3 peas in a pod

These guys are so stinking cute that I can't even stand it!

Their hats actually have a pea pod on them (thanks, Mag)!

To be honest, last night was pretty rough. It takes a lot longer to feed 3 babies vs 2 babies & poor William was NOT happy last night. I don't know whether it was the transition /new environment or whether he was having reflux or just didn't feel good, but he cried and cried. I had to keep holding him for several hours. As soon as I put him down he would start crying again. I know, I know...get used to it! :) Needless to say, the lack of sleep from last night is wearing on me today. William seems a little more settled today though.

Eye appointment yesterday...

Both of Stokes's eyes have matured, so no chance of blindness from ROP. William and Ryan each have 1 mature eye and 1 that still shows some prematurity. This is better news than our appt 2 weeks ago in the NICU. William and Ryan will have to go for another follow up in 2 weeks.  I really hope both eyes will show that they are mature at that appointment!

Stokes is sitting here with me right now. Sneak peak:

Sooooo adorable!!!!

The boys' grandmother, MaSha, is here right now to help us out. We gave the boys a bath this afternoon. They smell delicious! We have another pediatrician appointment this afternoon. That's all for now!

Leaving the NICU for good

William is being discharged today! We are so proud and glad to get him home! He has made so much progress, as have his brothers, and Thomas and I are in awe of these three little warriors. 

Time spent in the NICU:

Ryan - 68 days

Stokes - 70 days

William - 74 days

Big scares = very few

Not too bad for 27 weekers! Just think...these guys are already 10.5 weeks  old and still aren't at their full term due date, November 24.  They are incredible!

We aren't totally out of the woods yet. We have follow up appointments with a lot of doctors to prove that point. But all things considered, everything is great ! We are so blessed to have these three beautiful baby boys.

We are pumped that we are all out of the NICU, but we will really miss all the awesome people we met here. The doctors, nurses, case managers, other NICU parents, March of Dimes reps, etc made this experience a whole lot better than it could have been. 

Primary nurse, Ruth Ann, with Ryan 

Primary nurse, Kathleen, with William 

I didn't get a picture of our primary night nurse, Amanda. :( We love her, too!

I didn't post about it earlier, but although the NICU is a serious place, every now and then they have some fun, too! One example...Halloween! They dress up all the babies and take pictures. We chose surfer costumes for the boys. We had limited options to have all 3 match! They were so cute as little surfers but it was hard to get a picture with all three of them happy. I sense this may be a trend ha! Here are the results:

Stokes

Ryan

William 

All 3

Pictures of discharge

Ryan - Friday, November 1

Stokes - Sunday, November 3

William - Thursday, November 7

I love this picture and wanted to sneak it in this post! Ryan with MaSha (Thomas' mom) the day after he came home.

World's greatest Dad with 2 of his boys, Ryan & Stokes

We are so cute

We are cute and sweet and behaving pretty well for our mom! We miss our brother William though. He will probably get discharged from the hospital tomorrow if he takes all of his bottles today. Our mom and dad are sad that they aren't able to get to the hospital to see him much and worry that he's lonely. We can't wait for him to come home!

We went to the pediatrician yesterday and it was an ordeal for our first venture outside the house! :) We have an eye appointment today and a follow up with William at the pediatrician on Friday so our parents are getting some practice with outings! 

All in all, we are getting fed and our diapers are getting changed, so in the words of our friend, "Uncle" Clark Mays, "we're doin' alright"!

Today after our 9:00 feeding (Stokes left, Ryan right):

Are you wondering...

Are you wondering how the first few nights with a baby/babies at home went? Pretty well! The boys are doing great and don't cry 24/7, thank goodness! Thomas took the day off work today to help with the transition and got up with me for each feeding last night to help. I am not sure how that will work if he can't always help in the middle of the night but I guess we will figure it out!

Ryan is still so laid back and hardly fusses at all! He is just such a sweet baby! Stokes is definitely more "vocal" but hasn't cried or fussed nearly as much as I thought he would. They both seem pretty content! :)

One concern I have is how much the boys are eating. They were taking their full bottles (50 cc's) in the NICU but don't eat nearly as well here. I talked to some nurses about it at the NICU & will follow up with my pediatrician at our appointment tomorrow. I don't want our babies to lose any of the weight they've worked so hard to put on!

Other updates...William's PDA (hole in his heart) has closed. Awesome! The word from the NICU is that he could possibly be coming home one day this week. He is taking a bottle with every other feeding and once he has done that successfully for 2 days in a row he can move up to all bottles. He will have to take all of his bottles for 2 days & then he'll be ready to come home (assuming he passes his car seat test)! Ryan's MRI, however, was abnormal. His brain is smoother than it should be, without as many wrinkles as a normal brain. They also did MRIs on Stokes & William to compare and those results confirmed that Ryan's brain looks different than his brothers'. It could just be an immature brain or there is also a chance that it is lissencephaly. I won't get into what this disorder is too much, but it causes significant developmental delays and seizures. Very scary! This is, of course, a major concern for Thomas and me. Our neonatologist is going to make an appointment with a neurologist for us and Ryan so we can monitor it closely. He did say that he and one of the neurologists feel like it's immature and not lissencephaly. We may not know if Ryan is ok until he either meets or does not meet developmental milestones. On that note, preemies, like our babies, have adjusted developmental expectations. Since my boys were born 3 months early, they get an extra 3 months to meet goals. So for example, if a full term baby is supposed to start doing something by 6 months, we give our boys up until 9 months to do that same thing before getting worried. By the age of 2 they should be caught up. Isn't it strange to think that our triplets still shouldn't even be born yet?!?! My full term due date was November 24. All things considered they are doing amazingly well! We are so proud of all 3 of them!

The boys at home (Ryan on left, Stokes on right)

2 out of 3

Stokes is coming home tonight! I think Thomas & I can say goodbye to sleep for a while! Ha! William is still working on his feeds but has a chance to come home this week. 

We are doing great with Ryan at home but having 2 babies and then 3 at home will be a whole new ball game. Prayers are appreciated!

More later...

Pic of Stokes before leaving

RYAN IS COMING HOME!

We got our discharge papers for him! Today has been a whirlwind with discharge, hospital pictures, feedings, talks with doctors & nurses, etc. We are over the moon with excitement right now! Our nurse Ruth Ann is going to take Ryan and me down in a wheelchair, just like they do with newborns! Our newborn is 9.5 weeks old though. ;)

We got MRI results & I will write a separate post on that but wanted to let y'all know the news about Ryan coming home!!!!

Stokes & William will miss their brother and will be ready to come home before we know it! 

I'm going home!!!!!!!

Rooming In

Last night we had the opportunity to "room in" with Ryan.  This means that Thomas and I spent the night at the NICU and took care of him ourselves.  There are specific rooms for this that contain a microwave, mini fridge and a pull out couch/bed for 2.  There is still an assigned nurse for the baby, but the parents are in charge for the night.  If the parents have questions or need help, the nurse will be right there to assist them.  It's almost like a trial run before you actually take the baby home.  Since Ryan is so close to coming home we jumped at the opportunity to room in for a night and test the waters!  Everything went just fine!  We are tired (of course) but made it through the night with no issues or concerns.  We took turns with his overnight feedings.  It's hard to sleep in the hospital since the bed isn't comfortable and in our case last night, Ryan's leads weren't on or working correctly or something because his monitor kept going off saying that his heart wasn't beating, which was clearly not the case.  We could have done without the sporadic beeping!  All in all, we felt good about it and are looking forward to when he can come home!

On that note, it looks like tomorrow is the big day!  Ryan had an MRI today to get a better look at his brain (follow up from cranial ultrasounds showing brain bleeding) so the doctors can get a more conclusive idea of what's going on. I got to go in the room with him and was definitely more upset than he was.  Thankfully, he is such a laid back little guy that it really didn't bother him.  He got swaddled in to this vacuum sealer thingy to keep him from moving and took his paci and was totally fine!  I, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck and was so worried that he would open his eyes and get scared.  It lasted all of about 15 minutes but it felt like an hour that we were in there.  We did not get the results back today but should hear something tomorrow.  In addition to his MRI, Ryan took a car seat test this afternoon but did not pass.  The monitors were indicating that he was having some issues, but his nurse assured us that he did not appear to have any problems at all!  His coloring was good, his breathing appeared good and he was calm.  It's those darn leads, I tell ya!  Anyway, his nurse felt like it was definitely an error with the monitor/leads and said he would retake his test either tonight or tomorrow. We all think he will pass once his leads are changed out and are accurate.  Assuming he passes his next car seat test, he will be moving home!

I am so proud of my sweet boy and want to have him home with us, but truth be told, I am really nervous! The whole time I've been a mom I've had nurses around to help do whatever needs to be done.  They answer my questions, calm my fears, give me advice, assess the babies and essentially take complete care of them.  When I'm at the NICU we will tag team, as in "you get William's diaper and I'll get Stokes and Ryan's" so we share the load of work. If a baby is crying and I don't know what to do, I look to the nurse for my instructions. Our nurses have been wonderful and have taken such good care of our triplets and I wish I could bring them home with us!  I keep worrying that I won't be able to do it, to keep up, to take care of these little guys, especially when all 3 babies are at home.  The anticipation is killing me because I am such a worrier.  I keep reminding myself that I will do it because that's just what has to happen.  I will figure it out.  I certainly don't have all the answers right now and honestly have no clue as to what it will actually be like (how can you until you actually bring your baby/babies home?!?!).

This post has been all about Ryan, but just to let you know, Stokes and William are doing great, too.  Their nurse practitioner told me today she thinks they each have about another week before they're ready to come home.  They are not far behind!  Their only hold up right now is bottle feeding.  Stokes has moved to every other feed from a bottle and William is getting 3 bottle feedings per day.  They got moved to the hallway with the rooming in rooms yesterday as well so we're all getting used to a new and slightly different environment in the NICU.

I will update tomorrow with MRI results and in regards to whether Ryan gets to come home.  Stay tuned!