NICU Update

Wow! I can't believe its been 4 days already (almost five)! This experience has been the most emotional, incredible, amazing...I could go on forever! We are so truly grateful for all the support, prayers, comments and love we have been receiving over the last few days. Please don't hold it against us if we haven't responded to your texts or emails yet but know that they are very much appreciated and needed!

We promise to bring you the story leading up to delivery but we wanted to get updates out on our kids first. ALL four of them are breathing on their own!!

Sloan:
Sloan is only feeding through her IV at this point. She is stable but does have CPAP (continuous poisitive airway presssure) to supply some extra oxygen which they are trying to slowly wean her off of. She's also doing photo therapy for her billirubin count. Her current weight today is 2 lbs 10 ozs, just 2 ozs under her birth weight. Kami got to do kangaroo care with her for an hour this morning and I got to change her diaper. I was also able to be part of her first bath on Saturday.

Rocco:
Rocco is eating through a feeding tube with the breast milk that Kami is supplying. He is stable but is also on CPAP and doing photo therapy. Sunday he got a PICC line so they wouldn't have to poke my little man anymore. The nurse said he may be able to get off the photo therapy today or tomorrow. His current weight is 2 lbs 6 ozs which is down a little from his birth weight. I got to change his diaper yesterday.

Madden:
Madden is also eating through his feeding tube. As of today, he is only breathing room air, no CPAP. The nurses are planning to give him a little caffeine for any apnea spells he may have which is common for preemies. He's also on photo therapy. His current weight is 2 lbs 7 ozs which was his birth weight. Kami was able to do an hour of kangaroo care with him last night. I got to change his diaper on Saturday.

Jagger:
Jagger is also eating through his feeding tube. He is breathing on his own but with supplemental oxygen via nasal prongs. He's on photo therapy but should be off in the next day or so. He was on antiboitics for 48 hours as a preventative measure (but is no longer on them). Yesterday he changed rooms so that he's next door to his big brother Rocco. His current weight is 2lbs 6ozs which is up 1 oz from his birth weight.

As I mentioned, Rocco and Jagger and the only siblings that are next to each other in the NICU right now. The staff has assured us that everyone will be close together soon. Since this is all new to Kami and I, it is a little overwhelming to get updates on each baby as we go from room-to-room. The staff at Phoenix Children's is awesome and has no problem answering our questions no matter how many times we ask them.

Kami's blood pressure is still high and they're giving her medicine to try to lower it. Even so, we're expecting her to be discharged tomorrow and continue the medicine for a few weeks. She is getting around better but is not getting to goto the NICU as much as she'd like.

Here are some of our specific prayer needs:
- Kami's blood pressure
- babies will stay free of infection
- babies will continue to gain weight
- babies will continue to develop as they should
- our ability to process all the information

We've heard about the media attention we've been getting in Arizona and at home in Baton Rouge. We hope the story of our little miracles is blessing everyone as much as they are a blessing to us!

Love,
Nick and Kami