One week in...

The boys are one week old today! Hard to believe that I should still be pregnant right now, and instead am living and breathing by a strict schedule of pumping, "care time", and sleeping when we can!

Some updates on the boys after their first week of life:

Will-

Will is our little blond boy with very long fingers and toes. He makes the funniest expressions as he looks around the room- his eyebrows kind of scrunch together and raise up so his whole forehead wrinkles. It's (obviously) adorable. He somewhat looks like a little old man with his wrinkly forehead- Daddy claims baby Will has a Benjamin Button thing going on. We (mainly I) had intended to have baby Will go by the nickname "Q" (for Quattro) as we have jokingly been calling our first born son Quattro for years now, before "he" was even a reality. For whatever reason, though, we've stuck with calling him Will so far. Maybe we just need a little extra time to get used to his name, or maybe Q will never be his nickname- I guess time will tell. 

Developmentally Will has progressed so much in his first week. He, along with his brothers, spent his first night in Vanderbilt's Stahlman NICU (their most intensive care unit for infants) which is located closest to the post partum care rooms in the main hospital. This NICU has about 10-12 beds in the room and a nurse who sits right by the isolette and watches over one or two babies 24/7.  He swallowed some blood during delivery so his first 24 hours he was spitting up and pooping some blood. Totally normal, we were told, but not something you want to see! He was also put on a Cpap machine to help with his breathing. Aside from the spitting up blood issue, he was doing pretty well and came off the cpap within a day. They let us hold him on Monday- and I was able to feed him a bottle and help burp him- it felt so nice to be able to do some "parenting" on the little guy!

On Monday evening they decided to move all three boys to the NICU at the Children's hospital. The plan was to put Will in what they consider a step down pod (still the NICU, but less intense in terms of needing constant attention from the nurses) but he had a little hiccup in his progress when his stomach was acting up after his feeding. He had puked the formula up and had a bit of a distended belly and his X-rays came back abnormal. They put him back on his cpap to help him breathe and decided that he'd join brother Griffin in the normal children's NICU instead of heading to the step down pod. As it turns out, the issue quickly resolved itself- his little belly had just been full of air and he needed to work some stuff out. For a couple days Will was getting to hog all the breast milk for himself as they wanted him to have feeds that were gentler on his belly. That must have done the trick as we were pleasantly surprised to walk into the step down pod on Thursday morning and see that Will had been moved there overnight. 

Some other "firsts" we have experienced with Will- he was the 1st baby to poop and pee on his mama (and has at this point done so on 3 separate occasions!). I thought we had an agreement that he would give his dad all the poopy diapers to change but it looks like baby Will is in cahoots with the wrong parent!

As of yesterday, Will is off his IV fluids. He hadn't needed a feeding tube as he's a very good eater. He's taking his full bottle at each feeding and is very good at pacing himself and remembering to breathe while he eats. (They were born at the gestational age where their suck, swallow, breathe reflex was just kicking in so they each need more practice in the feeding department.) 

We've started working on nursing with Will, too. The very first effort wasn't super successful as he didn't seem interested in doing much other than sticking his little tongue out and licking off the milk that we were using to try and get him to latch on. Admittedly it was hilariously adorable to see his little tongue stick out like a frog, but not successful in terms of learning to breastfeed. We tried again twice yesterday and used a nipple shield to help him- that was the trick! He nursed for about 10-15 minutes on his first try, and last night nursed for 25 minutes straight! We've been offering him a bottle after nursing to be sure he's getting enough to eat. He didn't want it after his marathon nursing session last night so hopefully that means he got enough on his own. 

Our goal for Will now is to make sure he continues to rest and grow! 

First time holding Will

Our little Benjamin Button- he looks like a little old man! LOVE that sweet face!

Proud Daddy

And proud Papa

Will loves to sleep in the "touchdown" formation

Wide awake and ready to eat!

The door to Will and Cooper's room in the step down NICU- I love that the staff take time to decorate the doors!

Griffin-

Griffin has the most  distinct looks of the bunch- his hair is extremely dark and spiky, and he has plenty of it! The boy already has a decent set of sideburns! They all have pretty good heads of hair, but I'm guessing I have Griffin to thank especially for all that heart burn I was experiencing! (Thankfully, that heart burn disappeared the minute after these guys were out of my belly- sure won't miss that part of pregnancy!) he also sports a cleft chin and has a rounder face than his brothers. His complexion is darker than his brothers, too! No one has any trouble identifying Griffin out of the trio. 

Similar to Will's nickname situation, we had intended to call Griffin "Fin" for short. When deciding on names I knew I wanted a little guy named Finn but we wavered back and forth between Griffin and Finnegan. Well, I did at least. Will suggested we invent a name- Griffinagan. Obviously we know what name won out, and Will does call him Griffinagan from time to time, but for whatever reason Fin has not caught on as a nickname yet. I actually find myself calling him Griff more often. Funny how things work out.

Griffin was the first of the boys that I officially laid eyes on when they put him in Will's lap in the operating room. He was such a chunker (and still is!) compared to his brothers! He's the same length as Will but he seems so much bigger than the other boys. 

Griffin seemed to struggle the most with breathing from the get-go. In the Stahlman NICU they had him spend a lot of time on his belly to make it easier for him to breathe. His face was covered with the Cpap machine and feeding tubes so it was especially hard to get a good look at his face for the first day. On Monday afternoon we got to practice part of his "care" on him- we did our first official diaper change and temperature checks on Griffin. 

When they transferred over to the Children's hospital NICU there was no question about where he'd go- he headed to the same pod as Will for some extra attention from the nursing staff. He was the last baby to come off of oxygen tubes to help him breathe, but he's been doing great with breathing on his own. They moved Griffin to the step down pod on Thursday night, so he know has his own room right next door to his brothers, which is great for us. We spent a lot of time running between the two pods every day to spend time with each baby so it's nice to be able to pop back and forth between rooms as often as we want. All three boys are not able to room together as the NICU isn't equipped to have 3 babies in one room together. Will and Cooper are staying in a twin room with Griffin next door in a single. The step down NICU is designed for parents to room in with the babies so the top is almost like a hotel- we have a TV, mini fridge, bathroom, and a couch that pulls out into a bed. We have been sleeping at home at night  but will start staying there at night closer to their discharge so we can do some practice runs. 

Griffin was the first to try breast feeding. He did OK considering neither one of us really knew what we were doing. He still has a feeding tube in his nose as he doesn't always get his bottle down In the allotted amount of time. He falls asleep very easily. While my milk was coming in the boys were supplemented with formula. They each got what they could of my breast milk first, and then the remainder of their feed came from the formula. We joke that Griffin is a bit of a food snob already. He takes down breast milk with no problem but makes a disgusted face when they try to give him formula. His second attempt to nurse was much more successful and he went to town for a solid 15-20 minutes. He must be a farm-to-table kind of baby. 

The nurses often comment on Griffin's feisty personality. He is constantly moving around and waving his arms about. The doctor making rounds on the boys yesterday thought Griffin will be our first walker of the boys.  He's not fond of his feeding tube and is constantly grabbing for it on his face. He's successfully yanked it out a couple of times! When he gets too grabby he gets put in a "timeout" swaddled where his hands are put inside his burrito. We keep telling him that the better he gets at eating the sooner that tube will come out!

He's got the same orders as Will before he can come home- rest and grow. Hopefully he'll get the hang of feeding soon, too. 

Little chunky monkey

He has a tendency to pull on things so he got the Edward Scissorhands look

Kangaroo time with mama

Daddy finally getting to hold Griffin 

Griffin's door in the step down NICU, right next door to his brothers' room

They love kangaroo time as much as I do!

Cooper-

The baby of our family by one whole minute! Cooper resembles brother Will but still looks pretty unique to us. His hair is a bit darker than Will's but not anywhere near as dark as Griffin's. Cooper is our tiny little peanut- he's currently just over 4 pounds. He's got the same long fingers and toes as his brothers. 

As small as he is, Cooper is a scrapper! His arms are constantly moving around, too. And he's been the most stable of the three guys since they arrived. The nurses commented that often times the smallest baby is the one who does better because he was used to fighting in the womb- for space, for nutrients, etc... He was the first baby they moved over to the Children's NICU and he's been in the step down pod since Monday. 

Cooper was the first baby to get to kangaroo care with me (skin-to-skin). Oh my, What a wonderful feeling. He just snuggles right into your chest and falls asleep. The only reason I'd want to give him up is to move on to one of his brothers. Kangaroo care is absolutely mama's favorite part of the day! 

He has his own little personality, too! He has no problem voicing his displeasure when he's not comfortable. His voice is still muffled while he's in the isolette but I have a feeling he's going to have some pipes on him. He shows his sassy side when we do kangaroo time, too. I'll let the picture tell the story!

He tried breastfeeding for the first time yesterday and did pretty well! He latched on for about 15 minutes and then refused his bottle so that's good. He got very fussy about an hour later, though, so he likely didn't get enough to eat. He's also having some trouble finishing his bottles during feeds so he's stuck with a feeding tube, too, for now. We're looking forward to when all of our boys have faces free from tape and wires. 

Such a tiny peanut

First kangaroo care with Cooper- note my red blotchy eyes. The hormones!!!

Grandma got to see Cooper kangaroo care before they headed back to Illinois

Sweet little face

Not sure what I did to deserve this, but I'm sure it won't be the last time I get this look from Cooper!

tiny baby toes

They are going to start popping the top off their isolettes in the next couple days so they can start working on keeping their body temperatures regulated on their own- another thing they have to master before they're allowed to come home. They've kept them closed up so far to make sure that the calories they're using are going towards growth and not towards keeping warm. 

All three have been losing weight this week, but within the normal range. We're hoping to see them all start gaining from here on out.