1 Month!

Can't believe they are already a month old! They are growing so fast, all are over 6 pounds. Lot's of squishy goodness to go around now. Caleb is a little worried about losing his preemie figure but I told him not to worry and just eat up.

You may be wondering if we can tell the boys apart, actually quite easily. We can't tell instantly but a couple of glances and we know. Here is how:

Caleb: very round head and lot's of stylish hair

Eli: narrow face as a result of his football shaped head, less hair than Caleb, and he has two cowlicks (hair swirlies) while his brothers only have one

Thomas: narrow face as a result of his football shaped head, less hair than Caleb, and has a birthmark on the top of his head (see last post for picture).

The boys really are adjusting well to life out side the womba, here are some of their favorite past times:

-Screaming, but only at night during daddy's shift
-Peeing while having their diaper changed
-Peeing on daddy
-Peeing on self, including their eyes
-Taking their sweet time to finish their bottles while their other brothers are screaming their heads off to get fed
-Choking on their milk for attention
-Interpretive dance, I'll include a video soon so you can see


Babies on our way to an appointment in their loaner car beds, or shall I say "baby torture devices."


Sweet Boy

I smell like maple syrup

La Gran Rana Bocona taking a nap.


Swaddle houdinis, they can always break out of mommy's swaddle but not daddy's.


They absolutely hated tummy time. Will try again in a couple of weeks.


Thomas caught sucking his thumb! You can also see his little birth mark on the top of his head. Technically called a "hemangioma" (spelled phonetically), unfortunantly the doctors say it will go away in about a year or so, would have been a nice differentiating mark.


Here we are out for an outing to eat lunch at the carts near our house. Not too many stares in our deluxe limo stroller thankfully. The outing felt eerily normal.


The boys loved the walk and fresh air. The walk however was a little tougher on me though. Now that I'm feeling better from the surgery, the walk unmasked exactly how out of shape I am. Since about week 14 of my pregnancy when I was told to throw out the carrot sticks and load up on cheetos, I also adopted a very sedentary life style. Didn't want to burn up any extra calories or induce preterm labor I was told. It was very difficult but I somehow managed to gain over 60 pounds, which was an ideal amount of weight gain for a triplet pregnancy. I was over 170 lbs by the time the boys were born. I weighed more than my husband (I think), yikes! I was so heavy I had to be careful because my knees would buckle under my own weight. All at once just from the birth I lost 30 lbs. And at my two week post partum check up I had lost an additional 15lbs. So much for my idea of keeping some reserves for breast milk production. Now at 128 lbs I'm fighting further weight loss. Never did I think my incredibly good metabolism would haunt me over and over again. Well I'm back to packing on the butter to my pancakes, got to increase that milk production. I also find it funny that I'm actually taking more pills now than during pregnancy. In addition to same array of vitamins I now take 9 fenugreek seed pills/day, and 6 blessed thistle pills/day to increase my milk. A little fact I read about and quickly forgot is that the fenugreek makes your sweat and pee smell like maple syrup. I all of a sudden remembered when I started craving pancakes when I caught a wiff of myself. I think it's working but not as fast as I would like it too. I feel like giving up at times but I have to keep reminding myself that even a little bit is better than nothing. All the lactation consultants I've spoken to tell me that if you can provide 100% for your baby that's fantastic, if you can provide 50% that's also fantastic, and if you can provide 30% that's also fantastic.

The boys are doing great and getting fatter by the minute. They were at one point all head with a skinny little worm body but now their little bellies are quite round. Now they sound and LOOK like pygmy goats. Even their preemie diapers are fitting a little snug. They all weigh over five pounds and seem quite vigorous. I'm not worried about tiring them out anymore so I'm cracking down and putting them to breast more often. They still cannot take a full feed at the breast so practice we must. It would be so nice to quit pumping so much!

Our 15min of fame

There has been quite a bit of fuss over the triplets and the fan mail is rolling in, below is a link to the follow up news story on KGW.

the Triplets are home News story

This might be it for media attention the boys enjoyed being stars but want to stay out of the spot light for a while, Oprah will have to wait, it's nap time.
-Phil

Former Wombmates

BACK TOGETHERS AGAIN!

As I sat waiting for the boys to be discharged from the NICU, I looked on at the boys and wondered how long their calm preemie demeanor would last. The nurses didn't seem to have any trouble keeping them on a 3 hour eat/sleep schedule. After some more contemplating I wondered how long it would take me to mess up that schedule. I half way joked with the nurse that the minute we get them home everything would go haywire. The other half of me feared this. We got them home after a nervous car ride home, didn't want anything to happen to our precious cargo, just in time for their eight o'clock feed. As we settled in for the night I agreed to take the 2am feed and Phil would take the 5am. Unfortunately I still had to get up and pump.

Let's just say the poopie diapers hit the fan! All Hades let loose, the boys pretty much cried through out the whole night. Not all at once but they nicely took turns so as to have continuous chorus of crying. Thankfully grandma and grandpa took the 8am feed so Phil and I got a couple hours of sleep. It must have been the change of environment because the last two nights have been WAY better. All except for what I call their "witching hour," from around 1am-4am they fuss and whine and of course it's during the feeding I chose to handle. And they are worse during the 20 minutes I spend pumping and am not able to go and console them. It's hard getting up and out of bed and walking back and forth from the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen as I'm still quite sore from the surgery. I feel I'd have the energy for everything only I'm slowed down by the pain. Oh well just have to wait it out and at least we have plenty of help till the grandparents leave at the end of the month. On the bright side I think my anemia is much better, as I said before my energy levels are up quite a bit more.

I don't want you to get the wrong idea though they are really good babies thus far. In the NICU there was a little girl probably 3.5pounds that was aweful crying and screaming like someone was trying to kill her. So thankfully I don't have three of her!

More photos

Here are some more pics from the boys stay at the OHSU NICU, they said the food wasn't bad but could do without the feeding tubes and monitors. The boys are happy to be home but want the nurses to know they enjoyed their stay.










"ummm, I'll take the roast beef"

Welcome Home Boys!

This morning the pediatrician called and said we MIGHT be able to bring home one or two of the boys but when I got to the NICU I was surprised to find out that all three boys would be discharged today! The house was a mess and we hadn't prepared for their arrival so soon. The boys are too small for their car seats still so we brought them home in little car beds made especially for preemies. We brought home one 5 pounder (Thomas the Tank) and two 4 pounders! So in all the boys spent two weeks and two days in the hospital.

We are so happy they are home and are welcoming visitors but we have a few guidelines that the doctors recommended, but just please call before popping in:

-No kids allowed that are in school or in daycare
-No one with diarrhea
-No one with cold/flu symptoms
-No one that has been in contact with someone with cold/flu symptoms

And be prepared for some good hand washing! : )

JP

CaleB and Eli Videos

Here are a couple short clips while holding my boys Caleb and Eli, Sorry but thomas was not available at the time, he had a lunch appointment with the nip.

Everyone is doing great, Thomas and Eli are ahead of Caleb in the eating department, due to Caleb's focus on his hair style and flirting with Nurses, thus Caleb maybe in for a longer stay in the NICU but we really don't know as of yet.

-Phil

Time to here from mom again!

Sorry for the side boob but it's the best picture of the complete family : )


I apologize for not posting in so long. Phil likes posting eye candy and fun stuff but hasn't given much detail otherwise, so I'm here to catch everyone up.

Me: I was discharged from the hospital after a 7 day/6 night stay. Let's just say it was a rough recovery that I wasn't expecting. I was so worried about making sure the babies were healthy throughout the pregnancy and preparing for their arrival that I failed to ever think too much about myself and the recovery. I figured since most women are sent home after 3-4 days from a c-sec that I would too. Besides the major anemia I faced from the blood loss I was in a lot of pain from the incision and then my blood pressure was super high and was the reason for the last two days I spent in the hospital. I was discharged with my blood pressure a little on the high side (130-140/70) so I don't know how much better it is now. One thing I noticed was that whenever I got visitors my blood pressure would spike up real high. I would get so excited and want to talk and talk and talk. So for my health I had to turn away many people and wanted to apologize to anyone I did that to.

I feel so much better now but still have to walk at a snails pace, can't pick anything up from off the floor still and am taking oxicodone for the pain. I feel guilty for taking it cause it's powerful stuff. I've never been a pill popper and am always leery of taking any drugs, supplements, or even so called "natural" products. It makes me dream heavily, been talking nonsense in my sleep and according to Phil I make weird noises.

I feel I should give a shout out to my doctor and the nurses who took care of me. I would without any apprehension recommend Dr. C. Clock to anyone faced with a high risk pregnancy. She was very respectful and cooperative of my beliefs and wishes. She has great bedside manner and showed extreme confidence during the surgery. She never made me feel like something was wrong so I wouldn't freak out and am still learning about what all happened (I'm sure it would have made my recovery a whole lot scarier had I known). Also the nurses where all wonderful and patient with me. I never knew what good bedside manner was until my stay at OHSU (the hospital). Here is a shout out to Oksana, Maribel, and Kristine! I'm sure I'll never again be complemented again for passing gas and for producing two drops of colostrum, they were always sure to cheer me on for all the little accomplishments I made.

Babies: They are champions, for a while I thought they would beat me out of the hospital. My milk came in later than normal, about day 4, since I think my body was in shock. But now I'm producing more than enough for one baby so they are being fed 1/3 mommy milk and 2/3 formula. I pump about 9-10 times a day and I'm making a little more everyday so I'm hopeful I'll someday make enough for all three. I never thought my baby's head would be smaller than my boobs (don't know if I want to post a picture of that but it looks pretty comical! I wonder if they'll get even bigger once I start producing milk for more than one baby. I was never offered and I never asked for donor milk since it just kind of creeped me out to feed my babies milk from someone I didn't know (no offense or judgement to those who prefer donor milk over formula though).

The doc's thought that for a while that the boys would need to be treated for jaundice since many preemies do. But they pooped all their myconium out thanks to my two drops of colostrum and never had elevated levels of billirubin (spelling?). So they didn't even need that : ) I am still in awe of how healthy they are.

The only thing keeping them back from coming home is their ability to take in all their feedings by bottle/breast. Developmentally they shouldn't be able to do this yet so it will take some time for it to set in. They are fed through a tiny little tube that goes into one nostril and down into their stomach, it's called gavauge feeding. So what ever they don't eat by bottle or breast goes into the tube so they get enough nourishment. They started off needing 30 cc's (or milliliters) and after a day or two the doc's bumped it up to 35 cc's and then again to 40 cc's which is what they will need to take in before they come home.

The Plan: The NICU has been really supportive of my wishes to breastfeed, eventually exclusively, if possible. So after talking to a few lactation consultants we've (actually mostly them) come up with a plan. I am present for three out of six feedings. They are fed every three hours so I'm at the NICU from 11am-6:30pm everyday, I wish I could be there longer but it's all my body can take for now. We practice breastfeeding for about 15-20min, usually plenty of time to tire them out and then they are bottle fed and whatever they don't finish on their own goes in through the tube. When I'm not there they are bottle fed and gavauge fed. Thanks to a nipple shield, that helps them latch on, the babies are taking in 2-5 cc's at every try, it's a tiny amount since they need at least 40 cc's to fully nourish them. I'll cut them some slack though since they shouldn't even be born yet.

That's all I can think of for now besides that they think they may come home in about one week.

JP

Glamour Shots - 6 days

A Volunteer photographer came through the NICU taking photos of the babies for the families, it happened to be a time when Aunt Janet, Grandma and Grandpa Pitts were visiting the boys.

Caleb aka Lady's man
Eli the Scrapper
Thomas the Lover


Ed and Caleb
Aunt Janet and Eli
Mama Sue and Thomas

Boys @ 4 days

C- is for Caleb, Clown fish, Caudle fins and Cackle fish and Cool Octopus

E is for Eli, East Side, Eagles and Elk


T is for Thomas, trout, and Tickle toes

Mama Elda and Caleb?



Mama Sue and Eli

Papa Ed and Thomas

Boys at 2 -3 days old

Caleb, Eli and Thomas are doing great they will be receiving a feeding tube to beef them up and so they can focus on the nip instead of bottle feeding. Momma is doing a lot better after a couple rough days of recovering from the c-section, and will probably be able to come home tomorrow.

Here are some photos taken the last couple days in the NICU.

Thomas: "Que Haces Abuela?"




Caleb: guilty of stealing......Women's hearts



Eli: Warming up the lungs with a few love songs for mom



Heading off to see the boys now, we will post more photos later.

-Phil