Grounded and On Restriction

Joel

Around noon today, the nurses and Ginger decided that it would be best for Joel to be placed back in his isolette. For unknown reasons, he had suddenly began to have difficulties staying warm and remembering to breathe. Ginger tried to lecture him and even threatened to send Daddy a text message to tell on him, but Little Boy just couldn't behave. Thus, he is grounded and on restriction until further notice. This evening, he was still having some difficulties remembering to breathe and was placed back on a nasal cannula. :(

The transition from an isolette to a crib is stressful for babies for three reasons: 1) it is louder 2) it is brighter 3) they have to work a lot harder to stay warm. We are not sure whether Joel's troubles are a manifestation of stress or if they stem from another cause such as illness or internal issues. Please remember him in your prayers, that he'll quickly overcome this challenge and will be able to strengthen his lungs and increase his metabolism.

Babies



Shown above is the most current Baby Scorecard (a shiny nickle for each of you who remember how to zoom in :o) Until we and the NICU staff can ascertain why Joel and Ella are having these problems, we will probably limit our interactions with them (this mostly means less holding time). We will also keep our eyes out to ensure that we and any visitors are in the best of health so as to protect the little ones.

Ella

Ella continues to have relatively frequent manifestations of bradycardia (a drop in heart rate) and apnea (forgetting to breathe, which results in lower blood-oxygen levels). Although we are also in the dark regarding the root cause for this issue, we do have a theory as to why she "suddenly" began to have these symptoms. On the day our babies were born, Ella was the one whose water broke. The neonatologist told us that the process by which a water breaks involves several hormones which instigate chemical changes that gradually degrade the sac until it ruptures. These chemicals can have a stimulating effect on babies, and higher hormonal levels may have allowed Ella to "come out of the gate running"...thus, her bradycardia and apnea would have been masked. Once this initial hormone rush wore off, she began to manifest the symptoms which had previously been subdued. We are praying that--as she continues to grow--she will simply "grow out" of this phase.

Grace

Grace is our dark horse. In a matter of about 2 days, she went from "last place" to "first place" in terms of overall stability. If she improves her nursing, she'll be ahead in all measures on the scorecard. This is remarkable considering the difficulties she had during her first few days. Yesterday she smiled and even appeared to giggle a bit as Jade was teasing her and rubbing her nose.

Thank Goodness for Insurance

Yesterday, we got the insurance bill for Ginger's hospital stay. It should be noted that the charges summarized below do not include charges for perinatology visits, surgeries, anaesthesia, or other consultative charges. This is just the hospital bill for her room and for the baseline care that a mother in her condition would receive.

We are so grateful for Jade's job and for excellent insurance. Us being spared this charge (as well as the accruing charges for our babies' care!) is certainly a blessing of tithing.