Our Cooper Crew

As always, it has been far too long side our last post although it doesn't feel like there is that much to say! No news is good news in our minds! We have had too many busy, eventful days with these little ones that we are thankful now for some quiet, uneven til days where we can just enjoy and watch them grow. Chase is loving his big boy bed and is insanely adorable in it. It's so fun wit te crib because he is in clothes and is easily accessed! He is a handful though! He wants to be cuddled and loved and have his soother held in place all hours of the day! Unlike his sister who is (now) the easiest baby ever- which the nurses will agree was not always the case! She used to be the one who kept everyone busy but now she likes to be left alone and just hangs out in her little isolettr. She's on the crib list though too!

Chase is on a new trial of 12 hours of low flow and 12 hours of Cpap (mask). This type of cycling allows him to stay on low flow for a longer period of time so that he can breastfeed and then gives him and his lungs a rest at night to be ready for the next day. So far he is doing great. He definitely gets tired by he end of the 12 hours but he is impressing us with all he can do! He is gaining weight which is great, especially because we aren't sure how efficient he is breastfeeding yet while he is learning but he is doing well! He is currently 2590g - 5 lbs 11 oz!

Reilly's respiratory situation hasn't changed too much. She is still on Cpap which is great. They've tried a few thing a over the last week or so to challenge her but she has quickly let them know that she is not ready. The babes are 37 weeks and 5 days old so the doctors really want them to start breast or bottle feeding , but as long as she has that Cpap she can't. They tried her on a system called high-flow which is similar to Cpap but just uses nasal prongs which would allow her to feed but she did not tolerate the hanger well and required more support than high-flow could provide. She just needs more time! She is looking so big and chunky! For everyone who loves a fat baby- you would die to see her neck and back folds. She has fat pockets everywhere and they are the cutest things ever. She looks way bigger than chase but is actually a pound lighter! She is currently 2080g which is 4 lbs 8 oz which is amazindfb considering she was only a 500 gram baby. Unfortunately over the last week or so she hasn't gained any weight at all, is still he exact same amount so they are a little concerned about that. They had been adding extra fortifier and calories to her food and once she tarted to gain they tried to scale back a little but as soon as they did that she stops growing. Hopefully she will get back on track this week. Chase is almost ready to move to level 2- once he transitions to full time low-flow then he could go to level 2 which could happen in a couple weeks time, but Reilly is a bit behind chase and will definitely buy us a few extra weeks in level 3. We dont mind because we are so used to it, and it's better than having one baby at one end of the hall and the ther down the other end, but hopefully she will make some big gains this week and catchup to her little brother.

Both Adam and I did hit a very special milestone this week- we were able to hold both babies at the same time! Because chase and Reilly are side by side the nurses were able to coordinate a double hold. I had an audience when I held them, people even had tears in their eyes! And when Adam held then, Nancy one of our favourite RTs stopped and said that it is so amazing to see, because they have worked so hard on our babies and to see them finally be able to do things like a double cuddle was so amazing for her. So nice to hear and see that our babies have meant so much to so many people. Everyone in the nicu has been so wonderful to us and we are so thankful for everything they have done to get our babies as strong and healthy as they are. They are true miracle workers!

Here are a few pictures from the week: