6 cribs up and 2 surgeries down

The schedule this past week has been packed!  Lots of major events too, so here goes the recap...

Leah did have surgery to put the g button in place last week.  The procedure went smoothly and she recovered like the little fighter she is!  Once the staff remembered to give her her reflux medicine, she stopped throwing up and tolerated her feeds well.  Her behavior was worse in the hospital and she may have gotten her nights and days mixed up again (a doctor told me they liked to play with her at night-thanks a lot!)  We are still trying bottles because our goal is to overcome the aversion and have her eating by mouth eventually.  The g button is pretty simple and has been easier to use than the ng tube and it doesn't bother her near as much.

Princess Leah in her tutu

Leah was discharged yesterday and we made our final NICU homecoming.  The nursing staff didn't think Dave and I acted excited enough, but we were just in a hurry to get out of there and, really, this ain't our first rodeo.  Good thing too, because I had to remind the doctors of their discharge duties and make sure they were all done before Leah could leave.  They were in quite the hurry to get rid of her.  Anyways.. Leah's second first night home was pretty bad.  She cried most of the night, but today she did well with only 1 screaming episode right before bed.  We did 3 bottle attempts (hardly drank anything, but no screaming!).  Right now, she's been quiet in her crib for 2 hours!  If they can all keep this up I'll be one happy mommy!!  Oh, and her new bottle looks like a rocket ship, but it's working.

Levi

Levi also had surgery this week.  His inguinal hernia was repaired and he handled it like a little rock star.  We had to be there at 6am for check in- this was made easier by a stop for kolaches.  He was pulled back at 7:30, surgeon came to talk to us at 8:30 and at 9:20 he was cleared to go home!  I'm used to everything being dragged out all day long; I couldn't believe we were home by 10am.  I gave him one dose of tylenol in the afternoon and one right before bed and that was it.  The next morning he woke up smiling and has been his same little self since :)  Love my Little Man!  One humorous thing about the day: we took Big Blue (the van) to the hospital and it's too big to valet so they just pulled it off to the side. We were curious where they'd put it.

Big Blue

This past weekend we accomplished 2 major milestones: separating boys and girls and going to church as a family!  Church was a breeze thanks to all our helpers.  We were able to meet volunteers outside and we all carried a baby into the nursery, then after the service carried them back out and loaded up the van.  The babies behaved well too!  So glad we're able to go back to church now!! It's not the same just watching it online.  We were able to get the boys room put together thanks to a group of great friends!  Had some watching babies and some putting cribs together and moving furniture around.  We got all the office stuff into different rooms and everything the boys need into their room :)  It's not quite done yet so I haven't taken pictures, but it's looking pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Sleeping through the night is going very well!!  The first night we tried skipping the 2am we made it all the way to 6:30am!  Took a week to get everyone sleeping enough that we didn't have to get up at all- they each took turns having bad nights.  It's awesome being able to sleep from 11-6 with the occasional pacifier action.  It's also easier to deal with Leah when we don't have to mess with the other ones at night.

Other random things... Andrew is the only one who doesn't put weight on his feet, so we call him twinkle toes because he looks like a ballet dancer on point.  Benjamin does crunches in his Boppy pillow from time to time- life full on grunting crunches.  He also can scoot himself by lifting his legs straight up and slamming them down- it's hilarious and a slow way of getting around.  Caroline and Levi are enjoying watching themselves in mirrors too.  Mom and I have started doing dance parties in the mornings- we line up the babies and we dance around them- they smile and laugh and love it when we pick them up to dance with us.  Sometimes we get tired after a couple songs though.

Andrew, Levi, Benjamin my little jailbirds

Current weights: Benjamin (15 lbs 6 oz), Andrew (15 lbs 3 oz), Caroline (14 lb 3 oz), Levi (10 lb 6 oz), Allison (10 lbs 2 oz), and Leah (9 lb 14 oz).  Definitely have my bigs and littles!

Ok last thing... I just made this up last night and don't want to forget it.  Leah was screaming for a bit and I came up with this song in my tiredness (to the tune of Safety Dance- you know, that awesome 80s song)...

She can scream if she wants to, she can really go to town
Cause if she screams, she's really going to scream
Turn your smile into a frown

She can scream if she wants to, she's really really loud
She throws her head back, opens her mouth
You can hear her in the clouds

She can scream, she can scream, Leah wins the prize
She can scream, she can scream, brings tears to your eyes.