Their Fight Thus Far

Over the past week or so of our little diva's life, we take everything day by day, hour by hour, min by min.  We come and visit every day, morning and night and take each breath and each min as a blessing. Although overall I know they are stable and doing ok, it's hard seeing all the different lines attached to them. They have feeding tubes, ventilator lines, blood pressure cuffs, a picu line (i always forget what that is), and about 4-5 other lines i'm not sure what is what. It makes me feel so helpless but the nurses keep reminding me that I did all I could and that as i continue to keep pumping for them to have breast milk then that is the best thing i can keep doing for them right now.
 They have been on ventilators since being in the NICU and they only got to come off of it for one day. Mostly likely what is causing them to stay on the ventilators is what is called the pda valve. It's a valve near their heart that is very common in preemies to stay open and with the help of medication, it is suppose to close up over time. So far the first round of mediciaton did not help close up the valve, so now we are hoping with the reduction of their fluids and a different type of medince that might do the trick. If not then when they reach 3-4 pounds, they will have to get a surgery to go in and close off the valve. We are really praying round two of medication works so that they are not put under for the surgery.
They both also have/had jaudiance. Alexis more so than Mackenzie so they were both under the uv light for quite some time. Alexis had to go over board and require 2 lamps compared to Mackenzie's one little small lamp. Currently they are off the lamps but only more testing will tell how long they can stay off of them.
They just got their brain scan at 1am so now it's the waiting game for the doctors to read it and give us the results on it. . It was not as bad as i was imaging it to be. It was pretty much like a ultrasound on their heads. Mackenzie did great with it but Alexis seems like she didnt etnjoy it as much. 
Each day their oxygen levels change but each day they come with a stable report. They seem to compete with each other already which cracks me up.. One would read high on oxgyen level as one would read low and they love going back and forth with each other.
Just recently their feedings are being decreased every 12 hours.. as long as they are handling the increase, they will continue to increase their feedings every 12 hours.. They are maintaining at their birth weight  which is a good sign cause it shows they are handling the breastmilk well.
Spending as much time with them in their room, their monitors are constantly dinging some beeping noise, so it makes it hard for when i go home to have silence. I welcome the dinging noise because i know my girls are reacting and fighting. The silence is effecting me more than i imagined.
I handle each day as a good day becuase a good day for me is one day pass without them having to get a surgery of any sort. Only time will tell as things continue to form and they grow and more testing gets done but as long as they keep telling me no surgery for now, I'm counting each blessing.

Mackenzie

Alexis