The past 72 hours have been a whirlwind. Tuesday was the most terrifying day we’ve had since the boys were born. On Monday night one of the nurses mentioned his tummy looked a little distended, and the next morning when Adam went to see him, Sam’s labs were not good. They ordered x-rays and the results showed he had free air, so they decided to transfer him to Children’s Hospital for a minor surgery. As “minor” as you can get on a baby that weighs less than 2 pounds….

They put a drain in his abdomen and a while later took another x-ray. Looked like the free air was gone! But…. a few hours later they did another x-ray and there was more free air. More than likely he has a small hole in his small intestine causing this. What we’re HOPING is that it heals itself… That happens about 1/3 of the time. Ever since Tuesday night though, he has been stable and holding his own! The surgeons/neonatologists/nurses, etc. are all very positive. Thank goodness. His x-rays continue to look good.

One of our happiest moments has been proving the doctors wrong- every single doctor, nurse practitioner, and nurse told us before and after the surgery that they have never seen a baby as small as Sam have this surgery and NOT get intubated (put a breathing tube down the throat). Well! Sam has not been intubated and there is no talk of it anymore! Guess little Sam proved them all wrong 🙂

In other positive news, I was able to hold Jack yesterday for the first time!!!!! It was the most amazing experience of my life. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Our favorite nurse, Brenda (more on her later!), asked the Nurse Practitioner if she thought we would be able to hold him. They usually wait until day 7, but because Jack has been doing so well, she thought it would be better than okay! Let’s just say it was much needed after the days we had been having.

Proud Mommy/Daddy moment… we have been stopped by every single nurse in the NICU’s to tell us how cute our boys are. Even the ones that aren’t assigned to Sam or Jack come over to us just to say they haven’t seen such cute babies in a very long time. 🙂 Everyone is amazed at how much they look like little babies, even though they’re so small!

Here are some pictures of the last few days….

This is what Sam and Jack’s room looked like on their last night together. Now it looks empty in there without Sam’s little crib 😦

Brenda, me and Jack… She is the most amazing person/nurse. We are so fortunate to have her assigned to the boys. We can’t wait until Sam is stable enough to get back to Bergan!

Proud Mommy and Daddy!!!

The most amazing feeling in the world. Had to wait almost a week to hold him, but this moment with Jack is indescribable.

After being held by Mommy, Jack also got his first taste of “tummy time”! Big Milestone in the NICU. How cute is he?! 🙂

Grandpa Brad was lucky enough to touch Jack for the first time even! Until now, no one but Adam and I were allowed to touch him. After being in Omaha for the past 10 days, Brenda thought Dad deserved a little something 🙂

Big hand, little baby 🙂

Here is Sam’s new crib! Just as cozy, but misses his little brother.

One of Sam’s (many) stuffed animals holding a picture of Jack.

Sam the Man. Poor little guy has so many lines in his tiny little body. We feel bad that we don’t have as many pictures of Sam right now, but we kind of walk around on eggshells with him. We feel bad any time we might disturb him! Once he’s back on his feet, there will be 100’s of pictures every hour 🙂

Here’s another emotional story from yesterday…our nurse Brenda had been gone for a few days so didn’t know about Sam being moved to Children’s. I walked in and saw her and we just kind of talked about Jack without mentioning Sam. Then she came over to me and showed me the below… She told me she had been saving these pendants for a special family for a few months. We both started to cry, and she just told me that the boys will never be alone, and neither will Adam nor me. It was her way of telling us how much she cares for our family and knows everything will be okay.