Moving along...

Meredith came home on Monday and she's doing very well. I'm surprised by how quick she's gotten back on her feet, but then again, she's not one to cave in the face of adversity. Kathryn has moved out of the isolette and into a nursery bed. She's gotten the IV out and most of the monitors off except for the heart monitor. She's feeding 2-4 times a day, with some of that nursing or from a bottle. The rest of her feedings are through her feeding tube. She's doing really well and is ahead of the curve for most babies her age. Garrett just got off the ventilator today and has moved down to a CPAP machine which offers extra air pressure support. We haven't gotten to hold him yet as he's been in the isolette the entire time since he was born. With so many things hooked up to him, you can't take him out of the isolet. He seems to be doing better each day and the last echocardiogram he had showed that the pda was very tiny. Now it's just a matter of him learning to breathe on his own and avoid apneas (where he forgets to breathe). In order to help with the pulmonary hypertension, they pumped oxygen in at high levels through the vent from Thursday through Monday and gave him two blood transfusions. The blood pressure also seems to have stabilized now and the hypertension is apparently corrected. As always, premature babies can have setbacks, so we hope he won't have to go back on the ventilator. They'll both remain in the NICU for at least two weeks, but that will give Meredith some extra time to get her strength and stamina back.
More updates to come...