New Weights

I just weighed the kids to see if they were big enough to sit in a booster, not that we will let them yet. I was just curious though. The gap between the boys is closing. Michael has always been a couple pounds bigger than the other boys. Now they are all close in weight.

Annie  36.8
Jaileigh  36.4
Jakob  43.2
Michael  44.3
Anthony  42.8

First Meal

We gave in to the babies demands and gave them their first real meal - RICE cereal. Michael LOVED it. He would cry if I didn't give it to him fast enough. The others weren't to sure if they liked it or not. They were all pretty good at eating it. Michael and Jaileigh were even chewing it. Our pediatrician and GI doctor gave us permission to start it at 5 months. The babies are now 5 1/2 months old. At 6 months we get to start real baby food. We are all excited for that!

New weights:
Anthony 11 lbs 14 1/2 ozs
Michael 12 lbs 4 ozs
Jakob 12 lbs 3 ozs
Jaileigh 9 lbs 8 ozs

Jaileigh savering her rice cereal


Michael waiting not so patiently for his next bite

Jakob is not so sure that he likes it. Something happened to the picture of Anthony because I can't find it. I will have to take another one.

We also got BUMBO chairs for Christmas. They love sitting in them and socializing with each other. They are so cute too. Early Childhood Intervention comes in on Friday's to work with the babies and suggested we ask Bumbo chairs for Christmas. They are really neat chairs.

Playing with each others toes, Michael and Jakob socializing. They are really cute together. They are now aware of each other and actually "talk" to one another.

Anthony and Jaileigh

Playing with Michael

Neon Milk, Nippling, Cannulas

Happy 5 weeks! We now have 33 weekers. I can't believe how time flies! It seems like yesterday when they were born and already they are 5 weeks old.

All babies are over 3 pounds finally!

Michael is 3 lbs 11 oz - Here he is sucking his thumb.

Anthony is 3 lbs 7 oz - Anthony rooting around for food. He has started to be very vocal about what he wants.



Jaileigh is 3 lbs 3 1/2 oz The Princess sleeping- notice there isn't anything in her nose!


Jakob is 3 lbs 3 oz - Little Jake is catching up. Daddy comforting him.



Jaileigh is also off her nasal cannula. On Saturday we took her off and she never looked back. Her face is so pretty without all the tape all over. Anthony is very close to having his taken off. He usually removes it himself and uses it as a pacifier. Jakob is a few days behind but he is getting there.


Our neonatologist gave us permission to start nippling last week. They all suck on pacifiers while they eat and we dip them in breast milk. They also wake up for their feedings and they root when they are hungry. This is typical 35 week stuff they tell us, not 32 week stuff. Maybe our children our smart?! The sucking, tasting, and full tummy feeling helps them figure out the eating process a little. Babies don't get the suck, swallow, breath reflex in utero until they are 35 weeks.

Yesterday we gave Jaileigh and Anthony bottles and started the actual "nippling" process. Jaileigh has a very strong suck and was able to take 12 cc out of 30 cc on her first try. She got tired and fell asleep after that. We gavaged the rest. Anthony has a little bit weaker suck and worked really hard to get 2 cc out of 30cc. I really thought he drank more than her because he was sucking so much more. Neither one of them had desats or bradies and they didn't choke. Today we will try Michael. We had so much company yesterday we only had time for 2 babies to try.


Anthony chowing down. He only bottle fed once. We can try them once a shift (nurse shift) until they catch on.

Jaileigh- she drank from a bottle 2 times yesterday. Once during day shift and once during night shift. Both times she did great.



Mike got to hold all 4 babies too. The nurses all felt sorry for him because he misses out on so much not being able to come in at night. The night nurses got everything ready for him to be able to hold all the babies on day shift. He was so excited. He asked me if I was going to post the pictures of him and they babies or if I was going to "hog all the attention". I should have dedicated a Mike and the babies blog.

The order: Anthony "Mr. Serious", Jakob "deep sleeper", Michael "the ham", and Jaileigh "the Princess" wondering what the boys are doing.

Jaileigh woke up for her picture.




Proud Daddy









Anthony is smiling, Jakob is still sleeping, Michael is probably pooping, and Jaileigh is sleeping




We broke the rules (actually we got permission) and let Grandma Mitzi and Aunt Rori hold the babies.

Grandma and Little Jakob


Rori and Jaileigh



Yesterday I had neon yellow milk for a couple of pumpings. I took a Vitamin B complex and it turned my milk neon yellow! The nurses thought it was quite hilarious. I did not think it was funny at all. It was actually a little embarrassing. Needless to say, I will not be taking that vitamin anymore! and sorry no pictures of that.


And yes, I have been a little under the weather the last couple of days. Life was supposed to get easier the older and more "out of the woods" your babies are, but it hasn't. I am still pumping (sucking the life out of me) every 2 hours in the day and every 3 hours at night. I spend the majority of my time in the NICU. When I'm not there I am doing BABY laundry, trying to nap, or pumping. I tried to slip in some other activities last week and it backfired on me. On Friday I went to the ER, because every doctor decided to take Labor Day weekend off, to figure out what was wrong with me. I had allergy/asthma symptoms but I haven't had either since I was pregnant. The diagnosis is that I am overtired and need to sleep more. So, I have been sleeping a little more, cut out the other activities (picking the dogs up from the groomer), and trying to eat better and I am feeling better.

Feeding Protocol and Weights

Jaileigh and Jakob are on feedings of 1.5 cc/hr and at 4:00 am they will go up to 2.0 cc/hr. At this point milk fortifier will be added to the breast milk. They fortifier gives them more protein and calories. Every 12 hours they will increase by .5 cc/hr until they reach 4.0 cc/hr at that point they will change their feedings to bolus feedings. They will receive their feedings every three hours in bolus form. Instead of increasing every 12 hours they will increase by 1 ml every 6 hours. This will continue until they reach 20 ml or what the protocol is for their weight.

Michael and Anthony are about 48 hours behind Jakob and Jaileigh. They are still at 0.8 cc/hr. On August 20 they will increase to 1.0 cc/hr and then they will be increased every 12 hours and continue the above protocol.

So far all of the babies have been tolerating their feedings. The nurses check for residual in their stomachs every 4 hours and they all have little to none. The tricky part they explained to me is when they start adding the milk fortifier. They said some babies have a hard time digesting that extra protein. So they said they will be praying for the babies to digest it (we will be praying as well). I thought that was cute of the nurses to say.

Mike and I get to kangaroo the babies every day. That is such a neat experience and so beneficial for the babies. We are very lucky to have such supportive primary nurses. I was talking to another mom here at the RM House and she has not been able to hold her baby yet. Her baby is a lot older than ours too. I really don’t know her situation but I feel really bad for her. It is such a bonding experience to hold your baby that closely.

Here are the new weights.

Anthony- 1255 g 2 lb 12 oz
Michael- 1446 g 3 lb 3 oz
Jaileigh- 1231 g 2 lb 11 oz
Jakob- 1145 g 2 lb 8 ½ oz