Three on One

This week I've been mostly on my own with the boys, so I am perfecting my zone feeding technique. The hardest part is fitting in nursing at the same time I'm propping two other boys and trying to get everyone burped. If they will cooperate and let me start their feedings 10-15 minutes apart, that helps a lot. But sometimes, everyone is hungry all at once!

Yesterday I tandem nursed two of the babies for the first time. It went pretty well. It certainly went better than I ever hoped, considering the fact that I had to work pretty hard to teach each of them to nurse in the first place. Even now, they don't always cooperate with me, but if one won't cooperate, there's always another baby to try!

Right now the babies get breast milk for about half of their feedings. Some of the time they nurse, and the rest of the time they get a bottle of either breast milk or formula. Beside the fact that breast milk is the best food in the world for the babies, if you've purchased formula lately, you know it's well worth the time and effort to nurse and pump for the savings alone! We go through a $25 can of formula in about 4 days, and that's with me providing half the feedings in breast milk. We're investing the savings in their college fund. HA! Maybe once we're done buying diapers.

Someday She'll Hate Me for This Post...

Last night Amelia helped feed the babies.

Amelia and Alex

Then she saw Mom nursing Isaac, and pretty soon she was pulling up her shirt, asking to feed her baby. Tears ensued when we tried to explain that only mommies could feed babies that way.

Poor, sweet Amelia! We love you and we love how much you already want to do things for your "brodders."

Growing Boys

We weighed the boys tonight, and they are already growing like weeds! At almost three weeks old, combined they tip the scales at almost 20 lbs.

Sam - 6 lb. 6 oz.
Isaac - 5 lb. 15 oz.
Alex - 7 lb. 7 oz.

Clearly eating every three hours agrees with these boys!

I'm still trying to teach them how to nurse. Isaac's getting the hang of things, and Sam doesn't do too badly, but Alex is pretty lazy about it. I may never get him to be much of a nurser as long as there's a bottle in the picture. And logistically, there has to be some bottle feeding involved. There just are not enough hours in the day or enough of Mom to go around!