Still Here, Just a Little Busier These Days...

This is going to be quick because I'm tired and I'm a little cranky...really tired, more than a little cranky. Here goes:

- Babies: awesome, totally, completely, incredibly, awesome and perfect in every single way!!
- Britton: started to take her feeds really well, thought she was coming home today, first heart rate drop in 15 days on Saturday has her on lockdown until the end of the week... We miss her terribly because it is next to impossible to get back to the NICU these days. We've been there twice in the last week...not cool... :(
- Jack: Big Boy continues to dominate the bottle and spend his hours in chill mode...loves the TV, even when facing away from it, he does back bends to try to see it...just wait 'til college football starts, my boy, just wait!!
- Lila: Competing with Bright Eyes Britton for the brightest eyes and social butterfly title...too incredibly cute!
- Ryan: Total trouble maker! Likes to be held...a lot...also doesn't like to wait her turn to get the bottle...already living up to the baby of the family role she earned by being born last. Gets cuter by the moment, however!!
- Brooklyn: might be taking over as the ultimate girlie-girl...her cry is so sweet I actually want her to cry so I can hear it again and again...she sleeps, fusses, falls back to sleep, fusses, falls back to sleep...flipping adoreable!
- Volunteers: totally ROCK! All have been incredible - thoughtful, respectful, good with the babies...huge relief, answer to prayers...AMAZING!!!
- Night Time Volunteers: Really hard to come by...Tricia, The Velvet Hammer, is a ROCK STAR!
- Feeding Schedule: Difficult...feeding takes two hours, babies eat every three...do the math...zzzzzzzzzzzz...
- Casey Ann: AMAZING!!! Nuf said...oh, wait...BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
- Grandma Stevie and Nana: Rock solid...thank you, thank you, thank you!!
- Sleep: next to none, contemplating night nurse, but muy, muy expensive...something must be done, however. That bullet is going to hurt when we finally convince ourselves to take the bite...
- School: Timing - bad, Baylor - fantastic, current class (finance) - very interesting, light at the end of this semester's tunnel - pretty bright...
- Noteworthy About Today's Blog: no pictures...this time it's the lack of pictures that speak a thousand words. Casey was born with a camera in her hand...hard to take pictures when your camera hands are full of baby...
- Future: Never better...

God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

Four Down, One to Go...Welcome Home, Ryan Elizabeth!!!!

We have quads today, and probably no more than that for the next few days at least. The baby of the family, the last born, Baby E, Ryan Elizabeth, came home today...yeah!!!! Her final NICU weight was six pounds, two ounces; not bad considering she is supposed to have been born two days from now. That leaves only our little social butterfly, Baby Bright Eyes Britton, still to make the journey home. She is doing well, but hasn't yet mastered the bottle...we just hope she makes it home in time to celebrate her first Christmas with the family... ;-)

Oh yes, one more thing...Eliot has decided on nicknames for three of the four. We've not got Lila Bear, Prince Jack, and Ryan the Lion. I guess she's still working on Britton's and Brooklyn's names, but she's off to a great start!

God Bless,

Ethan

www.JonesLife.net

JonesLife Nights...Good Times!!!

This is absolutely hilarious so I had to share. One of our good friends, Tricia Harrison, aka The Velvet Hammer - JonesLife coordinator, Casey's bedrest hairdresser, brownie baker, lasagna maker, and frequent volunteer - took the first night shift last night. As she reports, she had a pretty wild night with the triplets - Jack, Lila, and Brooklyn - and is ready to come back for more good times. Here is how the night went in her words...

"Good Morning Ethan and Casey!!!!! I thought I would share my experiences with the triplets last night before I catch some zzzzzzzzzz's for the day."

"While you both were catching up on some much needed shut eye, I had an eventful night. Thank you for letting me invade your house last night, and take care of the triplets all by myself. Oh, by no means was it simple, but I thoroughly enjoyed it."

"It all began soon after you went to bed. I was finishing up feeding Brooklyn, and I heard some strange spitting noises coming from Lila's bed. So Brooklyn and I got up to see what was the matter. Poor sweet little Lila had spit up and was beginning to let me have it!!!!! I put Brooklyn in her bed to attend to Lila. I noticed that she would do much better if she was propped up on the bobby pillow. She wouldn't spit up at all if she was there, and she liked it much better anyway."

"Finally everyone was all snuggled down for at least an hour before feeding started all over again, so I decided to lay down myself. WRONG!!!!!!!! Cute little instigator Brooklyn, which I have nicknamed Squirmy Wormy, decided to stretch and wiggle her way out of her blanket while moaning and groaning...and farting. Then she would get pissed and cry because she wiggled her way out of her blanket and was cold. She would then cry and start the others crying, one by one."

"All I could do was chuckle - it was like a trickle down effect. Brooklyn would moan and groan and then Lila and then Jack. I am totally sure they were trying to tell each other to be quiet because they were tired and wanted to go to sleep. Oh yeah, boy do you have some little tooters on your hands. Lots of unpleasant sounds can come from them...he he :) Who new they could make up a song with little toots."

"Feeding was an experience in itself as well. Lila was first so she would cry and start Jack going because he new he only had to wait just 30 more minutes and it was his turn. But low and behold, Brooklyn was like, "hello, I am starting to get hungry, feed me too!" :-) One time I had to sit on the fireplace to feed Lila and keep putting Brooklyn's pacifier in her mouth so she would stop crying, and walk over and do the same to Jack, all while I was still feeding Lila. Whatever works, right!!!!!! Lila didn't mess around. She was serious about eating, but gets lazy really fast. Jack doesn't waste anytime. That boy can down a bottle in 15 minutes flat!!!!!!! Brooklyn on the other hand would just rather use the bottle for a pacifier instead of eating. She does like to suck on something and hold your hand during feeding time."

"All in all I had a fabulous time, and wanted to just share what you missed out on last night. Thanks a million for allowing me to be a part of it all!!!!!!"

Hugs and good night!!!! :-)
Trish

All that and we've got two more babies coming...oh my gosh!!!!!!! The full time volunteer schedule kicks into high gear this Sunday as we expect to have at least four of the five home with us. It's going to be WILD!!!

Tricia - you rock, girl! Thank you so much for all that you do...we love you, you are a superstar, your treasure pile in Heaven is overflowing!!!!!

God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

Three Down, Two to Go...Welcome Home, Brooklyn Faith!!!!

Today, we have triplets. Probably on Wednesday, we'll have quadruplets. Who knows when we'll actually have quintuplets since Britton doesn't seem to want to come home anytime soon!! Brooklyn came home today, weighing in at six pounds, five ounces, and quickly settled into her new home. I think she was happy to see Jack and Lila, don't you? :)

God Bless,

Ethan

www.JonesLife.net

Twins Today, Triplets Tomorrow...Welcome Home, Lila Addison!!!!

Sorry for not updating sooner...we are in major transition in the Jones household, as you might imagine, which means the blog had to take a back seat, unfortunately. Well, as you know, Jack was the big winner and came home on Tuesday, leaving his sisters behind to battle it out for second, third, fourth, and eventually fifth place in our little race. It's been a fun, busy, exciting, stressful, tiring, and sometimes dizzying week as we welcomed our little man to the house and finalized preparations for the final four to find their way home. Jack is doing very, very well as he continues the pattern he established in the NICU - eat, sleep, sleep some more, eat, and sometimes poop. He is on a three hour feeding schedule, round-the-clock, as his sisters are which means we have kissed our nights of restful sleep goodbye for now.

Though he will always be the little king of the castle, Jack's solo flight has come to an end as today we welcomed home Lila Addison...we now have twins under our roof!! Little Lady Lila, weighing in today at 5 pounds, 10 ounces (nearly two pounds smaller than Jack!) arrived around 3:00 this afternoon and has been sleeping ever since. She has been enjoying some cuddle time with Jack in the Boppy on the couch next to me for the last hour or so...I guess they missed each other!

Tomorrow, our little brood will grow from twins to triplets as Brooklyn is expected to come home with us around noon! And in an interesting twist of scheduling, Casey and I will be on our own tomorrow night with the three...pray for us, brothers and sisters!! Thankfully, help arrives on Tuesday when my mom makes it to town just in time to welcome home Ryan on Wednesday! That just leaves Baby Bright Eyes Britton to finally conquer the bottle and make her way home...hopefully before the others start crawling... ;-)

I have to ask for you all to continue to pray for our family as the transition begins and we start putting the planning into action. Casey and I are excited, yes without a doubt, but we are also pretty stressed these days. The babies are absolutely beautiful and perfect in every single way...but all you parents out there know just how crazy things can be with a little one in the house! We are absolutely focused on making everthing about this experience a positive and uplifting one for our family and we need your help in making that happen! Please pray for peace of mind for Casey and I, understanding and patience for Eliot, health and growth for the babies, and a little sleep for all of us!!

Thank you all again for your support and prayers and for helping to fill the Fab Five's lives with so much love!!!

God Bless,

Ethan

www.JonesLife.net

Welcome Home, Jack Jones!!

And the winner is Jack William, standing alone on the winner's podium!! As late as 9:30 this morning, we thought Radiant Ryan was coming home today with Jack, but a phone call from the NICU quickly dashed those dreams. Ryan had a significant heart rate drop at some point last night which means she won't be coming home for at least five more days. Of course, we were disappointed, but at the same time I must admit that we were pulling for Jack all along. The girls will soon be ruling this roost so it's only fair that our only boy should get some quiet time alone with the three of us before the girls take over!

At this point, however, it's anyone's guess as to who will be next. It appears that Ryan is now at the back of the line with Britton, but who knows? Lila is out until the weekend, at least, because of her heart rate drop just two days ago. And Brooklyn? Well, the little girl who was the biggest on delivery day isn't real fond of the bottle. Until she decides to start working a little harder at eating, she'll be a Seton resident along with her sisters. I can't remember the last time Britton had a heart rate drop, but she's not taking the bottle real well either. So the race for second place will continue...

Despite the setback with Ryan, it was a pretty good day for the Jones family! We picked Jack up around 2:00 at the NICU and headed for the house, picking Eliot up from school along the way. I ran out to get some work done on a remodel project I started yesterday while Casey and Eliot got the little guy settled in. Eliot did AWESOME!! She was little miss helper with anything Jack needed. If Jack was sleeping, she was giving us status updates about every ten minutes or so..."Mama, he's squeaking!!" She helped prepare bottles, she held the bottle a while during one of the feeds, she helped rock him in the swing, and she also held him for a bit. To top it off, she even read him a bedtime story complete with showing him the pictures...too cute!!!!

We're looking forward to getting the girls home - it's going to be a bit challenging to manage the NICU schedule until they do - but we're very happy to have our boy home and all to ourselves for the time being!

God Bless,

Ethan

http://www.joneslife.net/

P.S. Big Bad Jack definitely lived up to his name, coming home at a healthy and hefty, by NICU standards, 6 pounds, 13 ounces!

BABIES COMING HOME TODAY!!!!!

We meet with the doctors at 1 o'clock this afternoon, then we're bringing two of them home!!!! It's still a little up in the air as to which babies are coming home, but it is most definitely two of them!!! Very EXCITED!!!!!!!!

God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net