Update

From the Twin-Daddy:

Today I arrived to find a sad Mary who was frustrated because her pumping was only producing a pittance of colostrum (0.005 mL – 0.3 mL).  It isn’t uncommon for a C-section mom to have this trouble, and preemie moms are also playing catch up.  Medela’s site has a useful explanation of some of this:

LINK TO MEDELA SITE

After holding the boys skin-to-skin for a bit over an hour, Mary’s… um… output jumped up to 1.5 mL.

That’s an increase of 5 times what she was producing without the skin-to-skin contact!

I sometimes speculate that men are simplified tinker-toys compared to the strange and wondrous machines that are women’s bodies.  Skin-to-Skin is great for the mom and the babies, and as soon as one of my baby-chimps settles onto my chimp chest, he magically quits squawking and settles into chimp-style sleeping, muttering occasionally and making little faces as he dreams.

Both guys are doing well, and I asked the NICU nurse about the low oxygen levels and how normal this was.  She was happy to tell us that it wasn’t unusual even for healthy adults to drop like that, and the difference is that we are not continuously monitored.  When babies need to burp, poop, or toot, they may hold their breath for a bit while they work on it.  It’s hard for them to get everything figured out at once, and that’s what typically causes most of the episodes.  Whap them a few times gently on the back or bottom, and they will be right as rain.  When this happens a lot, that is a cause for more concern which is why they kept a close eye on Mr. Dom.  His oxygen level has been lowered back to room air, and he seems to be doing fine.

Mr. Dom also showed he can be a good eater as well, and he sucked down 45 mL in a single feeding.  Both boys are now off the IV, and while having lost weight after delivery (as expected), they are slowly putting it back on.  They still take some food through bottles and some food through feeding tubes so they can rest.

Mom will be going home today, and we hope the boys will follow sometime in the next couple of weeks.