Weigh-in!

Sofia is 8 lbs 13 ounces on the doctor's scale, and Madeline is 9 lbs 4 ounces! I think we are doing something right! :) Soon they will be done with Newborn sizes for good (we are already using only Size 1 diapers!)

Getting Bigger...

Our girls are just getting bigger and bigger... Dan and I realize they are growing, but it's fun when either my parents or Dan's parents come after a long week away and can tell how much they grew.

Here are the updates.... Josephine went to a pulmonology appointment today. I knew that there wouldn't be a decision on removing the oxygen today because they want to do a sleep study for it to be official. The sleep study is a week from today and I'm not looking forward to it! Neither Dan or I need to stay the night with her but one of us probably will anyway. There's no way I would actually be able to get some sleep there but it's just one night.
At the doctor today, Josephine weighed in at 9 lbs 6 oz!! What a big girl! Lucky Josie never misses a good feeding with her G-tube. I can't wait to start bottling her again (hopefully June?) Her voice is so strong compared to right after her PDA surgery. You almost never can tell she has a paralyzed vocal cord.

Here is Josephine deep in thought.
Madeline, our little feisty one, is doing very well. She isn't as big of a drama queen as before and really loves to smile and talk. She hasn't been weighed recently at the doctor, but I plan to bring her mid-week with Sofia.

Madeline's side profile.

Sofia is a sweetheart, too! Her bottling is off and on but still a lot better than a month ago. I took a bunch of pictures today because she was smiling up a storm, but I kept getting only little smirks (I'm not fast enough with the camera)! Sofia has been losing her beautiful locks, but that is so typical with little babies. She has a GREAT mohawk going on- very stylish! (Josephine has lost the least amount of hair.)

Sofia with a mohawk and smirk!

The ECFE program that the girls are in came this past Friday. They pretty much just observed the girls to see if they were on track. The girls impressed them, especially while they layed on their play mat.


On Sunday this past weekend, some of my great St. Olaf friends came over to meet the girls. They were all on their best behavior (the babies, I mean. Haha). Madeline proved herself to be the funny one with her facial expressions and her busyness. My friends got the girls some adorable baby bathrobes and me a gift certificate to a salon! That will surely be a treat for me to get away for an hour! My awesome friends also brought over some pizzas and a DQ ice cream cake! (All a surprise!) Thanks again, you guys!


Have a great week, everyone!!

Smile!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I have a couple of minutes to update the blog since some family is over entertaining the girls! (Thanks, Holts!) It's so funny- when people come over we rush to get stuff done because we have people to entertain the girls! Tonight we both ate, Dan did the dishes, I folded the laundry and started a new blog.

The girls are doing great! We're very busy obviously and it's rare when all three are sleeping at the same time(except at night). They are so interactive and almost seem to see us across the room! Not really too much else to report right now, so how about a few new pics instead?

We've been catching so many social smiles from our girls- and we do anything to get those smiles out of them (baby talk, funny faces and noises). Here's a pretty good one of Madeline. It's really hard to take a picture fast enough so most of them were half smiles! Isn't her face filling out?

Josephine was looking at her dad, smiling away.
Josephine and Sofia hanging out on the boppy with me.

OK, I was pretty lucky I caught this on video...this totally happened out of the blue! You might have to watch this one twice. Notice Sofia's facial expressions...



Good thing we've been keeping their pacifiers separated! What's the point?? We know they're sharing germs one way or another!

Forgot to Mention...

The girls had yet another eye exam yesterday. The good news is that Madeline and Josephine are DONE with the eye exams for a whole year! (The eye doc expected Josie to be done but Madeline's was a pleasant surprise!) The bad news is that Sofia has to go back in two weeks. The whole eye appointment process will be a lot easier with just one baby, though. I'm also sure her eyes will be just fine- we just have to keep monitoring her to make sure her slight ROP regresses.

Today I have to bring Sofia and Madeline to see the endocrinologist regarding their thyroid issues (Josie will go another day). Apparently they blocked off TWO hours for this appointment- I really hope they do that just in case. If it goes that long that will not make for a happy mama! Have a great day!

4+ Months Old!

It's been awhile since I've updated- no idea why, but it's pretty hectic around here (hmmm). Can you believe they are already more than 4 months/1 month adjusted? We have seen such big differences in their alertness this past month. They are all awake much of the day now. Actually, it was pretty crazy; one day last week Madeline was up from 7 am to 5 pm with maybe a 5 minute cat-nap and that's it. I didn't know whether to be concerned about that! I remember when we would rush to get our camera when we would see their eyes open just a slit at the NICU!

We had our 4 month check-up including shots last Thursday. The whole appointment for the three girls took us a good 2 1/2 hours, with shots at the very end. How awful is it watching your babies get shots?!? Not fun...

One plus of going to the pediatrician was that I found out we can feed more on demand through the night with a max of 6 hours (instead of 4)- they usually wake us up after 5 hours now. Another plus at the peds was getting a weight check. Sofia weighed 7 lbs 10 ounces, Madeline was 7 lbs 11 ounces, and Josie was a hefty 8 lbs! We are lucky now because a friend of ours lent us a scale- thanks again!!

The identicals cuddling on a boppy...


Josie sprawled out.

How big are you, Sofia? Soooo big!!

Sofia on the left, Madeline on the right having playtime.
There's not too much time to write more, but I hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Happy Easter from the Klopps!

Update on the Girlies

Another week under our belt! We have our routine down but it doesn't involve much besides feeding, diapering, and staring at our girls (and once in awhile trying to calm down three furious babies at the same time- usually before feedings but sometimes for no apparent reason). I still love my new job!

Sofia is still doing well with feedings. It is annoying having to give her two extra meds but we're dealing. I would still say her disposition is pretty even-keeled. We haven't gotten a weight check lately but she has to be 7 lbs by now!

Madeline is the same old spit-fire baby we know. She's so funny and loves to be a drama queen. She does love to cuddle, though! My only issue with her right now is that her feedings aren't her strong suit. It seems like she sucks too hard and can't swallow the thickened milk fast enough so it dribbles down her chin! I might try to schedule her swallow study sooner because maybe she would just prefer thin liquids now.

Josephine is still so sweet! She actually had an Ear, Nose, and Throat appointment yesterday. The doctor did a scope down her throat to see if she has regained any function of her paralyzed vocal cord. Unfortunately, it is still paralyzed, but her other one still compensates nicely. The doctor said that if it's still paralyzed at 18 months that it will probably be forever. The good thing is that he said she should be able to swallow even if she only has one cord (we have been told that before). She won't have a swallow study until June, but that gives her a lot of time to get stronger! She is still on oxygen for now but we see the pulmonologist at the end of the month to see if we can get rid of it. She only has it on for one of the pictures below, but really she's on it the majority of the time besides when we are trying to get quality group shots.

Speaking of pictures, here are some fun new pics.

OK, girls, SMILE!!

This one is pretty decent (L to R Sofia, Josephine, Madeline).

Bath time! Sofia seemed like she wanted to hate it, but then would realize it was pretty nice!

I absolutely LOVE this picture of Sofia! What a cutie pie!

We couldn't get Josephine to like the bath this time. Maybe next bath...

Madeline was on-off hating and loving it. Dan fixed her hair in this pic- so stylish!

The identicals! (Madeline on the left, Josephine on the right)

Close-up on Josie sans-oxygen.
Pretty successful group shot (L to R Sofia, Josephine, Madeline).

Sweet picture of Sofia on the left and Madeline on the right.

I love Josephine's "What you lookin' at?" expression.
All for now! Babies crying!