Matilda's monologue

Hello everyone,

Today we have a special treat. Matilda heard about how two of her new triplet friends (that she hasn't actually met yet) got roles on Nip/Tuck. Although her parents don't really feel that she is ready for an acting career, she seems to feel otherwise. Here she demonstrates her truly remarkable talent. These pictures were taken within seconds of each other and are shown in order. She was definitely showing her feisty side! You'll also notice that she is off her oxygen and breathing all on her own now.

And now, Matilda . . . .

I will begin as I have before, as sleeping infant.


Oh, hello there! Would you like to see my act now? I'd be happy to show you!


Let me get myself into character with a deep draw on my paci, and I will begin.


Anxious!


Furious!


I'll hold my breath until I'm big!


Sweet!


Angelic!


Grumpy!


Devious!


Oh, daaahling, could you please get me a spot of tea?!


You want a piece of me?!


Ack!


Silly!


One million dollars!


Aaahhh!



Why, I believe the answer you seek is pi over 37!


Did you like that, Mommy?!


And now, for my after-show treat!

We'll post a series of the other kiddos when we catch them in the act. Have a great Wednesday!

Courtney

The cuties continue to thrive!

Hi all,

Everybody is doing really well. I'm sorry for not posting more--the craziness of the past few weeks caught up with me, and I've been sleeping every chance I can. The babies are all on a "feed and grow" program now, and they are growing. Their weights now are Anna: 2 lbs. 10 oz., Matilda: 3 lbs., 3 oz., and Noah: 3 lbs., 9 oz so they are all heavier than when they were born. They are eating well (or rather digesting well--they are still getting their food through a tube), and they are breathing well. Anna and Matilda are still getting some supplemental air pressure to keep their lungs open, but Noah has been breathing on his own for a while now. It's apparently an advantage of being bigger. They are also alert more often, which is so much fun. Jon and I had a sing-along for Anna today because she was cranky. She cried whenever we stopped (I figured it should be the other way around!).

I recently met two moms of triplets through a Mothers of Multiples club, and from their stories, I was made aware of how lucky we are. These kiddos are just amazing! Oh, and here are some pictures (that's why you are here anyway, right?).


Matilda: She's so cute, and she's getting some baby fat! Don't be worried by the wires and such--these are just monitors. She no longer has any IVs, and has the same little tubes in her nose as Anna. Hopefully they'll be off their air soon.


Noah: He's very alert these days. But what is he trying to hear? See how tiny his little hands are compared to my finger?


Anna: So sweet! The hat plus the bow is a little much, I know. We are experimenting with bows a bit so we can tell the girls apart. Anna (Banana) is yellow, and Matilda is green.

Courtney

Noah moves the big boy room; girls still doing great!

Hi everyone,

The kiddos are doing just great. The girls are eating the appropriate amounts for their weights and are tolerating being on a high-calorie diet so they'll put on some weight. Anna has all of her little IVs out, and Matilda has all but one. These days they stretch and wiggle around a lot, although they tend to keep their little eyes shut. Anna is much calmer than Matilda, even though she yawns and stretches quite nicely. Matilda can be a handful. She likes to throw little tantrums when her diaper is changed, and she continues to give little looks that seem to mean, "Why can't you hold me/change me/wipe my face like the nurses do? Are you this incompetent at everything?" If it weren't so adorable, I might get my feelings hurt! Yesterday, she was looking around a bit, and she tilted her head in some way and looked exactly like Jon's mum. The resemblance was absolutely amazing. Most of the time the girls tend to look more like me, I think. Also, I've found a little difference between them--Matilda's ears are little more formed than Anna's. I'm sure that difference will go away soon, but it's handy for figuring out who's who in the pictures.

Noah has been making leaps and bounds forward lately. When he's awake, he looks around, wiggles his arms, tries to put his hands in his mouth, and sucks his pacifier. He is also learning to eat the normal way and when there isn't an interesting wire to inspect (he is his father's son--electronics before food), he seems to be on his way to figuring out what to do. Today he got moved to the other nursery where they put the babies that are less sick. His roommate is a full-term baby and seems to be about three times the size of little Noah! But Noah seems to like it--he has been keeping his food down, and the brave nurses are putting clothes on him. Today he had on a t-shirt that went over his head! We bought him some little outfits so look for pictures of those soon.

Courtney

Oh my goodness, that's cute!

Hi everybody,

Just a quick post with some adorable pictures of Jon and Noah. All three babies are doing well--they are just practicing eating and breathing and sleeping. They have already mastered the art of being cute. :)



Cute little Noah!



I asked Jonathan, "Why are you frowning?" He said, "I'm not frowning." Okay, then, scowling?



That's better! This was Jon's first time to hold a baby kangaroo-style. Perhaps he was just concentrating.

Courtney

One week old and doing great!

Hi everyone,

The babies are doing really well. They were all off their ventilators this afternoon and breathing on their own! All still need a little extra oxygen, but now they just need a little tube in their noses. The best part is that once they are off the ventilators and stable, they can be held!!! Jon and I held little Noah for the first time yesterday and little Matilda today. Anna was having a little trouble getting stabilized so I'll have to wait a little longer for her. It is a wonderful feeling, holding your own babies for the first time, just absolutely mind-blowingly incredible. Today, I also got to put Noah right on my chest, skin-to-skin. They call this "kangaroo care," and it is supposed to help the little one grow and be strong. I would have to say that it is also good for mom's blood pressure! We both ended up taking a little nap. :)

We got the results of the brain and heart ultrasounds yesterday, and everyone seems to be just fine. They are amazing little troopers!

They continue to eat well and seem to be much happier getting breastmilk instead of formula. The amount they eat continues to improve rapidly so that just when I start making enough, they race ahead of me. Nothing to do, but keep trying. My schedule now revolves entirely around the pumping schedule--I am trying to pump every 2 hours, and it takes about 30 minutes to go through the entire pumping routine. So I have 1.5 hours in between to eat, dress, visit babies, blog, read, nap, etc. I find that I can get one thing squeezed in before I need to go again! Crazy! It's enough to make one wonder what's going to happen when there are babies, not machines, that need feeding . . . .

And now some pictures . . . .


Noah and Courtney


Noah and Jon


Matilda gives Mom the evil eye


Matilda and Jon


Matilda and Courtney (Do you like my bow?)


Anna, squirming. All of them now have the nose tube for oxygen and a mouth tube for feeding. They still have a variety of monitors and things, but it's nice to see their little faces!

More soon!

Have a great weekend!
Courtney

So much to share!

Hello all!

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and support! I am home from the hospital, and I feel really good. In addition to my system returning to almost normal, I've lost 25 lbs. in a week, making it much easier to get around. I still look pregnant though--a woman asked me yesterday when I was due!

More importantly, I have seen my babies! We went straight from the hospital yesterday to the one where the babies are. They are so beautiful! The nurses took the girls off their little blue lights so I could see them better--it's absolutely amazing how tiny they are. And though they are so tiny, they are little people. :) The nurses recommend putting one hand on top of their little heads and one on their bottom or feet, and when you do, their breathing rate changes. And when you take your hand away, they fuss and stretch their legs until you put your hand back! Amazing. Anna and Matilda look so much the same that we will definitely have to work hard to keep them straight. For the moment, their beds have their names on them, but once they start being mobile, getting confused is inevitable!

The babies eat so much! Noah eats 16 ml of formula/breastmilk a feeding and feeds every three hours. The girls are eating only 6 ml at each feeding so far. After a frustrating few days, I am now able to supply about 15-20 ml of milk per feeding, which is not enough, but I'll keep working at it. It's difficult because just when I think I'm catching up, the doctors increase how much they feed the babies! But then I realize that if there were only one baby, I would be supplying more than enough, and I feel better.

Noah is off his ventilator so that we might be able to hold him today. The nurse said we could yesterday, but then they were feeding him. He had apparently gotten sick after his feeding earlier in the day so they didn't want to disturb him too much just then. I can't wait though! I've only gotten to "hold" Noah once, when they put him on my chest after my c-section. And I didn't get to even do that with the girls. Soon though . . . .

They all had ultrasounds of their hearts done yesterday, looking for a patent ductus arteriosis. This little blood vessel is open when the babies are in the womb and causes the blood flow to bypass the lungs, which are not much use until the baby is born. Usually the vessel closes soon after birth, but in a fair number of preemies, it doesn't close. The doctors wondered if the girls had this problem, which would explain why they aren't off their ventilators yet. I don't know the results of the ultrasound, but we should hear this morning. If it isn't closed, then many times, a course or two of medication can cause it to close without further intervention. We'll just have to see what happens. They will also get a brain ultrasound today to make sure that they haven't had a brain hemorrhage, which is apparently standard procedure. The doctor felt that they had no symptoms of hemorrhage, so he wasn't worried about that problem.

Sorry this is such a jumble! I wanted to post last night, but my blog account was messed up. My email was also messed up, which did nothing for my blood pressure! All is well now though, and I hope to get back to blogging regularly. I'll see about getting some new pictures up soon too, although with the girls' blue lights, it is hard to see much of them.

Have a good day, everyone!
Courtney

Announcing Anna, Matilda, and Noah!

Hi all,

I don't have many details for you--little dopey for typing, but they are here! They have preemie issues, but are beautiful! Mom is tired, but good.

Jon will blog too soon to gave pics, detail.

Courtney

Today could be the day . . . .

Hi everybody,

I am waiting for lab tests this morning, and based on the results, the docs will decide if we will be delivering the babies today. The OB felt that delivery was very likely. Apparently my perinatologist wanted to go ahead in the middle of the night last night, but my OB talked him out of it.

They put me on an IV with fluids and magnesium sulfate last night, as well as oxygen, which scared me a bit. I wasn't sure what was going on, but apparently they were getting me ready.

I am very excited to meet these little ones who have been wriggling inside of me. :) The docs think they'll do great, that strangely, being inside of me with my body under strain has probably hastened their development.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts, support, and prayers. It has meant so much to us to know that there's such a wonderful network of friends and family (on three continents!) supporting us through this roller coaster.

Love,
Courtney

Drat, part II

Hi all,

I had my doctor's appointment this morning, and the babies continue to do well. No measurements today, but their fluid and blood flow seemed good. But my blood pressure decided to spike up to 160/105 or something, which is not good. So it's back in the hospital for me.

The doc said that he would prefer that I just stay there until I deliver, but that if everything settled down, that maybe I could go home again. Since it is getting tougher to get around (and by that, I mean from the couch to the bathroom), I can really understand his point of view. But we'll see how I feel after a few days of no internet and no bathtub.

We'll be 31 weeks tomorrow. My OB says average for triplets is 31.5. Those of you that know me even slightly know that I do not like being below average so keep your fingers crossed to get me to 32 weeks. :)

I'll post again when something interesting happens.

Courtney

Home again, doing nothing

Hi everyone,

I am relieved to tell you that I am home again. My blood pressure went back down to reasonable levels, the test of my liver function got a little better, and my kidney function was only mildly abnormal. I also feel much better. In all, they decided that I was well enough to come home and that there was no need to deliver the babies yet. I have been instructed to "do nothing." So poor Jonathan has to wait on me hand and foot now. You may ask, wasn't he doing that already? Well, yes, but I think it just get worse.

I was able to talk to the neonatologist in charge of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the hospital while I was there. Jon and I also got a tour of the NICU. On the whole, it was encouraging--there were plenty of tiny little babies there, but they seemed to be doing well. They had recently sent two of three triplets home so we only saw the third one. Once they are big enough for a fairly normal bed, they put them all in the same big bed together, which seems very nice. There was one baby there who had been there for 10 weeks as he was born at 25 weeks. Apparently he was doing quite well. But they are all so small!

The doctor said our babies had a 95% survival rate if born right now, but they would still do well to have their lungs mature some more. Also, he said that on average, the babies get to go home at what would have been 37 weeks, which is around Sept. 20 in our case. They probably would come home one at a time, which I think that's just fine--it would be good to figure out how to take care of one baby before trying to do three at once!

Okay, now back to doing nothing. Have a great weekend!

Courtney

Drat

I was not feeling well again today so I called my OB. He recommended checking in to the hospital for observation. My blood work, which was fine yesterday, is apparently borderline today so I am staying in the hospital overnight. The doctors are worried about preeclampsia, which seems to be a sort of complete body overload from the stress of pregnancy. If things stabilize, then everything should be fine, and I'll go home. If not, I guess I'll stay. The good news is that the babies are at 30 weeks today so even if they had to be born immediately, they would probably do very well.

I'll post again soon.

Courtney

Babies are good; mom having some issues

Hi all,

Sorry for the delayed posting. The ultrasound went well yesterday, and all babies are doing just great. We saw Noah taking a little nap, using Anna's head as a pillow. His little cheeks and lips were squashed up against her. :) Unfortunately the pictures of this cute little event didn't really turn out.

It does appear that I am having some problems. My blood pressure is high and creeping higher, making me feel tired and headache-y. The blood pressure itself is not high enough to cause problems, but it can be a symptom of other, more serious issues. The doctor ordered some tests, and we'll get the results back in a few days. I'll keep you posted.

Courtney