The Count Down

I am so excited to say the count down is on. Most people would assume that I was counting down the days till Christmas, and don't get me wrong I am excited about Christmas for we have been very blessed this year. But I am on the count down for Gary to be done exams and we has his full attention for almost a month! This for Taylor and I is a huge thing to look forward to.

Finally Brave

So this morning I finally tackled a new adventure that I have been putting off...Church with all 4 kids by my self. Gary was at the school studying today and so I figured I would just stay home with the kids and take it easy, but Taylor had other plans. She was excited that it was Sunday and she wanted to get her dress on and go to church. It wasn't as bad as I anticipated, thanks to the great sisters in our ward and an awesome friend. The biggest shinning moment was that I was only 10 minutes late. YAY

Three times the work or three times the blessings?

So latlely I have been reading blogs of other triplet moms and talking to a few and I am starting to feel a little uneasy of the up-comming years...especially when i think about them all starting to crawl and walk at the same time. So I have been thinking is it really three times the work or three times the blessings?



I have decided it is both. I love our little ones and they have brought great joy and happiness to our home, they have also brought lots of tears, doubts and frustration as well. But when I way it all out the joy and happiness they have brought greatly out weighs the not so great stuff. So my new saying is three times the work, but three times the blessings.



Just as a side note to this post...



So latley when I have gone out with the babies and Taylor I hear a lot of people say that they are so glad that it's not them, or ask what I was thinking actually agreeing to carry all 3 (when you are having triplets you have the option for selctive reduction...so not me), or many people telling what a horrible life I must have. Then on the other hand I have people tell me that it is a great blessing to have 3 healthy babies, and a toddler to bring so much love to our home, or tell me how special it is to have triplets. So as I have pondered these things that have been said to me I have made a couple conclusions

1. All the negitive comments I have gotten have come from us through and through Canadians

2. All the positive comments have come from people whos families are immagrents to canada.



Why is it that a majority of Canadians see having multiple babies at a time as the most horrible thing to ever happen to a person, while other cultures see it as a great blessing and a privlage. Has the world really turned that many people into negtive doom sayers....that can't see the blessings for what it is...A BLESSING not a TRAGEDY???



Just something to ponder.

A Quick Update

So it has been a long time since I lasted posted, then I started to wonder where September and October had gone. It seems like we finally got into the swing of fall and winter is now quickly comming.

Our not so little family has been keeping us very busy. Taylor is playing soccer and in a dance class. The babies are getting bigger all the time and are becoming way more interactive...which Taylor is loving.

Seeing as I haven't posted pictures for awhile I'll post some pictures and try and be more faithful in blogging about our "cRaZy" life that we have...but love.

In the next couple days I will get the pictures from Taylors Birthday, the Baby Blessings and Halloween posted...so stay tuned

Pictures

So we had some Pictures of the babies and Taylor done a couple of weekends ago. And of the ones i have seen I am in love and still think that Devon is the greatest!!! The babies are still growing like weeds and Taylor loves them more everyday. She is such a big helper, and is able to get little smirks out of the three of them. This week looks like it should be more laid back then the past few...which is nice, I have a lot i need to get done and organized before the cold weather sets in and we do most of our playing inside. So this is kind of a random post and hopefully next time I will be able to come up with something more intelligent to say...but really this is the best it gets when lack of sleep is involved

Wow it has been a while!

Seeing as it has been a while since I last posted I am not going to worry about putting pictures up today. Because I seriously still have a hard time getting it to work always.

We have loved having all the babies home and they are all doing great. We have even ventured on our first southern Alberta trip with them. It was a lot of work but well worth it.

They are all starting to act more like new borns then premies. With more consistant awake times and asleep times. They are traking with there eyes to peoples voices and are starting to be more interactive all the time.

I must admit that it is a lot of work all day and all night and I am very greatful that Gary is such a wonderful husband and helps a lot.

Little miss Taylor...all the excitement has finally caught up to her

Needless to say this summer has been a very eventful one and poor Taylor has just been on the go the whole time and has seemed to forgotten that she had a good schedule. That and sad as it is to me she is out growing naps. But finally this week everything has started to catch up to her and she has been very exhausted. That and she has been fighting a cold and sore throat and has not been her self. Any ways these are a couple of the funny pictures we have gotten of her this week. And the one where she is wearing her hat...I swear she was home with her dad all day and that was not of my doing. LOL.








Since most of the posts have been based around the babies I thought that I would do a quick top 10 list of Taylorisms.
1. clocklet milk (chocolate milk) must be asked for at least 10 times before 8am
2. gritting your teeth...making muscles and grring makes mom and dad laugh a lot...even though mom pretends to hate it
3.When in doubt dance...this girl will dance to anything
4. Wearing your flips on the wrong feet will result in falling...though you keep doing it
5.Playing with friends is a muchly loved activity
6. Tramping is really jumping on the tramp.(seriously she cracks me up)
7. Every bird is an owl.
8. Coloring book pages make great maps.
9. Tutus can be worn with everything
10. Cowboy boots look great with PJs.

Taylor is a very funny girl and will be a great big sister

Nurse Alexis is the best!!!!

So having been NICU parents for almost 6 weeks now we are finding that we and our babies prefer some nurses over others. Nurse Alexis has become by far my favorite nurse for our little trio. She is always so patient and kind, goes the extra mile for us and is a very easy person to be around, which in our case is very good. Nurses are assigned 3 babies per shift so usually they are working with three different babies/families and in 3 different curtain areas, seeing as we have 3 in our troop the nurse that has them only has them which means we get to spend a lot of time with our nurses. We greatly appreciate all the care we have received by the nurses, but some do stand out more then others. Alexis being one of them...she knows our babies personalities, there likes and dislikes and seems to be able to get them to progress in ways that marvel us. Also Taylor likes her...which for those of you who know her, she likes to play shy and give people the one over, so for her to like Alexis so much is great cause it makes our trips to the NICU so much easier. She still plays shy with her, but she trusts her so that is what matters.
The babies are all getting big and today Alexis had me hold all 3 at one time, wow what a great/overwhelming moment. It was so nice to hold all three at one time and get a good look at them so close together. Poor Luke looks absolutely huge next to his sisters. But the girls are quickly catching up. They are all doing well and are bottling most of their feeds.
As for Taylor she is very happy to be back at home with us and all her stuff...she had a busy week last week, going to the zoo and Heritage Park catching up on some greatly missed play time with her friends. This week will be a fun week too cause Aunt Myrna is coming to stay with us for a couple of days. I will admit that I am very excited to have her come stay with us.

There was 3 in the bed and the little on said...

We finally got a picture of the 3 of them all together. I love the nurses at the NICU...they are truly there for the families of the babies. I had brought in the girls headbands and tutus thinking that at least i could get cute pictures of them all on there own. I had left the camera in the van, so i ran out to get it and when i got back there where 8-10 nurses and 2 drs around one of the beds, so i panicked thinking that something had happened, but the nurses had just found the stuff i had brought in and thought that it would be fun if they got them all dressed up and put them all together for me to see when i got back. It was an awesome moment cause it was the first time that i had seen all 3 together at the same time.
Now that i am done telling about our first photo shoot of the 3 together i will quickly update how they are all doing. Luke has been growing fast and is now weighing in at over 4 lbs. the girls are both about 3.5 lbs. They have all gone 5 or more days with now A's and B's (basically no alarms going off...easiest way to explain it.) They are all taking the bottle part of the time and sometimes doing a whole feed with just the bottle.
Little tid bits of information we have found out this week...
1) when they moved the babies from the Foot Hills they all came in one islet
2) if you really like a nurse you can request that she is your nurse when she comes back after her days off
3) Your babies can change a lot in 3 days of not seeing them
4) That sometimes it is hard to find the balance between the 3 at the hospital and Taylor and sometimes you feel that no matter how hard you try that some one is lacking somewhere with the attention that they need
5) And that even when you feel that you are lacking telling each other that you love them and telling our kids that we love them...makes us realize that we aren't really lacking after all

Hello Bottles

Today was another one of those days that what seems like a little thing was a really big and exciting thing for us. Our nurse Alexis (who we love and adore), decided that they were all doing really well with there soothers and decided to try giving them part of their feeds through a bottle. They all did really well, especially our Little Livie. Livie did one whole feed with her bottle. All the nurses where so excited and she gets a certificate to go above her bed marking her accomplishment.

Just a side note to how much the nurses put into the care of our babies. All the babies had signs marking there first Calgary Stampede, made by one of the nurses on all of the beds in there today. I love all the little touches that the nurses do.

A Little Gary

So a conclusion has been made...Luke is a little Gary. I have decided there is no mom in him and he is all his dad. The past two weeks when ever I look at him all I can see is Gary. Even others who look at his say you can tell who is dad is. It amazes me that so many things that we think are learned behaviors that our kids end up doing are actually traits that they are born with. There are so many actions that Luke does already that are so much like his dad. It has been great to watch Gary bond with all of his kids...but I will admit that every time I see him hold Luke my heart skips a beat. Gary is such an awesome dad and husband and I couldn't have asked for better.

Good Bye Foot Hills---------Hello Rocky View

So after 24 days our time at the Foot Hills NICU has come to an end, we miss our fabulous nurses we had there and the friends we met, but graduating to the Rocky View means one step closer to home. Don't get me wrong when they called and said they were transferring the babies I was a little disappointed that it wasn't to the PLC. Who am I kidding I was hugely disappointed. It only took 5 minutes of being at the Rocky View NICU and I was in love with the surroundings...its nice to have big windows, the nurses, and the fact that we can be way more hands on with our little ones now. In the past 3 days Gary and I have logged way more cuddle time with them then we did the whole first 24 days of their lives, and it has been great!

So quick update on the three. Sophie is such a happy little girl who loves her cuddles. She weighs 3 pounds now and is eating every 3 hours.



Livie is quickly catching up, her last IV is out and she has increased her feeds and is eating every 2 hours, she loves cuddles but get over stimulated easily (she didn't get any holding or cuddling for 10 days after she was sick so it has been hard on her getting use to being held again-no worries though they say it won't last long). Her weight is up to 2lbs 15oz. Really good for a little one that at one point weighed less then 2 lbs.


Luke is growing big so fast he already weighs 3 lbs 8 oz, and is super long. He gets upset when his sisters are being held and not him, and when you are done holding him he needs to be placed on his stomach so that he doesn't get as up set that he isn't being held any more.

Seeing as something happened when i was uploading pictures I will add the ones of Luke and Gary with Luke in my next post.

The top picture is of Sophie, the middle one of Livie and the last one is of me being able to give kisses to Sophie for the first time with nothing on her face. (they were changing her g-tube)

What 18 hours can do...

When thinking over what can happen in an 18 hour time period, most people would say not much ever exciting happens on a daily basis in that time period. I use to be one of those people. The last 3 weeks has taught me differently though. We have learned that in that time period your family can go from 3 to 6 just that quickly, that a baby who was content and well when you left the NICU the night before can get sick and set her back a week in progression, babies can go from being on si-pap (sorry I know the spelling is off on that one) skip over c-pap and go on to nasal prongs and do great when 18 hours prior they couldn't.
Well 18 hours brought many changes to our three little ones today...the major one being that we finally have all 3 babies next to each other...technically we have 2 in one bed spot and 1 in another, but with only a desk and not a whole unit dividing them it is great. Luke no longer has his nasal prongs, Sophie is being bumped to 3 hour feeds and Livie should be getting her IV out by Sunday at the latest. Its hard to imagine a visit without nasal prongs or IVs on any of the babies. Holding them has just become a 100% easier.

The Little Things that Matter

While talking to another mom at the NICU, we were discussing how the littlest things that most parents take for granted, change once you have a child in the NICU, then those littlest things become big things. Such examples are touching them and holding them for the first time. the first time we got to hold the syringe while the babies ate through their g-tube, getting to dress them in sleepers for the first time and actually being the person who dressed them, even changing their diapers becomes a big thing. Every milestone they reach and surpass with flying colors gives us even more reason to be excited and relieved at the same time.
There has been many little things that have become big things this week, Sophie decided to pull her nose prongs off herself and they decided that if she was doing that then she no longer needed them, Livie got moved into the A-pod and they are hoping that in a few days she will be eating enough to take her IVs out, and Luke has been moved from 2 hour feedings to 3 hour feedings. A major little thing that was huge to us, was being able to hold Luke and Sophie together tonight. It was one of the best feelings ever, especially when they started to wiggle around and get in there comfortable spots with one another. We were lucky enough to have them together for about an hour. It was a little sad that one of them was missing, but we are hoping that it won't be to much longer till we can hold all 3 together.
Another thing that I have realized this week, is that as much as I hate having toys underfoot all day, and watching Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses, Franklin and Little Bear, and listening to elmo's song EVERY time we get into the van....that I miss Taylor so much when she is gone and wouldn't trade being a mom for anything.

All 3 in A-Pod

So it has been a couple of days since our last post. Taylor left Sunday for Magrath for 2 weeks and I am missing her a lot. Monday I went into Calgary and spent the day with the babies and Gary came in later, while we were there they moved Livie into A-pod. We are very excited to have all 3 in the same area. They are all doing great and we were able to hold all 3 of them, very exciting cause it had been 10 days since we last held Livie.

They are all gaining weight and not having as many a's and b's anymore. We are now crossing our fingers that something will open up at the PLC so we can get transfered there.

Family Night at the NICU

Tonight we went to the NICU with Taylor. She hasn't been very many times, but she does pretty good for the most part when we are there. She was very excited that she got to sit on my lap while i held Luke. All she kept asking for was to hold his hand.
Today was a big day for all the babies. Livie (top Picture) no longer has her nose prongs. Yay...we finally are getting to see more of her face. Luke and Sophie have been doing so good on there feeds that both of there IVs came out today. It was so nice to hold them and they not be attached to as many things any more. The Drs. are hoping they are off there nose prongs to in the next week.

Gary got his first cuddles with Sophie tonight and she is looking like such a big girl now that the nurses are putting sleepers on her. So tommorow i will be washing premie clothes so that they are wearing there own clothes.

Grandpa's Vist With Sophie

Last night after moving the new Play Center into our backyard. Grandpa Morton and I went into the NICU to see the babies. The nurse told us it wasn't to long till she needed to feed Sophie and at the same time her isolet needed changed so if we wanted to stay we could hold her while she did all the things that she needed to.

That being said Grandpa got his first cuddles with Sophie. So far other then Gary and I he is the only one to have gotten cuddle time with any of the babies.

Today Sophie will move onto what they call full feeds of a whopping 13ml of formula every 2 hours, she well get that until she is almost 34 weeks and we start introducing her to the bottle then her feeds will start to go up again. Tomorrow Luke will be up to his full feeds as well. Livie is getting better everyday and we are hoping that in the next couple of days the drs. will have more of an idea what they are going to do with her, so that they can start increasing her feeds and start getting her ready to move to the A pod. It will be nice to have then all in the same area.

Big Step in the Right Direction

There are many moments that as a mom I can say have been great mommy moments. I had another one of those moments today.

I called the NICU to check on our little ones and found out that Sophie and Luke have been moved to the same curtain spot!!!! If that wasn't exciting enough, the nurse then told me that Sophie no longer needed her Protein and Lipids that they have been giving her by IV cause she is gaining and maintaining her weight very well, so that means if she continues that way she will have her IVs all removed in a couple of days and only have her nose prongs and feeding tube. They also said that tomorrow they are going to try and take Luke off his protein and lipid IV and if he does well he too will have his IVs removed. I am so excited at the prospect of being able to see and hold them with out so much attached to them all the time.

Livie is recovering still from her infection, but is doing very well, she is growing fast and has had no bratys today, which means that when her infection is all cleared up she should be moving to the A pod, and after being there she is closer to being in the same curtain area with the other two.

Taylor has been having a lot of fun being home, and can't seem to get enough of playing outside and with her friends. I am going to miss her tons when she is gone for 2 weeks, but at least when she gets home I should be doing almost everything that I want to do again.

I probably should have added pictures

Taylor - taken April 2008

Sophie-Taken June 15th

Luke- Taken June 15th

Livie-taken June 16th

So today the babies are two weeks old, and we are in need of some newer pictures of the 3 of them, especially cause all three are now and nose prongs and you can get a better idea of what their little faces look like.

New Begginings

Who says blog spots are easy??? I have a hard time deciding what to write and how to get started. So bear with me as a muddle through getting this whole blogging thing down. I will admit that one of the main reasons I am starting this blog is that we get many questions daily on how the triplets are doing, and I find myself sending the same message over and over again. At least here I can post pictures and information and keep our families and friends updated. Especially seeing as my time is limited and I generally forget to send pictures to those who ask ect.

So quick update. The babies are all doing great. For those of you who don't know they where born on June 11, 2008. Livie Myrna weighed 2lbs 6oz, Luke Myron weighed 2lbs 7oz and Sophie Lynne weighed 2lbs 7oz.

Taylor is so in love with them and this week she was able to hold their hands when we went to see them with her. The babies are all doing wonderful and are starting to fill out there features. Livie had a rough spell for a couple of days, but is bouncing back fast. Sophie and Luke have been moved to A pod, which is a great step, cause it means we are getting closer to being transfered to the PLC. Which would be great cause it isn't as long of a drive in everyday.

Taylor just got back from a week in Magrath where she had a ton of fun. We missed her tons and are glad to have her back.