Thursday PM - Today was an atypical day, which means a typical day for us. Really though, the last several days, even weeks, had become almost routine if you consider having twins in intensive care "routine". Grant's anemia had not shown any improvement, so the doctor decided to top off his tank with a blood transfusion. She virtually guaranteed he would be a new man tomorrow, although we weren't unhappy with the old man. As I said earlier, this should keep him from dozing off while he's eating and/or being burped. For today, he was only able to take his food from a bottle and the orogastric tube (the tube tape to his mouth). Tomorrow everything should be back on schedule. If what the doctor says is true, he could be dismissed in as little as 1 week. We're ready, but we're not ready.

It looks as though Adam's surgery is not going to happen this week. As time passes we have mixed feelings about the delay. Up to this point we've been fine with waiting, but not knowing when it's going to happen makes for a little anxiety. Tonight he weighed in at 2.5 oz under 4 lbs. This is nothing short of miraculous, and we are happy beyond words. He is no longer taking IV nourishment, but breast milk and formula instead. They have left in a percutaneous line that allows them to give him routine meds without having to stick him repeatedly. The percutaneous (pic) line is an IV line that runs from the arm into the larger veins in the chest. It sounds gruesome but is actually better than a regular IV because it is more stable and less prone to infiltrating.

Today's pictures (seen only on the Yahoo site) are exclusively of Adam, as Grant was doing his vampire thing. One shows his ankle bracelet that was designed by one of his nurses and the others have him in his Texas hat. He's predicting a Longhorn victory over the dreaded Sooners this weekend. Grant is also sporting his UT colors, but was unavailable for pictures. A word about the nurses: We occasionally find items, such as knitted hats, ankle bracelets, that we have no idea from whence they came. It turns out that a handful of nurses make or buy these and other items for the NICU babies. So far, in addtion to the ankle bracelets and three hats (including the pumpkin hat seen in the photos), we've received t-shirts, a "fake hand" that's actually a glove filled with something that makes it feel like a real hand, and other things that I'm probably forgetting. As I've said before, these nurses are a special group of people, and the world is better for having them here.

It's time to upload the pictures. Until the next post...