2 months old!!

Our babies celebrated their two month birthdays as well as their first Halloween on October 31st. I'm sure they all would have rather stayed home then go to the doctor to get their two month shots, but they handled it great and the doctor is super happy with their progress. Little Michael is now our biggest baby. He weighs 9 pounds and 7 ounces. Matthew is just right behind him at 9 pounds 6 ounces. They are going to be in the double digits in no time. Maybree is a bit behind her brothers, but she is holding her own at 8 pounds 4 ounces. We are looking forward to celebrating their first Thanksgiving this month. I have already bought them their Thanksgiving outfits, so I will be sure to post those when it comes time, but for this post I have included their 2 month old pictures. They weren't super cooperative and Little Michael was really sleepy, but we managed to get some photos. I hope you all enjoy and if I don't get a chance to update the blog before Thanksgiving, I hope everyone has a great one. I know we will since we have 3 little bundles of joy to be thankful for this year!!

Matthew

 

Michael

Maybree

We have officially reached our due date!!

We have finally reached October 25th and the day that our babies were supposed to be due. It's hard to believe that they will be 8 weeks tomorrow, but yet they were just due today. They are all doing great and getting really big. Michael went to the cardiologist on Monday and he was 8 pounds 5 ounces. Matthew was 8 pounds 1 ounce on his last weight check on the 17th and the princess was 7 pounds 2.5 ounces on the 15th. All three of them go to the doctor for their 2 month well visit on the 31st and I can't wait to see what they will weigh. This will be our first time taking all 3 anywhere (other than for a walk), so it should be quite adventurous. It will also be Halloween, so they will definitely be dressed up for their appointment.
Today is not only our due date, but it's also only 2 months until Christmas. I know most of you didn't want to be reminded of that, unless you are like my husband who loves Christmas. This year has flown by and we are excited to celebrate the first Thanksgiving and the first Christmas with our little bundles of joy! I know they won't remember it, but it is still exciting and I have already picked out a super cute Christmas outfit for little Maybree. It even has a tutu. Dressing babies is so much fun!
That's really about all that I have as far as updates go. Our life is pretty much a continuous loop. Feed babies, change diapers, sleep a little, and repeat, but we are enjoying every minute of it. I have included a few new pictures of the babies. My Aunt Bea and Uncle Rick were visiting from Ohio and got some really good shots of them! I hope you all enjoy.

And then there were five.....

   Sorry it has taken me so long to give everyone an update. There just doesn't seem to ever be enough time in the day to sit and write a blog. There is always laundry to do or bottles to sterilize or babies to feed. But the good news is that all three babies are now home! Yay! No more daily trips to West Palm. Maybree came home September 22nd, Matthew came home September 30th, and Michael came home October 4th. They all had a fairly uneventful stay in the NICU, however Matthew and Michael will both need to see a cardiologist for a while.
  
 It is crazy how much they have all grown. Michael had a check up this past Monday and he weighed 6 pounds and 14 ounces. Matthew had a check up on Wednesday and weighed 6 pounds and 14.5 ounces. Meanwhile, Maybree is holding her own and weighed 5 pounds 14 ounces on October 1st. She goes back to the doctor next Wednesday and I am curious to see what she weighs now. It is so hard to fathom that each one is so big and healthy, yet technically they are still supposed to be in my belly. We are still a little over 2 weeks away from our original due date. It's very hard to believe.

   Our life has certainly changed drastically over the past 7 months. After finding out in March that we were having triplets, we have since moved out of our 700 square foot rental house and into our very own home. We have also traded in our vehicles for a mini van. I never in a million years thought that I would be driving a mini van, but I am going to totally rock that mini van and I'm pretty sure that I'll be the coolest mom ever! I've had several people ask me how it is to have triplets at home. I'm pretty sure that most people think I'm crazy when I tell them that it actually is not bad at all. I mean, don't get me wrong, I would love to sleep more than a 3 hour stretch of time at night, but I am usually tickled to death and consider myself very lucky to get more than an hour of sleep at a time. We have definitely been blessed with good babies, but it also helps that I am a stickler when it comes to keeping them on a schedule and I think that has been the key to keeping my sanity.

   I want to thank everyone again for being so supportive of Michael and me and our three little wonderful miracles. I'll try to update the blog more often as well as post more pictures on facebook.

Happy 10 days old!!!

Hi everyone! I know I haven't posted any updates or pictures lately, so I thought I would today. The babies are all doing well. They are still in the NICU, but have been downgraded from level 3 to level 2. All of them have been maintaining their body temperature on their own. Matthew was actually moved from a closed bed to an open crib today, so he has a little extra challenge of trying to keep his temperature up. Hopefully his little body adjusts so he can remain in the open crib. Maybree is a little jaundice again and is back under her lights and Michael's levels have gone up a little and may have to go back under the lights, but so far so good. They are all eating a ton now. Michael and Matthew are eating 36 ccs per feeding and Maybree is up to 29 ccs. The boys were both able to have their IV's taken out and Maybree will hopefully have hers out any day now. This is a huge relief because they were having to have new IV's inserted on every shift. Poor babies! Almost everyone is back up to their birth weights as they had all lost weight after they were born. Maybree is back up to 4 pounds 1 ounce. Matthew is 1 ounce shy of his birth weight at 4 pounds 7 ounces and Michael gets the gold sticker for weight gain since he has gained 3 ounces more than his birth weight and now weighs 4 pounds and 7 ounces as well. Yesterday was our first attempt at giving any of them a bottle. Maybree was the lucky chosen one, but she had absolutely no idea what to do and ended up spitting out more than she actually drank, so we will continue to work on that. They all love sucking on their pacifiers, so I don't think it will take them too long to figure it out. It is just very hard for a preemie to learn how to suck, swallow, and breathe at the same time. We will definitely get there though. I think that is about all the updates. They are doing very well for their age. The nurses absolutely love them and all fight over who will get to have them each shift. Lately the charge nurse has trumped everyone and she has them at night when we go to visit. We will be so very excited when they finally get to come home. Our new house is over flowing with baby stuff and we will hopefully be able to move in by the weekend, so we can get everything ready for them to come home. Thank you again for all the prayers and kind words. The NICU is not a fun place. It can be very scary and overwhelming, but our babies are tough and will hopefully be home in no time!!

Maybree Lynn

 Michael Philip Jr.

 Matthew James

Happy 32 weeks!!!

Well we officially made it to our biggest milestone! 32 weeks! I'm pretty sure that no one thought we would make it this far, but we did. By 32 weeks, the babies are now fully developed. They just have some more growing to do, but my belly isn't going to be able to accommodate that for much longer. Trying to get in and out of bed is quite the chore. My belly is huge! Dr. Stoessel has officially taken me off of the magnesium around 10:15am. For those of you who don't know, the magnesium is given intravenously to keep contractions away. I still have contractions non-stop regardless, but I don't feel any of them so they haven't been a worry. Most people are only on magnesium for 24-48 hours, but it has been almost 9 weeks for me! If my body cooperates once the magnesium is out of my system, Dr. S may let me go home! Yay! Please pray that everything works out. I'm so ready to go home. Also, if I get to go home, I will now be able to have the babies at Tradition. This would be so much closer and convenient for us while the babies are in the NICU for a while.
So, that's about all of my news for today. Michael and I have moved our date night from last night to tonight just so he can be here if something does happen and we have to deliver the babies. It's pretty much just a waiting game at this point. I will be sure to keep everyone updated. Thanks again for all your prayers and kind words! We are finally in the home stretch! Thank goodness!

Happy 31 weeks plus 2 days!!!

Well, I am still pregnant! Today's ultrasound showed an unbelievable amount of growth which leads us to believe that the last ultrasound was incorrect. As of today, Baby A ( the princess) weighs 3 pounds and 10 ounces. That's a 10 ounce gain. Baby B is still the chunky one at 4 pounds and 3 ounces. That is an 11 ounce gain. Baby C which supposedly didn't grow at our last ultrasound is now up to 4 pounds which is a 15 ounce gain. This means that I now have 11 pounds and 13 ounces of baby inside of me and let me tell you, I feel like I am carrying that much. This is not to mention the 8-10 extra pounds that make up all the amniotic fluid and the 3 separate placentas! Whew! There is sure a lot going on in there.
After Dr. Stoessel discussed the weights and went over the report with me, he then decided to shock the heck out of me! I still can't wrap my head around it. As some of you know, I have been on magnesium sulfate for 8 weeks now in order to control my contractions. Typically, magnesium is only used for 24-48 hours but my body has tolerated it well and I have been through 123 bags of it thus far. Since I am quickly approaching 32 weeks, Dr.S said we would talk about going off of the magnesium on Friday or Saturday and see how my body handles it and if everything is okay he said I could go home!!!! At 32 weeks, I am able to deliver at our new hospital, Tradition Medical Center. For those of you who don't know, that's only 25-30 minutes from our house compared to over an hour at the hospital that I'm currently at. This would be such a blessing to be closer to home and I know Dr. S would have never mentioned it if he had any doubts. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I'm thankful to have something to look forward to this week. Being able to look forward to things and counting down the days until my next ultrasound or my next test are the biggest things that have gotten me through the last 8 weeks. I know the end is finally in sight and we will soon be holding 3 babies and living in our new house which will be done very soon!! Lots of exciting things going on and I just wanted to keep everyone updated. Please continue to pray for us and pray that my body will cooperate after I am taken off of the magnesium. Nothing would make me happier than to be able to spend the remainder of my pregnancy at home with my husband and my family and of course my very cute and cuddly cat!!

Happy 31 weeks!!!

I really don't have many updates, but we have officially made it to 31 weeks!!! I totally had a meltdown in front of my doctor this week when he told me that he would let me go as far as 35 weeks before he took the babies and he wouldn't let me do home bed rest either!! Just the thought of being in the hospital for 4 more weeks mixed with hormones of a woman pregnant with triplets was enough to make me cry and to make him feel bad. This got me two perks though. I now get to eat off of the hospital VIP dinner menu. I'm not sure what normally qualifies someone as a VIP, but I'm happy to say that I am officially a dinner VIP and the food is way better than the regular food. Thank goodness. My second perk was that I got to ride in a wheel chair to get an ultrasound. This is pretty huge because when I say that I am on hospital bed rest this means that I haven't left my hospital room in 8 weeks. Needless to say, somehow I was forgotten about and ended up sitting in the hallway for 30 minutes after my ultrasound and for someone who is not used to sitting up for so long, I was completely exhausted the rest of the day. No more wheelchair rides for me.
In other news, we have ultrasounds every other day to check fluid levels and blood flow. All of the results have been great. We have our next growth ultrasound on Monday. Dr. Stoessel says that if Baby C hasn't grown again then it is possible that we may have to deliver them on Monday. If this is the case, I will be sure to update everyone as soon as I know. It is crazy to think that we can possibly be meeting our babies in 2 short days. I would like to thank everyone again for your thoughts and prayers. This has been a very long journey and definitely not what I thought my pregnancy would be like but it will be worth it when we lay eyes on our babies! It's still crazy to think that we are having triplets. Life will never be dull or boring again!!!