Greetings from the NICU!

We got to the hospital early this morning, just in time for the doctors to assess the kiddos. Clara got another blood infusion yesterday because her little body cannot make enough red blood cells. She is still on three liters of oxygen and continues to fluctuate more than we'd like. We hope the main issue with Clara is she is constipated. Poor thing! While important at every stage of life, producing a bowel movement is especially important in the NICU. When a pound and a half baby gets backed up it puts pressure on the diaphragm which makes breathing more difficult and makes it harder for everything else to function properly. The docs gave her a sliver of glycerin yesterday and last night tried liquid glycerin. Nothing worked. We are hoping for an explosion in her isolette bigger than the Fourth of July fireworks and may or may not keep you updated :). This is another reality check that we are parents...we cannot remember ever thinking so much about someone else's bowel movement; but we really need some action from her today!

Wilson is keeping it real in room 7 - just across from Clara. He is quite the wiggle worm. We never know what position he will be in when we lift his blanket to look at him in his isolette. Sometimes he is down at the bottom of his body pillow and yesterday he was kicking the door of the isolette. Over the weekend his nurse, Sarah, told us "your kids do not like to be contained." Clearly they don't like to be contained; they left the womb after only 26 weeks. We know they are our children, impatient and don't want to miss out on the action, and expect a non-stop adventure when they get home!

Wilson is up to 13 cc's of milk every 3 hours (Clara is holding steady at 8 1/2 cc every 3 hours). Apparently he is not porking up as much as they'd like so they are going to fortify his breast milk with formula. Soon he will be the Bam-Bam of the NICU.

Mom and Dad are doing okay and trying to lead somewhat of a normal life. Chris goes to the doctor tomorrow for her two week appointment. Her incision is much better and she is hoping to get permission to start driving. Morgan is back at work hoping this week is not as crazy as last. We cannot help but constantly worry and pray for Clara and Wilson. We are so hopeful that we can look back in a year with two healthy babies and breathe a sigh of relief we made it through. Since that is a ways off, today we just hope for poop.