When we first arrived in the NICU we were the neediest babies there.  We got lots of attention – our boys had teams around them most of the time.  Everyone was so nice, and bent over backwards to make sure we felt secure and comfortable with the treatment given to our tiny, tiny 25 weekers.  Today the boys are 31 weekers andhave doubled their weight!  And while still attentive, the doctors aren’t ever-present at the bedside’s of “the Camp boys” as the staff calls them.  They don’t run in every time one of them has a spell and they don’t come in everday to give me a thorough report.  At first, this was a tough transition for me.  I had become accustomed to the attention and extra time the doctors spent with my boys.  But as I sat today, next to Griffin and chatted with the nurses about this change I came to a realization.  This change is a positive for the boys.  This shift from a staff of doctors with a sense of urgency to a staff of doctors who stroll in, wave and walk on to another baby in the room means that my boys are better, stronger, more stable and healthier than they were before.  They are clearly no longer the neediest babies in the NICU.  So it was in that moment today that I got over missing the ever-present team of doctors and breathed a sigh of relief. 

Griffin and Carter still have a long way to go but we are moving along in many ways.  Both of the boys have broken the 3 pound mark!!  Carter weighs 3 lbs. 4 ounces and Griffin weighs 3 lbs. 2 ounces.  Even though Carter still has some pretty lousy looking lungs his P.I.E. (emphysema in preemies) is gone and they have been able to wean his oscillator settings over the past few days.  Hopefully he will be infection free with this latest set of cultures (tests) so he can receive a round of steroids to strengthen his lungs and they will be able to move him off of the oscillator sooner than later.  Griffin is doing much better in the lung department than his little (by 7 minutes) brother.  He was extubated last week and it seems to be working.  He is on a SiPap machine which is similar to a CPap machine for someone with sleep apnea.  His little mask over his nose gives him oxygen at a rate of 15 – which means that on top of what Griffin breathes on his own the machine gives him 15 breaths per minute.  Our goal for him is to be weaned down to a rate of zero – then he can move to a nasal cannula and on the track to doing it all by himself.   We’ll get there – I’m in no rush! 

And something wonderful happened today – I was able to hold Griffin!  And when I say hold, I don’t mean two inches above his bed while the nurse changes his bedding type of holding, I mean sit in the rocking chair, wrap him in a blanket, sing to him, kiss him on the head type of holding!  And it was amazing!  It was only 15 minutes since he can’t maintain his own body temperature for long but it was the best 15 minutes I have had in the last six weeks.  The next time I will have such a wonderful 15 minutes will be when I get to hold Carter, which hopefully will be in the a couple of weeks.