Hi friends and family!

We know you have all been eagerly awaiting to hear an update, so thank you for your patience. Tomorrow, the boys will be 36 days old, and 29 weeks gestationally. This is a big moment for us, and getting to 1-month of life last week was really special. We take every little moment as a blessing and still are in the thick of this journey. In the past few weeks, we have been on the NICU rollercoaster, watching them grow and have little wins, as well as little set backs that can be absolutely terrifying. We have seen them make strides of progress and still have a long journey ahead, but are so proud of how strong they both are and how much life they have in them.

As of today, both boys are still on their oxygen support at a high level with an ET tube, and in the past few weeks also went on a 10-day steroid course for their lungs that is now complete. The goal of the steroid treatment is to extubate the ET tube, however, the boys still needed higher support and their tubes have not been extubated since finishing their steroid. We are looking at another round of steroids in the coming weeks to help with their lungs, but have to wait, as their hearts were affected by the steroid as a side effect. During this journey, it really is a battle of trusting the process completely and knowing what to address and focus on in the healing process first. Right now we have lungs, hearts, stomachs, feeding, growing, etc. At the moment,  doctors are addressing mostly their lungs and hearts, with their lungs and respiratory healing as the highest priority. 

One huge win over the past few weeks was that I got to hold Banks and Brooks, and Blake got to hold Banks! As you can imagine, this moment will forever be one of our most cherished of all time. They both LOVED being held and were able to lay on us for up to 2 and half hours each time. It took 3 nurses and 3 respiratory therapists to help get Brooks on my chest in a position that was safe for him. We are every day grateful for the NICU team and blown away by how incredible the nurses, doctors, therapists, and entire staff are! 

Here are a few photos that were taken of us holding the boys:

First photo: Bri holding Banks

Second photo: Bri holding Brooks

Third and fourth photos: Blake holding Banks 

We love you all and could not do this without your support-  more updates to come this week! :)