Baby Update

I feel as though I blinked and now the babies are seven weeks old.  We had a weigh-in at five weeks and Julia was 7 pounds 11 ounces and James was 9 pounds 7 ounces!  I really hate to jinx anything, but they are such good babies.  They truly sleep and eat, and only fuss when they need a meal, diaper change or a quick cuddle.  I don't take a minute for granted, and am keenly aware that it could change any time, but it's almost like they know that I need them to be easy-going in order to manage it all.

They are still sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room, and we seem to have gotten into a good groove.  During the day, I (do my best to) keep a baby gate up in the doorway so that Hannah doesn't meander in and strip them of their blankets as she likes to do.  Emmy is very proficient at taking the gate down, though, because she is adamant that she be the first to come to their rescue at the very first sound of their cries.  They nap well there, or propped up in their boppies on my bed.  I pump and feed them usually before I get Hannah up in the morning or while Hannah is eating her breakfast. (Jules takes about 2.5-3 ounces and James about 3-4 ounces each feeding.) Then again mid-morning while the big girls watch a show (with Hannah restrained in the second pack-n-play in our room.)  The girls go down for nap/quiet time around 1230, at which time I pump and feed again.  I squeeze one more pump and feed in at the tail end of naptime around 3:00.  I have been doing really simple meals, my favorite being in the crockpot, so that I can use part of my dinner prep time (where the girls are watching another show) at 530 to pump and feed again.  Afterwards, I put them in a wide infant seat on the kitchen table (because when they are on the floor, the big girls shower them with smothering love.)  After dinner is bathtime for the big girls (at 630-7ish,) and on the nights that Nick is home, he takes care of that along with the bedtime routine, while I clean the kitchen, pick up the house and bathe, pump and feed the babies again.  It gets quite a bit hairier when he's home late from work or flying at night, but, I have managed to get the job done despite the hungry and tired cries (and humping anxious dogs.)  For now, the babies' most wakeful and vocal time has been between 6 to 10ish.  After the big girls are in bed (particularly Hannah) it's easy to focus and calm them with cuddles, which Nick is eager to do (as well as help with the evening feedings.)  Their last feeding is between 11 and midnight, for which I try to stay up (it's hard to wake up for a feeding after having fallen asleep just an hour before.)  After that pump and feed, they'll usually be up between two and three, and then again between five and six.  Luckily, I've gotten the drill down, so after half an hour for a pump and feed, the babies are back in the pack n play and I can hunker down for another stretch of sleep.  Sometimes, when one of them takes a little while to settle back down (they both, but especially Jules, tend to be gassy) I can just pull them into bed with me and put the baby on my chest and we are both back to sleep fairly quickly.  If I am so inclined, I can usually transfer the previously unhappy and now sleeping baby back to the pack n play without incident; but most of the time I am too lazy and very much enjoy the warm baby snuggles until it's our next pump and feed time.  Moral of the story, I am really, really tired, but I know I could be functioning on no sleep at all, and with that in mind, I am so grateful for my particular degree of fatigue.

Jules has flashed her precious smile on a handful of occasions, and James is still warming up his smile muscles.  James does lock eyes with me, though, which absolutely melts my heart.  I am wondering if they might have blue eyes, because thy both have a bluish tint to their grey newborn eyes.  Time will tell.  It's amazing just how different they look, from each other, and from Emmy and Hannah.  It's so much fun to watch them grow.  James is a very handsome, solid little guy, that I now think of, affectionately, as my butterball turkey.  It's really amazing how different his little body is from the girls'. He has the kindest eyes, the cutest button nose and big lips; I can't get enough of staring at his face.  Jules is growing into her delicate features, and is such a beauty (in my very biased opinion.)  She is so attentive, which makes me wonder if she is going to be type-A like her biggest sis.  This is all so much fun...:)

Both babies came down with a bug last weekend, and have been really congested all week.  We have been using a good amount of sterile water and putting the suction bulbs to use.  Jules actually had a handful of episodes of projectile vomiting, decreased appetite and therefore decrease in wet diapers early in the week.  She's not 100% quite yet, but much, much improved.  I am doing my best to keep "sick bugs" away from the babies, but it is a huge challenge with the bigs, who are not big on personal space.  I definitely look forward to the babies' getting bigger and building more robust immune systems.  Being premies, they are prime candidates for RSV (the potentially fatal manifestation of an adult respiratory illness in babies.)  We were warned by multiple doctors to protect them from exposure, especially because insurance will not cover the very costly vaccination for it simply because they were born at 35 weeks and not 34 6/7 weeks.  My college microbiology course made me a germaphobe and being a mother of premies has confirmed it.

Nick took the big girls to see the Sacksteders in St. Louis for the weekend, so it's just me and the babies (hence the blog update.)  It's incredible how much my perspective has changed over the last four years and the thought of only being responsible for two infants is like a vacation!  I've already burned my mouth multiple times because I'm not used to eating my food while it's still hot (but yet I am conditioned to scarf it down-not a winning combination.)  I have a laundry list of things to get dome (figuratively and literally,) but I am also committed to catching up with cuddles while I can.  This phase is so fleeting...