September 30th

Lucas – 4lbs, 14oz

Matthew – 4lbs, 3oz

Kacey – 4lbs, 2oz

*Daniel*

As we discussed with Suzi yesterday, we showed up early for the 10:30 feeding rotations and Matthew was awake 30 minutes early and ready for food. Lucas is normally fed at 10:30 but he was still sleeping and Matthew was fussing so we decided to swap their times. Matthew surprisingly was very active in eating and was able to go about 13 min before he started to slow and fall asleep. I took over for Tracy and bottle fed him. Again, to my surprise, after a good burp he woke up and chowed down on his bottle drinking another 12ml in roughly 5-7 minutes. I still have to stop him every so often to make sure he stops and breathes though.

Lucas on the other hand was still very tired and did not seem to have any interest in eating at all. After about 10-15 minutes trying to breastfeed, we figured Tracy should move on to Kacey and I would try to bottle feed Lucas. I put Matthew to sleep and back in his crib then took Lucas. Lucas did have a large burp but continued to have no interest in eating. After a few minutes we decided that he would have to be tube fed. Kacey was the clear winner for the morning though as she fed for 15 minutes then finished of her 23ml bottle.

Matthew had a second Apnea yesterday after we left unfortunately. It can be easy to be discouraged but I often remember that they are still about 6 weeks premature and are doing so great for their size and age. Doctor has increased daily feedings again and I am trilled as we start to see them feed more and depend on the feeding tubes less.

With our family divided currently Tracy and I work hard to keep a stable home life for Caleb and Miranda while dedicating as much of our day as possible to bonding with our newborns. It can be trying times and even exhausting but I feel that Tracy and I have always been a great team and this has only served to show us how string we are together. I am so enjoying my time with Tracy as I feel we don’t always get enough time together due to my job and our opposite schedules. That being said, I feel we’ve always had a very string line of communication and that has continued to strengthen our marriage. I have been so proud of Tracy and the personal strength she has shown during this extremely difficult time.

I left early to let Nana have some bonding time with the babies and picked Caleb up from school and had some bonding time with him as we went to get the haircut he’d been waiting all week for. When I told him he said “Really!” and just seeing him excited made my heart happy. He likes getting his hair cut and again, seeing him happy really made my day.