So much can change in a few days...

Fact number 1: for some reason, premature girls do better than premature boys. Whether it's fewer setbacks, quicker development, etc. they just do better. We were told that repeatedly before the babies came, and have been reminded of it since. I don't know that it's been scientifically tested and proven in an official sort of way, but it's just generally accepted.

Fact number 2: in cases of twin births where there is some sort of "issue" like abruption, or leaking fluid or something like that, the baby that is in 'distress' does better than his/her sibling. The explanation being that the baby can sense birth is drawing near, and he/she almost just "gets ready" for the whole thing. The other baby, in the meantime, has no clue anything has gone wrong, and isn't quite as ready.

Well, you may see where I'm going with this - facts 1 & 2 both apply to our little princess Emery. So she may have been 'ahead' of Collin in some regards for quite some time, but these last couple days she has absolutely taken off. Amazing. They have removed the feeding tube from her nose, so she is taking all feedings by mouth now, and doing quite well! She's a very purposeful eater, you could say. She really goes after it, and has her milk all down in usually about 10 minutes. Then a few good burps and she's back to sleep! Very goal oriented, apparently.

In conversations with nurses over the last couple days, Emery's reports are all positive, and it's looking like she'll be able to come home by about the middle of this week!!! Holy smokes!!! That's so exciting we can hardly express how grateful we are. Well, grateful and a bit nervous about the whole "coming home" thing. :) She needs to get a few more things checked off in the next couple days (labs, hearing test, etc.) and then we'll be good to go! Wow.

Now, as for Collin, he has never been quite the direct, purposeful eater. He is a bit more social, looking around, falling asleep, etc. before remembering what he should be doing. Like Erin says, "he likes to look around the restaurant before digging in to his meal". He is more tired when eating, so he's a little more hit 'n miss - something that might be related to his PDA, they aren't exactly sure. He'll have another echo on his heart Tuesday, and they may be able to make definitive plans at that time.

So this week is shaping up to be an eventful one, thanks to our ambitious little princess. :) We continue to hope and pray that Collin will sort of just "turn a corner" but also remain very, very grateful that the issues he experiences are relatively minor to what others in the NICU may face.