I hope to add another post later today, but I want to be sure I manage to at least get something up in support of prematurity awareness day. One thing I hope to accomplish with this blog is to educate people about prematurity and some of the consequences that premature babies deal with the first years of their life. It is truly a miracle that so many premature babies are able to live normal lives after fighting to hard just to survive their first days.
The most important thing I've learned about premature babies is that coming home from the hospital is not the end of being careful. They have up to three years to catch up on all their developmental goals, including fully developing their immune system. When you see any baby, premature or not, remember that they are fragile and wash your hands before touching them! It amazes me how many people think it is OK to come up and touch the kids when we are at the doctor's office. I probably deal with it more than the average mom because we are quite a sight but it's true for everyone.
Thanks everybody!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Back to reality
Little miss thing in her Halloween outfit
Papa Ben holding Mikey
Gran holding Ben
Three peas in a pod
Ben, Delia and Mikey with the presents sent by Irish cousins
The family dressed up for Halloween - no comments on the size of my rear!
Happy Halloween! Mikey and Ben as peas, Delia as a little flower
Ben is so cute when he is mad!
More cute pea pods
Delia loves her daddy :)
Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this blog. Let's see, what's happened since I last wrote....lots and lots more of the same. Overall everyone is doing great, no real problems to speak of. We just don't have this sleeping thing down yet.
If we have pacifiers we can sleep just fine, but if it falls out of our mouth, heaven help us. We might as well start pulling out toenails with a pliers. What's so great about the darn things? I've tried them several times, and they don't seem that great to me. I guess I'd feel differently if I was a baby though.
We had several visitors in the past weeks, some friends from work in STL and CGAM, and of course Grandma Maggie. Our helpers have been fantastic too, they take care of bottle washing, bottle prep for the night and daycare, and laundry, plus help with a feed and some cuddling. We're very lucky to have found the folks we did.
Everyone's personality is developing more and more each day. Benjamin has become our chunky monkey, hubba bubba, growing boy. As of last Friday he was 9 lb 13 oz, almost ten pounds! He's just big all over, although he inherited stubby legs from his dad because all his pants are too long. When it's time to eat, boy he'll let you know. And if he gets hungry he'll let you know that too. I think he may be having some gas issues, because sometimes we try to give him a little extra and it doesn't really seem to make a difference, but he doesn't always need to make extra burps either. Our NICU nurse friends are coming to visit this week, so maybe they'll be able to help us solve the mystery.
Delia continues to be a little diva. Her cry gets more shrill and high pitched each and every day, and she is learning how to turn it off and on faster too. It's almost like there is a little button on her back, that when she lays down it gets pressed in and makes her scream. As soon as you pick her up and the button pops back out, instant silence. She has added tears for some extra flair too, which tugged at my heartstrings the first few times but now I'm not so sure it isn't just a ploy for more attention. She's had to cry a few times when I was elbow deep in poo, or trying to take a shower or whatnot, and she does eventually quit, but I'm afraid of doing permanent damage so I continue to indulge her.
As if she knows her powers are starting to fade, she has become quite the little cuddle bug. She loves to bury her face in our necks, and grab at us with her tiny little hands. It really is quite sweet and I"ve decided that she really does love us, that this part isn't just a trick to control us.
Michael is....well, he's Michael. The happiest damn kid you ever saw one minute, hysterical the next. And he is the king of facial expressions. Happy means eyes wide open, almost popping out of his head, and a beautiful smile. Sad means lower lip pouted out, face scrunched, tears a-flowin'. He is truly pitiful. But it's hard to get mad at him because he is so damn cute. When he's fighting sleep he makes the funniest faces too, his mouth kind of hangs open and his eyes flutter like he's lifting the weight of the world every time his eyelids fly open. WHen he gets mad, he accidentally blows raspberries and scares himself.
We had a terrific photo session a couple weekends ago with Aunt Shannon, owner of Phases Photography. After four hours of picture taking, we came out with some really great nakey pictures, as well as a cute family photo. I'll post some when they are available.
Today was my first day back at work since June 22. Boy did it feel good to be back. Not only to have adult interaction, but also because of the amazing people I work with. Nobody wanted to throw projects at me, nobody made comments about how I was late or how long I was off. Everyone was genuinely glad to have me back. It is so rare to find a group that truly appreciates your contributions and values your friendship. I'm so glad that my job is so awesome, it made leaving the kids at daycare that much easier.
Four hours later and I still haven't finished typing this! But my eyelids are getting heavy so there Will be more to come soon.
Weight update - as of Friday Oct 29
Ben 9 lb 13 oz
Michael 9 lb 0 oz
Delia 8 lb 10 oz
Thursday, October 21, 2010
My favorite things
We had a really good night last night, everyone slept when they were supposed to and there was minimal fussing, so I'm cautiously optimistic that we may have turned a corner. Or at least we'll start to have good nights more than once a week!
I was thinking the other day about all the cute things each baby does that I want to remember, so I figured I better make a list. Having babies has made me lose my mind in more ways than one, so I can barely remember who I've fed let alone try to remember something for more than a day! So here goes:
Ben: the pirate eye (when he squints one shut and leaves one eye open); sticky up hair all the time; wrinkled brow and confused look he gets when you ask him a question; pulling blankets or his shirt up close to his face like he's hiding when he sleeps; dark serous eyes; the teeny tiny baby sighs he makes when he's sleeping; heavy heavy eyelids that fight to stay open towards the end of a bottle.
Delia: the way she reaches out to touch Ethan's goatee in total awe; cute way she makes a perfect little O with her mouth; the way she gets so frustrated when she wants to reach out and touch something and she knocks it away instead; the way she burrows her head into your shoulder when you hold her; gummy smiles.
Michael: His most pitiful crying face; rooting everywhere, like my shoulder, Ethan's face, and other weird places; crazy eyes; sticking his tongue out like a little lizard; throwing his arms up in excitement for no reason at all; trying to claw his eyes out when he eats.
And here are some pictures of general adorableness.
I was thinking the other day about all the cute things each baby does that I want to remember, so I figured I better make a list. Having babies has made me lose my mind in more ways than one, so I can barely remember who I've fed let alone try to remember something for more than a day! So here goes:
Ben: the pirate eye (when he squints one shut and leaves one eye open); sticky up hair all the time; wrinkled brow and confused look he gets when you ask him a question; pulling blankets or his shirt up close to his face like he's hiding when he sleeps; dark serous eyes; the teeny tiny baby sighs he makes when he's sleeping; heavy heavy eyelids that fight to stay open towards the end of a bottle.
Delia: the way she reaches out to touch Ethan's goatee in total awe; cute way she makes a perfect little O with her mouth; the way she gets so frustrated when she wants to reach out and touch something and she knocks it away instead; the way she burrows her head into your shoulder when you hold her; gummy smiles.
Michael: His most pitiful crying face; rooting everywhere, like my shoulder, Ethan's face, and other weird places; crazy eyes; sticking his tongue out like a little lizard; throwing his arms up in excitement for no reason at all; trying to claw his eyes out when he eats.
And here are some pictures of general adorableness.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Life at home
One of my helpers is here to replace dropped binkies, so I actually have a few minutes that I can update this darn thing! Hopefully. I've started to type several times and multiple babies have started screaming, so it may not work as I had hoped.
Life at home with all three is.....interesting.....to say the least. It's completely amazing to have them all here, to be able to lay them next to each other, play with them, roam about the house without having to worry about the wire from a monitor. But of course, we terribly miss all the extra hands from the hospital! Not just because they are helpers, but also because they are our friends :)
Everyone is still on a three hour feeding schedule, which is rough, but so far we are surviving. At night we do the 10PM feed together, then I do 1AM and Ethan does 4AM. Ideally we each have a five hour chunk to sleep, if everyone is quiet. But of course they are not. The leading contenders for fuss-bucket of the year are Michael and Delia for sure, but Ben has his moments, usually when he still has a burp stuck in there.
When it's only one or the other fussing, it's manageable. I can lay in the recliner with someone on my chest and we both sleep well. But when more than one fusses, it is tough to calm everyone alone. If we had an extra set of hands 24/7 and everyone could be held all the time we'd be golden. Of course that's not an option, so we have to rotate and do the best we can to get everyone quiet and happy at the same time. Much easier said than done.
By the way, have I mentioned that I have terrible hot flashes still? I guess the breastfeeding is keeping those crazy hormones running rampant. Hot flashes SUCK. Menopause is gonna be awful. But I digress.
Friday night was by far the worst we've had so far. Everyone was fussy all night long. I didn't even attempt to close my eyes until 5AM. And as the hours tick by on the clock, I start to think about how much sleep I'm not getting, and start to panic about how tired I'll be the next day, and get more worked up, which makes the baby worked up, and the vicious cycle ends with us both in tears. Arg.
It hasn't been that bad again since, just the one person fussing at a time. But it was enough to make me decide to reach out for more help. I've already got a coworker's college aged daughter coming Monday and Tuesday nights to help out, and someone from church on Thursday nights. It looks like a neighbor is going to take Sunday nights, and our niece Wednesdays. That way we'll have someone to catch us up on dishes, laundry, de-cluttering, and to make the night time bottles, help feed, etc. A third set of hands makes a huge difference, or allows one of us to get to bed earlier.
We're working on a schedule for the kids, hoping that will help with night time sleeping. It's so hard to keep them on schedule though, because if someone is extra fussy or we have visitors or a doctor appointment or anything, we start someone late and it trickles down from there. We're still trying to stick to it as much as we can, hopefully they will grow into it.
I need to start getting up every day and practicing getting the babies in the car and out the door, but I'm too tired to right now. I go back to work November 1, so I better figure something out soon :) My one day at a time mentality is not helping my motivation. Oh well.
That's about it for now, there is much more to tell but my eyes are getting terribly heavy so I'm going to attempt to sleep.
Please continue to pray for us, we need strength and patience to make this journey successful. Thank you so so much!
Life at home with all three is.....interesting.....to say the least. It's completely amazing to have them all here, to be able to lay them next to each other, play with them, roam about the house without having to worry about the wire from a monitor. But of course, we terribly miss all the extra hands from the hospital! Not just because they are helpers, but also because they are our friends :)
Everyone is still on a three hour feeding schedule, which is rough, but so far we are surviving. At night we do the 10PM feed together, then I do 1AM and Ethan does 4AM. Ideally we each have a five hour chunk to sleep, if everyone is quiet. But of course they are not. The leading contenders for fuss-bucket of the year are Michael and Delia for sure, but Ben has his moments, usually when he still has a burp stuck in there.
When it's only one or the other fussing, it's manageable. I can lay in the recliner with someone on my chest and we both sleep well. But when more than one fusses, it is tough to calm everyone alone. If we had an extra set of hands 24/7 and everyone could be held all the time we'd be golden. Of course that's not an option, so we have to rotate and do the best we can to get everyone quiet and happy at the same time. Much easier said than done.
By the way, have I mentioned that I have terrible hot flashes still? I guess the breastfeeding is keeping those crazy hormones running rampant. Hot flashes SUCK. Menopause is gonna be awful. But I digress.
Friday night was by far the worst we've had so far. Everyone was fussy all night long. I didn't even attempt to close my eyes until 5AM. And as the hours tick by on the clock, I start to think about how much sleep I'm not getting, and start to panic about how tired I'll be the next day, and get more worked up, which makes the baby worked up, and the vicious cycle ends with us both in tears. Arg.
It hasn't been that bad again since, just the one person fussing at a time. But it was enough to make me decide to reach out for more help. I've already got a coworker's college aged daughter coming Monday and Tuesday nights to help out, and someone from church on Thursday nights. It looks like a neighbor is going to take Sunday nights, and our niece Wednesdays. That way we'll have someone to catch us up on dishes, laundry, de-cluttering, and to make the night time bottles, help feed, etc. A third set of hands makes a huge difference, or allows one of us to get to bed earlier.
We're working on a schedule for the kids, hoping that will help with night time sleeping. It's so hard to keep them on schedule though, because if someone is extra fussy or we have visitors or a doctor appointment or anything, we start someone late and it trickles down from there. We're still trying to stick to it as much as we can, hopefully they will grow into it.
I need to start getting up every day and practicing getting the babies in the car and out the door, but I'm too tired to right now. I go back to work November 1, so I better figure something out soon :) My one day at a time mentality is not helping my motivation. Oh well.
That's about it for now, there is much more to tell but my eyes are getting terribly heavy so I'm going to attempt to sleep.
Please continue to pray for us, we need strength and patience to make this journey successful. Thank you so so much!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Home Sweet Home
Today was the greatest day ever. We brought Delia home, and now our family is complete and together. I'm sitting right now with Michael sprawled across me, Ben in the bouncy seat and Delia in the swing. It's been insane but amazing since we got home. Everything I dreamed it would be and more.
Great Grandma McD and CGAM were our first visitors, followed shortly after by Gran and Papa Ben, and then cousins Shannon, Irelyn and Tristen. It was a madhouse as the ladies tried to help me put away junk from the hospital and clean up dishes and laundry and we tried to get all the babies taken care of. I kind of felt like I was in a tornado, but somehow I was totally calm and happy and glad to be there. There was just so much love there, support for us and elation that everyone is finally healthy enough to be home with us.
While it was joyous to leave the hospital today, it was also bittersweet to leave our second family behind. We became so very close to our nurses and doctors; we saw them more than our own family at times. They cared for our babies and for us, and it's the end of a major chapter in our lives to be leaving. I bawled like a baby when I pushed that stroller through the front doors, it was one of the most incredible feelings I've ever experienced. Somehow it was like watching them be born all over again. In a way they were reborn today, as regular old kids leaving to go home with mom and dad. So very awesome.
I'll post more pics soon and have lots of stories to tell no doubt. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has supported us thus far. We couldn"t do it without your help!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
The journey
I know I'm going to regret staying up to write this tomorrow, but at the moment I feel compelled to write so away I go.
I've been thinking the past couple days about how funny life is. We spend so much time and energy working towards these goals that we set, and then once we achieve them, we don't know what to do. Or at least I don't. It's always about getting to the next step - getting into college, getting that job, getting promoted. Once my life got a little bit settled down, I had no idea what to do with myself. These babies are very similar. It was such a struggle to get pregnant, then we had to stay pregnant. Then we had to get them off oxygen, out of the incubator, eating on their own, coming home.
They will be ten weeks old tomorrow, and I feel like all I've done is focus on the next step. What about everything we've done these past ten weeks? Part of me feels like I've missed it. Now granted, exhaustion is starting to set in and I am indeed losing chunks of time in the wee hours of the morning, waking up with a baby in my lap and a half eaten bottle on the table with no memory of feeding them. But I digress. If all I ever do is focus on getting to that next milestone, I'm going to miss all the amazing stops along the way. And just the getting there.
So I'm setting a new goal to enjoy each day, and not worry so much about where I'm going. I've got to have some destination in mind so I know what direction to take life, but I don't have to go full speed ahead. Maybe I could drive in the right lane for a while and enjoy the scenery. So what if the house is dirty, or I'm late to the doctor, or the laundry isn't folded. If I want to cuddle with a baby I should do it and not feel guilty.
Is there any chance that I'll be able to follow through with this new philosophy? Not sure, but I'm definitely going to try.
Now on a funny note, the mail brought me a great laugh yesterday. Jury duty notice. I'm thinking that infant triplets qualifies as an extreme physical or financial hardship. But just to be safe tomorrow I'm going to ask the doc for a get out of jury duty free card. Surely they can come up with something. In all seriousness I'm still breastfeeding and I don't know that they would stop a trial so I can go pump. I wish this would have come a year or two ago, I would be interested in being on a jury, but the timing is just all wrong. Maybe next time.
I've been thinking the past couple days about how funny life is. We spend so much time and energy working towards these goals that we set, and then once we achieve them, we don't know what to do. Or at least I don't. It's always about getting to the next step - getting into college, getting that job, getting promoted. Once my life got a little bit settled down, I had no idea what to do with myself. These babies are very similar. It was such a struggle to get pregnant, then we had to stay pregnant. Then we had to get them off oxygen, out of the incubator, eating on their own, coming home.
They will be ten weeks old tomorrow, and I feel like all I've done is focus on the next step. What about everything we've done these past ten weeks? Part of me feels like I've missed it. Now granted, exhaustion is starting to set in and I am indeed losing chunks of time in the wee hours of the morning, waking up with a baby in my lap and a half eaten bottle on the table with no memory of feeding them. But I digress. If all I ever do is focus on getting to that next milestone, I'm going to miss all the amazing stops along the way. And just the getting there.
So I'm setting a new goal to enjoy each day, and not worry so much about where I'm going. I've got to have some destination in mind so I know what direction to take life, but I don't have to go full speed ahead. Maybe I could drive in the right lane for a while and enjoy the scenery. So what if the house is dirty, or I'm late to the doctor, or the laundry isn't folded. If I want to cuddle with a baby I should do it and not feel guilty.
Is there any chance that I'll be able to follow through with this new philosophy? Not sure, but I'm definitely going to try.
Now on a funny note, the mail brought me a great laugh yesterday. Jury duty notice. I'm thinking that infant triplets qualifies as an extreme physical or financial hardship. But just to be safe tomorrow I'm going to ask the doc for a get out of jury duty free card. Surely they can come up with something. In all seriousness I'm still breastfeeding and I don't know that they would stop a trial so I can go pump. I wish this would have come a year or two ago, I would be interested in being on a jury, but the timing is just all wrong. Maybe next time.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Maybe those boots were made for walkin'
One of our favorite nurses brought Delia the cutest pair of teeny tiny boots today as a bribe to inspire bottle feeding. If we're lucky, she'll walk out of here in those boots very soon.
Our trial without the tube failed, she wasn't taking enough volume so she lost weight. The tube went back in on Monday. As if that wasn't hard enough, we actually thought she was going to come home on Monday, didn't find out until almost noon that it was a no go. She had been doing OK, until she lost weight. So close yet so far away. And with no real reason, just "she's a preemie."
We did look into her blood pressure, it was running kind of high so they did some tests and determined it's not high enough to be worried about for right now. We may have her checked out by a specialist in STL in a month or two just to be safe. That was good news, but also bad because it eliminated one more reason that she isn't eating. The past day or so she's started to pick up again, so maybe we've turned the corner and she'll continue to improve.
Life at home with two is interesting. The first couple nights weren't bad at all, but I think Ben is going through a growth spurt because he is constantly hungry. And Mr. Crankypants managed to overtake Mr. Michael and infiltrate the house. Taking two to the hospital alone has been interesting also, but today should be the last day of that. From here on out through the end of the month, my mom, Ethan, or crazy great Aunt Mary will be with us every day. And hopefully there won't be too many more trips to this darn place. I love my nurses but I'm SO TIRED of coming here every darn day!
Both boys got good reports at the pediatrician today, they are growing well and have no physical problems. Michael has another eye exam tomorrow since his eyes were still a bit immature at the last check, and he'll have to get a hip ultrasound since he was born breech. But other than that we are moving right along problem free.
Help at home is still kind of thin, but I do have someone coming Mon-Tues-Wed evenings starting next week to help, and they are working on finding some folks at church. I'm starting to think about work again, I go back in three weeks. I'm looking forward to it but also sad that my time with them will be over. And I'm definitely not looking forward to catching up on four and a half months of stuff I've missed!
I'll try to get some pics up in the next couple days while I've got helpers around.
Our trial without the tube failed, she wasn't taking enough volume so she lost weight. The tube went back in on Monday. As if that wasn't hard enough, we actually thought she was going to come home on Monday, didn't find out until almost noon that it was a no go. She had been doing OK, until she lost weight. So close yet so far away. And with no real reason, just "she's a preemie."
We did look into her blood pressure, it was running kind of high so they did some tests and determined it's not high enough to be worried about for right now. We may have her checked out by a specialist in STL in a month or two just to be safe. That was good news, but also bad because it eliminated one more reason that she isn't eating. The past day or so she's started to pick up again, so maybe we've turned the corner and she'll continue to improve.
Life at home with two is interesting. The first couple nights weren't bad at all, but I think Ben is going through a growth spurt because he is constantly hungry. And Mr. Crankypants managed to overtake Mr. Michael and infiltrate the house. Taking two to the hospital alone has been interesting also, but today should be the last day of that. From here on out through the end of the month, my mom, Ethan, or crazy great Aunt Mary will be with us every day. And hopefully there won't be too many more trips to this darn place. I love my nurses but I'm SO TIRED of coming here every darn day!
Both boys got good reports at the pediatrician today, they are growing well and have no physical problems. Michael has another eye exam tomorrow since his eyes were still a bit immature at the last check, and he'll have to get a hip ultrasound since he was born breech. But other than that we are moving right along problem free.
Help at home is still kind of thin, but I do have someone coming Mon-Tues-Wed evenings starting next week to help, and they are working on finding some folks at church. I'm starting to think about work again, I go back in three weeks. I'm looking forward to it but also sad that my time with them will be over. And I'm definitely not looking forward to catching up on four and a half months of stuff I've missed!
I'll try to get some pics up in the next couple days while I've got helpers around.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
