4 Months Today

Time has just melted away and the days speed by in a blink, except, of course, when you're up feeding four babies at midnight. In the midst of adjusting the new normal, the last few weeks have brought all kinds of joy to our lives as we've watched Cienna, Thomas, Gracie and William grow and develop. Today they are four months old  and 44 weeks gestational age.  We've watched them one by one get completely off oxygen and all monitors, lift their heads, follow us with their eyes and, in the last couple days, grin at us.  It is unbelievably wonderful, truly a miracle.

Their current weights are
Thomas   10.2 lb
Gracie     8.8 lb
William   8.7 lb
Cienna     6.8 lb

Following a schedule has made things doable. We feed and diaper the babies six times a day, every four hours. However, in the evening we have carved out two five hour stretches by doing their cares a little earlier and waking them up a little later than the usual four hours.  Ben covers the first one til midnight then wakes me up for the next one and this way we each get a few hours of solid sleep. Once the babies are big enough we can work on getting them fully through the night.  Aside from the occasional fuss, they sleep really well at night.  Having family and friends who are willing to slip over to the house and help feed has eased the load tremendously. There is rarely a time when either one of us has had to feed all the babies alone. As far as food goes, they are now eating about 3/4 gallon of milk each day, four feedings of breast milk and two of formula.  There are four ladies who graciously contribute breast milk and together we are able to keep up so far.

We've been the recipients of some great hand-me-down baby equipment that has also eased the work load.  My sister had two swings that she said I would one day be grateful for.  Oh that day has come! When someone feels fussy and I've run out of hands, the swing will often help.  I used to work in Same Day Surgery at St. Mary and my former co-workers found two twin jogging strollers on Craigslist so now we're mobile. At the moment all four fit into one of the twin strollers.

Below are a few pictures to see the progress.  Again our hearts are full of gratitude to each of you who donate baby items, help, pray, send notes, provide milk, bring food, and send positive thoughts good wishes our way.  It makes a world of difference for us.

Oh! I found a short video of the first time Ben's parents were able to hold the babies.  Click here to view it.

Thanks Laurie's Photography for this picture and Ireland for the hats!

The boys practice head exercises.