Where does the time go?

This title is fitting in so many, many different ways. When I left the hospital today, it was raining. I thought to myself how odd, since it was sunny when I was last outside. Then I realized it had been almost seven hours since I was outside, so of course the weather had changed. Then I thought about how unbelievable it is that August is almost over. Seems like just yesterday I couldn't believe July was almost over. Now I see that it's been an entire week since I updated this blog. That's outrageous! How could I leave all my dedicated followers stranded for so long with no new information? Now I've got lots of catching up to do.

Which leads me to the main reason I logged on to post tonight, which also ties in to the title. I have new pictures because the triplets will be ONE MONTH OLD tomorrow. CRAZY. How has it only been a month since they got here? My surgery and all that time laying in the hospital like a beached whale seems so long ago. Yet somehow I can't believe they are already a month old. It's bittersweet, I always pictured myself taking a baby to get professional pictures on their one month birthday. And here I am with babies that haven't ever left the walls of the hospital. Part of me wants them to be home right now so we can start our lives, but part of me is still terrified to be in charge of three human beings. Totally, totally crazy.

The past week had several exciting milestones, but the days were never long enough for me to get online to provide updates. Everyone is out of their incubator now, they went into regular old newborn bassinets briefly, but have now moved on to cribs. Plain vanilla good old fashioned drop side cribs. That is pretty exciting, and the cribs have an adjustable incline so they can be propped up to help with digestion.

And speaking of digestion, even though my babies have absolutely NO PROBLEMS with potty related functions, they are all dealing with some acid reflux. This is a common preemie problem, and there isn't a whole lot they can do for it, but it can be very uncomfortable for the babies so I hate it. Michael is actually on Prevacid (no idea on that spelling) because his is pretty severe, poor guy cries almost nonstop, so we'll see if it helps or not. Ben and Delia are showing signs of it too but seem to suffer in silence, so they aren't being medicated. They should outgrow it but I'm not sure how long that will take.

Feeding continues to be a challenge although everyone seems to be making good progress. Delia is taking a quarter to a third of a bottle several times a day, depending on how awake her highness decides to be. Ben is allowed to try a bottle up to twice a day and usually does about a third, and Michael is still working on it a couple times a day as well. Slow but steady progress.

Ben is working hard to get off his oxygen but for some reason he can't quite kick the habit. As of this evening, he's off it for two hours at a time, then gets it back while he is eating. Poor kid can't multi task for nothing. We'll have to work on that.

The other big change is that we've been moved off the NICU floor, even though we are still NICU patients. They are overcrowded right now, so the healthiest kids get bumped down to the pediatric unit. We still have the same rules about visitors, hand washing, and we have our own NICU nurse, but we're in a regular room. Actually the room where I stayed for a few weeks :) It's easier to come and go because we don't have to go through the entrance that requires someone on the inside to grant access, but it's a little lonely because we only see our nurse all day. No pop in visits from our other nursing friends. It's a good sign that everyone is doing well enough to be considered healthy enough to be bumped. Hopefully we've just got a few weeks ahead of us now before we can come home.

And the ever exciting weight updates:

Ben 4 lb 13 oz
Delia 5lb 6 oz (FIVE POUND CLUB!!!!!)
Michael 4 lb 12 oz....he's gaining on Ben!!

So much more room for activities!

It seems to get more and more difficult to keep this blog updated, but I promise I'm trying! So many things happen every day, I hope I can remember everything that has transpired since Tuesday.

Everyone is doing extremely well and continuing to make huge strides every day. Delia and Ben are both out of their incubators and in "big kid" beds, regular bassinets like those in the plain old nursery. Because they are big enough and can maintain a good temperature on their own, without assistance from the incubator, they got sprung on Thursday and Saturday. These beds are SO much easier to work with, because we can just stand over them and take temperatures, change diapers, etc. rather than reaching through holes in the side of the incubators like astronauts or something. They take up much less space, so their room feels much bigger and is easier to navigate around. The only downside is that there are no longer walls to protect us from the explosive diaper action they have a reputation for. At least before there was some degree of separation to prevent it from going everywhere. Hopefully we have figured out all the tricks to avoid major incidents, but we'll have to wait and see. Michael is still the littlest of the three so he needs a couple more days before he'll get a big boy bed, but he should be there very soon.

They are all experimenting with bottle feeding too, very exciting. Delia of course is leading the pack, she takes a bottle several times a day and drinks around 10-15 ml of her milk before taking the rest via her tube (her total feeds are 38ml now, just over an ounce every three hours). Benjamin is working on it twice a day and took a huge 20ml today, big accomplishment! Michael does it once a day and took 10ml today, he definitely needs the most work but he'll get there soon I'm sure. It's very hard work for the babies, because they have to learn that bottles give milk, unlike the pacifiers they are used to sucking on. And then they have to remember to stop and breathe between sucks. Delia and Ben are pretty good about stopping and starting, but Michael needs to be reminded. It's very time consuming to work with any of them, because you have to watch them VERY closely to be sure nothing goes wrong. Until they figure it out, whoever feeds them has to be the brains and know when to pull back and when to let them feed. And until they are more skilled they need to be very awake and alert, so that's another chore to keep them focused on the task at hand. It will be slow progress before they are able to take all eight daily feedings solely by bottle, but we'll get there.

Side note, I haven't given up on breast feeding yet. I'm still pumping, although I'm a few ounces behind their needs so we are supplementing with formula (bummer for me, but three against one is tough!). Once they figure out the suck/swallow/breathe concept I'll start trying to nurse them, but while they are learning it is better to have a bottle so that we can control volume, flow speed, etc and so that the therapists at the hospital can work with them around the clock.

Which brings me to another reason there is so much more room for activities - I have moved out of the hospital and back home. After 40 nights away, I finally spent Friday night in my own bed. It was heavenly, although I'm still adapting to not being able to take the elevator to get to the babies. I have to drag my pump back and forth and plan much more carefully how I'll spend my day. We'll see how this week goes.

Ben is still on his oxygen, but he is getting Lasix (aka a "water pill" just like senior citizens often take) to help get rid of some water they see on his lungs. This is a very common problem/resolution for preemies, and after his three days on the medicine they hope he'll be off it again. Poor guy really hates that cannula in his nose, so maybe that will inspire him to work harder to get rid of it!

And of course the ever exciting weight updates:

Ben 4lb 6 oz
Delia 4 lb 13 oz
Michael 4 lb 3 oz

I will work on pictures in the next day or two I hope, they are all getting much fuller in the face as you can imagine from their weight gains, so they are somehow even cuter than they were before!

42 pounds and counting!

Yes that's right, I have lost 42 pounds in the last 18 days. Hooray for me, another 6 to go before I'm back at pre-pregnancy weight. Now if only I was anywhere close to pre-pregnancy SIZE. I guess I should give myself a little bit more time to get there.

I'm doing very well and the doctor gave me the thumbs up to drive today. The incision is almost completely healed and I'm down to almost no pain meds. I think I'll probably "check out" of the hospital sometime later this week and start living at home again. After all, I haven't slept in my own bed since July 11. I haven't driven a car since June 9, my last doctor appt. before I got put on bedrest, so that will be pretty exciting. Thrilling life I live isn't it?

The babies continue to make slow but steady progress. Delia took a bottle today for the first time and did extremely well with it. She drank almost a fourth of it before she fell asleep. The therapist was very impressed that she stopped to breathe between swallows, as most preemies take a while to learn how to suck, swallow and breathe. We'll keep working with her at every feeding that she wakes up for and the boys will probably be right behind her.

Ben had a small setback today and had to get his oxygen back, but they can't find anything wrong with him. It could be some reflux in his tummy, or his lungs might not be strong enough yet to breathe as deep as he needs to, and his energy might have just run out. They'll retest everything tomorrow to be sure and then start weaning him off of it again. This is very common for preemies so the doctor isn't very concerned, just watching to be sure nothing else develops.

And of course the ever exciting weight updates:

Ben: 4 lb 2 oz
Delia: 4 lb 3 oz
Mike: 3 lb 14 oz

Wireless babies

Everyone is IV and oxygen free at this point, hooray! Ben finally got his IV out a couple days ago, so everyone is taking all their food via nose tube at this point. Everyone has also lost their cords, which is awesome because I was super grossed out by them!

The babies are all getting better at being awake during feedings and are showing good feeding "cues" such as taking a pacifier and chewing on their fingers. We may be able to start trying to work with a bottle next week, which would be very exciting.

Delia has officially overtaken Ben as the biggest, with a weight of 3lb 14 oz. Ben isn't too far behind at 3lb 13 oz, and Michael is growing the fastest at 3lb 10 oz. They'll all be neck and neck in a few days I'm sure.

Another great skill Delia and Michael have picked up is explosive aerodymanic bowel movements. Everywhere. Let's just say I am extremely happy they are still in four sided incubators right now so that things are contained. I think they are having a distance contest and I'm not sure who is ahead right now, but if this keeps up when we get home they will be getting changed in the yard and going naked! I'm hoping that we can outgrow this before it's time to come home :)

Family photos!!

Mommy is very tired so this will be a short post, but today was a most exciting day because we got to hold all three babies at the same time and take our first family picture. We've waited a very VERY long time to get to this point and are so thrilled and blessed to have made it this far, we can't wait to see what the days ahead hold for us!

24 hours of firsts!!

My babies are growing up too fast! How can I say that when they are only ten days old and less than 4 pounds? I guess it's just part of that crazy mom gene that I got passed to me from every direction.

Last night we did baths, very exciting. Ben and Michael got sponge baths because they still have IVs, but Delia got a big girl swaddle bath in the tub because she is IV free! Ben and Delia both loved their bath, except for getting their bottoms washed, and Michael really wasn't so hot on it at all. Maybe things will improve. I hope it gets easier because it took close to two hours to bathe everyone, and the nurse said that was faster than she expected. Good grief!

Side note - there are THREE NICU nurses from Ethan's home town of Oran (population 1,200). One girl several years older than Ethan, one who was in our nephew Zack's class, and the little sister of one of Ethan's good friends. Isn't that so strange, a town that small has that many nurses that specialize in babies? Works good for us :)

I also started "recreational" nursing yesterday, which entails going through the motions while they are getting tube fed. Ben isn't quite ready yet but Delia and Mike both did really well with it. We'll keep doing it about once a day for a while, no one has talked about when we move to the next step but that's OK. I'm content for now!

And to top off the day, everyone got clothes! They look a little silly because they are swimming in even the preemie clothes, but it's a big step because it means they are closer to being able to maintain their own temps. The heat in the incubators is getting slowly turned down to room temperature as they adjust to clothes and blankets.

On the medical front, everyone is doing well. Ben got off the jaundice light today, so everyone is light free, and Ben will hopefully lose his nasal cannula tomorrow so that he'll be oxygen free like the others. Everyone is going up in feedings by 3mL a day, and Delia is off her IV so she is all tube feed. Michael will hopefully get rid of his tomorrow. And everyone is growing at a good pace:

Ben: 3lb 12 oz (+ 4 oz since birth)
Delia: 3lb 9 oz (+ 2 oz since birth)
Michael: 3lb 6 oz (+ 6 oz since birth)

Updated pictures

Michael is on top, Delia in the middle and Ben on bottom. And of course Ethan and I.

Happy One Week Birthday!!!

Hooray for my babies! One week in the NICU down, hopefully not too many more to go! Everyone continues to do very well, making slow but steady progress. The echo test results came back with good news, the hole is considered "small" so the doctors will take a wait and see approach. Ben was also taken off his CPAP yesterday and now just has a nose cannula. Delia and Mike are both cannula free and are breathing on their own pretty well. Everyone is going up on their feedings pretty regularly and they are all just about back to birth weight.

Delia may be able to get rid of the IV all together soon, because she is getting close to tolerating enough food via tube feeding. We'll see in a few more days, but in the mean time they had to take the line out of her umbilical cord and put an IV in her head instead. Boo minus. Poor girl took it like a trooper, they tried in her hands and feet several times first but she has bad veins like mommy and didn't have any luck. At least it's in a place where she can't reach it to mess with it :)

It's so refreshing to see everyone's faces, now that they are down to little or no tubes on the face. Poor kids still have the velcro tabs from their jaundice light sunglasses though, so their little heads get stuck to the blanket sometimes. I hate to laugh at them but can't hardly help myself :)

I'm also making slow and steady progress on my recovery. I had been feeling really good but had some issues with my incision yesterday. The doctor checked me out and said I was fine, I just have one spot that is healing a little slower than the rest, but I'll be glad when things close up!

I will try to get some updated pictures up later today but wanted to let everyone know the test results.

Steady progress for everyone and freedom for me!

Finally, after a mere 24 days in this hospital, I was released earlier today. WOO HOO!!!! I can't wait to take a shower without a damn hospital bracelet on! I was supposed to be released yesterday but was still a little anemic so I got another blood transfusion. So what exactly am I doing to celebrate my new found freedom? Staying in the hospital. No, I'm not completely crazy, not yet. I'm just taking advantage of a cool program for NICU parents called "rooming in." As long as they do not need the room for a true patient, they allow parents of NICU babies to stay at the hospital for free. They continue to provide linens and housekeeping services, but no meal service. There is a communal fridge and microwave in the labor and delivery waiting room, so we can have some food here but without a freezer supper could get interesting. And of course now I can come and go as I please, just as long as I sleep here and don't use the room as a day time lounge only. Ethan is staying with me for at least one more night, maybe tomorrow too but that will likely be it since school is starting on Monday.

I'm not sure how long I'll do this for, I think at least until my follow up doctor appt. on August 17, since I won't be allowed to drive until then. With Ethan being at school all day, it would be too tough to try to figure out how to get back and forth. Plus with pumping, I've got the lactation consultants right here to help me with any questions, and I don't have to worry about keeping it cold or transport.

I'm feeling pretty good, tired of course and still somewhat sore from the surgery, but over all pretty darn good considering I'm only five days post op. My total weight gain over the pregnancy was 48 pounds and as of this morning I've lost half of it. Yes, 24 pounds in five days. Of course ten pounds of that was literally babies, and then another 5ish I think is all the other crap in there. And then water weight from there, but I'm still pretty excited about that. I *almost* have knees again!! My feet are ridiculous elephant feet still but that's the last area to empty so I haven't lost hope yet.

The babies are all doing extremely well. It's almost a good thing that I don't have time to provide daily updates, because things tend to go back and forth so much that it would be a wasted effort! Everyone is getting breast milk via tube feeding, although Delia and Mike are getting more than Ben and slowly increasing every day. Ben got taken off his ventilator today and is now on a CPAP machine, while the others are down to nasal cannulas. Everyone is getting worked down slowly to a lower flow and less oxygen, thus far with no problems.

Ben and Delia both had echo tests done today on their hearts, as the doc is hearing a murmur that might indicate an open duct. While in the womb, some heart duct remains open to detour blood around the lungs (since there is no air in there ;) and within hours of birth it's supposed to close up. In preemies this doesn't always happen because the chemical communications aren't strong enough. Delia's is fairly small and she'll likely resolve it herself, but Ben's is larger so he may require medication to help him. They send the test results to STL for analysis and we hope to hear tomorrow.

Ben also had a PICC line put in so his umbilical line could come out. Mike had this done a couple days ago, and we thought Delia would also but it looks like she could avoid it. If she's able to tolerate her food increases, then she should not have a need for an IV within several days. Her umbilical line will expire, so she'll end up with a regular old foot IV for a couple days, but since that could be the end of her IV it's not worth putting the PICC in. The PICC is more "permanent" so to speak - 30 days - and a little more involved to put in, so the docs want to wait and see if she can get by without it. I swear one day I'm going to get off the elevator and see her walking down the hall talking on a cell phone or something!

Everyone got off their jaundice lights today, but Delia was put back on tonight. Since she was bruised up during delivery, her own stubborn fault for being burrowed so freaking low in my pelvis, she needs more time. Hopefully the boys are done with them though.

Ethan got to hold Ben tonight, finally, he is the only one we hadn't held yet, so that was awesome. I'm going to hold him later. Ethan said he told him all about yard sales and flea markets, I'm sure he was ecstatic about it :)

That's all for now, hopefully I'll have an update with some new pictures in a few days. Stay tuned!

Catching Up Part 1 - Delivery and Friday

So a lot of you are probably wondering what in the world happened to put all of this into motion. Our little tornado Delia is what happened! She was dead set on coming out first, so she kept inching lower and lower in my belly until she finally broke her water at 1AM on Friday. Things happened very quickly from there. By 1:15 they told me to get everybody to the hospital so I called mom (who was fortunately already in Jackson due to Wednesday's scare) and Ethan who got there very, very quickly! I was being wheeled back by 2 and they were out forty minutes later!

The surgery itself was very fast and simple, from my end at least. I had been worried about having my arms strapped down, but what actually bothered me worse was not being able to move my legs since they were totally numb. Very strange feeling. But anyway, I felt nothing, not even the pressure they always talk about on TV and stuff, and before I knew it they were here! All three cried when they came out, a huge relief since I wasn't sure if their lungs would be strong enough to make a cry. But of course they were immediately taken away to be checked by the NICU team so the visit was quite short.

I was back in my room by 4 AM but was too tired and numb to be able to see the babies until later in the morning. I took a much needed nap while Ethan took my mom and his parents and sister back to see them. He took some video for me so that I would be able to see, which I might try to put up later.

From there we started our NICU roller coaster. The initial assessment was that all babies were doing excellent. Everyone got an IV of some sort, Ben and Delia through their belly button and Michael in his foot, so they can get medicine and food. Everyone was given surfactant, which helps the lungs to expand and work properly, very common in preemies. And everyone needed breathing help to some extent, the boys getting ventilators and Delia getting a CPAP just like the kind snoring adults get. The boys needed some extra oxygen in their incubators, regular room air is 21% and they got something around 30%, but Delia was happy with room air.

She is very much the leader, starting with less ventilation and continuing on from there. She was the first to get her jaundice light, and also the first to be off the CPAP. She downgraded to a nose cannula only on Saturday, and went most of the day without anything on Sunday because she pulled the nose tube out so many times that the doc got tired of putting it back in! We are gonna have our hands full with her.

Ben is the second most serious, I guess you could say. He was the last to get off his ventilator, but he has stayed on a CPAP with extra oxygen the entire time. He needed some blood pressure medicine too, but the doc wasn't concerned about it. Ben is very much like his namesake (Ethan's dad) and already dislikes modern medicine. When anyone comes near him, he immediately starts to whimper because he knows they are going to bother him. We're still working on teaching him that WE aren't the bad guys, just those terrible nurses and doctors!

Michael was doing fine, came off his ventilator and went to a CPAP on Saturday and did fairly well, but he had a small hiccup this morning. He had a "collapsed lung" which really means that his lung got a tiny hole in it and some air got into the chest cavity outside of his lung. They had to re-ventilate him and put in a chest tube to get the air out. This procedure went very well, about two ounces of air was pulled out and the ventilator helped him focus on healing the lung by putting less exertion on his lungs. As of about 7 tonight the ventilator was removed because he was doing so well, and no more air had been sucked out of the chest tube. If he continues for 24 hours with no more air, they will clamp the chest tube and see if he does OK. They don't pull the tube entirely at first, just in case they would have to put it back in.

Michael also had a procedure today to put in a PICC. (I can't for the life of me remember what the acronyms stand for but I'll do my best to share my third grade level understanding of them.) Essentially his foot IV isn't hearty enough to give him the food and hefty meds he could need, and would need to be replaced periodically just as a human's IV is replaced every three days. Believe me, I know, after 20 days in the hospital with an IV port the entire time I understand this rotation thing. You'd think I was a lifelong dope shooter from the way my arms look right now! But I digress. He needed a more permanent kind of IV, which threads from his leg through to a major vessel in his chest, so that they can start to feed him and can avoid sticking him all the darn time. That procedure went very well and the tube, which looks about the size of a single hair I swear, is in place.

Overall, the babies are doing exactly what they should be. Two steps forward and one step back. Nothing that has happened thus far is "bad", it's all very typical for 31 week babies. It seems so strange to say that all this technology and crazy treatment is "normal", but we tried our best to prepare ourselves for most of this to happen. No one has had any infections yet, which is awesome, and all the docs and nurses say they are doing incredible. They share one large room so they are all together, and we can visit as often as we like.

I ought to start a whole other blog about breastfeeding, because I fear a large part of my audience wouldn't appreciate some of the comments I could make due to their graphic nature. But, I'll just say that everything is going well so far. I've needed lots of help from the nurses but am exactly where I should be. Everything I've pumped they are giving to the babies in teeny tiny doses - like drops at a time. Due to my output volume, this is good, but I'm hoping to get ahead of the curve soon so I can start stockpiling. Every day is a new adventure.

Thank you to everyone who has sent us thoughts and prayers, it is so awesome to know there is a little mini cyber world out there who follows everything we do. I think about all of you, even the ones I may not know very well, all the time, and draw from your strength when I have tough moments. Please continue to keep up all your positive energy and prayer for the long road we have ahead of it. There will be curves and bumps, but hopefully no unanticipated road construction that shuts down one lane for twenty miles when there isn't even any equipment parked on it.....