Feeders and Growers

All 3 girls are now in feeders and growers. Hollister is still on vapotherm and has her own bed. Hopefully she will come off it soon and can join her sisters. All 3 have reached the 4 pound mark. K and H's edema has subsided greatly. Feeding this week hasn't been going as well as last week. It's like all three were too busy growing they forgot how to suck, swallow and breathe. The drs and nurses all say it is normal to have a little regression in that area so we are not worried. They still have their feeding tubes doing most of the job anyway. At some point it will just click and they will take off with their feeds without difficulty. We got to have our first family photo yesterday. All 3 girls are close enough now that the cords to the sensors will reach for a group photo :).

Cohabitation, part 1

Keller and Quinn are now sharing a crib. They are so cute and I think it is great that they get to be close to one another again. Hollister has also moved over to feeders-and-growers, but she is still on a vapotherm. Hopefully, we'll be able to drop Holly mouse down to lower flow soon since the higher flow vapotherm makes it harder for her to eat out of a bottle.

No rush though...the girls are doing great and are impressing the heck out of mom, dad & the NICU staff.

Christmas day!

Praise God for sending his Son to Earth for our salvation, and praise God for our three little girls.

Best present EVER.


Grandma and Keller. Keller didn't really take much of a feed off of her bottle. We woke her up to start her care time and she was overstimulated from the start, so she fought the feeding.

Keller before being so rudely awakened. Alyson...this is the picture we think looks like Buggy.

Happy Quinn with Mom. LOVE that smile!

Quinn was pretty awake and did very well with her feeding.

Grandpa with another round of holding Hollister. He was much less scared of breaking the baby this time. Turns out, those little girls are actually pretty tough. Little "Holly mouse" loves her binky.

She's always so curious. She took 25mL off of a bottle from Jeremy. She's getting there slowly.

I forgot to ask what the weights for Quinner and Keller Bear (our nicknames) were, but Holly Mouse was 3lbs, 10oz. I figure the other girls are probably up about an ounce too. Keller and Hollister still have a little edima (fluid retention) that is most noticable on their legs. When they begin to flush that fluid their weight may drop a little bit. Overall, their health has been great. We had a wonderful Christmas day with breakfast supplied by our dear friends and neighbors Glen and Randy (amazing cooks!). Dinner was another gourmet dinner suppied by Col & Mrs Campbell, our dear friends from the Academy days. Safe travels for Grandma and Grandpa who are on their way back home via more visits in Pa.

As they drove this morning, dad texted me and said he now can believe he's actually a grandfather...believe it. Those girls need to be spoiled, so get up for the challenge! (camp, ponies, princess outfits, etc, etc...)

Grammie and Grandpa finally visit

The girls finally got to meet their Grammie and Grandpa from Jeremy's side. It was a nice visit. It was also nice to hear that Keller had taken nearly an entire feeding from a bottle. Quinn took a little from a bottle, but seemed to get tired quickly. Holliser took 13ml from the bottle, but that was before we arrived.

Quinn is now 4lbs, 1.8oz. Keller is 3lb, 10oz. Hollister is 3lb, 9oz.


Grandma and Keller Grandma with Quinn

Quinn getting burped. Grandpa holding Keller.

Keller looked confused...you sound like dad, but don't look like him... Such a sweet baby.

Keller on her binky. She did so good on her bottle that she was difficult to passify with a "mere" binky.

So many squeeks.

Love Keller's smile!!!

More of Grandma and Quinn.

Grandma and Hollister. Happiness is holding a granddaughter.

Big girls

Not a lot of news. All the girls are doing really well. Quinn is 3lb, 13 oz. Keller is 3lb, 7.5oz, and Hollister is 3lb, 5oz. Quinn was really sleepy today and just wanted to curl up on me and sleep. Katie worked with getting H & K on the breast for a little practice and they're starting to get the idea.

Keller is in the Yellow, Quinn in the white outfit, and Holliester is sporting the green stripes. Hollister made a "blech" face that's pretty priceless.

Comment problem solved

We tested this out and it works. We weren't noticing the problem since we're always signed in to our Google account. Anonymous should work for anyone.

Wubbies!

We bought the girls some little companions for their stay. They play music and make white noise. We hope it will get the girls accustomed to familiar sounds since home is not going to sound at all like the NICU.

Of course, it also made a great opportunity to take cute pictures. I specifically wanted to do this so that I could prove to the girls how small they once were ("see how much bigger the giraffe was than you?")

Quinn is doing really well. She is up to 3lb, 9oz and has been able to take a few cc's of her food via a bottle rather than her feeding tube. All of this is very positive progress. Hopefully she can begin breastfeeding soon.

Hollister is up to 3lb, 1oz. Her weight gain has been very steady for the last several days. She has been developing a little bit of a reflux issue--it causes her to have mild "desat" events after 30 min of her 1 hr feed. Her nurses yesterday extended her feeding time from 60 to 90 min and believe this will stop the problem.

Hopefully, once Hollister has her feeding tube out, the reflux will diminish. Part of the problem is that the tube holds open her esophagus and aggravates the reflux.

Keller is allowed to keep her isolette open now (like Quinn was a few days ago). She is up to 3lbs, 2oz and is also doing great. She has less reflux than Hollister. She has tried a bottle feeding and did fine until the milk hit her throat...then she kind of forgot what to do.

We'll keep trying.

On our way back up for another visit this AM.

Bath time and outfits...Night team rocks!

Thanks to Kara and Moe for a great opportunity to do so much with the girls.

The trips are growing steadilly. We didn't get a weight on Hollister last night (mainly because I forgot to weigh her before putting on her outfit) but Keller is up to 3lb 2oz. Quinn was 3lb 7oz. Quinn spends more of her time bundled in blankets now since she is allowed to keep an open isolette. Hollister and Keller are still using a closed isolette to help them stay warm, but everyone tells us how good they're doing so fingers crossed for more positive progress!


Hollister enjoying her shampoo


Squeaky clean and loving it.


Hollister is modeling her safari look...


Quinn's bathtime with mom.


Quinn was really the only one to let out a cry. She did it once and then seemed happy to be getting attention from mom.


Bath time really wore Quinn out!

"I don't like being cold!" Quinn's isolette has its heater off since she can maintain her own temp, so when she's not bundled up, she gets cool a little faster.

Mom brought Quinn over while I was holding Hollister. So nice to be able to hold the sisters near eachother.

Hollister is on the left, Quinn is on the right.

I'm a happy dad. This is my first time being able to hold two of them at the same time.

Keller waited patiently (by sleeping) until it was her turn for a bath. She loved the warm water.

She just kind of looked at me with this stunned look like "I'm wet. Wet is...good!"

Quinn is with mom, I've got Keller.

Again, it was great to let the sisters be near eachother.

We need to get the car seats, which I've already installed in the Odyssey, checked by the police. Its starting to sink in that they'll be comming home soon (only a few weeks way now).

Special thanks to our NICU nurse/photographer/baby paparazzi Kara for the help last night :)