Starfish Update Aug 25: Sean and the other dozen

Susan at the computer.

In the past few weeks I have been reprimanded a few times for not putting enough information of the blog and for not doing it often enough. It would seem that some people check EVERY DAY. I am told I should be putting all the little things that happen and that people are really interested to know. Who would have thought!!! I will try and post things more frequently because heaven knows I can write about a lot that happens in this house. You will be sick of all the details of the daily events so I will spare you all of that. I am sure you would not want to hear about our recent diarrhea outbreak and the fun of having nine crying babies and all the diapers changes and laundry that generated. It seemed to only affect the oldest nine and the youngest four were spared.

Well I lost my two night time volunteers at almost the same time. Deborah went back to Australia and Conny is on her way to her family in Spain. It was wonderful to have them here. They were perfectly willing to get up with the babies during the night and never complained about the lack of sleep. I learned a lot from them and I appreciate their help so much. On Sunday night I had the night time nanny start and she has been excellent! What a change for me. BUT......Friday night and Saturday night it is me by myself. Kay is in the US at the moment and she will be back in three weeks or so.

Jade clapping.
Here is some quick news. Susan is growing tooth number six and seven. I hope she grows into her other teeth because her front upper two are huge. Angel has just cut her bottom two and the tips are just showing through. Benjamin is crawling more and more each day and the tips of tooth number three and four are showing. He has the funniest way of putting the soles of his feet together and then going from that into a crawling position, except his feet get stuck under his stomach. Jade is in the walker and this morning I was suprised by how fast she was going past me. It is amazing when you think about the fact that when she came she could not lift up her hand to reach for a toy and was unable to weight bear. Such an improvement in three and a half months! Antoinette has been pushing all sorts of things around while she has leaned to walk: Boxes, walkers and chairs and for the first time this week she is giving two or three steps. Amanda has been so funny. She bends her legs when she stands up and has this linebacker stance and then she just lunges. She is so proud of herself.

Sean w/pacifier.
Well it would seem that Sean's stuffy nose is doing much better. We were given some "Little Noses" few days ago that is much better than the home made saline solution that we were giving him before. He is not sounding so bad this morning. He is also a pacifier/binky/soother/dummy baby (whatever you want to call it). He is sucking it on it even more now that his nose is better. It is too cute to see how it moves up and down as he sucks especially because the pink binky is almost as big as the bottom half of his face. None of the other 12 babies were ever that attached to one. Dr Hicks is pleased with his progress so far because he is steadily gaining weight. Sean is one funny baby. You can hear his bowel movements and so you know immediately when THE event occurs. For a baby that small, he is so stinky. I have been using the smallest diapers I can find in China but they still drown him. Jeannie Butler sent some American Huggies Newborn diapers in her last box we got on Tuesday and I have loved using them. For once he seems to fit into something and looks somewhat normal. He cried a lot for a few days but seems to have calmed down and is sleeping more and more. He also just finished his first 2 and a half ounce bottle. Please also ignore all the pink in the photo. We have a lot more of Sarah's preemie clothes than Michael and Gabriel's and due to the overload in Laundry we are a little behind in washing his clothes.

Love and laughter,
Amanda and the 13 poop producing factories.