Home again

Thanks to everyone for praying for our family this week. The boys surgeries both went very smoothly. At 4:00 this morning during the nurse's check on the boys, Chris registered a temperature of 101.1. Tylenol quickly got it under control, and then Nathan did the same thing mid morning. The doctor decided to keep us until noon just to watch and see what would happen. He says there's no infection at this point, and just to monitor the boys at home over the next few days. Otherwise the boys are doing great--eating great and fairly back to their old selves.

A few brief notes...

We have not needed to feed the boys overnight all week! Their schedule has been to eat at 10:00 pm, and sleep after that until 7:00 am. We all will hopefully be a bit more rested now.

Also, Chris and Nathan had a consultation with the pediatric surgeon in Greenville Tuesday. They have been scheduled for hernia surgeries next Thursday morning at Greenville Memorial Hospital. Because of their age and prematurity from birth, they will stay at the hospital overnight. This is a very common issue for preemies, and routine surgery, but please do keep them (and Momma and Daddy!) in your prayers next week.

A Busy Month

Jogging strollers we use to walk for exercise.




Triple stroller for going to the park, mall, etc.




Mary doing "Tummy Time" with the boys


April 15th each year usually brings a change of pace to our household. This year was no exception. In the past, the date marked the end of tax "busy season." This year, however, Mom flew home on April the 14th. Life has gotten busier in some ways, but not insanely so.

Over the last several weeks the boys have begun to sleep at night closer to a 5 hour stretch (and occasionally 6 hours). We put them to bed at night around 11 pm after feeding them at 10:00, and usually hear stirrings somewhere around 4 am. Jeff and I together feed all three boys simultaneously and stumble back to bed after about 40 minutes or so. Then the boys sleep until somewhere around 8 am. So we generally get a reasonable night's sleep, if a bit short. We certainly cannot complain, though we anticipate the day hopefully not too far off when the boys will sleep the full night through.

With Mom gone, so far I've been picking up groceries on Monday nights, and doing laundry later in the week, spread across a few days, with a bit of cleaning and cooking "sprinkled" in where possible. I've started buying more convenience food items to cut cooking time, and a good friend from church has started coming by once a week to help out with laundry, etc.

The last time we had the boys weighed, it was only Chris and Nathan checked, since Daniel wasn't being seen that day. Back on April 21, Chris weighed 9 lb 15 oz, and Nathan weighed 10 lb 7 oz. The boys are continuing to grow like weeds! They are taking their formula 6 times a day now, 5 daytime bottles every 3 and a half hours or so, and the 4-5 am bottle.

Back at the boys' two month check up in March the pediatrician thought that Chris and Nathan might have hernias, so we were referred to a urologist to have them checked. The urologist confirmed his suspicions, but based on the boys' prematurity and age he wanted to refer us to a pediatric surgeon in Greenville who has access to better facilities than Anderson has, in the off chance that there are complications. We will be seeing the surgeon on Tuesday, and will proceed from there. It sounds at this point as though the procedures for the boys will be done in the near future. Please keep this situation in your prayers.

Also, we've had the monitors "read" twice now. With the boys on Prevacid for their reflux, they have all stopped having any monitor alarms. If we make it through another week or so, we should be able to stop using the monitors soon.

With the demise of cold/flu season, we have been able to take the boys out a bit. We've enjoyed taking the boys to church, and "out and about" a little, although its a bit challenging taking three infants and Mary anywhere. We have picked up a triple stroller which we have used several times. We also picked up two double jogging strollers so we can take the whole crew out for walks that we like to take often in the evenings.

I had my first great "solo" adventure with the crew this week. I met a friend at Olive Garden, and yes, packed up everyone to go. I started getting Mary and me ready at 10:30, fed the boys at 11:30, and made it to Olive Garden promptly by 1:02 pm. :) We attracted a good bit of attention from the waitresses, and other patrons at the restaurant, but had a very nice meal together as well. The boys were seated in three slings holding their car seats opposite us, sitting side by side on a bench row. I think the funniest part of the outing was the entourage of me carrying a baby in carseat out of the restaurant afterward, followed by two waitresses each carrying one out since my friend had her hands full with Mary and her take out box.

The most interesting (and most recent) event is that Nathan has started rolling over!!! Saturday morning, Nathan had pushed up very high on his arms, and just pushed himself over. I thought maybe it was a "fluke"--it quite took me off guard. I turned him back on his belly two more times, and he rolled over two more times in a row!

New pictures from April are posted here.