11 Weeks old

We survived another week and I don't want to jinx anything but the days have been going a little bit smoother. I don't have nearly as much anxiety about everything and while I'm still completely overwhelmed and exhausted I'm hanging in there.

Emerson had the ultrasounds of her hips yesterday at the request of her pediatrician who heard popping during her exam on Monday and everything is absolutely normal, so that's great news. Now we just have the cardiologist next Friday and I'm confident that if there is a murmur it won't be an issue.

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Today is officially the first day I have had to supplement with formula. Surprisingly I've actually only had to use 2oz of formula, but it's a struggle to keep up. I had a fairly significant stash in the freezer from when they were in the NICU and eating very little, and I can't believe we've already gone through all of it, although it is nice to have my freezer back.

I've been reading up on some of the different things I can take to boost my supply but I'm not comfortable starting any of them without talking to a doctor or an LC first. So for now I'm pumping like crazy around the clock and hopefully that will continue to help with my supply.

Finally, the babies have been making progress in lots of little things and although they can be stressful they are a constant source of joy for us, especially since they're starting to have more wakeful hours it's so amazing to me how different their personalities are.

Emerson, is hilarious and a wiggly little thing. She never holds still. She likes to be held but the entire time she's in someone's arms she's moving all over the place. She also moves in her sleep, even while swaddled, and stretches all the time. In the past few days she's starting giving us huge smiles, with her entire face. We haven't been able to catch the smile very well yet on camera but it's adorable. She's happiest in the mornings.

Not the best picture but she's smiling.

She's also desperately trying to suck her fingers. This is pretty unsuccessful as she's still not coordinated enough to hold her fingers in her mouth, but this has resulted in her sucking on whatever is near her face. My arms, shirts, her shirt and arm, Eli if he's close enough, the boppy during tummy time. In fact she's discovered that during tummy time she can get her arm right under mouth and suck on it. So instead of trying to lift her head, she instead sucks her arm and goes to sleep.

However, when she stays awake during tummy time she can do this...

for several seconds. Her head control is getting so much better.

In Eli news he too has started smiling. In fact yesterday seems to have been his lightbulb moment when he gave us several of these...

Also yesterday he batted at the toys on the activity mat, and he finally seems to enjoy the swing. The last few days it has worked great to feed him, then put him in the swing so he stays calm and I can feed Emerson. However, if he had his choice he would still like to be held all the time. He's such a cuddly baby.

We spend a lot of time like this with Eli. Unfortunately Eli still isn't doing much with his head control. He still favors one side and for the past few days he's not even attempting to lift his head. He mostly just lays there for a minute and then starts to scream.

Finally, this week for the first time Eli didn't scream during bath time. He almost seemed to enjoy it.

They still do a lot of this...

and not enough of this...

But we're figuring it out. That's pretty much it for my little 11 week old babies.