3 Days Grace

3 days old today! Today was a really cool day for all of us.

Cohen, Finn, and Sophia are all taking breast milk every 3 hours through their feeding tubes. Noah can't have "food" yet because his digestive system just isn't ready. Cohen is taking about 20cc of milk (30cc is one ounce), Sophia is taking 7 cc, and Finn sucks down 14cc.

The coolest thing today was the first attempt at breastfeeding Cohen. He is a natural. They call this non-nutritive feeding because he doesn't quite have enough sucking strength, but is able to latch on. While latched on, they fed him milk through his feeding tube to help him associate the two. At the same time, Mari was able to "kangaroo" Cohen. Kangaroo care is skin-to-skin contact between parent and baby, which helps baby to regulate temperature and for good ol' bonding. They did this for about 45 minutes - Cohen did so well with this and Mari looked like a pro.

Noah and Sophia are on vacation in the tropics right now so we let them relax a little. They both have a little jaundice so they are in tanning beds with little goggles on - so cute! They will likely take Noah off his CPAP again tonight to see if his lungs can hang without help. We haven't really been able to see his face clearly because of the CPAP. They plan to put in a central line which is an "IV" that goes directly into one of the main blood vessels coming off the heart. I hear the Goerlich boys have a reputation for ripping out their IVs. Sophia is breathing better and much easier now with the CPAP and they continue to lower the amount of oxygen she needs, so hopefully she'll be able to go without CPAP soon as well.

Sophia catchin' some rays

Finn is doing much better today, thanks to all the prayers he has received. He is off the ventilator now and back on his CPAP without much more oxygen than room air. His skin color looks much better and healthier now and his little lungs are not working nearly as hard. We pray that his lungs will continue to get stronger and stronger.

Finn catchin' some zzzzz

Mari has been walking around quite a bit today and she, too, keeps getting stronger and stronger. She had this special glow today when she was kangarooing and feeding Cohen.

How sweet is that?

Aunt Candace, Uncle Mark and 11 month old Madeleine came from Austin to visit us today. Madeleine is growing so fast and feels like a giant after holding our little ones. She is sooo cute and has so much personality!

Madeleine - Yeah, I'm cool!

Here's my story for the day. Once again, I get to leave the hospital to run errands with Mari's dad, Tim. Our mission today - rent a breast pump. I mean, what is it with getting breast supplies? We went down to A Woman's Work in Rice Village to get the pump and supplies. Tim actually went into the store with me this time - he must have read the last blog. Everyone there was so nice and helpful. Maybe they figured I didn't know what I was doing. They gave Mari the gift of a hands-free pumping bustier so she can clean house and mow the lawn while pumping. On the way out, she told some of the other customers "There goes the father of quadruplets." Everyone turned around and congratulated us with such excitement and as we walked out, they all started clapping for us! Yeah, it's a rock-star life!

God continues to show His grace and power with the babies. We give Him all the praise for the babies' improved health.