A day that deserves 2 posts! This ones from mom.

What a good day! We went in to see the babies after church and they are doing SO, SO, SO, SO, good (yeah, Ryan was in trouble).

Dawson is now down to 0.9 on his nitrate and will be totally off by tonight. He had one of his I.V.'s in his belly button removed and the other will be removed tomorrow. Tomorrow morning he is scheduled for an echocardiogram and brain scan. The echo will see how his little valve in his heart is doing and if he needs meds or not. The brain scan will tell us if his brain has been bleeding anymore.

There are 4 levels of bleeds and 4 is the worst. Both babies have a level 3. This just means that there was a lot more blood than they like to see but that it is all being contained in the ventricles or spaces in their brain. After a bit of time, if the bleeding has stopped, it will clot then reabsorb. As of right now there is no telling if the bleeding has or will cause long term developmental problems. That is a little scary to hear, but we have faith that they will be just fine. We will all just keep praying for both of them! A 4 means that the blood is in the brain tissues and will cause damage. We want to stay away from the 4.

Anyway, back to Dawson. He will be off the ventilator tomorrow if all goes as planned. At which point they will give him a C-PAP. This is a tube that goes on and into his nose and forces air in to him. He will be breathing on his own but the air will help make sure that his lungs stay open. Babies don't generally enjoy this. He could be on this anywhere from 2 days to 3 weeks, depending on how he does.

Dawson is also a very content and laid back little boy. They are now down to only one dose of sedation a day. He is mostly just sleeping and is very mild mannered! What a good little boy! He is fighting so hard and is doing so well. What a blessing!
We will try to get a picture of him sometime with his eyes open. He looks just like his grandpa Lindstrom--for any of you that have met Jeff you will definately agree!!

Mallory, Mallory, Mallory. What a funny little girl! The comments that we get about her are always somewhere along the lines of "She is quite tempermental". Yeah, she doesn't like to be bugged. She loves her mommy and daddy and is quite content to have us there by her, but apparently she gets a little wiggly and lets everyone know when she is not happy. It's probably a good thing she can't cry with the tubes in her throat or she would have one more way to let them know she is not happy. The nurses can now read her body language. She has a little shutter that she does when she is mad whenever they poke at her or put her in a position she doesn't like. She is so funny!

She is over all doing great also. They will wean her, as Ry said, just a little slower this time. Her lung should be better in the next few days. She is off most of her meds and is just plugging along. We love when the nurses put bows in her hair, she is so pretty. Today one of the nurses even did her hair. They spiked it in the middle and waved it a little down the sides. I can't wait until it's my turn to do all of this!

Today I got to do some mommy things. I took their temperature, cleaned their belly buttons, cleaned their little lips, and changed their diapers. Which by the way were both poopy!! Under any other circumstances I am sure you wouldn't want to hear about our kids poopy diapers, but in this case it is awesome because it means that their little bodies are working right!

Well once again we appreciate you all!! We love reading your comments and feeling your love and support. It means so much to us!! Thanks for your prayers--they make all of the difference! We love you all!

Love- Ry, Amy, Jake, Daws, and Mal