Our daily routine

Lots of people have been asking us questions like "how do you feed 3 babies at once?" "are you getting any sleep?" and our favorite "wow, it was so hard for me with one baby, I can't imagine 3! how are you doing it??". Since inquiring minds want to know, here's a recap of our typical daily routine...

For the first two weeks, we fed the babies via syringe finger feeding. This was to hopefully avoid confusion regarding later breastfeeding, as well as to accommodate the tiny amounts they were eating at first. Each syringe held 10ml, and they started out with 15-20ml and eventually worked their way up to 30-50ml (Abby was taking in 50, while Zoey stayed with 30). The technique involves placing a clean pinky finger in the baby's mouth to stimulate sucking, and then placing the flexible tip of the syringe in the mouth next to the finger so the milk can gradually be drawn in by the baby's sucking.

As you might guess, this method of feeding is pretty time-intensive. Not to mention the millions of times the syringes had to be washed and filled each day (a 50ml feeding required 5 clean syringes each time). The babies were eating every 2-3 hours - so that's 8-12 feedings per day, times 3. So to answer the first question ("how do you feed 3 babies at once?") - you don't, unless you have 3 adults present - one per baby. Otherwise they have to wait their turn. I compare it to airplanes taxi-ing on a runway.

Jason feeding Lucas with a syringe
 
Jason feeding Zoey with a syringe
 

Although I wanted to delay introducing bottles until the recommended 3-4 weeks, by our 2 week pediatrician visit we were nearing the end of our ropes with the syringes. Both the doctor and nurse practitioner/lactation consultant said that bottles were not evil and that we needed to do whatever worked to help our sanity. So, the babies graduated to bottles (still all breastmilk!) at 2 weeks old. They took to it quite well. The feedings still take awhile, but at least there is less equipment to clean.

First bottle feedings!
 
 
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Now for the sleep question. Yes, we are getting sleep, usually in 2-3 hour increments. The feedings start every 3 hours, and the babies usually sleep for 2 hours after each feeding. So by the time we've cleaned up from a feeding and prepped for the next one, we usually have 1.5-2 hours free for sleeping (or eating or showering or errands - we have to choose). Oh - and I am pumping every 3-4 hours around the clock. Jason and I take shifts as often as possible so that we can get longer periods of sleep, and we usually end up with a total of 5-7 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. It always helps to have a grandparent or two around so that we can nap while babies are being fed or supervised.

Although this sounds like a lot of work with little sleep, I have the feeling that this is actually the "easy" stage because the babies are sleeping so much. They definitely have their fussy periods, which often leads to one of us juggling a couple of babies at once to stop the crying (those cute pictures of us holding all 3 babies in a pile are usually preceded by lots of baby crying). And they are gradually becoming more alert - it is awesome to see them look around with their dark blue eyes and make funny faces. Whenever one of them is awake and happy, we try to read them a book or practice some tummy time.

So there it is in a nutshell. Living live in 3 hour increments, choosing between sleeping, eating, and showering within those 3 hour blocks, and generally being grateful that our babies came straight home from the hospital. I would rather do this than have to visit them in the NICU any day. And as for the "how do you do it with 3??" question - our only answer is that this is all we know. We have never taken care of just one baby at once, so for us juggling 3 babies is our normal. And we love it! (but we'd love it even more if we got a bit more sleep)