Week Four Was Wonderful!

Week Four has been very exciting so far! Katharine took a trial run in an open crib this week! She is now back in her isolette, but is doing a great job of working on maintaining her temperature. And Christopher moved into an open crib for the first time today! An update on Christopher's isolation - he has tested negative for the infection in his first follow-up test. We'll have one more follow up, and he'll continue to have an isolation screen through his discharge. So we'll continue to wear gloves and gowns with him, but are glad to hopefully have the infection behind us.

Both kids are doing well with their feedings, and Katharine has even begun some practice runs at "suck, swallow, breathe", taking a tiny amount of milk in a bottle twice a day! It was a startling experience when she first realized that this was not a pacifier - something coming out of it! :) But she got the idea within a few seconds, and is doing fabulous with the bottles. Mom enjoyed giving her a bottle for the first time!

And most exciting for us is that both kids were moved into the "step-down" room on Sunday! The room is designed for babies needing less-intense care to continue to make the final steps toward getting ready to head home. The room is smaller and quieter, and the kids are finally together again, separated only by Christopher's isolation screen. We're so glad to be together, to feel a little more like a family when we're visiting. The kids have yet to "meet", but we look forward to holding them together and introducing them! :)

And finally, Katharine joined Christopher in the "four pound" club this week! Both kids are gaining weight steadily as a result of constantly increasing feeds, which will continue to improve development and achievement of important milestones!

Here is the site for this week's photo gallery for you to copy into your browser. A few of you have let me know that this week's link didn't work for you - Thank you! I corrected the link below for you - please give it another try.

Also, if your browser does not let you access the "copy" and "paste" functions under "Edit", try using "Control C" for copy, and "Control V" for paste - once you highlight the site, press control and the letter c to copy it. Then once you've cleared your web browser line, click on it and press control and the letter v to paste it. Hopefully that will make it easier to access the photos for you! :)

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=382086366905%3A1894952531&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee

Love,

Andrea, David, Katharine, and Christopher