It’s amazing how much happens in one day in the life of a baby in the nicu. Here are some highlights. (If you’re just here for the photos, scroll down to the bottom. 🙂 )

• First of all, I started this update on Wednesday and now it’s Saturday. I can’t believe how difficult it is to find time to do anything besides feed babies, pump milk for their bottles and sneak in food and sleep when I can. A sample of my schedule is below and you’ll see it’s non-stop.

• The babies are all in open air cribs instead of isolettes! They moved out of the isolettes on Tuesday morning, 1/28. (Well, it might have been Monday but, as I mentioned, time is a funny thing for me right now.) The threshold for the move is their ability to maintain a body temperature between 36.5 and 37.5 degrees celsius.

• We’ve moved from the intensive care side of the nicu to the special care side! This means that the babies are basically feeders and growers. Aside from the obvious, another benefit is that the parent bathroom is on this side of the nicu. When you’re here every day for 8 hrs, it’s the simple things that make you happy.

• We’re starting bottles! To go home, the babies need to be able to take all of their feeds from a bottle (and breast). Once they’re able to transfer milk via breast feeding, we start on bottles. Amaya started first followed by Samuel. Steven seems to know he’s going to be fed one way or another (via nasal cannula) and is resisting any form of feeding that takes work. Amaya is leading the pack often taking full feedings via bottle or breast. She’s doing so well that she may be able to come home NEXT WEEK! (Once she’s home, I’ll be able to take her back with me every day so I can manage feedings for all three and not have to worry about splitting time between one baby at home and two in the nicu.)

• My day is fairly straight forward but absolutely exhausting. Below is a sample of my day. I’m starting to work with the nicu nurses to help with one of the feedings for each cycle since I know I’ll have help when they’re home and, frankly, I don’t think I can keep up this pace without losing my mind. We also put together a great schedule that helps me ensure each baby gets the same amount of breastfeeding time with me each day.

Toby Ziegler said it and it’s true: Babies come with hats. (And some are crocheted by Grandma Sunshine.) Here are a whole bunch of photos of the kiddos, mostly featuring their variety of hats.

The first three are Amaya including a great photo with Jason wearing a hat crocheted by Grandma Sunshine.

Three photos of Samuel including 2 in a hat of the wrong colors.

Four photos of Steven. The final one is a good representation of the look I get when I want him to eat any way other than from his ng tube.

Today we put all of the babies in hospital hats so we can take their scent home to Sally. In order – Steven, Samuel and Amaya.

January 30th – the first time I picked the babies up instead of having a nicu nurse hand them to me. In order – Amaya, Samuel and Steven.

Jason feeding Amaya.

Holding Samuel and Amaya.