3 Months old (37 weeks gestational)

First and foremost thank you to all who came to the baby shower Saturday, and to those who couldn't make it sorry we missed you. It was great to see friends and family that we have not been able to see in awhile. It was nice to get away from reality and tell the happy stories of Carter and Easton. It was nice to hear about other people and their lives. But enough about us, I know you all come here to read about Carter and Easton, after all that is why we have this blog.
After almost thirteen weeks of being in room 105 in the N.I.C.U. (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) we were finally bumped to Room 101, only because they were installing black out curtains in all of the rooms. Carter and Easton are still side by side with open cribs and loving the attention from their nurses.

Easton's decked out crib featuring an airplane mobile, mirror, and zebra toy

Carter's crib sporting the twin-like airplane mobile, mirror and custom canopy.

Easton is now 5lbs and 10 oz. and has been upgraded to a life of Luxury, as he finally outgrew his isolette and was placed in a "Big Boy" crib this week. He gets to have a mobile which he absolutely loves. I now know by heart the pottery barn kids rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle".... as he cannot get enough of the planes flying over his head. Easton has also been taken off the Sipap and is now on the bubble Cpap. Reader's digest version of bubble Cpap is a tube is placed in water to give pressure and humidify air to help with the premature lungs, it is a softer machine that still assists him. Easton also began "nippling" this week, starting on 5 milliliters of pedialyte over a five minute increment, 4 times a day. He actually gets to remove the bubble Cpap and breathe with just a nasal cannula. Easton has done so well that they are letting him now drink breast milk from the bottle for 5 minutes 4 times a day. Easton's head has still remained within a reasonable size and the doctor is monitoring every couple of days.

Easton trying a bottle for the first time

Loving his time off the Cpap

Easton listening to "twinkle Twinkle" and watching his airplanes

Carter has been surprising us by leaps and bounds. "little man" has been packing on the pounds since on breast milk weighing in at 6 lbs. and 8 oz. Carter has been taking three and even four of his eight 50 ml. feeds by bottle and having no problems or residual I(leftover in his tummy before next feeding). Carter is also on 2 Liter per minute of 25% oxygen with a regular cannula off the wall which is great progress to not needing oxygen at all (progress, yes progress he is not off yet, we still have a ways to go) Over the past few days Carter's head has been increasing in circumference and during a head ultrasound last Tuesday we had been informed that his ventricles were increased substantially. Well this morning an additional head ultrasound was taken and to our unsettled fear it was worse than last week. Our Neuro-surgeon had informed us it was time for a shunt. Lauren and I were shocked, for weeks it had been Easton who we thought was sitting on the fence, whether or not to be shunted, we had completely put Carter on the back burner, he had been doing so well. As the Neurologist explained, it became more clear, Carter had been having apnic spells (not breathing spats) and periods of Bradycardia (decreased heart rate) both complications and signs of the pressure building up on his brain, due to the enlarged ventricles. As tonight progressed he continued having these spats and spells. We are watching him closely, nurses are keeping notes and if he continues to worsen his surgery will become more emergent and be moved from Thursday to whenever necessary. Carter has received a priesthood blessing and it is up to our Father in Heaven and the plan he has for our son. We only hope that it does not involve him going under for this operation.

Carter getting his first bath from mom and loving it, he actually fell asleep in there

Isn't that sign language for "feed me"?

Carter is doing so well it takes him about 10 minutes to drink a whole bottle

To briefly describe the shunt, it is a small tube that they insert through the skull and brain into the enlarged ventricle the other end they fish down through his body and insert it into his stomach. The fluid from the ventricle then passes through the tube and is absorbed through the stomach thus releasing the pressure and hopefully allowing the brain to repair itself and shrink the size of the ventricle.

It is hard to believe that just a few days ago our little Carter was doing so well, he is now requiring more oxygen, will need to be re-intubated and have to undergo this life changing operation. You can see it in his actions that the enlarged ventricles are affecting his alertness and ability to bottle feed.

As i just got off the phone with the nurses tonight, Carter continues to go up on his feeds, he is now getting 55 ml of breast milk through his NG tube, and Easton is doing well on his Cpap settings.

Wednesday we should find out the results of the eye surgeries from last week. I will try to get another blog Thursday or Friday to update you again on the boys. We also try to post quick updates on facebook