4 Weeks Old!!

Hey Everyone:
Well...it has been a very busy week with multiple sleep cycles for all of us.  Perhaps the only ones who seem to be in any sort of rhythm up to this point are the boys...and that is just fine with us!!

We've been helped this week by Granddaddy Greg (Autumns Dad) who came in from Oklahoma on Tuesday night.  He got right into the care/feeding routine and within a day or so was doing some of them all by himself.

Here's a picture of him with one of the guys.  I think it is Ezra...but quite honestly...the memory isn't so good good with the amount of sleep we've been getting :-)

 

On Friday the boys turned 4 weeks old.  They are officially no longer called "Neonates" which is used to designate babies who are 0 days to 4 weeks old.  It just so happens, this also corresponded to their first follow up visit to the Pediatrician.  As I mentioned on Facebook yesterday...these are not just appointments with triplets...they are entire Events that you plan out in detail the night before.  

Getting ready for our trip meant we had to start adjusting their feeding times so we wouldn't be traveling or sitting in the dr's office on empty tummies, we gave them baths, prepared the diaper bag for any possibility (of which we used many of them), got the car ready, stroller ready (as a back up to carrying the car seats), car seats ready, outfits picked out, timelines coordinated, bottles prepared...I think that paints the picture.  I figure that is probably the same thing every family gets ready for when taking their babies out...with three...it's just all those things multiplied.

As a whole, the trip went really well.  We fed them early enough so we could feed them, put them in the car seats and be ready to go shortly after.  Here's a picture of them all ready to go:

Caleb, Gideon, Ezra

The pedatrician's office was great.  We only waited about 5 minutes before heading back for vital signs...and although we had a wait a bit longer in the actual care room...they let us stay there afterwards to feed them before getting back on the road.

The boys are all doing well. Their weights were:

Caleb = 5lb 11oz

Gideon:  5lb 14 oz

Ezra: 5lb 13.5 oz

I haven't compared them to their discharge weights yet, but they were all making plenty of progress each day and the doc was happy.

They each have little things to pray about though.  Caleb & Ezra both had minor heart murmurs.  They were slight enough that they were willing to let us go Friday evening (we were there from about 1:45p to 5p) and if they notice them again this Friday they will run EKGs.  Because the murmurs were so soft and because this is pretty common and usually turns out to be nothing...we aren't too stressed about it.  But we do ask for prayer that it would just be one of those "routine" things that takes care of itself.

Gideon continues to have bad reflex.  It makes it harder for him to eat and when he is done he is really uncomfortable.  We have started to feed him first so when he is done, we put him in his bouncer to keep him upright for another hour or so.  It seems to work pretty well and his spit-ups have dropped in frequency and intensity.

Lastly...Teddy continues to amaze us.  We had a friend drop by right before we were leaving and Teddy always stayed between John and the boys.  This wasn't at the same time...but here is a picture I took of another "Guard Dog" moment.  

 For those of you who have met Teddy...you'd be amazed how much he has changed in just days.  Pretty much the exact opposite of what he was like before the boys came along!

We hope you have a great weekend!

God Bless,

J & A