Update January 14

Well, in an interesting turn of events, it seems that our little fighter Rhys has decided to compete with his big brother in the "Who Goes Home First?" contest!!!

Yes, that's right, the little man has taken some huge leaps in the right direction!

He has slowly been working on his feeds. All the doctors and nurses have been very cautious, trying to avoid any further tummy troubles. After a bout of necrotizing enterocolitis, there are a variety of complications that can arise, and they were worried Rhys was suffering from one or more of them. So, his feeds were started at 1 millilitre an hour of breast milk pumped into his belly by a tube. Very slowly, they increased the amount. A few days ago, he finally reached his "full feed" which is the full amount that he needs to take to thrive! Once he got to that point, they started feeding him over a smaller length of time...so instead of the pump running continuously, they ran it for two hours on, one hour off. Then one hour on, two hours off. Finally last night, he was allowed to try "bolus" feeding. Which basically means, he would take his full amount (49 millilitres) in a short amount of time. The feeds would still be given by tube, but the full amount would be all at once, similar to what a baby would naturally do on their own. The doctor said he could try to breastfeed or bottle feed, but the prediction was that he would not have enough energy to do so (he has never taken a bottle or breastfed before)

Well, Mr. Rhys is full of surprises, and he did AWESOME! He took over half to three quarters of his feed by bottle and the rest by tube. Which everyone thought was pretty amazing.

And then this morning, he decided he had enough of the tube business, and decided to start taking his full amount strictly by bottle!!!! Everyone was very impressed!

And THEN, even better, when I got there in the morning today, he breastfed and took MORE than his full amount by breast (56 mls!), plus an additional amount by bottle. He's a genius!!!!

Just to put it in perspective, Garrett has never been able to accomplish this, and he hasn't had the health issues that Rhys has. So, despite all of his illness and complications that he endured, in the feeding department, Rhys is actually further ahead than Garrett!

He still has some issues that need to be addressed, but it is a HUGE step in the right direction! He has quite a bit of catching up to do as far as his weight gain and growth, and there is a concern that he may not be absorbing his nutrients as well as he should be, so that will have to be monitored for a bit. Also, he still has his central line in, but it isn't really being used anymore so they are going to likely remove it tomorrow!

Everyone kept telling us that babies can "turn a corner" really fast and all of a sudden just take off in the right direction! As far as Rhys was concerned, we didn't believe it.  It just seemed like it was one thing after another with him. But now we are starting to believe it! We are so proud of that little guy.

The nurses are now taking bets on which brother they think will go home first. Wouldn't that be something if it was Rhys after all he has been through?

Garrett is pretty close too. He is doing very well with his weight gain (he is over 6 lbs now!), but he is a bit pokey with his feeds. He can't seem to consistently take his full feeds without being topped up by the tube. I think he may have just been waiting for Rhys to get better so that he wouldn't have to leave him there alone. They say that multiples have a special connection with each other right?

Anyways, we couldn't be happier with this turn of events. We are still a bit apprehensive, hoping that this is for real and that Rhys if finally out of the woods. But this has given us so much hope that he is on the right track!

Here are some recent pictures of the boys....

Garrett

Rhys

Having a cuddle together!

Garrett in the world's cutest bear bum pants. Thanks Auntie Mandy and Uncle Robert! (Rhys has a matching pair but he can't wear them yet because of his central line)

Rylen holding Rhys for the first time

Another cuddle. Rhys on the left, Garrett on the right. Garrett used to be alot smaller, but Rhys has some catching up to do now!

Rhys and his BFF the soother. He was not allowed to eat for so long that he got addicted to this thing. I've never seen a kid suck so hard on a soother before.