Help Wanted

It's getting to be about that time when we'll need tons of help at home. I'm using Care Calendar to track all our helpers, so if you can lend a hand with feedings, meals, housework, etc please consider signing up. http://www.carecalendar.org/?cid=42714, password is 0730 (their birthday!)

It's been a good week since I last updated everyone. Lots and lots of news to share, so here goes!

Last Monday night I stayed overnight at the hospital to have a practice run at caring for them overnight. It was a harsh dose of reality to say the least. I got a total of 45 minutes sleep all night, didn't even lay down to attempt sleep until 3:30AM. By the time everyone does their feeding, and then I have to pump, it's just about time to start again. Everyone was pretty slow with taking their bottles, so it just drug on and on. I was kind of nervous after that and decided we needed to try an overnight with both Ethan and I to see how two hands worked.

Saturday night we tried the team approach with much success. Sleep was still at a premium, but it was much better than doing it alone. We were able to split up the kids and I pumped while he fed, so we were able to sleep between all the feedings. And by Saturday Ben was eating much faster, taking a bottle in a half hour or less, so that helped too.

Also, by Saturday we had confirmation that Ben is off oxygen for good! He isn't even wearing the oxygen monitor anymore, which is awesome. I was so happy to take off that darn thing and I threw it on the floor and stomped on it for good measure. Hooray! Apparently he just needed that little bit of extra time, and once the oxygen came off he started rocking and rolling.

Ben has been doing awesome with his bottles, taking three or four in a row almost all the time. They are starting to use the H word.....HOME!!!!!!!!! Maybe as early as this weekend! He pulled his tube out today, bad boy, and they are going to leave it out until he doesn't take one of his feedings. We're keeping our fingers crossed for him!

Michael had been doing pretty good too, but his acid reflux has caused him to backtrack a little bit. Every time we think we've got it figured out, he starts getting a snotty nose and getting fussy and uncomfortable again. We've tried special formula and breastmilk with rice cereal added to thicken it. We've tried different bottles and nipple sizes. We've tried Prevacid. Now he's got some constipation problems, possibly from the rice, so we're going to treat that and see if getting him cleared out helps any. We may try another special formula, but the doctor is hesitant to do that because the reflux formulas aren't designed to meet the nutritional needs of preemies, and aren't as good as breastmilk. So we'll see.

Delia has become a mystery too. She was doing the best from the get go, but she's hit a brick wall that we can't seem to tear down. She'll take about a third of her feeding and quit. We think she may have reflux issues too, but the doctor isn't sure so we aren't going to start playing the formula/rice/medicine game with her yet. Michael's lack of success isn't helping us much either, but maybe if we get him figured out we can try the same thing with her.

We're getting to the most frustrating and challenging part of this process I think. Ben will be home and the other two will still be stuck there. I'll have to either drag Ben back up there, with all our own supplies and food from home, or stay at home with him and be away from the others. If we could just get them to eat, they would be at home too. It seems like such a simple task, but we've been working on it for weeks. This is very typical of preemies and there isn't anything truly wrong with them, but it's really tough to sit back and know that I can't do anything to help them.

I've been trying to busy myself with preparations at home, and so far that has worked well. We've also got the most amazing nurses at the hospital, who are constantly praising us for being involved and encouraging us to keep going. It's been really nice for me to have some friends to pass the day with and give me some conversation and an occassional distraction from the chaos of three babies. As much as I want to have them home, I really am going to miss the nurses a lot.

I've also said good bye to my doctor for a while, I had my six week follow up appointment and passed with flying colors last week. I spent so much time with the doc and the nurses at her office, it will be really strange to not be seeing them all the time. I became very close to my doctor through the pregnancy and especially my hospital stay. It was great to get to know a professional mom who could talk candidly about work life balance and dealing with life down here as a working mom. There are a good number of stay at home moms down here, and a lot of people who are anti day care, so having someone to relate to was great.

An old chapter ending and a new chapter beginning. That's the way life is going to be for the next few weeks as we say goodbye to old friends and start to make new friends with helpers from church, the pediatrician, day care, and who knows. Exciting but scary. Terrifying actually. I don't know how "normal" moms take their babies home two days after delivering. My babies are pushing eight weeks and I still feel totally underqualified to even consider bringing them home. At least I can take comfort in knowing that I'm smarter than LOTS of parents, and even at my worst I will be better than most. It will all work out, getting the helpers we need, figuring out our schedule and how to live a life with three kids, balancing work and home life. But until we're actually doing it and maybe even after that, it's going to be nerve racking.

It's a good think I've developed a laid back personality since having kids. Yes, that's right, MULTIPLE nurses have commented that I am so "go with the flow" and easy going. I must have undergone a personality transplant while I was under, because I most certainly never would have used those terms to describe myself. I guess because there is so much uncertainty about things right now, I've flipped into survival mode where I have no choice but to be laid back and take things as they come. The kids rule my life now, every aspect of it. I still fight that occassionally, but I have utterly no control anymore so I might as well accept it.

I will provide updates this week, I promise, as things progress with Ben. Wish us luck and don't forget to sign up to help us!!

And of course, the current weights:

Ben - 6lb 13 oz
Delia - 6 lb 14 oz
Michael - 6 lb 8 oz