Since Adam is in some time-consuming training this week, I am in charge of the blog and pictures. My wonderful mother stayed for yet another week to take care of me while I recuperate. She does all she can to make life easier for me so I can rest as much as possible (including cooking anything I want. She’s a great cook, so I have been LOVING IT!). She’s a great nurse, mom and gran. Â
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/The babies are doing really well. Yesterday Kimball had a hard afternoon. He kept spitting up. It seemed like anything that was going in his belly was coming right back out. It was so hard to watch him gag and spit up over and over. It was obviously very uncomfortable for him. We kept calling the nurse over and she just kept saying it was reflux. It seemed worse than reflux to us, but we couldn’t convince her of that. We’ve had some great nurses and less than great nurses. Guess what I think of yesterday’s nurse? When the nurse practitioner called last night to give the update, she said the problem was that he had pulled up his feeding tube just enough to keep the food from really getting to his stomach, thus the reflux. Poor Kimball! All three babies are on Zantac to help with the reflux, and Kimball and Sawyer are also on Reglan, which moves the food through their gut faster. Â
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/Today Sawyer weighs 4 pounds 5 ounces, Brinlee weighs 3 pounds 12 ounces and Kimball weighs 3 pounds 11.5 ounces. They are just growing like crazy and getting cuter by the day. They are also up to more and more hijinx. I’m afraid we are going to be in for trouble with these three. Today the nurse had all the babies turned to the right until she saw that Brinlee was sucking on the back of Sawyer’s head. She also kept filling her diaper while I tried to change it. Every time I was sure she was done… I know that experts say that newborns, and especially preemies are too under developed to express happiness or contentment through smiles, but I don’t believe it. Sawyer is the smiliest baby I’ve ever seen. The boy grins all the time. All three of them grin quite a bit. I’m convinced they know who is holding them, that they are happy about it, and they are smiling because they are so content. Sawyer’s and Brinlee’s grins seem to be pure happiness and contentment. Kimball’s grins sometimes are the simple happiness, but often look a little mischievous to me. It makes me wonder if he’s already hatching plans to keep mom and dad on their toes. Â
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/Today I have the perfect story to prove my smile theory. I was holding Brinlee and Sawyer with Kimball next to us in the crib. I was explaining to them why their dad has been too busy and where he is. Every time I talked about Adam being gone, Brinlee would screw up her face like she was going to cry and her lip would start to tremble. I would say, “I know you miss him. I miss him too. He’ll be home soon though.†Then I told them that Adam calls several times a day to find out every detail about how they are doing. I told them how proud he is of them and all the progress they are making and how much he loves them. Every time I said those things Brinlee smiled and relaxed. I told them he had to work extra hard right now so he can take time off and stay home for a few weeks when they come home from the hospital. I went back and forth between talking about Adam being gone to how much he loves them. Brinlee’s face went from near crying to smiles, right on cue. You can’t convince me she wasn’t responding to what I was saying. She misses her daddy and can’t wait for him to get home (and mamma agrees. Come home soon!)    I’m not sure if we’ve ever written what each of the kid’s names means. They are all appropriately named.Â
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/ Kimball – Leader of great warriors Â
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/ Brinlee – Strong, virtuous and honorable Â
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/Sawyer – Woodworker or carpenter. That may not seem significant, but it reminds me of our Savior. That’s significant.    Â
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