Happy Birthday!!!

Although this is a later than April 29, 2011, I can’t believe that the triplets are already one month old. I know time goes by fast but I think it goes by faster when they’re in the hospital.

Dorothy Mae

Benjamin David

Charlie Patrick

HE IS RISEN!

He is Risen Indeed! Each year Easter gets more and more exciting because not only does William get older and get to hunt for Easter eggs, but we get to share the true meaning of Easter with him. This year we started out going to church in Chowchilla. I love that Will likes to shake hands with every person at the door and tell everyone Good morning. After church William got to open his Easter basket from Mom and Dad.

Then we traveled to Clovis for Lunch with more family and William got another Easter basket from his grandparents.

Then the hunt was on. To my surprise Adam loved hiding the eggs but I think he loved even more helping William find each one.

Lastly we stopped by the hospital to check on the babies and yes they each got their own Easter basket. The boys had SF Giants onesies and pacifiers and Dorothy’s had an Easter dress and hair bows. Easter was very busy this year but I can’t wait until next year when all the kids are home and they all are looking for eggs.

William loves to paint

Since the baby’s decided to make their arrival much earlier than expected Adam and I had not gotten anything done in their nursery. Last week we decided to start. This is just the beginning but Daddy painted the room with a little help from William. More pictures to come when the room is finished.

Co-Bedding the Boys

I can’t believe that the time has finally come but the doctor has decided to co-bed the boys. They are so cute in the isolate together. We soon found out that while they love to be right next to each other they still like to fight and like to try to hit each other and say, “hey move over, I need more space.” I guess this is the beginning of brotherly love. I can’t wait to see how they grow up together.

Dorothy update

On Saturday April 16^th all the babies were to get their picc lines out. This was supposed to a big step for them because it meant they didn’t need any more antibiotics. I would have thought that the nurse would have checked out the kids before she pulled them but apparently she didn’t. About 2 minutes after Dorothy had hers pulled Mommy found a large growth or bump right underneath Dorothy’s left cheek. This has been a scary turn of events for Dorothy who has been a rock up until this point. We know God is in control and that this is just a part of giving birth to premature babies. The doctor drained and took out the lump over the next couple of days. Even with this new bump she still is eating, sleeping, and breathing very well. Her body temperature and heart rate have been right where they need to be. We can tell she is a fighter. She was immediately put on antibiotics to help treat whatever it was. We soon found out that Dorothy had a staff infection better known as MRSA. We ask that everyone prays for her healing and that she can get right back on track where she was before.

Will gets to meet the babies

The flu season was finally lifted at the hospital and William was finally allowed to come and see his new brothers and sister for the first time. He was incredible and kept saying, “take home, take home” and “Hi baby, hi baby!” It was beautiful seeing him touch them for the first time and also a little sad as he realized we couldn’t take them home with us. He also seemed a little confused by the isolates and wanted to get inside with them. Overall it was great visit and I know he was so excited to meet them and even more excited about the fact that he is going to be a big brother.

Hi sissy, can you come out to play please?

NICU

Right after the babies were born they were taken to a stabilization room right across the hall from the operating room. There the babies were intubated and hooked up to every monitor and tube you could think of. The room is best described as being controlled chaos as people were working very quickly and loudly but with purpose and team work.

The babies stayed in the stabilization room for about an hour before they were taken upstairs to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit.) Adam was allowed to go with the doctors and nurses as they went upstairs. As the babies would arrive the nurses would ask for the names, “Baby A Daddy? Charlie! Baby B? Dorothy! Baby C? No clue.” One of the nurses taking care of the eventual Benjamin was not very happy that he didn’t have a name so she and the other nurses took a paper towel and made a makeshift chart of their favorite names. Two nights later that same nurse was at the front security door and wouldn’t let us in until we gave her a name. She was happy to hear we finally chose Benjamin David.

The nurses quickly told us that we needed to prepare for a bumpy road where two days the babies would be doing great and the next there would be some complications.

By the time I was able to see the babies the next day the babies were hooked up to a large, bulky nasal cannula called a Bubble C PAP which helped to keep the lungs open and moist. They were no longer being intubated about 2 hours after birth and were breathing the same air as the rest of us. Each baby had to get “pick lines” put in shortly after and this was easy for both Dorothy and Charlie but Benjamin struggled with this for a few days and we were very relieved when the pick line finally took. We would find that this would be a common theme for Benjamin and would have to fight a lot more than the others in many different circumstances. The pick lines basically just delivered medication and lipids into their body.

A couple days after their birth we were allowed to take Dorothy out of her isolate and hold her for about 20 -30 minutes. The following days we were able to hold them doing Kangaroo Care (skin to skin) where I would stuff them in my shirt and cleavage while Adam would have to take his shirt off and cover them in blankets. This started to make everything feel so much better.

After about a week the babies were taken off the Bubble C PAP’s one day after the other and put on high flow nasal cannulas which allowed us to see much more of their faces. That was a wonderful day and we were able to start seeing resemblances in William and them.