Saturday, January 25, 2014

30 weeks

Our 30-week preemies turned 30 weeks old on Thursday!  At their well-baby visit a week ago, they were all officially cleared to come off the heart and apnea monitors.  Thank goodness!  They also no longer need the iron supplement that they started taking when they were in the hospital.  The pediatrician charted them using both their real age, which is based on their birthday, and their adjusted age, which is based on their due date, and she was happy with their growth.

Colin weighs over 17 lbs and is actually on the growth curve for full-term 6-month-olds!  He's been doing physical therapy to address his torticollis.  His neck muscles seem to be loosening up.  He's doing well with tummy time and can sit on his own for a few seconds before toppling over.  Colin is happiest when he's full (like father, like son!), and he has the best belly-laughs! 



Cash is about 14.5 lbs and is just under the growth curve for full-term 6-month-olds.  He is working with an occupational therapist to address his extensor pattern (he stiffens up like a board) and we have already seen great improvement!  He has started showing more interest in tummy time -- until recently, he would lay his head down and go to sleep when we would try tummy time with him.  Cash loves to snuggle and we love that he smiles with his whole face!



Grace is about 14.5 lbs and is just under the growth curve for full-term six-month-olds.  She and Cash are now about the same weight, but she has petite features so she looks smaller than Cash.  Grace has been working with both a physical therapist and an occupational therapist to address various physical issues that are mostly the result of her severe reflux.  Her physical development was a bit more delayed than the boys, but a few weeks ago, she took off!  Now she's rolling all over the place and tucking her knees to scootch herself around on her belly.  She has recently decided that she does not like to be on the schedule that the boys are on, so we're trying to stay ahead of her melt-downs and find a better schedule for her.  Grace's smile melts our hearts and she has securely wrapped her daddy around her little finger!

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Holiday recap

It's been awhile, so bear with me, this post is going to be long!

Just before Thanksgiving, the babies got to meet my Uncle Virgil when he visited from Tucson.  He was brave enough to hold two babies at a time!

Cash and Grace with their Great Uncle Virgil

When we got married, Jon and I started alternating the holidays with our families.  The year we spend Thanksgiving in Connecticut with Jon's family, we spend Christmas in Richmond with my family.  With the triplets' arrival, travel seems just about impossible!

We are so thankful that most of Jon's family was able come to Richmond to spend Thanksgiving with us this year (we missed you, Brendan!).  Jon's Uncle Bull, Auntie Barb, and cousin Ryan got to meet the babies for the first time.  Auntie Sue was back for her second visit since the babies were born, but the first time she was here, Cash was still in the hospital.  The babies enjoyed being held for three days straight!


Cash, Grace, and Colin wearing their "My first turkey day" bibs that our friend Deborah made

After Thanksgiving, I started trying to figure out how we could take the babies to see Santa.  It seemed like a daunting task...If Santa was on the second floor of the mall, would our tractor-trailer of a stroller fit in the elevator?  Would it fit in the line to see Santa?  Would the babies, who are very rarely in their car seats, tolerate waiting in line while sitting in their carseats?  Would Santa even be able to hold three babies?  And what about the babies' heart monitors?  It was exhausting even thinking about it, but it was the babies'  first Christmas, so we were going to do it one way or another!

The Monday before we had planned to attempt a visit with Santa, our home healthcare nurse, Kim, asked if we'd be interested in having Santa come to our house.  Ummm, YES, PLEASE!  Kim and her husband dress up as Mrs. Claus and Santa each year and visit her patients.  Their daughters even came to help take pictures!  

The babies enjoyed their first visit with Santa!  No tears this year!

Santa CAN hold all three babies! (Colin, Grace, and Cash)

The triplets with Santa and Mrs. Claus

The Clauses brought a stuffed toy for each baby

Colin and Cash with Santa

Sweet Cash



The triplets with the wonderful Steuber family


My family's Christmas Eve tradition is to have dinner with the family that lived across the street from us when I was growing up.  I can't really say I "hosted" dinner this year because I didn't prepare any of the food, but we all got together at my house.  We had a great time catching up with each other!

The Pickens, Williams, and Stems

Mr. Stem with Grace, Chris with Cash, and Andrew with Colin
Grace found herself a comfy spot...

and fell fast asleep!


On Christmas Day, after the 8:00 a.m. feeding round (Colin eats at 8:00, Cash at 8:30, and Grace at 9:00), the babies opened their stockings and Christmas presents from Santa.  My mom made stockings that our friend Deborah monogrammed for the babies.  I love them!

Jon and I have stockings made by his Gram.  The babies have stockings made by their Gramma.  Beau has a stocking made by Target!

We only put up a table-top tree this year.  We're kind of overrun with baby gear right now and we've never had a full-sized tree since our dog, Beau, joined our family.  I figured this was not the year to try to teach him to stay away from the tree.  We might as well teach both the babies and the dog not to touch the ornaments next year.  I got each baby his/her own first Christmas ornament and Jon held each baby by the tree as I hung the ornament.  I think Colin was the only baby who recognized the Christmas tree as being something unusual in the room!

Santa doesn't wrap his presents....or take them off the hanger, apparently

Colin, Cash, and Grace


Christmas afternoon, we packed the babies' duffle bag (two rounds of bottles and burp cloths and diapers for three do not fit in your standard diaper bag!) and headed to my parents' house 15 minutes away.  This was the babies' first trip to Gramma and Pop's house!  Again, I think Colin was the only one who realized he wasn't at home.  The babies did well all afternoon.  Of course, when they weren't sleeping, they were snuggling with Gramma, Pop, Uncle Andrew, or Aunt Emily!  

Christmas wasn't over then -- Jon's parents came down from Connecticut a few days later and we celebrated all over again!

The babies and their haul

Colin, Cash, and Grace (wearing "shoes" for the very first time!)

Cash with Uncle Andrew and Aunt Emily

Grace, Cash, and Colin with Gramma and Pop

Last Christmas, I had a hunch that I was pregnant.  My doctor called with the good news the day after Christmas.  He said my beta count was so high that "some might think" I was carrying multiples -- a comment he promptly followed with "but let's not go there right now".  I never dreamed that a year later our family would look like this...





We enjoyed the holidays this year more than we have in a long time!  Happy New Year!







Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

I think the triplets had a successful first Halloween - everyone wore their costume, we walked around the neighborhood and the monitors only went off twice, and we even got a few pictures!

Our friend Deborah made a special delivery first thing this morning so that the triplets could wear their personalized Halloween bibs all day!

Grace, Colin, and Cash

Once our little pumpkins were ready, we headed out to visit a few neighbors.

Colin, Grace, and Cash

We found out during our NICU stay that one of our favorite NICU nurses lives in our neighborhood.  We haven't seen her since Cash left the NICU, so we thought we'd stop by.  Plus, we wanted to thank her for the pumpkin hat she made Cash.  

Cash in his pumpkin hat

We almost made it home before their patience with their costumes ran out!  We are still waiting for our triplet stroller to arrive, so when we venture out, two babies ride in the double stroller we have and one baby gets carried.  Here's the crew after our Halloween walk around the neighborhood:

Cash always gets carried on walks because he's the lightest!

Cash and Colin

Cash, Colin, and Grace




Sunday, October 27, 2013

Monitors and wedges

You may remember me mentioning here that the babies have reflux.  The NICU/PCN doctors were hesitant to discharge any of the babies because they continued to have bradycardia and apnea associated with the reflux.  The nurses knew that the babies were ready to come home, despite the bradyies and apnea - they were confident that our babies would, like most babies, thrive when they got home.  We had one particular nurse who decided to make it her mission to convince the doctors to discharge our babies!  She is a night shift nurse, so she isn't usually present  when the doctors do their rounds each day. She recruited a day shift nurse who she thought would be successful in encouraging the doctor to consider sending our babies home with heart and apnea monitors.  The nurse assured the doctor that Jon and I knew what to do should a baby have a brady or apnea event -- we'd been responding to brady and apnea alarms since they were just a few weeks old.  Finally, the doctor agreed -- the babies could go home, but they all needed monitors and they needed to sleep on wedges with Tucker slings.  We were happy to do whatever, if it meant that we could finally welcome our triplets home!

The monitors are set to alarm whenever the baby's heart rate drops below or rises above certain levels.  The monitor also alarms if the baby doesn't take a breath for 20 seconds.  It has lights that blink with each heart beat and breath that it detects.

Colin and his monitor

Each monitor has two leads that stick to the baby's chest.  

Front of the lead
Sticky side of the lead
   
Colin, my handsome model, wearing both of his leads

The monitors also alarm when there is a loose connection - this is the alarm that we hear ALL. OF. THE. TIME.  If the sticky part of the lead gets wrinkled, the alarm goes off.  If we catch the cord on a piece of furniture, the cord tugs on the lead and the alarm goes off.  Sometimes, it seems that if you look at the monitor wrong, the alarm goes off.  The alarms are intended, in part, to startle the baby.  I think our babies have heard the loose connection alert so many times that they sleep through the alarms now!

We recently got foamy, fabric bands to put around the babies to cover the leads.  The band has helped reduce the number of loose connection alarms because it keeps the lead from moving, even when the babies wiggle around.

Colin wearing his band and showing us his umbilical hernia (it will go away as he grows)

The monitors record any brady or apnea event that occurs.  From time to time, our pediatrician orders a download of the monitor's data.  After the first download, we learned that many of the apnea alarms we'd experienced were actually false alarms.  The babies often take very shallow breaths that don't move their chests enough for the monitor to detect that a breath has occurred.  Our pediatrician wants to see a few "clear" downloads before she allows us to take the babies off the monitors.  We expect it will be a few months before all of the babies are monitor-free.

Lots of babies and cords!  (Colin, Cash, and Grace)

The wedges that the babies sleep on elevate their heads 45 degrees above the plane of the crib's mattress.  Since the incline is so steep, they sleep in a sling that attaches to the wedge.  The babies all deal with reflux better when they sleep on their bellies, so the doctor ordered belly sleep in addition to the wedges and slings.  I know this picture of Grace asleep on her belly in her crib with blankets and cords near her is very different from what we've all learned to do to prevent SIDS,  but the babies' monitors would alert us within seconds of a breathing or heart rate issue. 


Grace always tucks her hands under her chin after she falls asleep.   So sweet!

Colin

Cash

At the triplets' 4-month check-up, our pediatrician suggested we try taking the boys off the wedges.  I think they were a little surprised to be put on their backs at bedtime.  After two nights off the wedges, and an increase in brady alarms, we're not convinced that they're ready.  Maybe they'll take the wedges to college with them!



Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Surgery Day

Cash is having surgery to repair a hernia today.  Hernia surgery is relatively easy and he had the same surgery a month ago.  However, we learned from the previous surgery that poor Cash doesn't tolerate intubation and anesthesia very well.  He was admitted to the hospital yesterday to get him all pumped up and in the strongest condition possible in hopes that we can avoid the complications he had last time.  The good news is that he's older, bigger (sneaking up on 9 lbs!), and stronger this time around!  

Update at 7:30 pm...Cash's hernia was successfully repaired this morning and he just gulped down his first post-op bottle!


Saturday, September 14, 2013

Full Bellies


Full bellies mean our kitchen sink always looks like this...

This is the aftermath of one night's feedings


Check out the triplets' weekly pictures to see how all of those bottles are helping the babies grow!


Sunday, September 8, 2013

There's no place like home

After 64 days in the hospital, Colin and Grace came home on Friday, August 30th!




The day before Colin and Grace were discharged, Cash had surgery to repair his hernia and then needed a few extra days before he was ready to be extubated.  He took a bit longer to be discharged than we expected he would, but by Saturday, September 7th, he was home after 72 days in the hospital!




The first Williams Family photo!
(9/7/13)

Thank you for all of your support, encouragement, well-wishes, and prayers for our family.  We are overjoyed to have all of our little loves home!