3-24-09 Report

Ellie - She is doing good. Her weight is getting closer to Evan and Charlotte - 3lb 2oz. She is still up and down on her oxygen levels but it is becoming more consistent. She will have to wait until her levels are lower to start on the bottle. Her paci activity has increase - so she is wanting to give the bottle a shot. The nurse gave her a small taste (4cc) with a syringe and bottle nipple. She liked it but is just not ready for the full feed - yet. It has been a couple days since I held her - so she is on the schedule tomorrow.

Charlotte - Looks to be getting bigger everyday. She has been taking down her (1) bottle a day. Jennifer gets to give it to her everyday at 3pm. She is up to 3lb 4.7oz. When know of one trait she has definitely gotten from me - she is a deep sleeper - almost too deep. Sometimes in her deep sleep she briefly stops breathing causing her heart rate to drop. This is normal for preemies and all three do this - but not as frequent as Charlotte. The good news is she recovers on her own with out any stimulation. This is the reason she is still on oxygen - it is suppose to be annoying enough to keep her from sleeping too deep.

Evan - Still trucking. He gets (2) bottles a day. He finishes most of the time but gets real tired. I feed him when I get off work. Today, the nurse did not have his bottle ready and he was having a fit. He first was crying but then he was turning his head mouth open looking for his food. Jennifer came close to him and I thought he was going to bite her - he was real hungry. I did not give him his paci because he would get tired and not be able to finish his bottle. Finally the nurse showed up and down the bottle went. I think he wanted more but they are real strict on the amount they get. His weight is the same as Charlotte 3lb 4.7oz.

Sorry no new pictures.

I'll take a 3 pounder and 2 milkshakes please...

On Thursday we announced Evan and Charlotte broke the 3 pound barrier and that Ellie would be a week or so behind. Wrong! She joined the club last night at weigh-in. She had gotten a transfusion earlier in the week and it has really helped. Her color looks good, her breathing has gotten better, and she has really packed on the weight. She is also getting lasixs to help with her lungs - this should cause her to gain little to no weight - but it has not so far. We are proud of our little girl.

For 5 weeks our babies have been getting fed through a feeding tube. The main reason is preemie babies - especially 28 weekers - can not suck, swallow, and breath at the same time. We have been waiting for the day when they would take the bottle. We were told that usually at 34 weeks (gestational age) they might get to try. They also have to be interested in their pacifiers. 34 weeks would be next Thursday - will we get to start early? You betcha! The doctor wrote the orders today for Evan and Charlotte to get one of their feedings through a bottle. They have been very active with the pacifier and one of our nurses has been saying for a week that she thinks they could take a bottle. Doc wrote the order @ 4:15 - Evan gets feed again @ 5 - so lets get started. The nurse gets the ball rolling showing us how to do hold the baby, how to hold the bottle, how to see if he is sucking, how to see if he is swallowing, and how to see if he is breathing, and then how to burp him. They set a time limit on feeding - 30 min. If they do not get the bottle finished, they have to stop and finish it through the tube - too much time would cause the baby to get too exhausted and burn too many calories. So can Evan do it? Will he know how to do 3 things at once? How much will he get down? Answers - Yes, Yes, and the whole bottle. He was a champ. Jennifer got to take over about 1/2 way through. The smile on her face will last for days.

Charlotte is next. She has probably shown the most interest in the paci. So just as with Evan the nurse gets the feeding started. She was real interested in getting the bottle down. She was not interested in stopping to breath. The nurse let me try and just advised to pull the bottle away every now and then to allow her to remember to breath. She was sucking real hard and after a few minutes she had even learned how to stop and breath on her own. I stopped to burp her and she really let it out - they nurses down the hall could even hear her. After the burping, she got a little tired. We had to stop because she was falling asleep - the 1/2 bottle that had hit her tummy put her to sleep. Don't worry - she will get the rest of the fed through her tube. She will get to try again tomorrow.

How did we get here? Part 3

I left off with Jennifer having a not so enjoyable pregnancy. She could not do much of anything. Going to Target and Babies R Us to register is typically an enjoyable experience for expecting parents - for us a different story. I had to drag her out to the store and then push her around in a wheel chair. We did not know what we were needing and lacked any motivation to finish the task. We usually left the store confused and completely exhausted. I remember the joy we had registering for our wedding gifts - wow that seems like ages ago. We even asked some mothers in our Sunday School class to check it out and tell us what we need to add or delete - They were a big help.

One big bonus to having triplets is all the doctors appointments. I know normally you would think going to the doctor every other week or weekly would be a negative but for us it was a positive. We got to have soooooo many ultrasounds. We got to see the babies growth on a weekly to biweekly basis and that was so neat. Jennifer (being a registered sonographer) found this to be therapeutic. I could tell a difference in her on appointment days - a little more energy - a little more will to get out of bed. For me, every appointment was nerve racking. Right before we would go back, I would have a sickness feeling that something would be wrong only to be followed by a good news and a thankful prayer to God when everything was going good.

Here's a picture of Jenn @ 20 wks.

From the day we found out about having triplets, we were prepared for an early arrival. The average gestational age for triplets is about 31weeks. We looked at the calender - Due date is May 7 - 32 wks is March 12. I set a goal of March 13th. That was my dad's birthday. Jenn and I have a favorite story we tell just about everyone after they find out we are having or just had triplets. Story - My dad started telling Jennifer as early as High School that one day we would have triplets. His theory was always - One for Larry and Annette, One for he and mom, and one for Jenn and I. He continued this prediction for several years. I know that if he were still with us he would be boasting (as he usually was doing) about how he knew it was going to be triplets. I just know that he is spending a lot of time in the NICU watching over his little triplets.

As before, I will continue our story later.

Baby Update:

No major changes today. We found out that we can request certain nurses to care for our trips when they are working. So of course, we have our favorites and they all are very different. The night shift is most important to us - usually no doctors hanging around - and we are at home trying to get sleep - much easier to do when you know your babies are in good care. One of the day nurses that we have requested is really fun. She is great with the babies and keeps us entertained all day.
I think Ellie took missing out on the 3lb party personally - she has really started gaining and is only 1.1oz away from hitting 3 lb. Will she do it tonight?

Here are some of today's action photos:

Charlotte - her face is really filling out - it is much rounder than EJ or Ellie

Ellie got some Kangarooing time with mom - she kept lifting her head to see her mommy

Evan was really active today - his eyes were dancing around the room.

Ha Ha caught you looking - no post today!

Even Evan is making fun of you for looking! Put your tongue back in boy - that's not nice!

Who do you think hit the 3 lb mark first?

Evan? Charlotte? Ellie?

Well you have a 2 out of 3 chance of getting it right.

Charlotte and Evan both past the 3 lb mark last night at weigh-in. The nurse knew we were waiting for this day, so she weighed both twice to make sure it was right. They both weighed in @ 3 lb 1/2 oz. Ellie did her best and came in @ 2 lb 12.5 oz. She has actually gained the most weight if you consider she lost down to under 2 lb. She is getting extra calories added to her mommy juice - so it won't be long before she's the old and bigger sister. Then again she looks like she is going to favor Jennifer - so a petite life may be in store for her. They all have been having really good days. It is possible that they might get to start bottle feeding in the next week or so. Jenn and I can't wait to be able to hold and feed, but for now we will just enjoy holding. Here are today's pictures - can you see the extra weight?

Ellie

Charlotte

Evan