View outside our front door. So pretty! You can't really tell in these pictures but the snow is still falling.
The snow makes me even more excited about the Winter Olympics, which is in Sochi, Russia this year. We watch every night and I watch it some during the day, too. USA! USA! I never really cared that much about the Olympics until probably about 6 years ago and now I am obsessed. I still prefer the summer games, but love the Winter Olympics, too!
Ok, now moving on to baby updates.
Our new routine...
We stumbled upon a new, different (and much better!) routine. About two weeks ago we pushed the midnight feeding up an hour to 11 pm. The first night we tried it out we weren't sure how it would go over. We braced ourselves for a 3 or 4 am wake up call (aka baby/babies crying), but we were very, very pleasantly surprised when the babies slept until 7:30 am. We were, dare I say it, WELL RESTED. It felt awesome. Based on the 7:30 wake up time we adjusted our schedule to maintain the 3 hour feedings. So instead of 6, 9, 12, 3....we changed it to 7:30, 10:30, 1:30, and 4:30. After trying it that day, we decided to keep it! I don't know why this schedule feels better for me, but it just does. It may have something to do with getting more sleep!!! But apart from that, it works so much better for many reasons. For example, when they were eating at noon, I would have to eat a very early lunch around 11 or so, or more often I wouldn't get around to eating lunch until 1:30 or 2 and by that point I would be so hungry! Now that they eat at 1:30, I can grab a quick bite at 12 or 12:30. Another good point is that we put them down for bed now after their 7:30 bottle, or if it is bath night, it is bottle, bath, then bed. On the old schedule, I didn't put them down right after their 6 pm bottle because that is when Thomas would get home from work. I wanted him to get at least a little time to spend with them each day. So we would wait until after the 9 pm bottle to put them to bed, which always felt a little late to me. Plus we would not be able to work on washing and making new bottles, cleaning the kitchen, etc until after 10 pm most nights. By then we were exhausted! On the new and improved routine, babies are typically in bed between 8 and 8:30 and then Thomas and I can eat dinner in peace and then get all our "work" done. After all the bottles from that day are washed, new bottles for the next day are made, dishes are put away, laundry is folded, and whatever else needs to be done is done, we actually get a little time to relax and watch tv before waking them up for the 11 pm bottle. Relief!
I am not sure if 11:30ish to 7:30 is considered "sleeping through the night", but it sure feels better than what we were previously working with! Stokes still wakes up most nights once or twice and one of us will go in there to soothe him for a few minutes, but overall the babies are sleeping really well. Sometimes they will wake up a little before 7:30 but I make them wait before I go in there to help with establishing the new routine.
The babies are also eating a little more now. We put about 4-4.5 oz in each bottle and they usually finish most, if not all, of it, with the exception of William, who ALWAYS finishes all of his bottle. We have our 6 month appointment with the pediatrician in about 2 weeks so I will ask then about whether we are feeding them an appropriate amount and about introducing solids. I know 6 months is typically when you would start with solids, but with them being preemies, they might want us to wait a little longer until they are closer to 6 months ADJUSTED, ie 6 months from full term due date which would put them around the 9 month mark. I try to read their cues about how much to give them in their bottle and I think we will be increasing by an ounce within the next few days. It is such a guessing game because if they don't finish their bottle, you can't save it for the next feeding and you have to dump it out. I HATE wasting any milk...or formula!...so I don't want to put too much in their bottle. On the other hand, I definitely don't want them to be hungry! So we just guess and sometimes I will pour extra milk in their bottle if they finish and still seem hungry.
A few other tidbits...
- Stokes was not able to come off of his monitor following the last reading of results so he is still on it. The doctor still felt like he had too many episodes. The monitor company came out and downloaded the results again about a week and a half ago and I really think he only set off his alarm one time that will show up on that download. Since then he hasn't set it off at all. I will be very surprised if he is not off his monitor once we get these results in the next week or so.
The babies are also eating a little more now. We put about 4-4.5 oz in each bottle and they usually finish most, if not all, of it, with the exception of William, who ALWAYS finishes all of his bottle. We have our 6 month appointment with the pediatrician in about 2 weeks so I will ask then about whether we are feeding them an appropriate amount and about introducing solids. I know 6 months is typically when you would start with solids, but with them being preemies, they might want us to wait a little longer until they are closer to 6 months ADJUSTED, ie 6 months from full term due date which would put them around the 9 month mark. I try to read their cues about how much to give them in their bottle and I think we will be increasing by an ounce within the next few days. It is such a guessing game because if they don't finish their bottle, you can't save it for the next feeding and you have to dump it out. I HATE wasting any milk...or formula!...so I don't want to put too much in their bottle. On the other hand, I definitely don't want them to be hungry! So we just guess and sometimes I will pour extra milk in their bottle if they finish and still seem hungry.
A few other tidbits...
- Stokes was not able to come off of his monitor following the last reading of results so he is still on it. The doctor still felt like he had too many episodes. The monitor company came out and downloaded the results again about a week and a half ago and I really think he only set off his alarm one time that will show up on that download. Since then he hasn't set it off at all. I will be very surprised if he is not off his monitor once we get these results in the next week or so.
- All three babies are being treated for reflux and I think the meds are working! They still spit up some, which is to be expected, but overall they are less fussy, which makes me feel like they feel better. Now it's rare for them to fight against taking their bottle and that was a fairly regular occurrence in the past.
- They were supposed to go to the Pulmonologist this week to get another synagis shot to help ward off RSV, but there was a delay with the insurance approving and sending out the meds and with the big question mark with the weather so we have postponed the appointment until next week.
- Speaking of next week, my Aunt Mary Nell and Aunt Wanda (the Nanas) are coming for a visit!
- GranO, aka Peggy, was here yesterday helping out and was such a joy to have around!
Triplet snooze this morning
Signing off for now. I may try to take some baby snow pictures later today or tomorrow. If I get some good ones I will post them.
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