We seem to have established some sort of routine, so here I am, finally blogging after vowing to do it nearly every day for the last two weeks or so! Our routine is: eat around 2-3 am-whenever the boys wake up, sleep for 4 more hours, then we eat again around 6-7 (on a really good day, daddy takes this feeding!!), then we change everyone’s diapers, I pump and eat breakfast, and the boys fall asleep during this time for about 2 hours! Then we get everyone dressed for the day, eat again, change diapers again, pump again, play for a bit, repeat! Not much down time around here!
So anyway, lots of little things to update everyone on...
I’m still unemployed-technically I’m still a BJC employee, but not for long! A little background, in case you don’t know-I have been off since early September when I went into preterm labor. I’m still employed, but after my 3 months of FMLA, 30 days of non FMLA leave when I wasn't medically released due to my c-section complications, and an additional 30 days of job searching (since I decided not to go back to my Monday-Friday “9-5” schedule), I’ve exhausted my time off and have reached the point where I will be “removed from payroll”. I’m not being fired, it’s considered voluntary resignation. Anyway, I had an interview on the labor and delivery floor at Barnes, but they hired someone with L & D experience. L So we are back to the job search! I’ve applied to labor and delivery at MoBap, as well as their NICU-not sure if I’m prepared to work there, but it was the only thing that remotely interested me! The good news is, I found out that when I’m removed from payroll, I can continue to buy BJC insurance until I’m rehired-at cobra rates, but better than being uninsured! Plus, as long as I’m rehired within a year, I will still get my benefits at a discounted rate if I am a part time employee, as well as all the other benefits of being an employee. Basically, the only thing I will lose is my seniority, which as all nurses know, gets you NOTHING anyway! So, until I get a job, these boys continue to be my full time job!
The boys had their first babysitter during my interview, well technically second, but the first was my parents so I wasn’t quite as nervous leaving them! Heather, a nurse I worked with (and trained!) on 6900, who is now a NICU nurse at St. John's, watched the boys! I think they were good for her, with the exception of the requisite diaper blow out by Noah!! Anyway, the boys did great and I think Heather had fun too! I knew they were in good hands since she cares for 3 infants at a time at work!
We’ve also had LOTS of visitors lately! Aunt Nikki, Uncle Dusty, and cousin Conner came to visit (as they do basically every other weekend!) They are always helpful and entertaining! Plus, Dusty helped us out with some handyman jobs around the house! We no longer have mold on our garage ceiling (from having a leaking roof that our insurance refused to fix FOREVER), our fence doesn’t have any holes in it anymore, so I’m not chasing the dogs around the neighborhood anymore, our sink doesn’t leak, etc! What a relief!! Thanks Dusty! Last weekend cousins Alexis and Alyvia spent the night on Friday and helped out with the boys-they even got to help me give Mason a bath after he pooped and peed all over himself!! Kim, Jeff, mom, and dad all stopped by on Saturday after leaving the Dot Foods convention/conference thing they went to here in STL. Gram and Gabe came down this past weekend too! Plus, Dorothy made us a yummy lasagna while she was here!! Our frequent visitors also stopped by-Maureen, Kendra, and Kim Reiniger! They had to get their baby fixes in, and Kendra cut my hair while she was here! A fellow MOMMES member, Tiffany, and her 4 year old triplets came over and brought lunch last week too! It’s so fun to see what we might be dealing with in 4 years-I just hope our boys are as well behaved as her kiddos! We’ve had a very busy few weeks-but we love visitors/helpers!!
We’ve also had several doctors appointments recently. Noah had an appointment with plastics at Children’s to have his hand evaluated again. If you don’t know the story, his IV infiltrated when he was a few days old, and it had TPN/lipids infusing at the time. The poor little guy just has a small scar on his hand now, but basically had a burn on his whole lower arm/hand that they were working with up until he got discharged at 8 weeks old. Of course it’s his right hand too-daddy was hoping the silver lining would be that he could become our little left handed pitcher! Fortunately, the plastic surgeon doesn’t think he will need a graft or any intervention for that matter! She wants us to bring him back when he’s 2, to reevaluate it. YAY! He also had an appointment with Endocrine, since he has hypothyroidism like his momma and grandma Bev. His synthroid dose was adjusted and the doctor said he will likely outgrow it by the time he’s 2, but if it is some sort of inherited hypothyroidism, it could be chronic. We’re hoping he will outgrow it, but at least if not, it’s just 1 pill daily and it has no side effects! Last, but certainly not least, all three boys had their 4 month checkup yesterday (yes, they are 4 months already!)! These boys are growing like weeds! Our big boy, Mason, is up to 15 lbs 6 oz! He’s now in the 57th percentile on the growth charts for normal babies, not the preemie growth chart!! YAY Mason! Cooper weighs 13lbs 8oz, he’s in the 19th percentile and little Noah is 13lbs 2 oz and is in the 14th percentile! Daddy’s nicknames of “the little guy” and “the medium sized guy” might have be switched around for Cooper and Noah soon-Noah is quickly catching up to Cooper! On a note so exciting note, the boys had to get their 4 month vaccines too-not fun for mommy and daddy! Mason wasn’t too fussy last night, but Cooper and Noah took turns screaming most of the night!
We’ve noticed the boys have been getting hungry earlier and earlier during the night-only sleeping 4-5 hours instead of 5-6+, so I asked the nurse practitioner about starting the boys on solids and cereal! I was hoping they would let us, since they are on par developmentally, but unfortunately their doctor recommends waiting until 6 months for breast fed babies….boo!! However, when I told her we started giving them very small amounts of cereal over the weekend (without asking-oops!!), she said we could go ahead and continue since they have good head control, but she wants us to give it to them with a spoon instead of in their bottles. So tonight, we will have our first spoon feeding adventure! I’ll be sure to post pictures of it! She also said that if I really wanted to, I could go ahead and start 1st foods between 5-6 months, but they still don’t recommend it. I think I’ll do it anyway-these boys are hungry and I can barely keep up with their appetites by pumping and supplementing for 2 feedings/day!!
As I’m typing this in a word document to make sure I don’t lose it, I’m realizing I must be much more wordy than I’ve ever realized! I’m at almost 3 pages! I remember telling myself that all my entries wouldn’t be as long as my first one, but I think this one is right up there! Oops! A few last (and more fun) updates-the boys are all rolling pretty good now, starting to giggle (I will post the adorable Mason giggling video in a bit), smiling and interacting a lot when you talk to them, teething (I think anyway-drooling, eating their hands, chewing on binkies, etc), grabbing toys and bringing them to their mouths, and are just getting cuter by the day! I think I’m a little biased though! The boys are starting to stir now, but I’m going to try really really hard to post some pictures and videos later today!
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