Sunday, August 25, 2013

Catch me if you can!

We've been taking pictures of the babies on their weekly "birthday".  It helps us remember the big changes from week to week -- this week we moved from plastic cribs to big cribs with mattresses that can be inclined. The weekly pictures also remind us how far the babies have come since June 27th!

The boys are both pretty laid-back, so it's fairly easy to get pictures of them that capture their faces, their length, and the number that tells us how old they are.  Grace is a different story...






The babies are all dealing with reflux, which is the primary reason they're all still in the hospital (and part of the reason Grace is so wiggly!).  Reflux makes them hold their breath (apnea).  When they hold their breath, their heart rates drop (bradycardia or "brady").  They're on monitors that are set to alarm when their respiratory rates and heart rates drop below a certain level.  In order to be discharged, they have to go five to seven days without having a significant apnea or brady event.  For the past week or so, the babies would get close to five days without an event, then they'd have a significant brady.  Each time they have a significant brady, the clock resets and we have to wait another five days.  This week they were all switched from breast milk to a really thick formula that is much harder to reflux.  So far, the formula hasn't eliminated the bradyies, but has reduced their frequency.  We're hoping that another week of growth and formula will sufficiently address these bradyies, because we're ready to bring our triplets home!

Friday, August 16, 2013

Bottle Feeding

Before the triplets can come home, they need to be able to take all eight of their daily feedings by bottle.  That process began a few weeks ago and since it has been a while, we wanted to share some pictures:

Colin (8/3/13) 
Cash (8/3/13)

Though we could not find a good picture of Grace feeding, we could not leave her out:

Grace (8/3/13)



Sunday, August 4, 2013

We have moved!

About a week and a half ago, the doctor wrote orders for Grace and Colin to graduate to the Progressive Care Nursery. The NICU staff knew it would be challenging for us to juggle having babies on two different floors in the hospital, so they left Grace and Colin in the NICU until Cash was ready to move.  On Tuesday, Cash got his orders to graduate!

Tuesday night, the babies left the "Williams Wall" in the NICU for their own room in the Progressive Care Nursery.

The nurses explained that their goal in the NICU is to stabilize the baby, while their goal in the Progressive Care Nursery is to get the baby (and parents) ready to go home.  Preemies usually go home close to their due date.  The triplets were due on September 4th.  So, if all goes well, we have about a month of work ahead of us to get the babies ready to go home.

The Williams Wall - Grace, Cash, Colin

Progressive Care Nursery - Grace, Cash, Colin


On Thursday night, the babies moved from their isolettes to open-air cribs!  Colin and Grace tried open-air cribs last weekend, but they weren't able to maintain their temperatures, so they had to go back into the isolettes.  So far, this time around, all of the babies have been able to keep their temperatures up!


Open-air cribs in the progressive care nursery.  


And because I can't end a post without including their sweet faces...

Colin, Cash, and Grace.  My first time holding all three together!




Saturday, August 3, 2013

Cash gets a bath!

Normally, the babies get baths during the night shift twice a week.  Cash made a bit of a mess one day this week and found himself in great need of a mid-day bath.  Lucky for me, I was able to bathe Cash for the first time -- my first opportunity to bathe any of the babies!  

The babies are bathed in the container that is used to weigh them.  The container is wheeled up to the side of the baby's isolette.  A heat lamp helps keep the baby warm.  

I think it went pretty well.  However, I'm not sure that Cash would agree...

Cash getting a bath


He was tolerant of my novice ability at first




He became skeptical pretty quickly


By the time I got to his hair, he had no patience left for me!


All clean!