Sleep and Grow Time

Annie, Gracie, and Ruthie are all being really good sleepers. The next four weeks are really sleep and grow times for them. Not until about 34 weeks (they are at 31 weeks this Monday) or so they will likely develop the suck, swallow, and breathe abilities so they can eat on their own. For now, though, they all have a feeding tube that is going through their nose down to their stomach. Annie is on about 20 mL of breast milk, Gracie 17 mL or so, and Ruthie 22 mL every three hours. This changes quickly each day as they grow because the amount of milk they get depends on their weight.

Gracie giving the hand signals of "no pictures please, I'm resting:)"

Mommy looking at Gracie

Gracie getting her temperature checked. For us to hold the babies the nurses like them to be 36.5 degrees celsius (37 degrees is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) or more.

Gracie with her eyes open

Mommy takes every opportunity to hold their hands and let them know she is close by

Daddy got to hold Gracie on Friday, Oct 2nd

Gracie knows how to melt her Daddy's heart, her little hand resting on me sure made me happy!

Mommy holding Ruthie

Ruthie likes to keep her hands by her face as well when she sleeps

Ellis was able to come on Friday to the hospital and we are sure glad he did, because the next day the hospital put into force a restriction on anyone under 16 visiting the 4th or 5th floor of the hospital (4th is Mother and Baby and 5th is Labor and Delivery as well as the NICU). He picked this locker for Mommy and Daddy to use because it was number 6 and now we have 6 in our family.

Ellis, we love your smile!

Ellis can sure rattle off his sister's names and he's even practiced writing them.

This is the Ronald McDonald Room where parents (and kids before the restriction was put into place) can get some crackers, drinks, and watch a movie or TV while their children are in the NICU.

Our neighbors (when we lived in Sandy) stopped by for a visit.

Pretty soon our precious daughters can join us for a family picture