Hands free...at least for mom!

First of all, my apologies for taking so long to post. While I've been away for the past couple of weeks, the babies have learned to do something pretty amazing: they can hold their own bottles! YAY!!!


Krista started about a month ago with Kiera following. Then daddy dedicated a whole Sunday to training Jamison on how to hold his a couple of weeks ago and he's been a pro ever since. I can tell you that this makes feeding SO much easier! I've been looking through pictures and it's amazing to see what we've been through in the feeding department to get to this point.


When the babies were first born, they were too weak to even eat from a bottle so they had to get their milk from a feeding tube. Here's a picture of Kiera trying to yank her tube out of her nose! As you can tell, they were not fans.

Fortunately, not too long after, the babies were able to get most of their feeding from the bottle or from mommy. However, often times, because they were so tiny, they would lose energy and fall asleep. When this occured, they got the rest of their feed down the hatch! Here's Krista drinking from her bottle. I think that was 10cc or 1/3 of an ounce she was taking then!

After awhile using the bottles from the NICU, the babies graduated to 4 oz. size bottles. Here's Jamison with Nonna getting fed. Nonna was a lifesaver the first couple of months because she came over to do the late night feeding with me so Eric could sleep. In turn, he would get up to do the 5am feeding with the help of generous sisters from our church so I could sleep! Those days were rough! At the same time, I feel good that I was able to breastfeed for a good 4 months with special bonding time and I continued to pump for another 2 just so that the babies could get the "good stuff" a couple times a day.

For many months, I was very blessed to have consistent help feeding the babies, especially during the day when I was home alone with them. However, once RSV season hit in October, the help dropped off tremendously because of illness. I had to start getting creative in order to get all 3 babies fed in a timely manner. Otherwise, it would take upwards of 2 hours!!! The boppy pillows really were lifesavers. I'd line the babies up and then use a blanket to support the bottle. I found after much trial and error that the fleece type blankets were the best for propping because they could be contoured to the shape of the bottle. I missed the one-on-one time I used to have when feeding each baby individually but propping became necessary for survival. I would supervise each feeding and take turns burping each baby. I must also give props to Poppy because he would come over everyday after work to help me with the 3 o' clock feeding and would sacrifice his nap to assist.

I tried a few other propping products out there to help with feedings, including this yellow styrofoam contraption called a milk maid. I tried using them for a few days without much success so I gave up on them. They kept falling over and the babies didn't like holding onto the block so I ended up selling them to another triplet mother. I hope they worked better for her!

Sometimes, I had to get extremely creative in my bottle propping skills, hence the Dunkin' Donuts bag. Hey, it worked! When you have 3 hungry and screaming babies combined with being short-handed, you do what you have to do!


Well I thought I had my boppy feeding operation figured out until the babies became wiggleworms and would constantly drop their bottles or move around so much that I feared they would fall off the couch! My new approach was to put all three babies on the couch with me where I could keep bottles in place and keep babies close. It was an peculiar arrangement but it did the job, for awhile.

Here's another desperate attempt to get a baby fed! Actually though, using "Baby Tad" was an ingenious prop because he held the bottle perfectly in his hand/arm and Jamison enjoyed cuddling with him. Notice how he's holding Tad's hand and he has his arm wrapped around his neck. Too cute!

Krista started showing interest in holding her own bottle so we let her try on her own. Of course, at first, she wasn't able to hold it the entire feeding but as she practiced, she got better and better!


Once she was able to hold her bottle independently, I transitioned Krista to her space saver high chair where she was able to sit and drink her entire bottle while I fed Jamison and Kiera! Thank you!


Fortunately, brother and sister weren't too far behind on the whole bottle holding thing! Woot! Woot!


Are these big kids are what? Now the only problem is getting them to drink all of their bottles because they prefer solid foods to their formula. Go figure!