Free at Last, Free at Last

On Tuesday I went to hospital expecting to bring home Eloise and I felt like I won the lottery when they said that Adeline was being discharged as well.
They all are doing fantastic and came home with no medications or monitors. The only thing is they get vitamins in their milk once a day and we supplement the breast milk with a powder to increase the calorie content to help them gain weight. We are incredibly fortunate to have such healthy little babies. All babies were home exactly 5 weeks after they were born so they were home at 36 weeks.
My mom came in on Monday night so she watched Beckett while I went to the hospital. I tricked her and just brought Eloise in the house in her infant seat and said I had to get the rest of the stuff out of the car and came back holding Adeline. They had to eat right away and Beckett was in his crib so my mom and I were feeding the girls and Beckett started to cry. We looked up and said, "Now what do we do?" That pretty much sums up the last 72 hours.
We are just winging it and figuring it out as we go. They eat every 3 hours and with two of us it takes between 1.25 and 1.5 hours to feed and change all three so we have about 1.5 hours before starting over again. In that time we make bottles, sterilize bottles, do laundry, eat and sleep. And I am still pumping breast milk every 3 hours as well which takes about 1/2 hour so you can see we don't have much time. We were pretty bleary-eyed the first 48 and still are. Luckily Rich came home last night and said that he would do all the night feedings to give us a break. We just laughed when he said that. But with 3 of us we can each skip 1 night feeding and get a stretch of sleep.
My mom and I took all three to the pediatrician on Thursday morning for an 8 am appointment. We both had about 3-4 hours of sleep the night before and it was my first experience trying to pack a diaper bag and their bottles for the 8 feed and anticipate what we would need. Also, I realized that we had never tested to make sure the stroller fit in the Jeep. Did I mention it was 103 degrees outside as well? But all the babies were very cooperative, loved their car seats and the car ride and charmed all the people at the hospital that were staring at us pushing the stroller. It was my first experience with the staring and questions. I don't mind, I love to show off my beautiful babies as long as no one touches them. Their small size also makes people stop and stare because Adeline is the biggest and she is 4 lbs 13 oz so they are dwarfed in their infant seats.
The pediatrician was fantastic (Thanks Lisa for the reference). The only concern is their weight so we increased their feedings form 45-50 ml per feed to 60 ml per feed. It is a bit of a challenge to get Adeline and Beckett to eat that much per feed but our little piggy, Eloise, sucks it down in minutes and eyes up the bottles for the other babies.
We have home health coming in twice a week to take vital signs and track their weight to ensure they are gaining weight appropriately. Beckett is still very underweight with these really skinny long arms and legs. The girls are plumping up nicely and Eloise is starting to look more like Adeline because she is gaining a little weight in her cheeks and face.
Today's Weights

Beckett 4lbs, 5 oz
Eloise 4 lbs
Adeline 4 lbs, 9 oz

They are pretty good about sleeping throughout the night until their feedings and then they go back to sleep but during the day they will be awake for stretches of 1-2 hours just looking around, eating their hands and squawking. Did I mention how much noise they make? They rarely cry just kind of grunt and groan.


We also have been very busy, or at least my mom has, documenting the chaos with pictures. I accidentally imported them in the wrong order and I'm too lazy to fix it so scroll down to the bottom and work your way up. At least that is the order in which the pictures were taken. Of course I think my babies are just beautiful but I'm a tad partial.



A heavy night of drinking at the Newmans...

Three bouncy seats. Not that we have a surface big enough for all three besides the floor. And you can see Pickles the pug really likes the seats as well.

My beautiful boy sleeping.

Adeline sleeping- one of the few times she will sleep without someone holding her

"I can't wear PINK everyday" - Eloise


Something is terribly wrong with this picture. First of all, the torture device, a.k.a., breast pump is documented on the left but more troubling is the length of my husband's legs and backwards socks.
Eloise and Adeline


Beckett in his big boy pants. These are newborn size if that gives you an idea of how little and skinny he is.

Eloise sleeping. She looks like a little angel.



Holding all three for the first time. I'm feeding Beckett. This is also a good shot of Adeline's hairline of male pattern baldness.

"Stop in the name of LOVE." Eloise does this whenever she is getting burped.

Beckett's little feet after his daddy wrapped him. Someone get this boy some socks.

My stroller at the doctor office. See my fancy diaper bag. It is a triathlon messenger bag so it looks like I have triplets AND I do Ironman triathlons.

My awesome stroller at our first outing to the doctor.

Beckett holding the hand of Eloise.

Mmmmm, the milk moustache on my sister tastes so good.





Oh no, I just made another contribution to the money pit, otherwise known as the diaper pail.

Eloise on her first day home.

Adeline on her first day home.

Eloise in her infant seat when I brought her home from the hospital. She has blankets rolled up on either side of her and under her in order to keep her upright and in the seat.

Eloise in her infant seat on her way home.