Just hangin' out

It is awesome to have the boys at home. I was scared to death at the thought of bringing them home and being responsible for them, but it is way better than I could have imagined! We are managing pretty well. We are figuring out a routine that works and settling in. We just got done eating and then had some tummy time!

Stokes:

Ryan:

William:

I am obsessed! :)

By the way, my maternal instincts have shot through the roof since my babies have come home. My best friends and I always laughed about how NOT maternal I was, which was a small concern when we found out I was having triplets! Anyway, while they were in the NICU, I was relying so much on the nurses to help and to guide me instead of just trying to do what I thought was best. This is a good plan in the NICU, especially when they were first born and so premature and fragile (I could have hurt or hindered them by doing what I thought was "best" at that time), however, I may have been leaning on the nurses too much there towards the end of the NICU stay. I was completely lacking confidence in motherhood and my ability to take care of 3 babies. All that to say, now that they're home and I am in charge of them, those instincts are finally kicking in. It's hard to describe, but now it feels like my boys are MINE, and I never felt that 100% in the NICU. 

I mentioned in a previous post that the boys weren't taking their whole bottles and that was making me nervous. I am glad to report that they are doing much better and drink all of it almost every single time. They are also getting faster with finishing their bottles, for which I am so grateful! Every little minute helps when you are taking care of 3 babies!

MaSha, the boys' grandmother, has been here helping since Thursday, and what a huge help she's been! She is helping diaper and feed babies, washing and making bottles, doing laundry (babies's and grown ups!), organizing stuff around the house, cooking/meal planning, etc! Thomas and I are grateful for the assistance! 

We are still putting a few finishing touches on the nursery and I will be so excited when it's complete! Can't wait to post pictures because I think it's so cute! Btw, this must be my "nesting instinct" kicking in as well because I am ALL ABOUT working on my house and getting it looking good right now. I know, this instinct is also showing up a little later than expected! I think the hospital bed rest and NICU threw my instincts for a loop!

My dad came by this weekend to visit with the boys. His name is Stokes...sound familiar?!?! Yep, he's the namesake for our Stokes. :) Here he is loving on one of his grandsons.

Thomas and MaSha are out running errands right now. I am on my own with the little guys! Everything takes a lot longer with just 1 person, but I am no longer nervous to do it on my own. Score. Speaking of errands, I got the luxury of running errands on Saturday and it was glorious!!! Hobby Lobby, WalMart, Buy Buy Baby, Ross, Marshalls Home Goods & Target...I was really getting after it! Nesting instincts made me buy a lot of house stuff ha! Like I said, it was glorious..at least for a few hours and then I hit 5:00 traffic on Woodruff Rd and wanted to be done and back home as soon as possible! You Greenville people know what I am talking about!

Agenda for the rest of the day...give the boys a bath and possibly get MaSha to take some pictures of us as a family. Will post them!

Side note: I have gotten a lot of feedback from people that are reading the blog and cyber-supporting us (I think I just made up that word!) and I want to say THANK YOU! Glad to hear that people are reading and enjoying it! xoxo

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!!!!!!!