Jacob & Jordan Update 3-6-10

Just the facts ma'am:

Daily report for the twins -

Jacob - 2 lbs. 14 oz.
12 CC's plain milk
0 residuals
3 dirty diapers
5 wet diapers
3 brady episodes
1 liter flow
21% Room Air Nasal Cannula
TPN 3.1
Lipids .5
0 Desats
1/2 CC residuals
6 mg. caffeine

Jordan -

Jordan got to try a bottle for the first time today! Unique experience for her, but given it was her first time, she did very well.

3 lbs. 6 oz.
30 CC's fortified milk
3 brady episodes
1 dirty diaper
5 wet diapers
23% FIO2 Nasal Cannula
7.5 mg. caffeine
0 residuals
0 desats
1 liter flow


Kind regards,


The Cordova Family (Andy, Sheri, Jacob & Jordan)
cell - 281-300-6212
email - maverick2601@hotmail.com

Jacob & Jordan Update 3-5-10

Statistics for the day for the twins:

Jacob -

7 wet diapers
3 dirty diapers
21%-23% FIO2 Nasal Cannula
2 lbs. 12 oz
TPN 3.9
Lipids .8
4 Brady Episodes
4 Desats
1 CC residuals
6 mg. daily caffeine
1 liter flow
6 CC's non-fortified milk

Jordan -
8 wet diapers
3 dirty diapers
1 cc residuals
21% FIO2 Nasal Cannula
7.5 mg. caffeine
3 Brady episodes
3 desats
3 lbs. 4 oz.
1 liter flow
30 CCs fortified milk


Kind regards,


The Cordova Family (Andy, Sheri, Jacob & Jordan)
cell - 281-300-6212
email - maverick2601@hotmail.com

Jacob & Jordan Update 3-4-10

Friends, Family, Prayer Warriors,

I would like to introduce you to the latest addition in our primary care miracle workers for Jacob and Jordan...Virginia! Virginia has graciously agreed to be a daily care primary for two days out of each week and work with Jacob and Jordan, and we got the distinct pleasure of getting to know her tonight. She is very nice, very knowledgeable and Sheri and I are so thankful that we are so very blessed with having wonderful people like these three ladies taking care of our little ones! Check out the aptly named...Dream Team for the Cordovas! (from left to right, Virginia, our two day primary, Melinda, our 5 night primary, and last, but certainly not least, Jennifer, our weekend day primary!



Well, another good day for both of the babies. Jordan is handling wearing clothes comfortably; I got to hold her for a little bit before shift change tonight (between 6:30 - 7:00 p.m.), I haven't got pictures yet from mom, but once I can tie her down to loan me her flash card from her camera, I'll upload them to the website and you will be able to see them. Sheri held Jacob for a while tonight; it was a very enjoyable evening for both of us, as both kids were switched off of the CPAP today and put back on nasal cannula again! As I said before, lets pray third time is a charm for them to succeed and stay off the CPAP permanently this time, hmmmm?

And now the news...

Jacob's weight is maintaining at 2 lbs. 12 oz. tonight. His feeds were increased today to 6 CC's of non-fortified milk and he is taking 21% Room Air on Nasal cannula. His TPN levels were again reduced to 4.9 and his lipids to .8. In addition to all of that, he continues to have 6 mg. of daily caffeine, 0 residuals, 0 brady episodes, 6 wet diapers, and 1 big dirty diaper for tonight. Way to Go Baby Boy!

Jordan's weight has increased as well; she really is truckin' along by leaps and bounds! Her official weight is 3 lbs. 5 oz., with 5 wet diapers, 1 dirty diaper, 0 desats and 0 brady episodes. That's awesome! It is also suspected that if Jordan puts on a little more ounces this weekend, she could go to an open crib next week! Oooh, lets pray for that! Jordan is also getting 28 CC's of fortified milk, 0 residuals, and her daily caffeine regiment is holding steady at 6.8 mg. caffeine, while her nasal cannula percentages slightly fluctuate between 21% Room Air and 23% FIO2.

Awesome job kiddos!

Check back for more updates soon!

Kind regards,


The Cordova Family (Andy, Sheri, Jacob & Jordan)
cell - 281-300-6212
email - maverick2601@hotmail.com

Jacob & Jordan Update 3-3-10

Family, Friends, Prayer Warriors,

I'm going to break norms tonight and talk about Jordan first for a change; don't want to appear that I'm giving one more attention than the other...best that I adopt that philosophy real quick, or it will really get me later ;).

Both kids have done really well tonight, they must have picked up on that Melinda was coming back today, so they wanted to shine for her (wink wink). We kid, but in all honesty, we really did miss having Melinda there in the evenings, so Sheri and I are both glad she is back tonight. Jordan is also doing really well with her weight; she is now at 3 lbs. 2 oz., and the discussion this afternoon was that she could possibly go back to the nasal cannula again tomorrow. You know what they say...3rd time's a charm. Let's pray for longer or permanent durations! Also, Melinda took a look at the notations made for Jordan's temperature yesterday, and decided to give her another chance to wear clothes, as shown below:



Other positive things to note:

4% CPAP 21% Room Air
6 wet diapers
0 dirty diapers
28 CC's milk
0 residuals on her feeds
0 brady episodes
0 desats
6.8 mg. of caffeine (daily)

Great job baby girl! Mommy and Daddy and all of your vast extended family are very proud of you! Keep it up!

Jacob had a very good day as well. As I previously mentioned, he started back on his feeds today after receiving one final dose of each antibiotic in the morning (whereby the antibiotics were stopped after that). He still has the PICC line in his left arm, which is doing good, to supplement what he is getting in milk, and as his CC's are increased, the IV levels will decrease, and eventually the PICC line will be removed. Jacob's report for the day is:

4% CPAP 21% Room Air
3 CC's straight milk (no fortification)
0 residuals
5.7 TPN (this and the Lipids number will continue to decrease as his feeds increase)
.7 Lipids
0 dirty diapers(no problem, he will work that out as he has more consistent feeds now)
5 wet diapers
0 brady episodes
0 desats
6 mg. of caffeine daily now (1 mg. more than yesterday; incidentally, this will increase as his weight gains)
2 lbs. 12 oz. (God be praised! Our little man is almost to 3 lbs.! Hoooorrraaayyy!)
off both antibiotics now

Overall, a good day with lots of promise for each one! Thank you for your prayers and please, keep them coming!


Kind regards,


The Cordova Family (Andy, Sheri, Jacob & Jordan)
cell - 281-300-6212
email - maverick2601@hotmail.com

Jacob & Jordan Update 3-2-10

Friends, Family, Prayer Warriors,

Things were pretty quiet at the hospital today, only a few changes to report. Jacob had a pretty even keel day given everything he has been through, so no news is good news. He will be back on feeds at a low rate starting tomorrow while still receiving his nutritional iv, and we will see how he does with that (it will be a week exactly since he was taken off milk tomorrow). He will also get one last dose of his 8 hour vancomycin and 24 hour tobramycin and then we're off to the races.

His daily report for the entire day:

4% CPAP 21% Room Air
1 brady
4 wet diapers
0 dirty diapers
TPN at 6.3
Lipids at .7
weight - 2 lbs. 10 oz. (slight gain, so very promising)
0 desats
still on central line (PICC line), doing good
5 mg. caffeine (daily)

Jordan:

3 lbs. 1 oz.
4% CPAP 21-25% FIO2
2 brady episodes
5 wet diapers
4 dirty diapers
28 CC's mothers milk
6.8 mg. daily caffeine

Keep in touch, we'll update you with more soon! God Bless you and yours!

Kind regards,


The Cordova Family (Andy, Sheri, Jacob & Jordan)
cell - 281-300-6212
email - maverick2601@hotmail.com

Jacob & Jordan Update 3-1-10

Friends, Family & Prayer Warriors,

We got some good news and some OK news today for the twins. One of the pieces of good news is we now know what was the cause of Jacob's scare last Wednesday based on three full days of lab work. One piece of the OK news is the doctor ruled his symptoms as early NEC. Now, before mild panic starts to set in, as I did when I found this out, lets go back to the good news and let me say that the doctor's feeling is it was early stage NEC, and was caught in time before it did any real damage. After hearing that, I was a little more at ease, but still cautious, because the doctors have to put him back on feeds to determine the true amount of damage to his tummy, bowel lining and intestines, if any, Wednesday of this week. What is scheduled to happen, starting Wednesday, is Jacob will start off by getting low-end milk from Sheri while getting the remaining levels of nutrition through his IV feed. After speaking to one of the night nurses watching over the twins tonight, it was explained to me that in order for the NEC to be a larger scare than what it is now (which I don't know, this can be somewhat scary when we let it) Jacob would have to have more brady episodes than recorded before in one day, much more irregular breathing, and more bloody stools. Which, he has not had any of those symptoms since last week when this started. So that's a good thing, and we all will continue to watch and pray for him to get better and grow stronger. Jacob's official numbers for the day reveal:

2 lbs. 9 oz.
1 brady episode
0 desats
4 wet diapers
1 dirty diaper
21% Room Air, 4% CPAP
5 mg. daily caffeine
still on vancomycin every 8 hrs.
still on tobramycin every 24 hours
TPN level 6.3
Lipid amount .7
still has PICC line in left arm (I found out last weekend this was the proper way to spell the term for the central line which is giving Jake his nutritional supplements)

Please pray for him to kick this and thrive as he has with all obstacles that have come his way so far in his tiny new beginning. God works miracles, and Jacob is in his hands; he would not have come as far as he has without the good Lord's presence.

Jordan, although much farther along than her big bro, is not without her hurdles. Even though she was wearing her first t-shirt starting last night, by observation today, the nurses have noticed she is struggling a little bit with keeping her temperature down. When the babies progress far enough along, the doctors and nurses at some point will opt to put clothes on the baby, and in some cases with preemies, will turn down the incubator habitat to accept more manual controls; thereby enabling the baby to work to control their own temperature. For the first few weeks, especially if they are premature, babies have difficulty with this because their nervous system is still developing. The programmable beds have a setting which using the leads on the baby, can detect the actual temperature of the little one and adjust accordingly (baby too hot, bed cools down, baby too cold, bed warms up). This was the circumstance in Jordan's case, and because she was struggling, the nurses decided to take her little T back off, and for the moment, let the bed help to control her temperature and make the attempt again later (if she is anything like her father and has my hot nature, I'm really in for a rough time ;) which I have been told she already resembles me in physical looks, so let's not doom the child further...LOL, just kidding folks)

Jordan's report for the whole day shows:
3 lbs. 1 oz
2 brady episodes
27 CC's of milk
6.8 mg. of caffeine (daily)
4% CPAP 21-22% FIO2
7 dirty diapers (that's a lot for her, I wonder what Sheri has been eating)
7 wet diapers

Keep growing, Keep overcoming, and Keep progressing little ones! You have a lot of people pulling for and looking out for you! We're all so proud of you!


Kind regards,


The Cordova Family (Andy, Sheri, Jacob & Jordan)
cell - 281-300-6212
email - maverick2601@hotmail.com

Jacob & Jordan Update 2-28-10

Family, Friends, Prayer Warriors,

Today was a rest and relaxation day for the kids, and for us as well. Sheri and I stayed with them in the NICU all day until shift change. Then I had to come back home to go to work tomorrow, and Sheri stayed overnight. Although he has good signs the last few days, and now with the transfusion his color and energy levels are looking better, we are still kind of leery about leaving Jacob alone until he is completely off of the antibiotics and back on feeds. Overall though, each day he is showing more and more signs of improvement. We are still waiting for the final assessment and official word as to what caused the scare last Wednesday, so we hope to hear something soon.

Jordan also had a big day today. She officially hit the 3 lb. mark tonight, and is now wearing t-shirts. Her incubator heat levels have been reduced to allow her to maintain her body temperature on her own in efforts to further her progress; they will not be raising or lowering the temperature as her temperature fluctuates. Another good learning tool for her to master.

I also have updated the slideshow today with some new photos; they should appear in the show at the beginning. Enjoy!

The official report for the whole day:

4% CPAP 21% Room Air
0 brady episodes
2 lbs. 8 oz. (in spite of all he is going through, he is still gaining ounces. way to go little guy!)
0 desat episodes
6 wet diapers
0 dirty diapers
the IV was taken out of his head today
5 mg. caffeine (daily)
TPN levels 5.7
Lipids levels - .7
still on vancomycin and tobramycin for ever8 8 $& 24 hours.
once could say he's had a good day with the result of IV put in an out of his head.

Jordan's official report -

3 lbs. yeeeeahhh!
now wearing clothes and responsible for maintaining her own body heat (the incubator will back her up if needed)
21% Room Air 4% CPAP
27 CC's milk
1 brady episode
1 desat
2 dirty diapers
3 wet diapers
6.8 mg. daily caffeine

Go Jacob go! Go Jordan!

More on the way soon! In the meantime, enjoy the new photos!


Kind regards,


The Cordova Family (Andy, Sheri, Jacob & Jordan)
cell - 281-300-6212
email - maverick2601@hotmail.com