In the begining we had volunteers come out to help feed the babies, Mom - Fri every 3 hours starting at 9AM until the 6PM feeding. But we had times when there were not any voluteers and we got creative.
Sometimes Alexis would help!!
We would make up a days worth of bottles and go through 21 bottles a day. 8 feedings, those middle of the night feedings were crazy.
We would go through alot of formula in a week. It would get up to 1 big can every day, these were small cans and the preemie formula was quite expensive, but this is what we had to use to make sure they would get all of the nutrients they needed.
We got really good at propping bottles and feeding while entertaining the big kids. :)
I was up with the over night feeding and Don would do the 9PM and 12AM feeds and I would be up at 3AM to start my day. I would do the 3AM and 6AM feed alone and then every Mon-Fri at 9AM Sue C would arrive and we would have folks come out at 12PM, 3PM & 6PM. from Novemeber 2008 - April 2009, I really LOVE each and every person that came out.
Here they are at 11 months old (if you correct for prematuraty they were only 8 months old). They were doing so well holding those bottles.
Here they are today enjoying that very last bottle. They each pulled out a bean bag and enjoyed thier last bottle. When they were done I said to them "Say bye bye bottle" and Bridgette waved and said "bye bye baba". And I threw the bottle away. :)
In 2 months and 4 days they will be 2 years old, where did the time go?????
awww....I hope the transition goes easily. You've come a long way baby.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Mary! You guys did (do) an awesome job!
ReplyDeleteWow!! I can say I am excited for the day we can lose the bottles but I know that time will go by too fast so I just have to enjoy it! (What I really can't wait for is for them to hold their own bottles!!) Congrats and great job getting them there!
ReplyDeleteMartha
I love all of the pictures! We don't have any like that of us feeding the boys :( What a wonderful milestone for your family!!!
ReplyDeleteWhy did you continue the bottles so long?
ReplyDeleteThanks anonymous for the question. Since they were preemies I wanted to give them a toddler formula for a little while longer to give them the extra calories and nutrients, they only got formula in thier bottle and I over bought but wanted to use it up at 1 bottle per kid a day it took a while. None of my kids took to pacifiers, so thankfully we did not have to worry about that one. They had been ready for a couple months, and it was a smooth transition, if I did not buy all that formula I would have stopped a few months ago,(my older 2 never took a bottle so this was a new experience to me and felt like a first time mom with the bottle thing, my oldest 2 nursed for 16 months each). And, well, they are only like a 19 month old, if you account for prematurity. :) Now on to potty training!!!
ReplyDeletePotty training is soooo much fun! You are doing a great job Mary and they are beautiful!
ReplyDelete