Thankful

Thank you for your prayers and thoughts over the last few days! Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday have all been great! It was relaxing and refreshing to have a day to ourselves with our babies (not that we don't LOVE showing them off!) Thank you to our families for giving us our day off, even though we know you wanted to see our/your girls.

A quick update (I promise it will be quick, since Nate wants his laptop back!)...

Sophie's second blood culture came back negative. The doctors consider her clear of infection, and her antibiotics have been stopped. We are SO thankful that this scare was only a scare! After stopping her feedings several times due to feeding intolerance, she has now gone almost 24 hours with barely any residuals (milk left in her tummy after a few hours)! They are increasing her feedings today from 12 mL every 3 hours to 20 mL every 3 hours. Tomorrow, if all goes well, they will increase the feedings up to 24 mL every 3 hours, which is the goal for her weight! Then she will get to lose the IV! Her IVs have only been lasting 1-2 days, so I will be so thankful when they can stop poking her again and again! Pretty sure I cry more than she does when she has to get poked. Also, today's big news is that Sophie took her very first bottle this morning! She did a great job and took her entire feeding by bottle, without spitting up! WOO HOO! For both of the girls, being able to take bottles consistently is a huge step toward HOME! Starting at 34 weeks (next week Saturday,) we are allowed to try feeding them bottles for all feedings, not just twice a day.

Mommy's little peanut doing a stellar job! Who knew giving a baby a bottle would be such a huge milestone?!

Since Sophie has been our little troublemaker, I feel like I don't write a whole lot about Evie, so I have to give her a shoutout for being a rockstar preemie. She has been doing such a great job with breathing, eating, gaining weight, pooping (OKAY, she does a more-than-great job with pooping, right Daddy?) and just being a beautiful, sweet little girl. I have always been a fan of equality (I used to alternate calling my Mom and Dad's cell phone each day so neither of them would feel left out, even though I would talk to both), so let it be known that I love Sophie and Evie equally, even though I may write about one more than the other!

Evie enjoying being held by Mommy.

We are thankful that both girls are completely off oxygen and doing great... no breathing issues! Last night, Evie weighed 3 lb. 11 oz. (a gain of 7 oz. since birth) and Sophie weighed 3 lb. 2 oz. (a gain of 11 oz. since birth.)

We are amazed and thankful at how well both girls are doing. We pray that they will both remain infection-free and continue to progress with tolerating their feedings and keeping warm so that they can come home soon!

Love you all!
The VPs

PS Now that Sophie is gaining some weight, Mom and Dad are having more and more trouble telling the girls apart! I think we are going to have to paint their toenails different colors when they get home to avoid mixing them up!