Day 25 in the NICU

I have a few updates on the boys for today. We will start with Ryan...

Results from his cranial ultrasound came back that there are no changes. They won't look again until 36 weeks. That seems like a long time & I will be worried, but the nurse made a good point that it won't change anything. I just need to keep praying that it clears up, does not cause any delays or issues for Ryan, and that he continues growing and getting stronger. Ryan has been having a good day today and is maintaining his first place status as our best breather! As of today he weighs 2 lb, 14.2 oz. I got to hold Ryan for over 2 hours yesterday afternoon! It was awesome!!

William has been having a good day today, too! His nurse whispered to me that they put his feeding tube through his nose, instead of through his mouth and he seems to like that better and in turn is having fewer bradycardia spells. Just don't tell him...we don't want him to figure it out and start misbehaving again! ;) He now weighs 2 lb, 10.9 oz. Pictures of this sweet pea today...

Look at that little tongue!!! So cute!

Stokes has been having a rough day. He has been brady-ing a lot and having too many episodes for the nurse to walk away from him for long. He is not fixing it himself and she is having to "wake him up" to remind him to breathe. Not great news since he has been doing well on high flow since he got on it and he has been holding his own. They drew some blood to see if his hemotacrits level was low and it came back in the lower range of "normal".  If it had been low they   would have considered another blood transfusion for him. Instead they decided to up his oxygen flow force from 4 to 5 in the hopes that will work for him. If not he will have to go back to CPAP. We don't want him to go back to CPAP!!!!! But we want whatever is best for him. So goes life in the NICU....2 steps forward, 1 step back. We will see how the updated oxygen flow works. Today Stokes weighs 2 lb, 15 oz. So close to 3 lb! Here are a few pictures from several days ago when Thomas was holding him and Stokes held my finger. So sweet!!!!

Pumpkins for our pumpkins!

These were given to us by a sweet friend. 

Happy fall, y'all!

Hello from the Peery boys

Here are a few pictures I just snapped! 

Ryan sleeping peacefully

William is wearing his Clemson hat today

Stokes (he is being "vocal" today but I am going to hold him shortly, which may help to calm him down)

Ciao!

3 weeks old!

Yesterday marked 3 weeks since the boys were born. I can't believe how fast time is going by already. All three have changed so much in the last three weeks. 

The nurses take new measurements on Sunday nights and I got updates for each baby today!

William measured 15 1/2" long and he now weighs 2 lb, 10.7 oz. He is getting 24 cc's each feeding (30 cc's = 1 oz) and is fed every 3 hours. He gets extra protein with each feeding and gets additional iron & vitamins each day. William will get a follow up echo on his heart in 3 more weeks to take another look at his PDA. The expectation is that the PDA will have closed on its own at that point. 

Ryan is 15" long and weighs 2 lb, 12.6 oz. He is getting 26 cc's every 3 hours and also gets protein with each feeding and iron and vitamins once a day. He will have another cranial ultrasound on Wednesday to take a look at the bleeding in his head. We continue to pray that this will clear up and ease our worries!

Stokes is 15 1/4" long and weighs 2 lb, 14.5 oz. He is getting 26 cc's every 3 hours. 

Today at the NICU I got to do kangaroo care with William and witness a bath for Ryan. All three babies looked great and were so sweet for their mom!

Handsome boys!

Stokes on high flow (by the way, he had been on high flow since this afternoon and is doing really well with it!):

He is up to 2 lb, 13.4 oz.

William with a slightly open eye:

He is up to 2 lb, 8.6 oz.

Sweet Ryan: 

He is up to 2 lb, 10.2 oz.

Boys are doing well tonight. Continuing prayers for all three, especially Ryan!!!

Picture of Thomas holding Stokes tonight. His eyes are open & he looks so beautiful!!!

Test follow up

This post will be difficult to write because a) the medical stuff is over my head and b) it's not the news we wanted to hear. 

On Wednesday, they performed a follow up echo on William for his heart and cranial ultrasound on Ryan. The results came back yesterday and the doctor came by to discuss them with us. 

William's echo still showed a small PDA, but the doctor was not overly concerned at this point. William will have another echo follow up in a month to see how his heart looks then. Hopefully the PDA will be gone! :)

Ryan's ultrasound still showed some bleeding in his brain. We were really hoping and praying that it would have cleared up on its own over the last week. The good news is that it hasn't gotten any worse, but the radiologist is leaning towards calling it PVL (periventricular leukomalacia), which is damage to the brain. It's still a grade 1 bleed, so if there is some brain damage, it could be very minor. It just scares us that Ryan is at an increased risk for developmental delays. The doctor told us that they will do weekly scans on him and follow it closely and involve therapists as needed to help him out developmentally. Please pray for our sweet boy that this will not affect him and that he will grow up to lead a healthy life! 

I got to hold Ryan yesterday and I read two books to him, told him all about his name (which family members it came from) and we prayed together. 

The strange thing is that Ryan is still on his high flow oxygen tube and is really doing well with his breathing. Out of all three, he is breathing the best and you would assume he is the healthiest. I hope his breathing success translates to healthy brain function!

William and Stokes are still doing well. They are working on gaining weight and doing better with their breathing. The respiratory therapists and nurses give them breaks off their CPAPs multiple times per day and they aren't able to stay off the CPAP very long before they start displaying episodes of brady-ing and desat-ing. They need to get better in this area before we can upgrade them to high flow. Other than that, they are sleeping and hanging out! I can't wait to see their faces better once they are off CPAP and onto high flow! 

Thank you to all our friends and family who have been so supportive, encouraging, generous and prayerful with us. We are blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives and we take comfort in knowing that the boys will have an awesome "village" that will be surrounding them. 

More updates to come. Please continue praying for the triplets! :)

Day 15 in the NICU

Ryan got upgraded to high flow oxygen today, so now he only has a breathing tube instead of the CPAP. He looks great and was doing really well with the high flow all day! We hope that he can stay on high flow and just keep growing! He hasn't gained as much weight as his brothers and is just now slightly over his birth weight. He did have to get some blood today because his hematocrit levels were low so they gave him an IV and started his transfusion this afternoon. This also means he won't get his next feeding until midnight tonight. The nurse told me that the blood will make him feel better and will help to keep him on the high flow! Here are a few pictures of our handsome boy without his CPAP!

William is hanging in there but us also getting a blood transfusion this evening. They think the extra blood will help with his breathing. William is getting the largest feeding amounts of all three boys and is going to catch up with his brothers  soon size wise. Here is his picture from today. 

*side note about blood transfusions...they are a little scary and sound serious but today a nurse was telling me that she was impressed that this is their first one after being here for 2 weeks. Hearing that made me feel better! :) And in case the boys have to get more blood, their dad, Thomas, & their Aunt Ashley have made direct donor blood donations for the boys. They were both matches for Ryan and William. Unfortunately their donations weren't ready for today's transfusions but will be ready in case they need more later. We like to keep it in the family ha!

Stokes is still doing great and has really evened out with his breathing.  This is probable due in part to his transfusion the other day. His respiratory therapist said he may be able to get on high flow again soon! Fingers crossed! 

(This is a modeling pose he wanted you to see!)