Three and a half months old!

The kids are now officially past their due date! They are a little more than three and a half months old, and their original due was last week, around March 25th. Connor currently weighs 6 pounds 13 ounces, and Mckenna weighs 6 pounds 8 ounces. They both look like real babies at this point, which is super exciting, considering where they came from.

Both babies are still in the NICU, and Mckenna is now off oxygen completely! She's been oxygen free now for about a week, and has been holding on just fine. She's no longer in critical condition, and we have little doubt that she'll be fine with everything. Her eye doctor said that even the eyes aren't too much of a concern, but she still gets regular check-ups on them. She still doesn't have much of a voice, because of the long experience with her ventilator tube. Her cries are hoarse, which makes us feel twice as bad when she cries! Connor definitely has a voice and he's not afraid to use it. Our little milkaholic no longer passes out while drinking the milk, but it does seem like he'll pass out from crying if we don't give him milk. We've found that he is only really happy when a) he's drinking milk, b) when he's cuddling with mom while drinking milk, or c) when he's sleeping with a full stomach of milk.

You have to be careful, because even under scenario a) he's given me (dad) strict rules to follow. If I go too fast, he gets frustrated. This can prolong the feeding, because he needs time to burp and rest a little at times. However, if I go too slow, he also gets frustrated, because he wants the right amount for his appetite. Since he eats so frequently, he's almost always eating because it takes about 45 minutes for one feeding. Sometimes he even goes on marathon feedings, where he will take a bottle for 30 minutes and then want to breastfeed with mommy. Once this starts, since he loves his mommy so much, it's almost impossible for him to quit until he falls asleep. I like to compare him to a fish, because if he could eat all day, he would. Then there's Mckenna...

Our little Mckenna has quite the opposite problem. We can't really get her to drink much at all. She still gets most of her milk through the feeding tube, but will drink a little bit herself some of the time. If only the two could merge appetites, things would be a lot easier for mom and dad!

Both kids are super fun, and we love them so much. At this time while we are preparing to bring them home, the doctors want us at the hospital as much as possible in order to take on as many of the duties as we can. I think sometimes the doctors and nurses must just sit back and laugh as we scramble around the room, grabbing bottles, pacifiers, diapers, wipes, blankets, etc.. while dodging and stepping over the wires and probes that are attached to the kids that monitor their oxygen levels and heart rates. It's a zoo in the NICU, but we feel extremely blessed to have two healthy kids that were born 3.5 months early.