Notice anything different?

William

Stokes

Ryan

You guessed it! The boys are wearing clothes!!! Starting at 32 weeks the babies can start wearing onesies & our 3 little guys look so cute in their outfits! 

Their nurses have been trying to slowly introduce the boys to pacifiers when they are getting their feedings. The thought is to associate sucking to getting a full belly, which will help them to get fed by bottle later on once they've graduated from their feeding tube. 

Everyone is doing well today and here are the weight updates. Ryan is the biggest once again.

William - 3 lb, 5.6 oz

Stokes - 3 lb, 9.1 oz

Ryan - 3 lb, 10.8 oz

Quality time with William today...

Bath time

Just for the record, the boys are 32 weeks (gestational age) or 5 weeks old today.

Thomas and I went to the NICU this afternoon and got to try something new! The NICU nurse, Mandy, surprised us by asking if we wanted to bathe Stokes and Ryan. We took her up on it! She wheeled over a cart and put two tubs of warm water on it along with towels, wash cloths and baby wash. She brought the boys to the cart from their isolettes and let us take over. I think Thomas and I were both a little nervous for our first bath with the boys! We thought it was awesome to put these little guys together for the first time since they were born. Thomas bathed Stokes and I bathed Ryan. Mandy took pictures for us. 

Getting ready for the bath...

After bath photo op...

Stokes 

Ryan

Both of the boys seemed to like their baths and didn't cry. :) We laughed a lot and enjoyed getting to handle the babies. The more we hold them, the more comfortable we get. We were so cautious when they were first born, and we still are, but don't rely quite as heavily on the nurses for everything and are getting used to them. They are still so small and fragile and we have to be careful but we are getting better and better with them each day!

After bath time, I held Ryan and Thomas held Stokes. 

After bath pics...

Ryan

Stokes

Poor William didn't get to participate in bath time but we hung out with him this afternoon as well. I will ask his nurse if I can bathe him later this week! Here are some pics of William from today.

He was holding my finger...so sweet! :)

Game day with the Peerys

It's game day and the boys all say, "GO TIGERS!"

William got back on CPAP on Thursday after having too many episodes. He did a good job on high flow for several days but it proved to be a little too much work for him and he needed more help. This is a minor setback and I definitely think he will be back on high flow soon. :)

William on CPAP

CPAP break

Respiratory therapist Jonathan putting his CPAP back on.

Ryan is doing great & is calm & peaceful today. He did lose a little weight & isn't our biggest baby anymore but is just behind Stokes.

Ryan found his thumb! 

Thomas holding Ryan today

Ryan's close up

Stokes is having a good day today as well. I got to hold him, listen to him coo, and take some pictures of him!

Here are lots of pics of Stokes!

Inside his isolette

Look at those eyelashes!!!

1 Month Old and...

I can't believe the babies are already 1 month old!  AND...William was a little late to the party, but he has officially joined the 3 Pound Club!  As of Monday night he weighed just over 3 lbs and today he was 3 lb, 1.7 oz.  Ryan and Stokes are still gaining weight but Ryan has taken over as the biggest triplet!  Today, Ryan weighed 3 lb, 4.6 oz and Stokes was 3 lb, 4.3 oz. 

The boys had their eye test yesterday and the results came back just as expected.  Their eyes aren't perfect due to their prematurity and there weren't any surprises during the check.  The good news is that the eye doctor won't follow up with them until 2 weeks.  I have been told by several of the nurses that if there was anything to be concerned about, they would have more frequent checks (as in 2 days after the first check!), so the fact that the doctor is going to wait 2 weeks is a good sign.  We don't think they will need any type of eye surgery, as some of the serious cases do.  YAY!!!! 

All of the boys are still doing very well on their high flow tubes and are getting better and better with their breathing.  The respiratory therapists have been able to turn down the level of force on their tubes, which is great!

A few days ago Ryan had to get a small blood transfusion and wouldn't you know it...his brothers followed suit.  Yesterday both William and Stokes had to get blood as well.  All 3 boys handled it very well and all seem to feel better after their transfusions.  Again, this is common among preemies and is expected for babies that were born as early as they were. 

Here are some pictures from today!

Ryan Thomas Peery 

William Robert Peery 

Stokes Taylor Peery 

Guess who is on high flow!

William ditched his CPAP as of this morning and has been on high flow all day. He is doing great and we are so proud! Here is his official "I am on high flow!" picture:

As for the other boys, Stokes had a good day today and his oxygen flow level has been adjusted back down. He was breathing well today and took the adjustment just fine! I kangaroo held him this afternoon and he did great!

Ryan had a bad day yesterday. His tummy looked bigger than usual and Thomas and I noticed more nasal mucus than usual and let his nurse know. He also had a higher than average heart rate and wasn't acting like himself. Based on several factors, the nurses and doctors were concerned and decided to get some blood work done and take an X-ray of his belly. Thankfully the X-Ray came back normal and his blood work was mostly normal but a little low on some counts. No action needed to be taken and they decided to monitor him closely last night. He did ok overnight and got blood work rechecked this morning. Everything looked normal except his hematocrit level, which was slightly lower than last night. When the hematocrit level is low, that's when the boys need a blood transfusion. So Ryan got a new IV today and a blood transfusion. You may remember in a previous post I mentioned Thomas and his sister donated blood for the boys just in case they needed it, so Ryan got his daddy's blood today. We feel blessed that this situation turned out ok because there was some real concern about the possibility of an infection in his tummy or bowels but he is doing well! 

The boys will all get an initial eye check tomorrow. It's common for preemies to have eye issues, but even those are oftentimes minor and just require glasses. Preemies that have high oxygen levels through a ventilator or CPAP typically have the worst eye problems but our boys have done well and have been on low levels of oxygen the whole time they've been in the NICU. Hopefully that will translate to healthy eyes and perfect vision for all 3! At least that is what I am hoping for!!

Thank you for your continued prayers for the three Peery boys. We have an unbelieveable prayer chain and are so grateful to all of you that are praying for our babies! So thank you and keep it up! While you're at it, please say a special prayer for baby Caroline, the granddaughter of a friend of ours, who is having her 5th surgery tomorrow. God bless our prayer warriors and these sweet babies in need of God's healing hand.

A post for William

As promised, this post will be dedicated to William. I got to hold him for about two hours on Sunday! He was sweet as could be for me. His nurse Ruth Ann got the respiratory therapist to put a breathing tube on him instead if his CPAP while I held him so we could see his face a little better. Apparently it wasn't quite the same as high flow but he still did great with the tube. I think he will be ready for high flow pretty soon! 

He was sleeping so peacefully! :)

God is good!

William is scheduled to get another echo today to look at that PDA (small hole in his heart, common with preemies). I have a good feeling that is has either gotten smaller or closed. I will let you know what they say.

By the way, after seeing close ups of their faces without CPAPs can you tell them apart?? Thomas and I definitely think they all look different!

As of last night, this little sweet pea weighs 2 lb, 14.8 oz. He is oh so close to the 3 lb club!

Ryan weighs 3 lb, 1.3 oz & Stokes is at 3 lb, 4.1 oz.

4 Weeks Old

Well folks, we've got some "big" boys on our hands!  We currently have two babies over the 3 LB mark! Wooo hooo!  When they got weighed on Friday night, both Stokes and Ryan have made it to the 3 lb milestone.  Ryan has taken the lead and weighs 3 lb, 0.6 oz and Stokes is right behind him at 3 lb, 0.5 oz.  William hasn't quite made it to 3 lb yet, but he is working on "bulking up" and will be there soon.  

Guess what we got to do this weekend!  HOLD babies.  Not kangaroo care, but actually holding them.  Like the same way you would hold a full term baby. :)  I love kangaroo care because they are so close to you and you get the skin-to-skin benefit, but when you kangaroo them you can't really see their faces because they are right under your chin.  We have handheld mirrors there and can use those to look at their faces but it isn't quite the same.  When I got to hold them this weekend, it was amazing to look down and just stare at that gorgeous face.  I could observe their facial expressions and all the characteristics of their faces.  I got to hold Stokes for 2 hours on Friday and held Ryan for about an hour and a half on Saturday.  When I was done holding Ryan, Thomas got to take a turn. Thomas is wearing a mask because he felt like he may have some sort of a sinus infection and wanted to be extra careful that he didn't pass along any germs to the babies.  Here are some pictures of our big boys being held.

STOKES:

RYAN:

Eyes open!

Look Ma, no tubes (and nurse Jill brushing my hair)!!!! Note: no tubes means he was breathing on. his. own. Yeah, buddy! :)

I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of William this weekend. Sorry to the William fans out there (I am talking to you, Virginia Van Pelt, Stephanie Mays & Matt Hammond!). I'm sure I will get a chance to hold him today or tomorrow though and will dedicate a post just to him!  His nurse yesterday said that the doctors talked about repeating an echo on him on Monday, so we'll see if that happens.  I was under the impression that it would be a few more weeks before they did another echo.  There are also rumors of moving William to high flow vs CPAP so stay tuned!

You may be wondering about what is going on with our other "babies", our dogs, General and Esso.  Well, they have been missing their parents over the last few weeks since we've been spending time at the NICU and are always so glad to see us when we walk in the door.  We've tried to talk to the dogs about their new baby brothers but we aren't quite sure what they will think when they boys actually come home.  Yesterday, Ryan's nurse gave us a few blankets with his scent on them and encouraged us to let the dogs smell the blanket and get used to the new smell.  We brought the blankets home and let the dogs smell them and put them on the dog beds.  Both General and Esso were very interested and took advantage of the chance to smell something new!  General even took both blankets with him and didn't want to share with Esso.  How sweet. :)

I take this to mean that General already loves the boys!

Now that I am 4 weeks post-op, I'm feeling much better and starting to feel more like myself.  I still walk around slower than I used to and am having back pain (is that normal?!?!? maybe from pumping?!?! or maybe from losing all muscle from laying in a bed for 5 weeks?!?!) but it feels good to begin feeling "normal" again. I still look pregnant but am trying to be patient with that! :)

That's all for now.  I hope you had a great weekend.  A dedicated William post will be coming soon!