Week #1 at home
So here I sit early on this wonderful Sunday morning thinking, man, I really need to write something. It’s been several days since my last post and so much has gone on that I’m not sure that I can reflect back on everything. But I’ll do my best to give the latest and greatest.
Brooklyn is home and Angela and I are working hard to keep things on a schedule. Brook has already been in and met with Dr. Zimmerman, our new pediatrician. All of the kids will see him, including Meredith. I’m up early this morning because I just finished Brook’s 5 am feeding. She’s on a 3-hour feeding schedule and takes about 2 oz at each feeding. The schedule is as follows: 2 am, 5 am, 8 am, 11 am, 2 pm, 5 pm, 8 pm, and 11 pm. She doesn’t need to be on a schedule like that and could get her feedings on demand just like any other hungry newborn, but things are gonna be different at our house. Everyone will be on a feeding schedule and that’s just the way it’s gonna be. There’s just no way that we could make it if we tried to just deal with everyone on demand so we’re just gonna go with a schedule right from the start. Unfortunately, it’s gonna be very militant at our home. At night, Angela has been taking the 11 pm and 2 am shifts and I’ve been picking up the 5 am and 8 am shifts. Oma was here to help out during the past week. Thank you Mom! Angela’s Mom is here now and will be with us for a while. We don’t necessarily need any help at home with Meredith and/or Brook, but our issue is that we can’t do everything at home w/o an extra set of hands and still get in to see the kids in the hospital. Brook is doing great. Her feedings are going well and she’s gaining weight. I have no idea what she weighs today, but I know that she’s up.
As for the other kids…
Lauren is having a bit of a hard time as of late. She’s got some diaper rash. Nothing is working on it and it’s to the point where she has open wounds on her back side. They’re working on it, but it just isn’t getting any better. Hopefully her butt will have a little break over the next day or two. On a little more serious note, Lauren had a bit of blood in her stool. They stopped her feedings and hooked her up to an IV so that she could get some nutrition and fluids. We’ll cross our fingers that it clears up soon. She weighed in today at 4 lbs., 14 oz. She’s down just a little bit because they stopped her feedings. I’m very sure that her weight will jump back up once she gets back on the bottle.
Alex is doing great. He’s flippin huge. He weighed in at 5 lbs., 15.8 oz. He’s on the verge of 6 lbs! Hardly a preemie. He doesn’t fit in any of the preemie clothes that we have for him. I personally think Alex is a bit lazy as he is inconsistent with his feedings. He’ll take the entire bottle for 12-24 hours or so, but then not finish a bottle for 12-24 hours. Maybe that laziness is why he’s getting so tubby??? Hopefully we have him home this week. It seems like everyone at ANW has different views about him. Some say that he’ll be home Monday or Tuesday and others don’t think it will be till the end of the week. I guess we’ll just have to wait it out.
Emma is doing very well. She isn’t completing any of her feedings, but doing well in the grand scheme of things. When she doesn’t finish the feeding, they just give her the rest of the formula through her feeding tube. She weighed in at 4 lbs., 9 oz. She’s obviously gaining weight as she’s more than doubled in size since being born.
Madeline is catching up to Alex. She’s feeding very well, but a little like Alex in that she does very well and then gets lazy for a while. She needs to be more consistent before she can come home. She weighed in at 5 lbs., 11 oz. If she doesn’t come home with Alex this week, she won’t be far behind him.
I want to finish with a big Thank You to Brenda Derks. Brenda is the original mom of quintuplets in River Falls. Her quints are 6 now and going to kindergarten in the fall. She has volunteered to be our coordinator for volunteers. She held the first of our orientations for volunteers yesterday. She did a great job and has really taken this huge responsibility by the horns. We have another orientation at the library in River Falls on Wednesday night. If you’d like to help out with the kids once they all come home, please check out our How to Help page and send Brenda an email by clicking here. We are asking that everyone attend one of our orientations. If you can’t make it, please let Brenda know in your communication with her as we’ll be scheduling more orientations as we move forward. Thank you so much to everyone who attended the first meeting. We’re so blessed that there are so many people like you in this wonderful community!!! Angela and I look forward to getting to know all of you!
Until next time…