More Holding and Growing

The nurses are now letting Ann-Marie and I hold our daughters for an hour to an hour and a half at a time!! We are loving every minute of it and we are so grateful the triplets are growing so well.

Possibly this week or maybe next week the girls will start "non-nutritive" feeding. This is where Ann-Marie pumps before holding the girls and then letting the girls start the motions of breast feeding. They are still not strong enough to suck and they have not developed the suck, swallow, and breathe reflexes, but practicing in this way helps them to learn the process of feeding once they are able.

Annie and Ruthie are now being fed 32 mL every three hours and Gracie is at 26 mL.

Annie and Ruthie both weigh 3 lbs 5 oz now, and Gracie is 2 lbs 15 oz. Gracie will likely hit 3 lbs by the end of Sunday.

The girls will be 32 weeks gestation (since the triplets were born early, we still track development by gestational age) this Tuesday (we've always used Monday in the past, but the nurses are using Tuesday to mark the weeks). Also as an FYI, we were told by the nurses to track milestones of holding their heads up, walking, talking, etc. from their Dec 8th due date. Even though they were born early, there's no shortcuts to the developmental process they must go through.

We see answers to your many prayers every day. Each day we look forward to the miracles of that day. We often hear the nurses say, "Do you know really how well your girls are doing?!" Thank you so much for all your prayers and support that help them and us! Ann-Marie and Erica with Annie
Annie

Erica and Ann-Marie helping take care of Annie

The nurses found two matching outfits for Gracie and Ruthie!

Erica showing the size of the onesie

Gracie's bear and onesie

Daddy with Ruthie and Mommy with Gracie

Annie's time for temperature check

Gracie waves hi. Annie, Gracie, and Ruthie are all trying to develop the muscles to suck on their binkies. They can do it for about ten seconds or so.

Annie

Cute hands Annie!

OK, now this is confusing, Gracie got a pink bow put on her head by a nurse that didn't know their colors.

Annie

Annie

We love to catch your smile on camera, Annie!

Don't be tricked by the bow, this is Gracie

Gracie and Ruthie

Close up of Ruthie

Daddy with Annie

This nurse, Alene, is fantastic. She would take the feeding tube and disconnect it for a brief time and let a drop of the breast milk go into each of the triplets' mouths. She said this helps the girls get used to the taste of breast milk and helps start the digestion process. Then she reconnects the tube and the feeding continues as normally (through a tube inserted into the nose that goes directly into the stomach).