I just got done putting Meredith to bed. She didn’t take a nap today and it wasn’t because Angela didn’t try. There’s just a few days from time to time where she just won’t go down. Needless to say, she was a bit crabby this evening, especially after she threw her entire dinner on the floor and I wouldn’t give her more ketchup to lick up off her tray. Seems like that’s the only thing she’ll eat these days.

After dinner, I took Meredith to her room for a little time away from it all. She was pretty upset so I took one of my favorite books from her bookshelf and started reading, hoping that she would eventually listen and sit with me for a while. It eventually worked. 30 minutes later (it felt like 90 minutes) Angela came in to save me. Meredith and I read Dr. Seuss’, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! I love this book. Even at 31 years of age, it’s still relevant.

The kids are 4 months old now. Can you believe that it’s been four months already? I can’t. Oh, the places we’ve been. It’s been a really long journey so far, and we’re just getting started. If you take in to consideration their prematurity (their due date was September 2) the kids are only 7 weeks old, but they’re doing so well. All five of them are right on pace developmentally if you adjust their age for the prematurity. They’re getting so big. I just put up some new pictures last night. See them here. All of them are smiling now and tracking objects. Alex and Brook have been cooing the past couple days. I took a small poor quality video of Brook with our camera and posted it on YouTube. You can see it here.

We have updated weights of the kids. We got these last night when we had a nurse come to the home.

Brooklyn – 11 lbs., 5 oz.
Lauren – 9 lbs., 9 oz.
Alex – 12 lbs., 8 oz.
Emma – 9 lbs., 3 oz.
Madeline – 10 lbs., 14 oz.

She was here to give the kids their first RSV shots. It took forever and they will get these shots every month until spring. RSV is a serious deal for kids like ours. We do not have it in our home. These shots are preventative. If you’d like to know more about RSV, please read up on it by clicking on this link. Speaking of last night, the past couple nights have been long. The shots last night just drug on forever. I think she was here for 3 hours! The kids have been showing signs of colic too. Monday was bath night. All 4 of the girls screamed for the entire 6-9 shift and the only time they quit was when I had them in the tub for a few minutes. Meredith didn’t cut us any slack either.

With all that said, we’re amazingly blessed. We’ve had one very minor complication that I really haven’t written about, but if you’ve spent any time in our home, you’d know what I’m talking about. Madeline has had some feeding trouble for several weeks now. We’ve tried a variety of things, including medication. She’s better than she used to be, but it sure isn’t resolved. We took Maddie to a pediatric gastroenterologist yesterday for a second opinion. For those who don’t know the medical lingo, he’s a guy who figures out what’s wrong with her tummy. Many have made suggestions as to what’s causing her trouble; let me assure you that it isn’t’ the iron supplement that she gets every day. We have multiple physicians who have promised us that it isn’t the iron that’s making her crabby. We’re gonna try a few things here at home, and if we need to, we’ll go back to Children’s Hospital the first week in December to do a swallow test to confirm this is reflux or something more serious. Seriously though, we’re so lucky that this is the most serious thing that we’re dealing with.

Speaking of blessed, I can’t tell you how appreciative we are of our volunteers. We have 3 people in our home helping out 24-7, but we still have some open spots from time to time. Spots open up because of people getting ill and changes in everyone’s personal schedules. Having people here all the time allows me to go to work every day and Angela to care for Meredith during the day. That is so important for us. As I mentioned in last night’s post, there will be another orientation meeting for new volunteers on Oct. 31. You can see more information about the meeting by clicking here and you can see the current and future volunteer schedule by clicking here. A volunteer just covering one 3 hour shift is worth his/her weight in gold. Thank you all so much to everyone who has been here to our home. We’ve had some people sick recently and the flu is running wild in our community, so please take care of yourselves. Wash your hands and use the hand sanitizers often.

With all that said, I’ll try to do a better job of writing more frequently.

Until then…

The kids are 4 months old now. I know. Wow!!! It’s been a long year.

I haven’t written in forever and I’ll write about the kids tonight. I promise. I guess the title was a bit of a tease to get everyone to read, so keep reading, please.

A public service announcement. Our wonderful volunteer coordinator, Brenda, will be holding another orientation meeting in the very near future. If you still want to hold our kids, we would love for you to attend.

Saturday, October 31st from 8:30-9:30 AM at St. Bridget’s Church in River Falls (211 East Division St) in the Garden View Room (just off of the Fellowship Hall). To learn more about our volunteer schedule, click here.

Before I let you go, a gentle reminder to wash your hands. You really can’t over do it. Spend a little time on it. You’re not that busy. There’s so much going around these days and washing your hands is still the best way to keep yourself and your family healthy.

More to come on the kids in the next post.

Until then…

For those of you who either don’t know or don’t remember, I had a little “heat” on the Iowa State vs. IOWA HAWKEYE football game earlier this year with a couple friends. The Hawks beat ISU like a drum and this picture is evidence of my winnings.

Thank you Vickie and Amy for being good sports. I really do respect your loyalty to your university, even though its that dirty ISU. I really don’t know how you do it. I would put up a picture of Amy as well, but she wears her Iowa Hawkeye Football Shirt PROUDLY every time she comes to our home to help with the kids. So with that said, I want to put this up for everyone to see (and Vickie, I hope you knew this was coming).

Thank you ladies and GO HAWKEYES!

Until next time…

I got home today around 4:30. I had been away from home since early Tuesday morning. It was the first time that I was overnight for work since nearly a month before the kids were born. I went to Sioux Falls, SD for 2 nights. For those who don’t know, I grew up 35 miles from Sioux Falls. It was good to get back as all of my family is there. I got together with my brothers to watch the Twins ballgame on Tuesday night. We had a great time. Wow, what a game!!! Outside of Game 7 of the World Series in ’91, it may have been the most memorable game in Twins history. For those of you who didn’t see it (shame on you), it was extremely entertaining.

I missed Angela while I was gone. I missed Meredith and the kids. I even missed Maggie, our dog. I didn’t sleep well at all. I guess I missed that elbow in my back or a nearly 2 year old kicking me at 5 am. The first that came to mind when I got home was; my wife is so amazing. The house was in awesome shape, the kids were all quiet and Meredith was in a great mood helping with laundry. I don’t think I can describe how great she is at running our household. I really want to thank Brenda for coming through with our schedule and to all the volunteers for filling it up while I was gone. It won’t be the last time that I have to go on the road. I feel a lot better about taking future trips after how well it went this time. Thank you all so much.

This is where I would normally like a smooth, witty, well thought out transition, but I have nothing.

The kids are growing a ton!!! They get weighed every other week now. The last weigh in was last week so these numbers are not entirely accurate…they’re clearly bigger than their listed weights.

Brook – 9 lbs., 12 oz. – she’s over 10
Lauren – 8 lbs., 6 oz.
Alex – 10 lbs., 11 oz. – he’s over 11
Emma – 7 lbs., 15 oz. – she’s over 8
Madeline – 9 lbs., 9 oz.

I just updated the site with some new pics of Meredith and the Quints. See the rest of them by clicking here. I got those pics taken of the kids dressed in Black and Old Gold that I promised. Go Hawkeyes!!! Oh…Almost forgot. I heard that I will have a pic of a certain ISU fan who lost a bet. Her mug will be seen here for everyone to admire by weekend’s end. I can’t wait.

That’s it for tonight. I need to spend some time with Angela. I owe someone a dedicated post and the creative juices have been flowing. There will be more to come in the next week or so.

Until then…