Homies and Shorties

So we came home from the hospital Wednesday afternoon. I picked up Sarah and the kids just before the next feeding was scheduled, but that takes an hour, so we just loaded up and headed home. It turns out we had to make a few stops, so they didn't get their food until almost 2 hours later. They didn't seem to mind, though, as it appears that riding in the car makes them sleepy. They hardly made a peep the whole drive home.

As you can tell by the timestamp, sleep won't be happening much for me tonight. For much of the night, Emma has been inconsolable. we've changed her diaper 3 times since 11 PM and have fed her, burped her, etc. Little Joe was doing pretty well, but he wouldn't lay down without fussing either. So I took the little man away and let Sarah work with Emma. After about an hour, he was consistently out (as long as he was held), so I swapped with her. Currently Emma is laying across my lap, completely sweet and asleep. And now Lil Joe is crying for Sarah. It just isn't right. Maybe he's hungry...

[Twenty minutes later]

It turns out that he, indeed, was hungry. So, I put Emma in her car seat, in which she is sleeping fantastically (owing, partly, to just having been fed by Sarah). I told Sarah to get some sleep, and brought the little man into the office with me and Emma and fed him some formula. We would like to feed them breast milk exclusively, but when they were in the hospital we couldn't wait for Sarah's milk to come in to feed them, as we needed to stop their weight loss. Now, unfortunately, rather than nurse, they like to take the easy way out and get syringe fed. Tonight we were able to feed them some pumped milk by syringe feeding, so we're trying to get them hooked on the taste of breast milk so that formula will be a last resort. It's a bit tougher with preemies, as nursing isn't quite as instinctive for them as it is for full-term babies.

Now everyone is sleeping away, Joseph comfortably on my lap, Emma in her carseat, and Sarah in our bed. At least until the next alarm goes off at 4:15 and Emma has to be fed...