Tuesday, June 29th was a good day for the boys. Austin was lowered to two liters of flow on his Canula. They also began to nipple him once a day. He took his whole feeding by nipple for the first time. YEAH! Calvin is doing well. He had his head ultra sound repeated on Monday. The doctor advised yesterday that his bleed was a grade one and was evolutional and resolving. He said that his head is fine. We were glad to hear that. He is still on his 1/8 liter of oxygen. We stayed in last night for an overnight visit with Calvin.

Wednesday, June 30th was a good day for the boys. They lowered Austin to one liter of flow on his canula. He only took 8ml of his feeding today. We hope that he will take more tomorrow. The good news is if all goes as planned we will have Calvin home tomorrow. I am so exicted, nervous, scared, all of the above!!! We will be so happy to have him home, but so sad to leave Austin. Hopefully, he will miss his brother and hurry home!

Monday, June 28th the boys had a good day. Austin was moved into an open crib and seems to be tolerating it well. He still continues to tolerate his continous feeds as well. Calvin is still doing well. He was moved down to the lower level room tonight (the going home room). It was bittersweet to see him move out of the intermediate room next to Austin, but exciting at the same time. We are planning to stay in the NICU tomorrow night with Calvin. Then we will do our CPR and monitoring traning Wednesday night and hopefully have him home Thursday!!!

Sunday, June 27th was a good day for the boys. Calvin passed his car seat test!! He had to be in his car seat for an hour and a half without having any apnea or bradycardia episodes. He should be coming home this week. We will stay the night in the NICU on Tuesday night. They recommend that for parents, the night or two before they bring the baby home. We then have CPR and monitor training on Wednesday night. Hopefully, by Thursday or Friday we will have him home. Austin is still doing fine. They did give him a blood transfusion today. They had to stop his feedings while getting the blood in 2 seperate 4 hour transfusions. They were going to start back his feedings over the pmup later this evening. I had a very nice shower in Mclean today with the Fonger group. I got lots of nice gifts and had a great time!

Saturday, June 26th was a good day for the boys. Calvin is still doing well on nippling his feedings. He passed his hearing test today. They informed us that we could have him home by the end of the week!!! Austin is still doing well on his continous feeds. He is still tolerating the canula with a flow of 3 liters. I had a great today, a shower with family and friends. I got lots of nice stuff and loved seeing everyone! Grandma Gert, Aunt Linda and Grammy came to visit tonight around 6:30pm. Then Nana and Papa Fonger, Great Grandma Fonger and Dan came to visit later in the evening. The boys had lots of visitors. I held Austin for a couple hours, and Nana held him for another half an hour, I think he is starting to get spoiled!! He deserves it though, because we have been holding Calvin more for a few weeks with him being healthier.

Friday June 25th was a good day for the boys. Austin was lowered on the canula from flow of 4 to a flow of 3. He continues to tolerate his feeds, and is up to 8ml an hour on the continuos pump so he is up to his full feeding schedule. I finally got some pictures on here tonight of him. Calvin is doing well. He is now nippling all of his feedings by bottle. They are going to try and wean him down on the home oxygen from a 1/4 of a liter to an 1/8 of a liter. I am looking forward to baby showers this weekend. One tomorrow in Stanford with my family and friends, and one on Sunday in Mclean with the Fonger family and friends.

Thursday, June 24th was a good day for the boys. Calvin has continued to do well on his nippling and is still in his 1/4 liter of oxygen. He is still in his open crib. Austin is weighing over 3 lbs! Yeah! He is continuing to tolerate his feedings, and is doing well on his breathing. They are up to 7 ml per hour on his continuous feeds. Tomorrow he will get to the equivalent of full feeding when he gets to 8 ml per hour since his full feeds would be 24 ml every three hours. Once he gets to full feeds on continuous flow and shows that he can tolerate it for a couple of days they will have to start making the timing shorter. The nurse said they will have to get him to the point that he can take the full feeding over an hour rather than over three hours, and then get to where he can take them all at once, and then on to nippling. It sounds like a long process, but I am sure they will push him to make the changes fairly quickly. We ran into the nurse practioner on our way in this evening and she mentioned trying to wean him down a little on the canula tomorrow so we will see. She also told us that they have ordered the CPR and monitoring training for us. We were happy to hear that, that means the boys will be coming home in the near future! As I'm sure you can tell by their progress, we are assuming that Calvin will come home first, but hopefully Austin won't be too far behind him. Carrie came to visit the boys for the first time this evening. She was glad to see them!

Wednesday, June 23rd the boys had a good day. Calvin was able to move to an open crib today. He has to be able to maintain his temperature and contiue to do well on his nippling in order to stay in it. He is up to 6 out of his 8 feedings every day by nipple. He is still in 1/4 of a liter of oxygen, but we are hoping he starts to wean himself down off of that in the next few days. Austin is doing fine. They discontiued antibiotics today because he has been on them for the full seven days. He is still doing well keeping his oxygen saturation up on the canula. He is about halfway through the feeding schedule getting him back up to full feedings. He is getting 5.5 ml per hour continuously through a pump. We had some visitors today. Papa McMahon came to visit and held Calvin for the first time. Aunt Melissa stopped by to see the boys after work as well. Tonight, Scott came to visit with Shelly, I think he was amazed at how well they looked. He said they look like babies, just little. I said they are preemies!! Then we went to dinner and I had some much needed fun and laughs! I went back to the hospital for Calvin's 11:30 feeding, and by the time I was done with that and got out of there I didn't get home until after 1:00.

Tuesday, June 22nd was a good day for the boys. Austin still continues to tolerate the canula. He is up to 3.5ml an hour on his continous feedings, he seems to be tolerating those as well. He is a little swollen still in his lower extremities and in his face. Therefore they are giving him a two day dose of lasiks (sp?) that will help him to urinate more in order to get rid of the excess fluid. We hope he continues to head in the right direction. Calvin is still in 1/4 of a liter of oxygen. We hope he will start weaning down off of that soon. Calvin continues to do well on his nippling, and the nurse tonight told us that he will go up to taking feedings by bottle 6 times per day tomorrow. Grammy came to visit this evening while we were in Morton meeting our pediatrician. She started Calvin's 5:30pm feeding at 5:40pm and when I arrived at 5:55 he had only taken 5ml of his 25ml. She didn't realize that he is supposed to only have a 20 minute limit on his feedings, and didn't realize that she would need to keep him interested. I took over and he took 17in the last 10 minutes. I told Grammy she is going to have to practice and not just let him play around. We will need her help! Greg and I met with Dr. David Cross at OSF in Morton, and had a nice 45 minute chat with him. He was very informative, and made us feel pretty good about the progress that the boys have made thus far. We loved him, and felt he was a perfect fit for us! During his three year residency to become a pediatrician he actually spent three months working in the NICU in Peoria, which made us feel very comfortable with taking the boys to him when they come home.

Monday, June 21st was a good day for the boys. Austin was taken off the c-pap for another try on the Canula(oxygen). They took him off about 11:00am today and so far he has been tolerating it well. He is tolerating the increase from 1ml to 2ml an hour in the continous feeds as well. We have our fingers crossed he is headed in the right direction. Calvin is doing fine. He is still in his 1/4 of a liter of oxygen, and taking his feedings well. Aunt Judy, Matthew, and his girlfriend Emily came and painted the nursery today. It looks great!

Sunday, June 20th the boys had a good day. Austin is continuing to do well on the priming. They are giving him his feedings over a continous pump of 1ml and hour. They will increase it to 2ml tomorrow until he gets up to full feeds. They lowered him to no rate on the c-pap, hopefully he will tolerate that change. They did attempt to get a pic line today and were unsuccesful. Hopefully they can get it tomorrow and his iv stays in until then. Calvin is doing well, I told Greg he needed to feed him this evening since it was father's day. He nippled his whole feeding for Greg tonight at 5:30pm. Calvin is just learning how to take a bottle, and he starts out kind of slow at first, just kind of chewing on the nipple instead of drinking from it, but eventually he gets going. Greg was getting frustrated with him at first when he wouldn't eat, then again after he took the whole bottle but wouldn't burp. He looked at me and said "this just isn't my gig, I'm fine with not doing this again until he knows how to eat". I told him that they have to learn all of this and he better learn too! Greg said "you can teach them, then by the time they get home they will know how to eat and I can help out." He then turned Calvin to where they were face to face about six inches apart and said "why don't you just burp already?" Apparently he thinks that Calvin should be able to burp on command like he does. It should be interesting for all of us once we get them home!!

Saturday, June 19th was an okay day for the boys. Austin has been having a rough time with holding an iv. They gave him three different ones today that kept coming out. His poor little veins, it just breaks my heart! They hope to give him a pic line tomorrow so that he can receive his antibiotics. He has had a pic line inserted a couple of times already, but when he doesn't need them anymore they take them out. A pic line is a small catheter that is inserted into his vein and advanced through the vein until the end almost reaches the heart. This type of IV is one that can be used for longer periods of time and it runs a lower risk of infection. He seems to be tolerating the priming okay with the new formula and is doing well on the breathing. He is down to a rate of 5 on the c-pap. Calvin is doing fine. He has continued to nipple well and is getting 4 of his 8 feedings a day by nipple. He has gone up a little on is oxygen flow to a 1/4 of a liter. We had a good day at home today, finally starting on the nursery. Aunt Judy is coming to paint on Monday so we got the whole room/closet all organized. I think we carried out like 6 bags worth of stuff for goodwill. Papa Fonger and Nana came to visit, and took us out to dinner. We are spoiled!!

Friday, June 18th the boys had a pretty good day. Austin was started back on his priming and has been tolerating so far. They have switched his formula to neocate which is a partially digested formula. We are hoping this will do the trick this time. They did lower his c-pap rate to 5 so we are hoping he is working to still get off the c-pap soon. Calvin is doing about the same, he is still on the home oxygen and is continuing to do well on his feeds. They have increased his feedings to 25 ml per feeding. He took 19-20ml by bottle each time they tried today. Short post tonight, tired and going to bed!

Thursday, June 17th was an okay day for the boys. Austin is having somewhat of a better day today. His blood work is showing some signs of an infection but nothing has grown on the cultures. They are going to start him on antibiotics to take care of whatever it is. His stomach x-rays are looking much better, so they are going to restart his feedings tomorrow. Calvin is still doing well on his feedings. He nippled three whole feedings today. He did have a couple apnea episodes so they put him on some oxygen, it is just an oxygen tank that they can come home on. He is on the lowest setting of 1/32 of a liter. I was suprised to see it on him this evening, but if he needs a little help that is all that matters. Calvin is up to 3lbs 3 oz. I had a MUCH better day today. I was able to spend time with great friends. Carrie came and brought lunch and visited outside for a few hours. Then Shelly came to the hospital tonight to see the boys for the first time!! I want to thank everyone for the emails and text and all the caring thoughts. I know I haven't got a chance to get back to everyone. I do honestly appreciate it. I told Greg I don't think we realize how many people are following our journey!

Wednesday, June 16th was not that great of a day for the boys. When I woke up this morning and called to check on them the nurse told me that the nurse practioner was just getting ready to call me. Austin had a couple pretty severe apena episodes, was not digesting his food, his belly was hard and distended and they had just done an x-ray. They were watching him for NEC again, they did a septic work up on him again and started him on antibiotics. I thought here we go again!! They have stopped feeding him, and are checking his belly every six hours to make sure it doesn't get any worse. It seems this can be common with premature babies, they stop and start eating, and have intestinal issues. They have also been concerned because his scrotum has been swollen, so they called in a urologist to examine him. He did notice that there is some extra fluid in that area, so he performed an ultrasound but didn't find anything to be concerned about. It is nice to know that isn't the problem, but it doesn't change the fact that we once again don't know exactly what the problem is. We just wait now to see if his bloodwork shows any sign of infection. I don't know if he will ever eat!!! Calvin, is still doing well with his breathing and feedings. I think he did better than me today. After getting that call this morning, heading to the hospital right away, then to a follow up dr. appt for myself at 2pm where I spent an hour and a half in the waiting room, then calling to check on them on my way home to find out Austin had yet another apnea episode, to walking in the door to find Auggie throwing up on the floor. Poor Greg...when he got home I just lost it. Anyways, we decided that I would drop him off at the hospital this evening and I would go run some errands and take sometime for myself. I think that was a good idea. I pretty much regrouped and went back to hospital and have a much better outlook. Sorry for such a long post!!!

Tuesday, June 15th was a good day for the boys. I have put some pictures up of Calvin. I was waiting until I could get good pictures of both of them, but Calvin did so well today I thought he deserved to go first. He was taken off of all oxygen today, he is just in room air with no assistance of any kind. He took his whole feeding this morning by bottle from the nurse as well as this evening's feeding from me. They even went up to 23 ml today. He will move up to three bottle feedings a day tomorrow. Austin is still on the c-pap. They may try to begin weaning him off tomorrow by giving him the canula for part of the day. He is having more of an issue with digesting his feedings. They have put his feedings on a pump that continuously give's him food slowly rather than giving him feedings every three hours. He seemed to be tolerating that better this evening than he had been tolerating the feedings as they were before.

Monday, June 14th was a pretty good day for the boys. Calvin is doing well, and nippled his entire feeding today at noon. We were so proud of him. He did over half of his feeding this evening for Greg, so we are hopeful that he is getting the hang of it and will continue to do well. They did go up from 19ml to 21ml today on his feedings. Austin is still on the c-pap. He had no brady's all day until tonight 5 minutes before we left to come home. I swear he knows just how to get me all anxious and paranoid. I was actually somewhat relaxed this evening since he was doing so well. The nurses seem to think he is going to be the one that challenges us in life. He gets so feisty if the nurses mess with him. They say if anyone is making noise at the isolette next to him he starts getting agitated. They have to put blankets all around his isolette to block what he can see because he is so sensitive to his environment. It will be interesting to see how their personalities turn out as they grow. Calvin is so quiet calm and just sleeps. Austin is always causing trouble!!

Sunday, June 13th was an okay day for the boys. Austin is back on the c-pap. He just wasn't ready for the canula. They decided to put him back on this morning after he had several brady's over night. I have decided he is going to do things at his own pace. As the nurse's say he is in charge he will let us know when he is ready. I kangaroo'd with him this afternoon for an hour or so and was sure to let him know he is giving me gray hair. Calvin is doing well. He is up to taking two feedings a day by nipple. He took 14 of the 19ml this morning for the nurse. He only took 8 of the 19ml for me this evening. I am learning that the nurses have much better technique in getting him to eat.

Saturday, June 12th, the boys had a good day. Austin was put on the canula (the same oxygen machine that Calvin has been on that gives them oxygen but no assistance in their breathing.) He was put on it late afternoon and he has been tolerating it very well. He is up to full feeds, getting a 27 calorie formula. Austin weighs 2 lb 8oz. Calvin, continues to do well and he weighs 2 lb 13 oz. He is still nippling once or twice a day and has been taking half of his feeding by bottle. Papa and Nana Fonger brought Great Grandma Fonger and Dan over this evening to see the boys for the first time. They were glad to see them. Nana was able to hold Calvin for the first time this evening during their visit. Nana didn't even cry, we were all so surprised!! We had a nice visit with them and then went to dinner.

Friday, June 11th the boys had a good day. They are six weeks old today!! Hopefully in the next four to six weeks we will have them home. Calvin is up to 2 lbs 13 oz, he continues to do well on his breathing and feedings. Austin was moved from the intensive side over to the intermediate side this afternoon. He and Calvin are right next to each other. It was so nice this evening to not have to travel from room to room. Let's just hope Austin behaves and is able to stay over there. He is still on the c-pap machine, the doctor said this morning in rounds they will try to switch him to the canula as long as he was okay today. We are keeping our fingers crossed that he is able to be on the canula tomorrow and that he tolerates it ok so that he can stay next to his brother.

Thursday, June 10th, the boys had a good day. Austin is still on c-pap, he is still tolerating his feedings. He is up to 9ml at this last feeding. The swelling has seem to come down some from earlier in the week. Calvin, is doing well. He has been continuing on his feeds at 19 ml. They both had their first eye exam today. They were both looking good so far, just immature. We were happy with that. They will check them again in two weeks.

Wednesday, June 9th was a good day for the boys. Austin is still doing well on the c-pap machine. They started him back on his feedings today. We hope he continue's to tolerate them well. Calvin is still nippling a couple of times a day for now. He took 10 of the 19ml for the nurse this morning. Then he took 8 of the 19ml tonight for Greg. We are hoping he continues to do well with the nippling. Today was a long 12 hour day at the hospital for me. Aunt Melissa came to visit this morning, and was able to hold Calvin for the first time. Aunt Judy came to visit the boys today as well, she was excited to see them for the first time!

Tuesday, June 8th, they boys had a good day. Austin still continues to do well on the c-pap with no rate. He is still tolerating his priming, they will start to feed him on Thursday if all goes well. Calvin is doing well, I was able to start nippling him today with the bottle. He took 9ml of his 19ml feeding. We thought that was pretty good for his first time! Grammy came to visit today and was able to hold Calvin for a few minutes.

Monday, June 7th the boys had a pretty good day. Austin is a little swollen so they gave him some lacix to get rid of some of the fluid he is retaining. They told us that it is normal after being sick and all the antibiotics to retain fluid. He is doing well on his breathing the lowered him to room air on the c-pap. Calvin had a pretty good day as well. Even though he was cut off feedings today, due to being low on blood. They had to give him blood today so they don't feed them during that time.

Sunday, June 5th the boys had a good day. Austin's c-pap was lowered to a rate of 10, he seemed to be tolerating it well. They were also able to start priming his stomach, they will do that for four days before they start to feed him. He is up to 2lbs 5oz. Calvin had a good day as well. He has been having a few brady's over the past couple of days around his feedings, so they put his feedings on a pump over an hour to see if that might help. He is up to 2 lbs 7oz.

Saturday, June 5th the boys had a good day. Austin is doing well on the c-pap machine and they are hoping to start priming his stomach tomorrow. Calvin had a good day as well. I was able to start nippling him with a bottle to start working towards feeding him by bottle. Of course just a couple tries today. It is a long process teaching them how to get the suck/swallow technique down. We are hoping to continue to work with him on that the next few weeks. We met Chad Sasha and Miss Sarah for pizza tonight in Peoria, if you've never been to Aggatucci's, it gets a great recommendation from us!

Friday, June 4th, the boys had a pretty good day. Austin weighed over 2 lbs on Wednesday, but with everything else he has had going on I failed to mention that the last few days. He is doing well on the c-pap machine, but still not eating yet due to his whole stomach issue. The doctor and surgeons did take another look at his x-rays from yesterday and this morning and have decided that they still don't think it is NEC. They are thinking maybe the blood in his stool yesterday morning was from the blood transfusion that he received the night before. We hope for him to be able to start priming his stomach here in the next few days. Calvin has continued to stay on the flow of one liter on the canula today. They have gone up to 19 ml on his feedings.

Thursday, June 3rd was another rollercoaster day for the boys. I called this morning to check on them, and was informed that Austin had blood in his last stool. They were concerened about NEC again. He had an abdonminal x-ray and blood work right away. The x-ray was normal at noon, then again at six o'clock this evening but they are continuing to do the x-rays every six hours. The surgeons were consulted again to keep an eye on him as well. His platelet count was low again today, so they had to give him platelets which they felt was a sign that maybe he still has a little infection going on. The plan is to continue him on the antibiotics and continue to hold off on his feedings. He was doing well today on the breathing and was able to be taken off the ventilator and put back on the c-pap machine which made us happy. Let's just hope he can stay on the c-pap and we can get the whole belly thing figured out. Calvin had a good day, he was lowered to 1 liter of flow on his canula. We also hope he is able to stay on the 1 liter of flow. Calvin had his follow up head ultra sound for the brain bleed today as well. The bleed is a grade 1 and is starting to evolve so they were glad to see that and won't check it again until closer to when we leave and they check Austin's again. That made us happy!

Wednesday, June 2nd was an okay day for the boys. Austin's spinal tap came back with some elevated numbers so they will continue him on the antibiotocs for another seven days. They do a culture on the spinal fluid, and nothing has actually grown in the culture, there are just a few more white blood cells in there than they would like to see. His blood work has been improving so that is a good thing. He is doing well being weaned off the vent. They think hopefully by tomorrow afternoon he can be back on the c-pap machine if all goes well. They plan to start priming his stomach again starting on Friday. Calvin continues to do well, they raised is feedings today to 17ml so that is good.

Tuesday, June 1st, the boys had a pretty good day. Austin continues to be weaned off the ventialator so that is good. He had a spinal tap done today, which is a routine work up from the incident over the weekend. They need to determine how long to keep him on the antibiotics. The surgeons have ruled out NEC, and have signed off on it. We were happy about that. They will check to make sure his blood work is OK tomorrow and make sure that he continues to improve, while continuing to hold off on feeding him. Calvin is doing well, he is back on his full feeds. I was able to hold him today outside his isolette. I was VERY happy!