All I Do Is Feed Babies!

I have realized that my days revolve around feeding babies.  Every three hours like clockwork they are ready to eat.  If I am by myself, it takes about an hour to feed them.  Then I wash bottles, pump, pick up dirty bibs, burp cloths and outfits, clean up the inevitable spit up off myself, rest for a few minutes and start all over again...

12 hours worth of bottles - yes, this is only half a day's worth!

But, the results are obvious!  Yesterday's weights are as follows:

Lia - 9 lbs. 13 oz.
Mya - 8 lbs. 15 oz.
Ava - 6 lbs. 11 oz.

I like to say I have babies in all sizes...small, medium and large!  But, everyone has at least doubled their birthweights already.  They will be 2 months already on Monday!  We will be making our first ever outings this week with a trip planned to go see Great Grandma Kolb this weekend to meet Uncle Bill and Aunt Loretta.  Then we will make our first trip  to the pediatrician on Monday.  So far, we have been fortunate that she has come to us to make house calls, so this is the first time we will be going to see her.  Wish me luck!

Full Term Babies!

As of Monday, March 14th, the triplets were officially full term babies.  So, today, their actual age is 5 weeks and 6 days, but their "adjusted age" is just 3 days old.  Adjusted age is often important for developmental milestones in preemies.  It can be expected that they will reach many of these milestones such as crawling, walking, etc. about a month behind other babies.  We will see...they seem awfully advanced to me:)  All three of them seem to have really strong necks and are already lifting their heads alot.  They are becoming more and more alert all the time and are following objects and turning to voices.

As for weights...these girls are getting huge! 

Ava - 5 lbs 15 oz
Lia - 8 lbs 4 oz
Mya - 7 lbs 14 oz

Here is a picture of our two sumo wrestlers Lia and Mya, and then a picture of our little peanut Ava who is still working on catching up.

Lia and Mya

Ava

I thought this picture was funny.  Obviously they are getting used to cuddling with each other in the pack and play at nap time!  During the night they sleep in their own cribs, though.

Mya, Lia and Ava - getting close while napping

Closer shot of Mya and Lia snuggling up

The other exciting event of this past week is that the girls had their first photo shoot.  I think we got lots of great shots of the triplets.  We also got some pictures of all the kids together, which is the first time we have been able to do that.  I can't wait until we gets the pics...I will post them as soon as they come in.

1 Month Old - Where is the Time Going?

This blog is a lot harder to keep up on than I thought it would be!  For those of you who don't know, Lia and Ava both came home from the hospital on Saturday, February 26th after 22 days in the NICU and 6 days after Mya came home.  The difference between having one baby at home and having three babies at home is beyond words.  I can't believe that I ever thought that having one baby was hard :) 

We are fotunate, however, that we have really good babies who pretty much sleep between every feeding...but it feels like feeding is pretty much all we ever do!  They are on a self-imposed 3 hour feeding schedule for the most part...I can't wait until they start going 4 hours!  At least one baby usually wakes up like clockwork at exactly 3 hours.  In order to keep some sort of a schedule, once one babies wakes up to eat, we wake them all up to eat. Otherwise, we would be feeding babies around the clock and would never get any rest.  It usually takes at least a good hour to feed the babies, even with two people.  So, on a good day we spend 1 hour feeding and up to 2 hours pumping/sleeping/cleaning/doing laundry/washing bottles etc...then start all over again.  Since Wade works nights, I have had lots of overnight help to make sure that I don't have to take care of them by myself.  The days go pretty good, even when I am by myself, but the nights can be rough.  I am getting better at feeding multiple babies at one time.  Maybe once I get that perfected I may be able to attempt to do a night without help. 

At the moment, we go through about 24 bottles every day.  I was able to stay ahead on pumping until they were a month old, but the past week or so I have had to start adding some formula to their bottles.  Lia and Mya are each taking 4 ounces a feed and Ava is taking 3 ounces, so they are already taking 11 total ounces every 3 hours, which is a couple more ounces than I pump on average.  But, I am going to keep at it so that they get at least part of their feedings as breastmilk.

I definitely underestimated the number of diaper changes we would be doing daily.  I figured a diaper change every three hours for a total of 24 diapers a day.  So, we always change their diapers to kind of wake them up and get them comfortable before their bottles.  However, they seem to find it amusing to let it rip during their feedings...so we usually go through more like 30 diapers a day at least.

All the feeding and diaper changes are paying off, however, because they are growing like crazy.  Today's measurements are:

Ava - 5 pounds 4 ounces  17.5 inches long
Lia - 7 pounds 3 ounces  20 inches long
Mya - 7 pounds 0 ounces 19.5 inches long

Next Monday would have been their actual due date so it will be interesting to take measurements on them then!  Well, I'm sure I am leaving out lots of info, but I have reached my limit of free time...the fussing has begun.  Here are some recent pictures...enjoy!

Grandma with Lia, Ava, Mya, Noa and Simone

Lia, Ava and Mya

Lia, Ava, Mya

Gifts made by Aunt Dana

Ava

Mya

Lia

Ava

Lia and Daddy

Lia and Mya

Lia, Mya and Ava