lungs. This has been in the plans for several days and the doctors decided that now was the time to act. He is weighing in at two pounds now and based on his current stable responses with the ventilator it was the right time to try to help his lungs. We will know in the next couple of days if the steroids give him the extra strength his lungs need. He has been enjoying the 2 ml, yet more information that we see everyday:), of milk every hour and he is definitely getting bigger.

We continue to pray for Jonas and Elsa and our new friend Aiden for strength and healing. Aiden is a 24 weeker resting up between Elsa and Jonas's beds. The three of them enjoy keeping the nurses and doctors hopping! We pray they continue to feel our love and hope.

God Bless,
Dan & Mari & Jonas & Elsa

Steady On

Greetings!

We are happy to say that there have been another couple of steady days for our babies. Jonas was doing well on his ventilator settings until the late afternoon on Saturday when he was needing more and more oxygen to meet his needs (he was up into the 70% range). The doctor decided to put him back on the heavy sedation to help him rest again and not fight against the ventilator. Since then he has also received a blood transfusion. When we went in today, Jonas was on 30% oxygen and doing really well. Some of his test results suggest that he might have an infection, so he was started on some anti-biotics while they wait to see if his blood cultures grow anything. He was also was able to continue his feedings of milk and is doing well with them and is weighing in at 1 lb 10 oz! In the picture above while the nurse was repositioning him after his care time, Jonas thought resting his head in his mommy's hand was a really comfortable position to be in.

Elsa is continuing to be steady and stable. She is also in the 25-35% range for oxygen, which is good. Her continuous feeds are going well. She had a blood transfusion the other day as well, and it seemed to give her a boost and allow her to stay more stable on her oxygen needs throughout the day. She is weighing in at 1 lb. 7 oz. We are enjoying seeing her eyes open once in a while. We are just so thankful for a couple days in a row that the babies are able to rest and grow and have some forward progress.

We continue to feel blessed by your prayers and interest in how things are going.

God bless,

Mari, Dan, Elsa, and Jonas

Three weeks!

Greetings, All.
Elsa and Jonas are three weeks old!

Elsa has had two really good days. She has continued to be very stable on her ventilator and "tolerated" her feeds. She opened her eyes a day or two ago and she looks so much better from her first couple of days. Her PICC line went in earlier this week and she no longer has an IV in her head. She is now on a continuous feed line which gives her a small amount of milk throughout the day.

Jonas has also done well the past two days. We were really worried two days ago when he was fighting the ventilator. The doctors ended up heavily sedating him so that he could rest and receive the full benefit of the ventilators for a couple of days. It was a little hard seeing him really knocked out but we knew it was to help him heal. He did really well while sedated and was brought out of his sedation early this morning. He continued to show progression and has been weaned several times on his ventilator today with success. The doctors will continue to closely monitor his blood gases and may still decide that a small dosage treatment of steroids might be beneficial although they are giving him some more time to grow out of his lung troubles first.

In the NICU it is really hard to be physically 'close' to Elsa and Jonas. The nurses encourage us to participate in the daily care of our two babies as a way to keep us close with them. This means we get to take their temperature, change their diapers, and give them a mouthwash for their ventilator tubes. The first couple of times our hands were a little shaky and unsure but we have really grown to love this time with our kids.

We continue to pray for the healing and growing of Elsa and Jonas.

God Bless,
Dan & Mari & Jonas & Elsa