Everyone is growing!

We went to the doctor for our 4 month check up. Things are going really well. I couldn't be happier. Here were the statistics from that appointment.

Ryan: He is up to 10 lbs 3oz!!! I can't believe it. He was taken off all his extra calories at his last appointment and he has still gained without any difficulty. He has not yet reached the regular growth chart but is going in the right direction and is getting very close. Hopefully at the 6 month visit he will make it. He has slept through the night a couple of times. The doctor says to just let him cry if he wakes up since we know he can make it the whole night. I don't know that I can do that but we will see what happens. He is usually going at least 4 hours and more often 5. I think that is a night for his age so I will probably just feed him when he cries.  He has grown out of almost all of his newborn clothes. The pants still fit but that is about it. He is into 0-3month onsies and PJ's now. I can't believe my boy is getting so big!

Tyler: He is up to a whopping 7lb 9oz. I remember how heavy I thought Ryan was at this weight but Tyler feels so little. LOL! He is also growing appropriately. The doctor is not concerned about his growth at all. He will probably not be on the growth chart at 6 months but should be very close. He was not able to come off his extra calories. He was getting 28 calorie breast milk but I have switched him to formula now. The base formula we use is 22 calories as opposed to the 20 calories found in breast milk. Because of this, once we add all his goodies he now gets 30 calories so he is eating a little less but still gaining well. We are waiting on speech therapy to come to the house and assess his bottle feeding again. He was leaking very badly when he ate. We stumbled across a "bonus nipple" in one of our platex boxes and tried it with Ryan. When Ryan did really well with it and didn't leak a drop we decided to try it with Tyler too. Since he has done so well with his leaking since we switched to this nipple I have been able to get rid of his thickener we were adding to his formula. His eyes are improving. Since he was discharged from the hospital he has gone from a grade 3 to a grade 1. The eye doctor told us that he wanted to see him in 3 weeks and he hopes to clear him at that time. Boy do I hope so. He will still have to see the eye doctor for follow ups but not as often as we are now. Tyler is still in preemie clothes but trasitioning quickly to newborn. Newborn pants fall off his waist but preemie pants are to short!

Emily: She is getting to be my little chunky monkey! She is up to 9lbs 1oz. I can't believe it, she is still in newborn clothes right now. She still fits in a few preemie outfits that were on the large side to begin with. She was taken off all her extra calories at the 4 month visit. She has been very fussy in the evenings so we have changed her formula to one that has partially broken down proteins that are easier to digest to see if that will help. They also increased her zantac dose again. She hates taking it but it does help her spit-ups.

They are all starting to sleep more which means so do mom and dad. This is good for both of us. I believe we have taught them days and nights very well. From the time we brough them home we keep it light and somewhat noisy during the day. By noisy I mean the TV is on and we talk in normal voices even if they are sleeping. At night it is dark and quiet. When they wake up at night to feed we simply feed them and put them back in bed. We don't talk to them or play with them. They know that those are daytime activities. After night time feedings they go right back to sleep. When the sun starts rising they are ready to play! During daytime feedings they are starting to be awake more and not naping as often. They can sleep through anything, vacuums, dogs barking, doorbell ringing, loud talking, laughter, thunderstorms, etc. I think a lot of this is due to their NICU stay but I think our system of days and nights has helped as well. The doctor has given us the OK to start them on foods now. Of course we will start with a little cereal added to their bottles at night and grow from there. We will be starting cereal sometime next week because we just changed formulas this week and don't want to change to much to quick.
I hope this blog finds you all well. We will be taking the babies to church for the first time on Easter. He is Risen! Thank God for our Blessings and his wonderful SON!