Another major milestone

There have actually been a few since I last posted an update.  Today's big news is that all 3 munchkins got their nasal feeding tubes taken out.  Yea!  As of yesterday, all 3 are taking bottles for every feed.  The other big news is that they are now 1 month old (well, as of last Thursday actually).  I can't tell if the time has gone by too fast or too slow - it has been the craziest month of our lives for sure!  Now for the updates...

Annie - She has been our rock star - small but mighty!  She has quite the serious little personality and often has a look of concern on her face - especially when her brothers start to squawk.  We find this hilarious!  Her weight is up to 4 pound 7 ounces!  She was the first to get up to full bottle feeds.  Until last night she had gone 14 days with no spells and we thought she might be joining us at home as early as this Friday.  Now, however, she will have to be spell free for 5 more days before we can bring her home.  While we are disappointed, we obviously don't want her discharged until it is totally safe for her to leave the hospital.  All 3 kids had routine eye exams done last week.  We discovered that Annie has mild retinopathy of prematurity (or ROP).  She will have a follow up exam done next week to determine whether it is stable or progressing.  Ultimately ROP can lead to blindness, however the doctor has reassured us that this is unlikely in her case. 

Elias - Our big boy!  He is up to 5 pounds 8 ounces and is officially wearing "newborn" clothes.  We decided it was time to retire the preemie clothes for him when we realized that he could no longer straighten his legs, the necklines were "plunging" and his sleeves were 3/4 length.  He still has his red hair, and while we don't know where it came from we sure hope it sticks around!  Eli has been struggling with his spells.  Most of them occur while he is eating however he also has them at rest.  Watching your baby stop breathing, turn blue and go limp is SERIOUSLY disturbing, but Dr Magno (the medial director) and the nurses assure us these spells are still within the normal range for his gestational age.  Obviously he will not be able to come home until he is no longer having these spells and that could be several more weeks yet.  Bless his heart though, he is a trooper and no matter how long it takes him to recover (and start breathing again) he always "comes to" with his mouth wide open, ready to take more.  If only his momma was as un-phased as he seems to be!  HA!

Michael - For all of his struggles early on, he is cruising right along!  He is up to 5 pounds and will probably move on to newborn clothes by the end of the week.  He is doing great with his bottle feeding and seems to be outgrowing his reflux and spells.  A blondie at birth, his hair is growing in darker now.  He has "frosted tips" and the nurses often tell him that many women pay big bucks for his look.  He is very alert, is already tracking our voices and seems to have a lot to tell us.  Love it!!!

The babies are on a 3 hour schedule, each separated by 30 minutes. So in every 3 hour block, 90 minutes are spent changing and feeding them.  I try to be at the hospital for 2-3 feedings every day and Bobby has been making it for either 1 additional feeding or bath time.  It has been an emotionally difficult transition, going from a phase of mostly providing comfort (holding the babies for hours and hours every day), to a phase which is largely task oriented (changing diapers, giving medicine, feeding, bathing).  Michael seems to be feeling this change the most as he is the "middle child" in the rotation.  He is becoming more and more "clingy" and is now getting into the habit of throwing a fit when we put him down.  Eli, being first in line often gets a few extra minutes at the beginning while Annie gets a lot of snuggle time after her bottle.  The nurses were the first to make this connection and have been helping us find time to give Michael a little extra lovin'.  I suppose this is all only a small taste of what life will be like for the next..say...forever!


I don't have any new pictures of Annie to post but here are some of Eli (top) and Michael (bottom).