Some relief

Swear word! It has been a week of terror! I won't go into details because if I start to cry I'm likely not to quit! I REALLY have to give my academy award speech to say thanks to my peeps., mostly because writing thank you's to everyone and hand delivering them almost defeats the purpose of why people are so willing to help (people are trying to HELP, without making more work)...First, THANK you to Chelsea and Lanee for taking our kids without a moments notice and doggy sitting Sicily. Thank you Gina and Billy for also taking our boys, giving Phoenix bubble gum when he poops and making them lots of scrambled eggs. To my Mom and Steve, thank you for always coming to the rescue when we are running out of babysitters and always making sure we have plenty to eat! To Mom and Dad J, even though you can't be here with us, we know your prayers are coming our way and that they will be what ultimately gives the babies what they need to pull through this. To Pauline and Todd, thank you SO much for volunteering your babysitting services and prayers and everything, you guys are always so willing to help. To EVERYONE else that has prayed for Peyton and Bella and the rest of our family, we can seriously not thank you enough, prayers are what have given us the family we are so grateful for.
As for the update...the babies have not showed much improvement in the oxygen need department, BUT...Peyton started drinking oral fluids today for the first time in 5 days. Ok...I thought I would get by without crying, but here I am sobbing like a baby hardly able to see the keyboard through my tears. I cannot even begin to express how much this small improvement means to me. We have been sleep deprived for a week and a half with 3 very sick children. And when we finally arrived at the hospital I expected to feel some relief that they would be able to solve the problems with our children and my worries would be gone. But every day the babies condition seemed to worsen. Our pediatrician has assured us that he is doing everything in the book. I just wanted him to reassure me that they are not different from any other RSV infected children and that it would just take time. He said that they are doing what is normal for the "johnson children". Which basically means that because they were compromised as preterm infants they cannot be compared to how the average full term singleton would do. And, yes, it will just take time. We are grateful for the nurses, doctors, and respiratory therapists that have practically lived in our crib stuffed hospital room with us.
Isabella showed a little improvement today with her fire-cracker personality. She LOVES the orange pedialyte that the nurses give her. Every time she empties another sippy cup she throws the bottle on the floor and screams for more (who taught her manners?) She doesn't eat much and still requires 2 Liters of oxygen ( which is a lot for kids their size). Peyton stayed up today (as opposed to the last couple of days when he was basically comotose). He is grumpy, as anyone would be, but at least he had a little bit of attitude to him today. SO much better then seeing him lay floppy on the bed like he's giving up. It is EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY hard to sit back and watch another nurse make the decisions for my babies. They are doing a great job, but I wish I was the RN and I was carrying out the doctors orders deciding when to turn up the O2 or when to turn it down. It's also hard that they know we are nurses and they wonder if we think they are taking good care of the babes. It's hard to be my childs advocate without looking like I'm micro-managing my babies care. It's hard to watch their oxygen fall and anxiously wait for the nurse to run in and turn up the oxygen.
Anyway, thank you again for everything...