How time flies!

Christmas Day. Babies in birth order: Ricky, Heath, Ty and Leah 4months and 1 week.

Dr. Levy holding Ricky. He was amazed how big he was so he had to feel for himself. Our sickest is now the biggest.

Dr. Levy and the nurses checking out our crew.

Lisa holding her little boyfriend Ricky. That's Cody, one of our care partners in the background.

The babies at 3months old. Lt. to rt: Ricky, Heath, Ty, and Leah

Jenna holding Ty and Leah with Ricky in the boppy.

Picture before we headed out for our 1st visit to peditrician.

Ty snoozin on his boppy.

Sweet smiling Heath.

Laughing Leah.

Ricky crashed out on the boppy.

Tummy time in the boppy.

Jenna with everyone lined up.

Leah snacking on Ricky's arm. Makes a good pacifier.

Super Girl Jenna taking down the evil Mollie.

Me crashed out with my boys, Heath and Ty. Sassy's in the boppy trying to sleep too.

Dr. Tabor with his "Stache" Gotta Love the Man! I feel like I need to buy him a do-rag!

I started this post on December the 9th and am still trying to get it done! I can't believe we've already been home 2months now! Sorry I've gotten so far behind in updating! How time flies when your sleep deprived!! You'll have to excuse my present and past tense all jumbled together since I've tried to finish this many times with no luck! Well, after we left on Thursday the 30th of October, we went for our first visit with the pediatrician the following Tuesday. All was well, we did weight checks and Dr. Ong did an assessment on each one and I tried to summarize our hospital stay until she could look over their discharge papers I gave her. Ricky's weight was 6-6, Heath-6-4, Ty 6-2, and Leah 5-11. All had gained except for Heath and he lost 2 oz. Heath was started on Zantac and Leah was kept at the same dose for now. Heath had given us a scare the night we got home and the next day too, forgetting to breathe once after we got home and then once again the next day. Some good stimulation from Mama made it all better. We took turns staying up all night watching him and got a pulse ox monitor to put on him. We figured he was worn out from the trip and also may be having some reflux issues too, hence the Zantac. He had only one more episode at end of first week on Sat. after he had eaten and nothing sense. What a trip that was getting everyone in the doctors office. I checked to make sure before we got there that we could go straight back and not sit in the lobby. Too many people staring at our parade of car seats coming through. We made it and did good! the next day, Randy and I had to take Leah to Fort Worth for a follow up eye exam for the ROP (there was concern of her Lt eye). then the following Monday, we had to go back to pedi office for rotovirus vaccinations and for Heath and Ty to get blood drawn to recheck their thyroid levels, there's was a little low still when we left the hospital. Leah's eyes looked good but we had to go back this past Wednesday, 12-3, for a recheck. Leah and I left the boys with Aunt Kristi and we headed out! After waiting for over an hour we finally saw the doc and everything looked great! She will followup with the boys in July. The very next day, 12/4, we headed over to Stephenville with the whole crew for 4 month shots and their 2nd Synagis shots (for RSV). My friend Toni and sister Kristi came along to help. All got 4 shots, assessed, weighed and measured. The kiddos had gained more than I expected! Ricky weighed in at 8lbs 12oz! and 20 3/4 inches long, and head circumference of 14 3/4 inches. Heath was 8lbs 2 oz! 21inches long and head was 14 3/4 inches. Ty was 8lbs! 20 1/4 inches long, and head was 14 1/2 inches. Little miss Leah was a whopping 7lbs 2oz!, 19 inches long and head was 14 inches. WOW! I was quite proud of how much weight they had put on. Ricky is my little chunky monkey! The boy loves to eat! Dr. Ong wants them to stay on the Neosure formula. So I breastfeed 1/2 their feeds and then mix the Neosure with breastmilk for their bottles. Ricky and Ty will be referred to Cook's to be checked out for possible hernias. Heath and Ty's thyroid lab work came back normal. Leah had her Zantac increased to 0.3ml q8amd Heath's dose stayed the same. Leah doesn't have projectile puke yet, it just seems to roll our of her like a fountain! Ty on the otherhand has looked a little possessed at times when he pukes. Oh joy! But Dr. Ong wanted to wait before starting him on anything since he had only done it about 3 times. He added another to that yesterday when he got Kristi and me both on the couch. The milk looks like it doubles coming back up!

This past week has been even busier. On Tuesday and Wednesday, 12-9&10. ECI came out to evaluate the babies. ECI is Early Childhood Intervention. We were referred automatically to them because of the babies being preemies. Right now they have been placed in their follow up plan until they get a little older and then they will be re-evaluated to see if they have any needs to be addressed (need for physical therapy, speech, etc). Then on Thursday, 12-11, we loaded up the gang to head to Cook's for their follow up brain MRI's. This is one last look to see if there were any bleeds. The MRI shows it better than the head sonograms they first received. Everything went great. They called me the day before and said we weren't going to sedate them because then they would have to stay overnight since they were still so young. So we had to try to sleep deprive them and hold off on their next feeding until right before they went into the MRI scanner so they would be more apt to fall asleep and stay asleep through the scan. And Low and behold, it all worked out! I took Leah in first because she was still asleep from the ride over. She woke up a little when we were positioning her, but gave her her pacy and wrapped her snug in a warm blanket and back to sleep she went. She didn't wiggle once! While she was scanning, Ricky was getting fed and then I came back dropped Leah off and picked him up. And that's they way it went down the line, Ty and then Heath. We started around 12:30 and finished about 2:45. the MRI tech said she had never had to do 4 babies in a row and it go that smooth! Answered prayer! Then we headed upstairs to see the nurses and see if we could catch Dr. Levy. Jada, one of the child life specialists had come down and picked up preemie clothes I had brought for them to use or give away and some chocolate popcorn I had made for them to munch on! It was great to see some of the nurses who took care of our little ones. We also got to visit with Dr. Levy. He of course said they looked awesome! I got tickled at him as he went to look at each one. He had to hold our little chunky monkey Ricky; he was the sickest out of them all at birth. Lots of thanks were given again for them taking such good, loving care of our babies. They helped them grow and thrive and loved on them each day for us too.

Then this past Saturday the 13th, we had a sweet gal volunteer her services and come take pictures of the babies for us. Her name is Chelsea McGowan from Morgan Mill. She did a wonderful job taking family Christmas picture and ones of the babies and sisters. I decked the babies out in Santa suits for the boys and Leah a sweet little red dress with the white fur trim! They were darling!! She will have some of our pictures posted on her new website after the first of the year, McGowan Images. The first of this week has been quieter. Had to run Jenna to the doctor on Monday the 15th. Her eyes were swollen so bad from allergies but I had to make sure it wasn't pink eye since many had been sent home with it at school. She was fine, just bad allergy eyes. The next day, Tuesday, Jenna had her school Christmas program. They did a great job! Then on Thursday the 18th, Jenna had her class Christmas party after lunch and then they were out on Friday for Christmas break!

One thing I haven't mentioned was how the boys have been working hard for the past 2 months to finish up the add on to the house. Randy and his brother, Lance laid the tile in the new bathroom, the hallway and now the half bath off the kitchen (was the old full bath until we took out the shower so we could put up a wall for the room to have a closet. Randy and my brother in law, Brad had been bustin it, framing walls, fixing the bath, you name it -they were doing it. A volunteer from our church, Don Gilbreath was also in the mix doing the electrical end of everything. By the end of this week we were ready for carpet!! I got it ordered from the Hico Building Center. Thank you Mike and Wendy for your help with great pricing all throughout this project! Our carpet came in Monday and it was out it on Tuesday! We finished before Christmas! One last thanks to everyone who had helped from start to finish on the McLean project. We are truly grateful for all the hard work and hours put in to make it happen. Thanks to all who donated materials, their time. money and resources to get the job done. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful church family and friends to make this happen!!

Randy and I ran and did the last bit of shopping on Sunday. Thanks you Jamie Cozby for sending the cutest little ornament, "Peas in a pod" ! I love it! The first of the week, Jenna was home being a big help to me with the babies. Nana came by on Tuesday to help out with some laundry, clean the new bath so Jenna could get in the tub that night while Jenna and I made cookies for Santa and chocolate covered pretzels. This and check mix was my holiday cookin. Maybe next year I'll figure out a way to get some other goodies cooked. Or it could be the end of my fun baking for a few years! Christmas Eve we had Christmas with MoMo and Randy's brother, Lance and his family; Katy, Quinton, and Abbi. Jenna was in an awful rush for us to go to bed so Santa could come. Christmas morning of course was just us and then my family came over that afternoon for Christmas and Mexican food. It was quite different having everyone come to you instead of us going to everyone elses house. On Friday my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Bud came in from Eldorado. they were all meeting up at Granny's for supper and visiting. Saturday 12/27 my cousin Cody and his wife Christy came in with their kiddos for some time at Granny's too. They came by on Saturday with Barbara for a visit. Thank you Barbara for the knitted blankets. She said she finished Leah's between San Angelo and here, but she got it done!

Today, the 31st Jenna and I ran to Stephenville while Kristi and Mollie came to babysit. I had waited to the very last day to get my eyes checked so I could use my vision insurance that I had paid on all year long! The we ran by the hospital. I plan to go to work on Tuesday while Kristi comes and stays with the kiddos. We'll see how it goes. I'm already getting a little perplexed about the whole thing! I have such a wonderful family at work too! Those sweet guys gave us diapers for Christmas, not to mention everything else they've already done for us. I'm truly blessed to call these sweet people my friends! I also need to say thanks to all the ladies who've fixed us meals and have some to help feed a baby and help around my house. I'm oh so grateful! It was a quite New Years Eve at our house. We watched a movie and tried to stay awake after feeding the babies to watch the ball drop. Jenna roused to watch the ball drop and was a little made when she realized it was New Years Eve and we didn't do anything. The girls had been going to MoMo's for New Years the past couple of years. January 2nd we had to take the babies in for rotovirus and synagis vaccinations/checkup. I thought I had seen a possible hernia on Heath too and Dr. Ong confirmed that it looked like a little one. Same as the other 2, right inguinal hernias. So we are going the 9th to see Dr. Vaughan. You won't believe what the little chunky monkey's are weighing in at! Ricky is 11lbs 2oz and 23 3/4in long; Heath is 10lbs 1oz and 21 1/4in.; Ty is 9lbs 3oz and 21 3/4 in.; and Leah is 8lbs 13 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. How they've grown! Ty is now on Zantac too for his projectile spit ups, Heath and Leah stayed the same on their doses. So all looked great except finding the hernia on Heath. I'm hoping that if he needs surgery then they'll put them all on the 15th. If they can't I plan on rescheduling to a day they can all be done. We're making one trip! Especially since we have to stay overnight. I went to work on Tuesday the 6th while my sister, Kristi cane and stayed with the babies. My grandmother also came over to help with feeds. All went well, Kristi and I both survived. I got a little panicy the night before but all went well. I warned by manager KK, that I wouldn't be on time and she was ok with that and said I could leave if something came up. But I lasted all day. It was good to be with my friends at work but also weird not to be home with my chickies. Love my sista and my family at work! They've all been soooo good to me! So tomorrow the 9th Heath and I travel to the Dr. at Cook's to see what the game plan is. Randy's mom and volunteers LaDonna and Cathy will be here in the morning and my mom joins in after she gets off at noon.

Now I'll talk a little about what it's like to be the mom of 4 sweet miracles.

What an amazing first 2 months its been at home! Its been a little stressful at times, but for the most part everything has been going great! Do I sleep much? Yes and No. The first 2 weeks I may have slept an hour or two a night. Then I went to at least 3 hours, now I get 5-6. Am I tired? Yes, that's why I drink a pot of coffee each morning! But I think my body has adapted well (my mom keeps waiting for me to collapse!)! The first week the grandmas took vacation and helped out. I had volunteers come during the week. They help feed babies and get housework done. but for the most part, I'm it! Our feeding schedule in the beginning was every 3 hours 8-11-2-5, etc. I would breastfeed 2 while the other 2 got bottles. It's still about the same but the times seem to be ever changing. They occasionally go 4 hours between feeds. After the first month I started them on a cereal bottle at night. They were so cranky in the evenings. This seems to have helped but we still occasionally have a cranky/colicky spell after they eat around 6:30pm. When they first came home they were eating around 2oz a piece. Ricky and Heath are up to 5oz and Ty and Leah eat 4-41/2 oz plus half a bottle of cereal at noon and a 4oz bottle of cereal last bottle of the night. They've for the most part have been really good babies. Leah really started cooing and baby talking at the beginning of December. The boys have gradually followed by middle to end of the month. I call Heath and Leah smiley these days. Always smiling. They all love looking up at the things hanging above their changing table. Ty has really gotten more expressive and smiling more in the mornings. He was our serious one. Ricky is cooing and smiling up a storm too. We got the ocean wonders lights and sounds for their beds. Jenna loved hers, wore it out so I thought it would keep them occupied too. they love them especially Ricky. He'll lay in their and get his arms and legs going and just talks up a storm to it. Randy has given Ty the nickname "Screamin Steven". He's the squealer of the bunch. Sometimes all he wants is to be put on his belly, alot of the times he wants you to pick him up. Spoiled! Him and Heath especially like to be upright so they can look around. they are really holding their heads up good, getting very strong and watching/mesmerized by the fan and lights now. Some days are crazy and I get absolutely nothing done. I getting to where I do what I can. There's always another day to try to get it done. I'm trying to get back in the swing of cooking too. It's hard to find time for that also. Yesterday I started fixing a casserole at noon, but it got done! No day is ever the same with 4 little ones running the show! Sorry this post is so long, like I said I've been writing it since 12-9!