Big Brother's Visit!

What a great big brother! Tyson was cheering the babies on in his big brother t-shirt from the hospital room.
He has been really excited about the babies. He gets a little confused that about having two. I don't think he really understands these babies are the same babies that were in mommy's belly. If we talk about the twins when we are not with them he will still touch my belly. So cute! We are really torn right now. It is hard to be away from Tyson when we are up at the hospital. We have been trying to split our time so when we go home to see Tyson we feel horrible for leaving the babies and we when are at the hospital day and night we miss Tyson like crazy! All will be fine once we get them home and we are just trying to remember that this is temporary. Grandma and Grandpa Rose have been here for the week helping out and Grandma and Grandpa Jones will be back this weekend. Thanks so much for all of your help with Tyson! Everything already feels upside down, I could not imagine how we would feel with out our parents help.

We were able to take Tyson up to the NICU yesterday. He had to scrub in just like mommy and daddy and he really got a kick out of it. The nurses welcomed him giving him big brother coloring books that teach him about all of the equipment he is seeing and why we have to keep our hands so clean!
He wanted a little boost so he could see better :)

Asking questions about baby Dakota!

Finally our whole family together! It was just for a few minutes but it felt great!

As for how they twins are doing ... we have come a long way but still have a long way to go. Dakota is our little champ with her feedings. She only had to use the tube once in the past 3 days and only for about 10ml. Jaxson is not as interested in the bottle. He mainly takes his feeding from the tube but is getting the chance to bottle every other feeding. They are taking only mommy's milk now, no formula supplements! We do add 24 calories to each feeding to help with weight gain. (Did you ever think 24 calories would ever help you gain weight!) We are behind a little bit in the weight gain area. Dakota has been sitting at 4 lbs 5oz for the past two days. Jaxson has continued to go down now at 3 lbs 12 oz. We are hoping the calories will help. They have both been increased to 40 ML = just a little over 1 oz. They are weighed every night so hopefully we will see improvement tonight. They are continuing to feed every three hrs so our schedule is very predictable. We go up to the NICU for every feeding, wake them up, check vital signs, change diapers and feed. We leave for at least 2 hrs so they can rest and grow and we are at it again. In our down time we try to get our own rest on top of eating and making sure I can pump milk for them.

After the doctor's visit today he mentioned if Dakota can keep up with her feeding by bottle through tomorrow she may be able to get her tube out. As for Jaxson, he has a little catch up work to do.

Please keep the babies in your prayers. They are continuing to pass all other health checks with flying colors. We are now just looking for consist ant feeds and weight gain.