One Crazy Month

Well, to say the least it has been one crazy (yet the best) month!

The first couple of weeks in the NICU were crazy going back and forth.  I felt like I was about 12 years old.  My mom would drop me off and pick me up each day, as well as pack my lunch! All of the nurses there were amazing and soooooo helpful! I hated leaving them 

each night and would cry most times when I left, so thank goodness it was such a short stay.  I feel so bad for the families that have such long stays there. We are soooooo lucky that they were so healthy!

Max came home at 13 days and the girls not even 24 hours later.  In order to come home they had to be maintaining body temperature, which they had been for awhile, gaining weight, which they had been, and taking their entire feeding by mouth for 48 hours.  Max did that the day before the girls.  Mia needed some serious force feeding, but finally did it!
They would take about half of their bottles then need to be hooked up to the feeding tube for the rest.
I became a total psycho and would call after each shift change to beg the nurse not to hook her up because I couldn't bare the thought of leaving one behind!

We are 4 weeks old (technically 38 weeks gestation today).  The couple of weeks, all they did was sleep.  Now that they are nearing their due date they are starting to be awake more.
Poor Max has reflux, so last night was not good. He gets super cranky, basically screaming bloody murder after he eats, then spits up a good ounce or so, so then he's fussy because he's still hungry, but if you give him more the cycle just starts again.  It breaks my heart because I can tell he's in pain and I can't do anything to help him;( He did start his medicine yesterday and we're already noticing a difference though.  So hopefully nights to come will get easier. Thank God for Andrea and Greg who came to babysit today so we could sleep!  As well as Christina, my mom, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law who all did the same last week.  My best friend from college, Callie stayed for 3 days last week to help, which was amazing as well.  She got up with a baby through out the night, cooked, cleaned, did laundry! I actually considered holding her hostage!
They were put on a great schedule in the NICU, which we've pretty much stuck to.

One of my favorite pics, from our first night home all together!

They eat every 3 hours.  It took us a couple of nights to figure out that we both don't need to get up with each feeding, so we are now taking shifts, which helps a ton because the other one will get a longer stretch if we each just do all 3 and they are each about 30 minutes apart, so it's pretty manageable.  We do have a night nurse, Megan who is a gift from God!!!  She works in the NICU at St. Luke's, so she had them each time she worked and she is a friend of one of my best friends, so I had met her before and feel beyond comfortable with her here.  The plan is for her to stay about once a week. When she is here she has all of them all night, so we can get caught up on our sleep.
Our schedule is pretty crazy.  If it goes as planned it takes around an hour and a half to feed them, so we have about an hour and a half  in between feedings, which is spent, cleaning bottles, changing diapers, doing laundry, pumping, and filling bottles...I am miraculously keeping up with them for the most part.  I did develop mastitis on their second night home...great timing, which slowed me down for a few days, but we're back in business!  I'm not sure how it will work as their volume increases because I'm producing the same amount each time, but I just eat like a cow to keep up right now and pray that it continues.
I'm recovered from my C-Section for the most part.  I'm still a little sore, but feeling better each day.  That was the most excruciating pain I've ever felt!

We had the best Christmas imaginable!  These were the three best gifts I could ever have asked for and to have them all home for Christmas was truly a miracle!  We are beyond blessed!
A home health nurse from Children's Mercy was coming twice a week to weigh them. She is only coming once this week for the last time.  This is so that we didn't have to get out with them to take them to St. Luke's twice a week.  Last Thursday Max weighed 6 lbs 11 1/2 oz., Molly 6 lbs, 3 oz. and Mia 6 lbs, 4 oz. They were averaging 1 1/2-2 oz per day, so they should all be close to or over 7 lbs now.  They are just doing amazing!
I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year!  I will post again when I have a free chance, which doesn't happen too often!

XOXOXO