Spoiled Rotten

Allan and Griffith have both had a good weekend. They have had so much attention that Dr. Bada has officially diagnosed them as "spoiled." I can kind of see her point because when she checked in each boy was being held by a parent or grandparent, each also had a parent or grandparent watching over him. And Cheryl was keeping watch over the whole situation. Five adults doting on about 10 pounds worth of babies might seem excessive.

Allan has now graduated to big boy diapers. No more of this preemie nonsense for him. He fits solidly in a Newborn No. 1 diaper, thank you very much. And fills them out quite nicely. His weight has been a little up and down, but he is about 6 pounds 10 ounces. He had his first bottle since his little setback with the fluid retention and did great -- ate 37 mls out of 45 before he tired out. He isn't as mad for it as Griffith is, but he does very well once you can convince him to open up and put his tongue down. There is an art to it that I haven't quite mastered. Apparently preemies are very adept at clamping their tongues up to the roof of their mouths. Which makes a lot of sense when you consider that they spend a lot of time with a vent tube, ng tubes and other unpleasant stuff shoved in their mouths. It takes a little time to convince him that this will be a pleasant experience. He isn't averse to the bottle, just skeptical.

Griffith is building up on his feeds day by day. He is now up to 30 mls per feeding which means that he doesn't need IV supplements. He loves to eat (you would, too, if you hadn't been allowed to eat for 2 weeks.) He wakes up early for his feeds and gets quite loud and insistent about being fed. He smacks his lips and makes sucking noises with his tongue and, if you don't get the hint, he progresses to squawling loudly and going red and stiff as a board which is pretty effective really. The usual pattern for care time has been to get a temperature, change the diaper and then eat. Since Griff has been getting bottle-fed, though, you have about 2 minutes maximum from disturbing him to when he insists on being fed. It is a little like NASCAR pit stops. Every one and every thing has to work just right or there is hell to pay. Once he is fed, he's as good as gold and will settle down, but he isn't going to stop until he beats you down. He used to go right to sleep after eating and burping, but lately he is spending more time awake -- looking and listening to every thing going on around him. He is gaining weight, although more slowly because he is on pure breast milk (Allan's is fortified with extra calories -- would you like fries with that?). He's still a respectable 5 pounds 4 ounces, though and they will add fortifier to his again some time next week.

Grandma and Grampy have had an opportunity to observe the boys up close which means that there is independent confirmation of just how distinct the boys' personalities are. (And of the fact that I have not been making this up.) Grandma was holding Allan and, although he was wide awake, he was content to lay still, wriggling his little fingers slowly, rolling his eyes around (slowly) to try to see where voices were coming from. Griffith, on the other hand, was stretching and wriggling, staring intently at Grampy, and kicking up a fuss because something wasn't suiting him. Night and day.

Since the boys have been moved to the same nursery, they now have double the primaries with half the time. It has been hard to adjust to not seeing everyone all the time but it has also been fun seeing Allan's nurses get used to Griffith and vice versa. Last night Allan's primary, Sarah, had them both for the first time. She has been threatening to put Allan in her pocket and take him home since April (she's going to need a bigger pocket these days). She was prepared to take on Griffith in order to have time with her Allan. The report I got this morning was that Griffith had won her over (or wore her down) with his antics last night and she spent a fair amount of time loving on him, too.

Time to go and see what Thing One and Thing Two have been up to this afternoon.