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!
 

Baby Shower

Thomas and I both work at the same awesome company and have the best co-workers!  Some of our sweet friends from work decided to throw us a baby shower since so many of our co-workers know both of us and have known us since before we even started dating.  The shower was originally going to be during the summer, but I got put on bed rest and the shower got postponed.  We ended up having it on Oct. 29th, which was perfect timing...right before the boys start coming home! 

The shower was incredible!  Our hostesses made the conference room look so cute and went above and beyond.  They had a slideshow playing that showed pictures from when Thomas and I were dating, our engagement, our wedding day, an ultrasound picture and then lots of pictures of the sweet babies.  There was a clothesline hanging as well as pendant banners spelling out the boys' names.  There were cupcakes with three little green dots (3 peas in a pod!), some delicious punch and pretty flowers.  I loved going to the shower because I got to see so many of my work friends that I hadn't seen since I went on bed rest on July 22.  That's a long time since I was used to seeing them everyday!  Over the years Thomas and I have become really close with lots of our co-workers and I really missed them during bed rest and my maternity leave.  It was just cool to get a chance to catch up with so many of them.

Our co-workers were extremely generous with the gifts as well.  We had a table full of gifts to open as well as a large pile of cards containing gift cards.  We loved opening the gifts and were so excited that right when we got home after the shower we immediately started putting things away in their place so they would be ready to use! It is an understatement to say that we are blessed. For any of you that came to the shower that are reading this...it was so great to see you!  We both had such a wonderful time and thank you, thank you for the gifts!  Y'all are wonderful!

Here are some pictures of the fun event!

The clothesline...isn't it cute?!?!

 

Pendants with names...love it!

 

Cupcake table

(Must mention that the cupcakes were made by a co-worker that bakes on the side and they are the BEST cupcakes in the world! Go Jill!)

 

Gifts!

 

Good crowd

 

Opening gifts

 

Love these bibs!

 

 

A special thank you to our wonderful hostesses!  We love y'all!

Meaghan Wentzell, Adrienne Horne, Stephanie Mays, Pressly Yost, Wendy Thacker, Shea Little & Ruth Robinson

A happy and thankful Mom and Dad!

Music to my ears

All 3 of my boys can hear! Stokes passed his hearing test today. The reason he got to take his hearing test??? He's in an open air crib! William got back off oxygen last night and has done fairly well. Ryan is holding steady and got his feeding tube taken out since he taking all bottles. To summarize, all 3 boys...

-passed hearing test

-are in open air cribs

-are breathing room air on their own

-are working on bottle feeds

-are fighters

-are my sweet miracles

Here are some pictures from today.

Stokes in open air crib

Ryan sans feeding tube (and all facial tubes)

 

William in his crib and no oxygen tube