A move, another move, and one more soon....

Again, things happen very fast in the NICU. On Monday, our babies were moved to a different hospital. Since they are doing so well and the UNC NICU is very crowded, they were moved to a step down "special care nursery" at Rex hospital. We were a little hesitant about the move since we love the nurses at UNC but Rex is very nice. The nursery is new and cozy. We have our own private room and the chairs are very comfy. We do miss the people at UNC but Rex is still a great place to be.

Another move is in the future. We have bought a house and close at the end of July. Just because life wasn't hectic enough for us... If anyone wants to help us out, this is your opportunity. We will probably need lots of help unpacking and settling in. We will let you know the exact dates soon.

Finally, Marcus may be on the move soon. Don't be surprised if you see pictures of him at home very soon:)

Cute pictures of the day...MIA! Mia is a SGA baby, meaning she is very small for her gestational age. At just under 3 lbs, she is teensy tiny for a 34 week baby. However, developmentally, she is very similiar to both Marcus and Josie. You don't often see 2+ pound babies in clothes but here she is. Our precious serious baby girl.



Despite the fact she has gained the most weight since birth, due to Mia's size and lack of body fat she will need to stay in the special care nursery for several more weeks. It will be hard having the other two at home and her still stuck at the hospital but we are very lucky she is a healthy and happy little peanut.

Here are a few cute shots of Josie and Marcus. These two were constantly on top of each other and battling it out in my belly. Now they look like best friends :)



Mom update: I can fit in my wedding rings again! Only 15 more pounds to lose!

Just a few more pictures....

I cannot believe the changes that take place every day in the NICU! Today Marcus was in an open crib when we arrived! This is the last "house" they live in before they go home. Marcus still has things to learn though...like eating from his bottle. We expect it to be a few more weeks before he's ready to leave the NICU. Josie and Mia both moved into isolettes. Also, Josie now gets to wear clothes and try to regulate her own temp. Mia still needs to gain some weight before she can graduate to clothes. Here are the cute pics for today.

I think Marcus has Max's eyes...don't you!


Max is holding Josie up to her sister Mia. Poor Mia, Josie stole a significant amount of the food in utero also.
I must give mad props to Max! He is the most talented dad ever! The NICU staff wants to hire him! He changes diapers, puts the babies and their wires back into their complicated houses, feeds one baby while shushing the other to sleep...the list goes on and on. He is teaching me how to parent at this point! What a wonderful man!
Finally, our girls have some signature poses. Josie, the rockstar that she is, loves to wave at people. Here she is waving to Uncle Nick on her second day of life.

Amelia is my little diva. She always looks like she's sunbathing with one foot propped up on her bed. She also always has her hands tucked under her chin. How precious is she!

I know I need to write about my whole birth story. It was a really funny story and I can't wait to tell everyone about it. As soon as I can detach myself from the pump for any length of time, I will share. It involves some crazy nurse and a very excited mom!

4 Days Old - Only Good News to Share!

Today is dedicated to our little boy Marcus who has graduated to clothes! He is at a good weight and appears to maintains his body temperature just fine. The nurses decided his bed warmer could be turned off and he could wear clothes and be swaddled to say warm. Yay!


Now we just need to get Marcus to reliably eat from a bottle rather than relying on his feeding tube. He has been the laziest with the suck, swallow, breathe benchmark. Meanwhile, little Mia eats her bottle like a champ. She can usually finish her entire bottle without any need for the feeding tube. Josie is also easily picking up on bottle feeding.

Another exciting development...the responsibility of the trios plan of care is getting transfered to a nurse practitioner rather than an attending doctor. This is great news because only babies who are thriving in the NICU without any apparent problems are transfered to nurse practitioners! Finally, there is a good chance IV's will be removed in the next couple days! This means the only tubes and wires will be basic monitoring and their feeding tube. The IV's are the most intrusive so we cannot wait to get those taken out!

People have been asking about my favorite topic, my lovely weight gain and loss. I gained a whopping 65 pounds by the end of the pregnancy. Today at 4 days post-op, I have lost 30 pounds. This is all water, baby, placenta, etc. ..pretty amazing! I'm starting to see my old face emerge from the marshmallow. My feet on the other hand look similiar to Shrek's. Lovely.

2 Days Old

The kiddos are doing great! They had blood work taken yesterday and all their labs came back fine. Mia has a little jaudice so she is in the "tanning bed" today. Marcus and Josie's levels are borderline high so they may have to tan tomorrow.

This is a picture of kangaroo care. Each day mom and dad are encouraged to hold each baby skin to skin for 30 minutes. Studies show this is beneficial for the babies! Obviously Max and I love it. This is Mia and I doing kangaroo care yesterday. She is super tiny I know but I assure you, she is just as strong and healthy as Marcus and Josie.


Here is our big man Marcus with Max.



The nurses love to dress the babies up as much as they can. Here is Josie looking beautiful in her bow.
A lot of people are asking us when the babies are going to come home. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing this for sure. All the babies are doing wonderful and often babies get to come home by 36-37 weeks gestation. This would mean 3-4 weeks in the NICU. BUT, every baby is different so it is possible they may come home sooner or later than this. They are in separate warming cribs now. The next step will be moving to isolates. From there they will go to open cribs before coming home. If they are able to go to open cribs at the same time, they can be co-bedded.

In the next couple days we will see if they have any A's and B's (apnea and bradycardia) and see how their jaundice does. It is one day at a time from here on out. We are having a blast and couldn't be happier.

Happy Birthday - June 29th

They are here!

At 5:30 AM Sunday morning my water broke. By 6:29 AM, Amelia was born, followed by Marcus and Josie. They were one day shy of 33 weeks. Everyone is in the NICU and doing fantastic! Marcus was on CPAP room air for 1 hour and his saturation was so great they took him off. The girls have been breathing on their own since they were born. Everyone has already been feeding out of bottles and Max even got to change dirty diapers already :) We couldn't be happier.

I am doing ok. I just got all my tubes removed this morning and am thrilled about getting to move around more. Yes, I am in pain but as I learned over the weekend, I am not one to turn down narcotics ever again :) I get to shower later today!

OK, here is what everyone wants to see.

Amelia (Mia) June, 2 lbs 12.5 oz
She is tiny, a surprise to us, but is a fighter! You would never guess she weighs two pounds less than her brother.


Marcus Max, 4 lbs. 11 oz
Almost 5 pounds, there is where all my protein shakes went!


Jocelyn (Josie) Mary, 3 lbs. 15 oz
She was the first I felt move in the womb and was feisty from then on.



And here is dad feeding Mia and mom holding Josie


Many more pictures and stories to share! Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers!

Life is Better...on Drugs

Up to this point, I have tried to stay away from all drugs during my pregnancy. In fact, I could probably count the number of times I took Tylenol on two hands. However, the pain of the expanding belly has taken its toll on me. Just when I thought I couldn't make it one more second, the doctors introduced me to some stronger medications. Not sure the exact name of the drug given to me through my IV today but I call it "liquid heaven".

Labor appears very near so every time I have any strange pain at all (hello.....I am stretched to the max and carrying around 13 pounds of baby) the doctor's love to send me to the floor of torture, oh I mean labor and delivery. Here I get poked several times while trying to get my IV set up and get belted in to the monitoring devices. Then, I get left to "get comfortable and rest" for 4-6 hours. When the doctors finally make their appearance (btw, I love my doctor, he is very attentive and present but unfortunately he doesn't work 24/7) I am informed "well...I really thought I was going to deliver your triplets today but I guess not..."

Today something extraordinary happened, not only was I given a dose of the "liquid heaven" but I was also told I could take a Percoset every 4 hours upon request. The doctors assure me this is perfectly safe for the babies at this point. ("especially since they will be in the NICU for a period of time, they would detox there anyway" one nurse said...very reassuring don't you think ;)). Never in my life have I taken anything stronger than Ibuprofen, now I know how wonderful epidurals must be while in labor.

So, although I only get to eat once every 24 hours (the L&D floor doesn't allow food since surgery may be near) , it take me 5 minutes to wobble my way to the bathroom that is literally 2 steps away from my bed, and I must wear a needle attached to my hand, I think I may last at least a few more days thanks to pharmaceuticals. I promise, I'm keeping my spirits up :)

I want to send a special congrats out to my other Triangle triplet mom friend who had her babies a few days ago at 33 weeks, 3 days! She was on bedrest for a good 3 months so knows my pain all too well. However, she now looks so shiny and happy with her three precious babies. Her face screams "it is worth every second!". The other triangle triplet mom I know had her babies 4 weeks ago at 31.5 weeks. They also are doing great. I'm right around the corner ladies, the three of us will have 9 babies so close in age :)

Another congrats to our friends Joey and Joelle who had their adorable baby girl last weekend.

My next post may be very interesting....

The Growing Trio - 32 Weeks, 2 days

Just a quick post to update estimated baby weights. There seems to be some confusion over our girls. They either changed positions or they both completely flipped around. You wouldn't think there would be room for them to be so mobile but they appear to be claiming their space. All three are pretty stretched out.

Baby A (girl) - 4 lbs. 4 oz.
Baby B (boy)- 4 lbs. 7 oz.
Baby C (girl) - 3 lbs 6 oz.

As the babies get bigger it becomes harder to estimate their weights over ultrasound...especially with three babies! Obviously two of these kiddos are growing like weeds! These are pretty big babies even for singletons at this age. Our smaller girl was very difficult to measure since her head is very low. The doctors think she is actually bigger than the estimated weight based on her femur and abdominal measurements. Only time will tell....the waiting continues.