Update, Day 2

I wanted to take a quick second to write down what has been going on.  Yesterday (12/28/12), they all made huge improvements.  I need to start by saying Emily has the camera at the hospital, so I am only able to put a few pics up (from my phone, so not great quality), and I don't have any recent ones of Anderson.  So, hopefully tonight I will put up some more pics!

Taya (we are leaving it spelled this way) was able to start on the NG tube, which is a tube that goes through her nose into her tummy and she is able to get the breastmilk/formula into her belly without burning any extra calories, and they have her on a 3 hour feeding schedule where I believe she is getting 5 mL every 3 hours.  We are able to hold her, and Emily did a skin to skin with her, and you should have seen the heavenly look in the eyes of Taya--and Emily for that matter!  They were both just in heaven!  So, today (12/29/12) they are going to put Taya on a bottle and have the speech pathologist observe how she does and will give the go ahead for straight bottle feedings from here out.  She is doing amazing!

Next up, Bennett.  He has progressed quite a bit too.  He was finally able to get that big mask off of his face, and get the little tubes into his nose for the oxygen.  He had the big mask on to basically help force oxygen into his lungs.  He is now doing just fine on the little nasal tubes.  He, like Taya, also started to get the NG tube, so he is able to get some nutrients into his little tummy as well.  Difference is that he started it later in the day than Taya, so he is not on the 3 hour schedule quite yet (he might be as of writing this post).  They are now slowly weaning him off of the oxygen.  We were able to hold him today for the first time!  Like I said, I don't have all of the pictures, but I will put some up! 

Bennett Day 1

Bennett Day 2

Now on to the chunky monkey, Anderson.  He too has progressed very well!  At the beginning of the day the nurses told us that he was on 2 L of oxygen, and by the time I left last night around 8, he was down to 1/4 L of oxygen, which means he is weaning himself off of it, and doesn't need as much assistance.  He like brother and sister is also on the NG tube, and he started about the same time as Bennett so he was still not quite to the 3 hour feeding, but because he is the chunkiest, he needed the most, 7 mL.  We were also able to hold him for the first time today.  In fact we got to hold him first thing in the morning!  I will put up a picture of him from early on Day 1 of Anderson:

Ander Day 1

Yesterday morning the check-in nurse at the NICU reception desk came in and told us, "They're here."  I had no idea what she was talking about, and she said that the media is here.  I thought when they told us the previous day the media was coming it was a joke.  Apparently not!  They came in and asked a few questions and took a bunch of pictures of us and the triplets.  I guess we are a big deal!  I am grateful though, because we were able to hold all 3 babies in the same room.  Emily held Bennett and Taya, and I held Ander.  It was really fun.  I felt like such a star!  Here is the link to the story: http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/12/29/riorancho/first-triplets-born-at-rust.html

Here's the official picture taken by Marla Brose of the ABQ Journal:

Taya's hat is kind of camouflaged against Emily's sweatshirt 

Introducing Our Rockstars!

They made it!!!  They are here, they are all healthy (minus a couple of little lungs), Emily is doing well, it has been a good day!  It has been a long day!  It started at 3:45 when I couldn't sleep from excitement.

Last Side View

We had to be at the hospital this morning at 5:30 a.m. for some blood work the anesthesiologist.  The nurse started by hooking Emily up to some fetal heart monitors, it took some time to find the heartbeats of the boys, and when they went to find Taya's the machine said that it wouldn't do another one because there were too many hearts to keep track of on one machine!  Can you believe it?  We had too many babies!  So they had to go and get another heart machine, and even that didn't help them find her heartbeat because she was so turned, and she was moving like crazy.  I could see Emily's tummy rolling like an ocean wave from 15 feet away!  It was really cool to see!  I think Taya knew what was coming and she was excited.

After about an hour of trying to get some heartbeats, the nurse anesthetist came in to go over the procedure, and then about 30 more people, nurses, nurse managers, doctors, friends of friends, anyone and everyone at the hospital came by to say hi, and congratulations, to us.  We are a big deal at this hospital today!  It was the talk of the whole hospital.  I was just standing in hallways, and I would get people saying congratulations, or I would tell them we were having triplets and they would say they have been waiting for this day for the last couple of weeks!  I'm not talking just the labor and delivery nurses, I'm talking the room service ladies, the janitors, everyone!

The nurse anesthetist (his name was Ray and he had a sweet handlebar mustache) came back in and told us that Emily was anemic--severely anemic.  She had a number of like 7.5 out of 50.  He told us that she would probably need a transfusion, and that it would be very likely, and had they found out about this earlier, she would have had to have one regardless before the babies came.  He told us of the risks involved and disappeared.  Shortly after his disappearance Emily's OB came in.  He is such a great guy!  If you live in ABQ and need an OB, Emily HIGHLY recommends him!  Dr. Hernandez came in and told us that because of the extremely low anemic levels they may have to move us to the hospital downtown!  That would be horrible!  He did say that if that happened he was going to completely cancel his clinical day and make the trip over there to deliver the babies, but he wanted it to stay here, and so did we!

Well, luckily we won!  We were able to stay here and I'm sure the biggest deciding factor in that was the higher ups of the hospital that said they need the publicity here!  See, this hospital opened Oct 24, 2011, it is a brand new hospital.  They want to be able to say that they delivered triplets, and that they can handle it.  They can handle it, and they did--beautifully I might add!

We were taken to the OR, I had to wait out in the hallway until they were ready to cut Emily open.  I ran into one of the dentists that I work with, Dr. Blair.  He had a bunch of cancellations, so he was willing to just go take a peek to see how it was coming.  He came back and said that everything was looking good, and there were a ton of people in the room just hanging out, ready for the babies, and that Emily was doing great!  Not much longer after Dr. Blair gave me the little update, one of the nurse's came to get me to come back.

Normally they do c-sections in a little room that is dedicated to c-sections.  Not this time!  We had a whole operating room to ourselves (with about 25 other nurses and doctors).  It was a madhouse!  I came in right as Dr. Hernandez was ready to cut into my wife.  I was in their for maybe 3-4 minutes and Ray told me to stand up and watch the babies come out.  I can't even begin to describe the feelings that were flowing through me.  It was such a blessing.  He pulled Anderson out at 9:20 a.m, and his stats were 6 lbs 1 oz, and 19 inches long (I was told later those are the stats of a healthy, full term baby at 39 weeks).  At 9:21 and 12 seconds Bennett was pulled out, his stats were 5 lbs 5 oz, 17 3/4".  And finally at 9:21 and 44 seconds, Taya was born.  I actually saw them cut into Taya's sack, and pull her out.

Anderson Bay

Bennett Dale

Taya Rebecca

From there I followed the triplets to the NICU where they put Anderson and Bennett on a nose tube, and they changed Bennett's nose tube to a mask.  Taya, the rockstar, had absolutely nothing wrong, she needed no oxygen tubes, well, she did need to get an I.V. for fluids as she was still not quite ready for a bottle.  Though, as soon as they left her kind of be alone, she started gnawing on her hands, trying to get anything in her mouth and she even started to suck on the binkie.  She is by far the most ready to be weaned from the I.V.  She might be ready to go home with Emily, the boys on the other hand not quite ready, might be a couple of weeks depending on how they progress, maybe sooner.

Other than that, Emily is doing really well considering.  She has been the talk of the hospital, no one believed that she was the one having the triplets because she walked into the OR under her own power, and she was just a little too calm about it all.  That's my wife!  The only time that she saw the babies was when they were being carted out of the OR, and they let her kiss Anderson and the other two just went out.  She wasn't allowed to go see them until she could get out of her bed and walk to the bathroom, then they would put her in a wheelchair and wheel her down to see the babies.  That didn't happen until 6:00 p.m.  She had to wait almost 9 hours to see them again, face to face.  However, she was the first one to hold any of the babies, and that was Taya.  The boys are not able to be held yet, maybe in the next couple of days.  It was so sweet to see her bond with them.

First View of Bennett

First View of Anderson

First View of Taya

My Girls!

The one sad thing about this whole experience is that our older boys can't see the babies at all until they come home because it is RSV season and they won't let any kids under the age of 14 in any of the rooms.  I feel bad for them, especially Cooper because he is really excited to see them.  How nice it has been though to have Gary and Becky, and my parents here to be able to take part in this awesome experience!  And a huge thanks to my parents these couple of days for watching the brothers!

Grandma with Taya

Grammy with Taya

We are having a dilemma that we didn't think we would have, the nurses and everyone else keep pronouncing Taya "Tie-ah".  We are considering changing spelling to Teya.  PLEASE let us know what you think.  Until something else remarkable happens, enjoy some more pictures:

Anderson

Bennett at First Arrival to NICU 

Taya

Anderson

Bennett

"Bane"ett

Me changing Bennett, gotta love the tar poop!

Anderson

Ready or Not!

Merry Christmas!!!

I couldn't resist writing one more before the triplets are on the outside of the womb.  Since I last wrote, we had Christmas.  I don't know about you, but we WAY overdid it!  It was great though.  I have recently had a thought, we are going to be busy the week of Christmas to New Year's--25th is Christmas, 27th triplets birthday, 30th is Ethan's birthday, 1st is Luke's birthday, make sure you write that down, we will be accepting sympathies!

Today, Wednesday, 12/26/12, D-Day minus 1, we decided to let loose a little.  It started off by Emily going to have a visit with the anesthesiologist to get some blood work done so they know what to dose her up with to make her happy and not feel any pain.  From there we went and had the very last ultrasound for these little boogers, it was another BTP (Bio-Physical Thing) so it was quick.  We didn't get any hint as to how big they are, all we know is that there is little to no room for these little monkeys to move around.  I have to give a huge shoutout to the techs, doctors, and everyone else associated with Pinon Perinatal, they have been awesome to Emily this entire time, and I realize that I have poked a little bit of fun at them at times, but they have truly been awesome to us this whole time!  Thank you!  Anyway, here are the only pictures that we got this time:

After the ultrasound we splurged and got something off of the lunch menu at PF Chang's.  Yes, we are big spenders!  Luckily the refills were free, we took advantage of that!  That has to be Emily's favorite place in the world.  From there, we went to go see Les Miserables that came out yesterday.  Amazing movie!  Gary complained that the voices weren't big enough, but I thought the opposite, I loved the emotion that they were able to portray.  No, the voices weren't the best I've heard.  I think that they had Russell Crowe cast before they even heard him sing, because visually he was the perfect person for the role, then he sings...and you realize that this was supposed to be a singing movie and you wonder why he was cast.  So you have to try and get over the fact that his voice isn't the typical Javert that you hear on Broadway, anyway, I just realized that I have become a movie critic.  This is not my place.  Moving on.

Tomorrow is the day!  We will be going in to the hospital at 5:30 a.m.and her c-section is scheduled for 7:30, so the babies should be coming at around 8 a.m.  I would like to say something to those of you who may be planning on coming to visit to see these babies (family, friends, family, did I mention family).  PLEASE, before you come, please, please, please call either me or Emily.  It is going to be very crazy for us for the first couple of months, and we have lots of help that is staying with us during that time, and as much as we love you and want for you to see these babies we really can't have everyone coming until we have things figured out, plus it is RSV season and we really want to try and avoid that.  You are more than welcome to come and visit, but please try not to plan anything until at least February and have talked to one of us first.  We are planning on doing the baby blessings in March/April depending on how healthy babies are, that would be a great time to come and see them.

Well, until tomorrow when I will have real pictures of these little miracles!

35 Weeks!

Well, Emily has made it to 35 weeks!  She was at her OB on Thursday, the 20th and they measured her at 50 Weeks!  Now to put that into perspective, that is 10 weeks overdue for a normal baby, that is 2 and a half months!  That is about the equivalent of 1/3 of a pregnancy.  She is in pain!  She is SO over being pregnant!  Luckily, we have a day (finally) for the c-section.  The official day is this Thursday, the 27th of December, which means...tax break!!!  We need to be in the hospital at 5:30 a.m. for getting blood work, getting the anesthetic, trying to calm down, etc.  Needless to say we are excited and scared, and everything in between!

A pretty cool thing about these babies is that they will be the first triplets born at this particular hospital.  This is the only hospital in Rio Rancho, NM, which means they will be the first triplets in history to be born in the city of Rio Rancho, NM!  Kind of cool.  I think that we need to get the news outlets on this story!

I think that this might be the final post before the triplets come.  I may try and do one the night before they are born (for those of you who are not very savvy with a calendar, that would be this Wednesday).  I will put some pictures up now for you to enjoy:

35 Weeks!

Our live in Nanny for a few weeks

Swollen Ankles

Help with keeping the belly up!

Gingerbread house crew!

Frustration Sets In!

It would appear that several people are very excited about the update of the amniocentesis that took place today.  I will let that wait for a little bit.  There are a few other things that I need to mention first.  Just kidding, I will tell you that what we know so far is that the amnio came back saying that the babies need to stay in there for another week.  Darn-it all to heck! (Gotta love Mormon swearing!)  Emily was not pleased with that piece of info.  She got a call from the perinatalist, and they said that it looked like they needed to schedule the next BTP ultrasound.  According to Emily, BTP stands for "the Bio-Physical Thing", works for me.  Emily asked the lady if that meant that her amnio came back negative, and the lady said, "Oh, your OB hasn't called you yet?"  Um, I think that would qualify as a question that was not thought out before asked, aka--a dumb question.


As of this moment, Wednesday, 12/19/12 at 4:45 pm, we have yet to hear from the OB.  Emily has called them and they told her that the doctor has been with patients all day.  Now in my little brain, this doctor has said that he is excited for these babies, he is planning on being here when they are delivered (he claims he will postpone his vacation plans to make sure that happens), he just seems excited for these triplets; so I am thinking that there is no way that he has not looked at the results.  My guess is that something came back very alarming to him, and he is trying to come up with a very strategic way of telling Emily.  Who knows though?  I guess when he finally gets the time to look at the results he will let us know!  Gotta love doctors and their attention to punctuality!  Just imagine Emily's frustration when he told her this morning that we would know  the results by 1, and the only way we found out is by the silly question lady that called earlier!


We were really hoping to have the babies before this weather forecast comes to pass:

Let me move on.  So, this picture has been forwarded, shared, liked, etc by just about everyone that we know saying that they thought of us when they first saw it:

I can't imagine why!  There are 2 main differences in this picture than what ours would look like.  The first difference is we were planning on 1, hoping for a second and the third never even crossed our minds!  So ours would read something like #1: I was planned, #2: I was hoped for, #3: WHAT?!? 3??? (on the back of this would read, "Time for a new car!")  Seriously though, this kind of stuff just cracks us up, so please keep them coming!  Difference #2: all 3 of our babies would have socks on!  Seriously, that is just child abuse, I want to know who this mother is and get her prosecuted! (Now, for all of you who think I am serious about this, please lighten up!)

So, with the amniocentesis Emily had a BTP ultrasound today.  According to that, everything is looking perfect still!    I think that if Emily wants to have these babies before 12/31/12, she is going to need to jump on the trampoline.  Could you imagine Emily with an ear to ear smile bouncing up and down on the trampoline right now?  Me neither.  Oh well, I think I will still suggest it!  Here is a picture of her 34 week mark:

We were driving around the neighborhood the other night looking at Christmas lights and came across a house that rivals Clark Griswold's!  This house is like a star leading the way to...nowhere really, we are in ABQ!  Check it out:

It's Getting Close!

There have been times in my life, especially recently, when I feel like we have had so much attention, we should be on some kind of a TV show.  There are so many that come to mind:

However, as fun as it would be to be a part of any of these shows, I think that right now the one that would best fit us would have to be:

Just thinking about how to prepare ourselves for three babies feels like it will be Doomsday!  I know that one day the triplets will read this and will probably hate us for thinking that they were nothing more than a nuclear bomb in our lives, well, I guess they kind of are!  Instead of the "blast" wiping out our entire lives though, they will be adding (lots of diapers) to it!  Maybe we should seriously consider the gas masks! I wish there was some kind of a checklist, or book, of what is needed for welcoming multiples in your home, something like this:

With the babies coming within the next 1-2 weeks, it is getting a little nerve racking!  Emily had her OB/GYN appointment yesterday, 12/13/12, and her doctor is absolutely amazed with Emily!  She is his hero!  He is so deadset on delivering these babies that he said he will not allow the perinatalist to take Emily to 36 weeks, the reason for this is that he will be out of town.  That said, if the amniocentesis comes back good on Wednesday (yes, this coming Wednesday!), they will schedule the c-section for the following day, 12/20/12.  If it comes back negative, the c-section will be scheduled for the following Thursday, 12/27/12.  So, it is official, the triplets will be born on 12/20 or 12/27.  We are taking bets!  Winners will get a personalized photo of the babies with their signature via an attachment on an email sometime in the future!  How's that for incentive? 

Emily is measuring currently at 47 weeks!  She is still just baffling every human that comes in contact with her by being on NO restrictions!  I'm pretty sure that is unheard of.  Well, I guess she shouldn't be jumping on a trampoline!  I am very proud of her, because I know it is hard, and getting harder as each day goes by.  I will close in Emily's words, "Don't underestimate the pain of swollen feet!"  

Her favorite spot these days!

All You Can do is Laugh, Otherwise You'd Cry!

Where to begin.  Emily had her "marathon" ultrasound today, however it wasn't much of a marathon since the tech was more into sprinting than a nice easy pace.  What normally has taken about an hour to an hour and a half, took 30 minutes today!  That made Emily's day!  Update on the babies, starting with the smallest....actually let me first bring to your attention some information I dug up (all good writers do research, so I thought that I would try and join their ranks!).  According to babycenter.com, "This week (week 33) your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17 inch mark." Now check out the picture that accompanied (now, this picture would classify as PG-13, but it is for educational purposes that I even put it up), "What your baby looks like--33 Weeks":

Now, look at my modifications to this picture to fit our situation (of course, this is not exact):

All you can do is laugh, otherwise you'd cry!  This is going to be a theme in this post.  Now, onto the weights of the babies (the technician said on several occasions that these are just estimates).  Again, they should be a little over 4 pounds.  Beginning with the smallest, Baby C (Taya): 4 lbs 9 oz, Baby B (Bennett): 4 lbs 15 oz, and the sumo wrestler, Baby A (Ander): 5 lbs 7 oz.  If you are keeping track, that is 1 oz shy of 15 pounds of baby!  That doesn't even begin to account for the placentas, the fluids, etc.  The projected weights at 39 weeks are...Taya: 7 lbs 6 oz, Bennett 7 lbs 15 oz, and Ander 8 lbs 6 oz.  Again, if you are counting, 23 lbs 11 oz.  

Needless to say, Emily is hurting.  We understand that it is SO good for the babies to stay in as long as possible, but when you have that much weight, and not to mention that much movement by foreign objects that you have no control over that like to kick, roll, punch, etc in your ribs, it is VERY hard to want to continue your pregnancy to 39-40 weeks!  The doctors seem to be content to have Emily set some kind of record for triplet pregnancy, not only length of baking, but birth poundage as well!  This is not very amusing to Emily.  That said though, all you can do is laugh, otherwise you'd cry!

Anyway, back to the babies.  Everything, I mean everything looks absolutely perfect with them!  We consider it such a blessing and an answer to not only our prayers, but yours as well.  We are so happy by that news for our gigantic threesome!

What happens from here?  Next Wednesday (12/19/12) Emily is going in for an amniocentesis which will determine the maturity of their lungs, and if they ALL have good lungs the doctor will plan for the c-section the following day (12/20/12).  We are really hoping for this date, since that is the day before the end of life as we know it (12/21/2012 according to the Mayans), and it would be nice to see these little guys before we all have to say goodbye!  If the amniocentesis shows that the lungs are not quite ready, the doctors will schedule the c-section for 36 weeks, which is 12/31/12.  Awesome birthday, especially for tax purposes!  However, that would mean that Ethan (12/30) and Luke (1/1) would be the bread to the triplet sandwich of birthdays!  Poor kids!  But, all you can do is laugh, otherwise you'd cry!  5 kids birthdays within 3 days!  AAAGGHHH!

That about sums it all up.  We did not get any pictures this time.