All the gifts from the baby shower at church.
One days worth of bottles
The more diapers, the better!
Changing table for short people, and changing table for tall people
The nursery is mostly done
We've been home now for about two and a half weeks. We are slowly...very slowly...trying to catch up on life, sleep, etc. In between 3 am, 7 am, 11 am, 3 pm, 7 pm, and 11 pm. It takes two people usually around an hour to feed three babies 2 1/2 ounces each of formula. Each feeds a baby, and whoever finishes first feeds poor Nathan who actually feeds a half hour or so behind his brothers. So Mom and I rendezvous at 3 am (Jeff sleeps through from midnight to 7 am), and I sleep in until about 10 am while Jeff and Mom gather for the 7 am feeding. Meanwhile, Jeff and I feed the kids at 11 pm. That lets Mom go to bed early (with Mary at 8 pm) and sleep through until 3 am. If that was confusing, the basic idea is each of us gets a 6-7 hour stretch to sleep each night, as well as in some cases an additional nap of about 2-3 hours. Each meal is preceded by a diaper change.
So, for those of you slow on math, we go through 18 bottles a day (which takes about 40 minutes to assemble each day). We also go through approximately the same number of diapers each day, unless we need extra changes (which as you can imagine occasionally does happen). We are thankful the boys have moved on from Pampers preemie diapers at about 27 cents each to generic (at least they work at this size--I have friends who have told me that generics don't work for boys-at least in bigger sizes) newborn size diapers at 14 cents each. We are also very thankful for the 220 newborn size diapers I received last week at my UBC shower. I haven't "inventoried" the larger sizes yet!
One additional incredible blessing has been our sizeable gift of free preemie formula from Enfamil. Our pediatrician says we can switch to free preemie Similac if the free Enfamil runs out. The boys will stay on preemie formula for a good while even once they reach full term age/size, due to differences remaining because of prematurity. A can of preemie Enfamil would retail around $15/can, and lasts us not quite two days. We have not had to pay for formula (except a few cans at deep discount) yet!
The boys are growing well...perhaps too well. It's with a bit of sadness that the boys are starting to outgrow their preemie clothes already. The nursery, bit by bit is starting to come together. Saturday afternoon Mom and I picked out fabric (yes, you guessed it, between 3 and 7 pm) for curtains that she's agreed to make for me while she's here.
One additional note. We had been going back and forth between insurance and a clinic our pediatrician referred us to about getting the boys' Synagis shot. It's an immune booster (not a vaccine) that helps protect them from RSV, a common upper respiratory virus that can be very serious in premature infants. It's administered every 28-30 days, and the boys were coming up on their shot since leaving the hospital. The complication is the fact that the shot costs over a thousand dollars per child, so the clinic was concerned that insurance would cover it. Anyway, we got past that on Friday, and today received a call from the clinic about scheduling the boys' shot. They called me around 2:15, and said they only could do it on certain days. They had an opening this afternoon at 3:45, otherwise we would have to wait until next Monday. Well, we didn't want to do that, so I said we'd be there...at their Greenville clinic! So, I got off the phone, called Jeff to come home, and Mom and I started feeding the boys (Chris and Dan) about 40 minutes early. Jeff got home around 2:30 and spent about 15 minutes getting car seat bases reinstalled (he had taken them out to take the seats out the back of the van the previous week). Jeff then fed Nathan while Mom and I got the other two ready to go to Greenville, and packed a diaper bag, and got Mary ready to go to Greenville as well. We all got packed up and left the house by 3:10. We pulled into the parking lot at the clinic at 3:50, only 5 minutes late...and I feel pretty good about that!
Also as an additional aside, the boys were weighed today in order to calculate the exact Synagis dosage. Chris is still slightly behind his brothers, weighing in at 6 lb 3 oz, and Dan and Nate both weigh 6 lb 6 oz.
We posted another 124 pictures here
5 comments:
They are doing so well with their wieght! Our triplets did not hit 6lbs until they were 3 months old!!Hint on bottles for the night shift if you mix them when needed with warm tap water you don't have to get up early to warm them. In fact we stopped making them ahead of time about a month after they came home. It was just easier to mix them right in the bottle with warm tap water. We have already gone through 2 formula bottle mixer but at 2.99 a piece at Burlington they are worth it. Our trio turned one 2 weeks ago :)
Hi!
It's so nice to read your story - it gives me a sense of what to expect! We are adopting triplets too! Our birth mom is 27 weeks on Friday!
Sarah
Wow...this is so AMAZING! I knew Rebecca in college - betsy gillis was my roomie my sophomore year. you probably don't remember me but that's not the point. God has surely shown Himself strong to your family these last couple of months. I haven't had triplets but have dealt w/ premature births with both of my children. It's amazing how strong these little guys are. congrats.
stephanie kuchle (graham)
Love the updates! Let us know if we can do anything for you! Carrie
I JUST stumbled upon your blog for the first time. As of yesterday, our family is contemplating the adoption of 3 unborn triplets. Many many prayers lie ahead. I eagerly anticipate reading more excerpts from your blog!
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