Week Five

Things are coming along! Many exciting activities going on this week! The girls all tried out nursing and overall are doing quite well for their age (34.5 weeks). It is a pretty cool experience to see their instincts kick in, I am really enjoying the individual time I spend with them. This week took a lot out of me, because now I am sort of on their schedule. I guess I better get used to it!

The girls all eat a half hour apart, so I am there for the mid morning feed. I take Brooke at 11:00 and work on nursing with her for about a half hour, then she takes her first bottle of the day to make sure she gets all the calories she needs. Then with Taylor and Sydney I do the same thing, we have a regular assembly line going! I usually end up snuggling with Sydney for awhile after she eats since she is the last one in the lineup. I keep trying to talk to her about kicking her O2 habit because it will make her nursing and bottle feeding easier and much more enjoyable. I guess she is just not ready to "quit" yet. They are not depending on me for their nourishment just yet, and since they are still so small there are times when they fall asleep taking their bottles and then the nurses have to feed the remainder through the tube. It is unbelievable how exhausting it is for these little girls to suck to feed, they work so hard and we are really proud of them because they are doing extremely well!

At around 2:00 I head home to let out the dogs, get a bite to eat and check on dinner (I have been trying to throw things into the crock pot to slow cook throughout the day so we have a decent dinner when we get home around 8PM, the jury is still out on this one). Then I turn around and head back downtown to start the feedings all over at 5:00, Chris usually gets to the hospital at 5:30, just in time to feed Brooke her bottle. He then feeds Taylor and Sydney their bottles as well, he is becoming an expert at figuring out what works best for each girl. We are looking very forward to the time when they are all home and we can go through all this in the comforts of our home!

Each girl got their first eye exam this week and everything is looking good. Brooke has early signs of ROP (Retinopothy of Prematurity). The Opthamologoist is not worried and believes it is due to her size and that it is something she will grow out of. It is very common in preemies and usually the kids grow out of it, but in the extreme cases blindness can result. We pray that she will indeed grow out of it and be just fine, all three girls will be rechecked in two weeks.