Day Five...Life Is Good

Pictures above:
Jack sleeping with his yellow hat (his favorite activity!)
Ryan in blue hat doing the same
Brooke relaxing on her back (look at her dark hair!)
Kyle checking out baby brother Jack (Notice someone still believes in the Cubs!)

We'll try to get some more pictures of them with eyes open and no hats soon.

So yesterday I was discharged from the hospital around 1 pm. We spent the morning with the babies then went home to enjoy the amazing weather. It was bittersweet to leave the hospital - I was ready to go home but not so ready to leave the babies. Everyone keeps telling me that I need to heal first so I'll be ready to take care of the babies when they are home soon. This is what gets me through the times when I'm missing them like crazy! We went home and spent the afternoon relaxing and had an amazing steak dinner on the grill (I think we may have found the end of the summer weather). Mom & Dad then stayed with Kyle while we went back to the hospital for the evening. Kyle is very excited about seeing the moon each night so he had a great walk with Ama & Papa...still talking about it this morning.

The nurses in the NICU have been AMAZING so far. It takes a very special person to care for your babies as they do. It's great because we can call them day or night to just check in on the kids which gives us great comfort.

Here are some highlights from the past few days:

Ryan
Weighing in at 3 lb 11 oz (born at 3 lb 13 oz)
* He's now feeding by bottle, trying to keep up with his brother! He has also increased his feeding amount so much, up to 8 oz per day.
* Today he took all bottle feedings, none through his nasal feeding tube. I was able to feed him today for the first time!
* Another first - changed my first Ryan diaper. Very exciting for me...I'm sure the excitement of changing a diaper will wear off soon :-)
* They are very encouraged by his progression to date. He's so alert when he's awake, always looking around to see who's there. Such big eyes too!
* Still Mr. Busybody...he loves to kick his blanket off, move himself down to the lower part of the isolette, etc. Those are some strong (yet very skinny) legs!

Brooke
Don't have her updated weight because she's been on her breathing tube
* Was taken off her breathing tube today so she's one step closer to healing. They will test her surgically repaired esophogus/stomach connection on Friday for leaks. Please continue your prayers for a successful outcome!
* She looks so peaceful, I can't WAIT to hold her again. We've got a lot of bonding time to make up for :-)
* Her hair is the darkest and thickest of the three. She doesn't have anything on her cousin Lila though!

Jack
Weighing in at 4 lb 6 oz (born at 4 lb 5 oz) - he's now gaining weight!
* They increased him to almost 10 oz/day (previously eating 8 oz)
* He was sucking his thumb for the first time while Ed was holding him yesterday - it would have been the cutest picture as his whole hand was covering his face while he was doing it!
* He nursed for the first time today! We did pretty well but it really wore him out because they had to put his nasal feeding line back in tonight because he was out cold before he finished half of his bottle. As the nurse reminded us today, preemies have a lot of "two steps forward, one step back" moments. This is one I can live with...
* I asked Jack's nurse today her opinion on when she thought Jack might come home. She thought it could be as early as THIS FRIDAY or sometime early next week. Wow, reality is starting to set in :-)
* Mom held the boys for the first time today. She looked like an ol' pro :-)

That's it for my updates today. I must head to bed and enjoy my sleep while I can! I'll try to keep everyone updated as often as possible. I apologize if I haven't called/written you back...my new life has shown me that it's hard to keep up with everything. Even though your a close second in the ranks, the babies are first :-)