Back to work today.............

Well, it is back to work today for me. I wish I had more time to spend with them. Hopefully the work day will go by quickly. Nicole thinks I will be home by lunch. I told her that isn't going to happen because I am out of vacation hours.

Ethan, Evan, and Olivia just completed their feedings and they are down for another three hours. I can hear them in the bedroom making noises. Preemies make a lot of noises, they refer to it as the preemie grunt. If I didn't know better I would think I was on the farm. The Dr. said it should go away in a couple of months.

Well it is nearly 7 o'clock and I have to leave for work. Will blog later to let everyone know how Nicole's first day alone went.

Evan and Olivia had the hiccups early in the morning. It was so funny, I had to upload it for everyone to see. Enjoy!

After breakfast on Sunday.........

The trio is sleeping after their morning meal.

Thanksgiving.....................

We had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. The babies are eating and growing like crazy. I cannot believe it has been only a month and they are so big. As of our Tuesday this week, they were Ethan 5lb 12oz, Evan 5lb 12 oz and Olivia 4 lb 7 1/2oz. Dr. Freshwater said they are doing very well and that their birth weights were fantastic. They go back in two weeks for another follow-up. I am hoping we will go to an every two month rotation after that.

Thank you, thank you, thank you..........................

First, a big thanks to my Aunt Juanita in Texas. She sent us a large box full of clothes and accessories for the trio. We will use everything in there for them. We continue to get blessed daily. We received a photo frame with the kids names engraved on it from our friend Abbey. Another special gift was a gift card to Kroger.

I went to Meijer tonight to get more formula. We received 3 cans from the hospital gift bags and they have went through two. They are eating really, really good. The visiting nurse came today to get weights and check up on us. Ethan is at 5 lbs 10 oz. Evan is at 5 lbs 7 1/2oz. And last but certainly not least Olivia is at 4 lbs 4 oz. We are not completely sure of Ethan's weight. When she was here Friday he was 5 lbs. I don't think her gained 10 oz in 2 1/2 days. We visit our Dr. tomorrow for our 1 week check-up. We will see what their scales show. Our Dr's office has given us special privelage to get in the office when we get there. They are scheduling our appointments at non-busy times and someone is going to come and help us get the entire clan in the building. Good accommodations!

Tonight was bath night. It is like an assembly line for us. One, two, three then feed, feed, feed. It is funny how life changes. Nine months ago if you would have told us we would have triplets, I would have thought you were bloody insane. Somehow though it is not as hard as I thought it was going to be. Now don't get me wrong, it isn't a walk in the park. But somehow as each day passes with them, it gets easier and easier. We had some visitors today and I think they were shocked we were so calm and the tribe was sleeping. I think they thought it would be like animal house here or something. Wait until they start crawling and walking around, then we may look more like that.

It is getting late and there is always laundry and dishes to do here at our house now. I think I could fold laundry and wash dishes in my sleep at this point. We really do appreciate everything everyone has done for us and given us. It has helped us out in so many ways. Thank you!

Thank you to the J&J team at RTI..................................

Nicole and I want to thank the J&J team for all the wonderful gifts. It is a true blessing for Nicole to work with such generous people. Everything will be put to good use with the trio.

One month Birthday........................

Today is the one month birthday of the trio. We took some photos of them. Hope you all enjoy.

Getting along so far........................

Olivia and Evan are helping each other out. It was getting close to feeding time and they are sucking on each others fingers. What a good brother and sister. They are adjusting to being at home really well.

Everyone is napping right now except for me. Soon it will be feeding time. We are still working out the logistics of caring for three newborns at the same time, but it is coming along nicely.

Ethan is home now......................................

I was released from the hospital today. I wanted to come home all by myself. The house is really warm with the new Eden Pure heater that dad got us. It keeps everything nice and warm. Dad decorated the tree today because he had all the ornaments on the coffee table. It looks ok but I think it needs something else. I cannot wait until I see my Dr and can get rid of this monitor that I am on. I hope to see everyone as soon as I can.

Evan's homecoming.........................................

I like car rides like my sister. Hopefully my brother will get to come home tomorrow or Friday.

The house is nice. Dad even got us an Eden Pure heater to help keep us warm this winter. Mom and Dad are pretty tired and so am I. Olivia is having a hard time getting to sleep tonight. See you all soon.

Didn't work out as hoped for.........................

As you can probably tell, we didn't all get to come home together. Olivia made it first. Evan is being discharged today and Ethan we hope will be tomorrow. We are on our way up to the NICU now. Nicole is taking care of some things with her Dr. Olivia and I are hanging out in the car. She is sleeping of course. That leaves me available to update all of you on our progress.

Check back tonight for Evan's arrival home photo.

The night after Olivia's homecoming..........................

So we didn't get much sleep last night. Our first night went well. Nicole took the first half of the night and I had the last. It was sort of nerve racking for us. We did well though. Olivia rested pretty well most of the night. I am interested to see how it goes when we get the boys home. It will be a whole new ball game then.

I am going to call about the boys to see if they are coming home today. Will have an update later.

Olivia is home................................................

This is me after my first care ride, it really wore me out. I got to come home today. My brothers have to stay an extra day or two. Dad and Mom decided that it was better for me to come home than do the 24 hour care at the hospital. I really like my new house. Dad showed me around. He even had the Christmas tree up already. He hasn't decorated it yet.

I just ate my dinner and it is time for me to sleep now. Good night everyone!!!!!!!!

Homecoming.......................................

We will be staying in the 24 hour room with all the babies tonight. Olivia will be considered discharged as soon as we say. In an order to keep us all together, they have offered us the 24 hour room. It is a special room for parents and their new babies to stay in for 24 hours. The nurse will still check on the babies that haven't been discharged. Tomorrow morning they will probably discharge both Ethan and Evan if they have no alarms during the night.

Ethan will be coming home on a special monitor that looks for apnea and bradycardia episodes. No of the others require this at this time. We had to have a special class for the monitor. How to use it and things along those lines.

Be checking back for the blog that says, "We are home :)"

Winter hibernation...............................

This is a very exciting time for everyone and we know that there is much anticipation for people to come see the babies. However, under the advisement of our doctors and nurses, it is imperative we maintain a strict visitation policy over the winter months. Our babies were premature and are strong but were not as developed as a regular term baby would be. This is RSV season and this virus can make them very very sick.

We appreciate everyones offers of help and while we will need help, we are asking for the first week please allow us to find our groove as a family. Nicole and I will both be home with the babies for the next week and a half. After that she will be home with them and will probably ask people for help. I know this all seems overcautious. However, we have three little ones depending on us to protect them and we feel this will help protect them over the winter.

We hope that no one gets angry or upset with this decision, but we do want everyone to have a chance to meet the triplets and be a part of their lives.

The night before................................

The stage is set and they are coming home. Evan and Olivia will be coming home tomorrow. They were hoping they would all be on the same day, but Ethan is right on their heels and will probably be coming home the day after. We spent today getting prepared for their departure from the hospital. We had videos to watch about caring for your new baby and how to put your baby to sleep. I was reminded of my days in high school.



We are getting ready to take the bulk of our stuff home from Ronald McDonald right now. We will come back tonight and stay. This is our last night here. We are very excited to be at home with our kids. As Dorothy said, "There is no place like home." Tomorrow we will check out of here and off to the hospital.

Coming home............................................

There is a very strong chance that Evan and Olivia may be coming home together tomorrow. Olivia is most likely coming, but not sure about Evan. As long as everything remained the same over the night, they will both be coming home.

Ethan is starting to get the hang of what he needs to do to come home. He is taking his feedings by bottle much more often. We think that he has a little reflux issue going on and this is just taking him longer to get the hang of everything.

We could all be home by the end of this week or early next week. It is a very exciting time and also scary at the same moment. We will no longer have the nurses there for us. So please be thinking about us as we are going to start the next chapter in this book.

Olivia has the hiccups.......................................

The princess in our family has the hiccups.

Update...............

Evan and Olivia are really taking off with their feedings. Evan doesn't have anymore tubes now. he only has the necessary wires to monitor his stats. He will be coming home in the next week most likely. Olivia will probably not be far behind. These two little ones are eating a lot. They have switched to an ad lib feeding schedule. This means they can eat as much as they want when they want. Within reason of course. Ethan is still working on getting it all together. The eat, breath, and suck technique. He has not had as many De-stats. He is very happy, but not grasping everything he has to do all at the same time.

We are not sure how much longer we will actually be staying at Ronald McDonald. If the hospital doesn't allow Evan to come over and visit during the day after his discharge, we will probably be staying home and traveling back and forth. We have a lot of logistics to figure out.

The invitations have went out. Be checking your mailboxes for them. The party is set for December 5th, 2009 at 11:00 am. It will be held at our church in Dunkirk. Dunkirk Assembly of God 457 W. Patterson St. We look forward to seeing everyone at the shower.

Olivia

My dad left the flash on when he took my picture. It really surprised me.

Evan

My dad is constantly taking pictures.

Ethan

Hi everyone. I am in a really good mood today. All my grandparents came to see us today.

We are doing well..........................

We are all doing very well. Evan is taking to bottles very good. He still receives an occasional feeding through his tube, but for the most part he takes them by bottle. I would say he will definately be home by Thanksgiving. Olivia will be close. She is taking bottles, but not as much as Evan. Ethan is struggling with acid reflux and is having a tougher time. He has had some de-stats. Which means for some reason he forgets to breath and his levels drop. It happens more during the night. I think he just gets into a deeper sleep and some neurons in the brain forget to fire. My theory.

We are going to go home this weekend and get some of their stuff in order. With them possibly coming home in the next two weeks, we realized we have a lot of stuff to get done.

It looks like we are going to get the good nurse again tonight. Nicole has had a bad nurse or two over the last week. Very pushy and sort of bossy. I told her to remember they work for us. Not the other way around.

Our 1st family photo........................................

The awaited picture..................................

So we return from the NICU tonight and I asked Nicole, "where is the camera?" She says, "It is in the NICU." I told her I have a lot of people asking where the picture is. She apologizes to everyone and says you will just have to wait one more day. I did not feel like venturing back to the NICU for the camera tonight. Sorry!

Olivia's upgrade................

Olivia has bee upgraded to an open crib. Everyone is continuing to do well.

Will have that special picture later.

We are doing really good..................

Ethan and Evan will not be in their preemie clothes very long. Their legs are too long for the clothes. They are probably going to switch over to newborn in the next few days. They didn't get to wear hardly any of their preemie outfits. Who would of thought they would be so long.

With preemie clothes being too small. We are asking people to not send any preemie or newborn clothes. With the way they are eating and growing there is just no way they will be in any of that for very long. If you want to get us something please do something seasonally appropriate and at a minimum of 0 to 3 months. We do appreciate everything everyone has sent us. I don't know what we would do without everyones generosity.

Thank you to The Right Thing, Nicole's company, they sent us a box of RTI bibs, hats, and outfits. We did not expect to receive this. It is very cute. We are going to let the trio be unpaid spokespeople for the company, afterall it is The Right Thing :)

We also received a generous supply of size 1 diapers from Procter and Gamble. They donated a bunch of items to the health center and we received a good supply. Another item that we are in good supply of.

Everyone is doing very well here. Nicole and I actually went to our house and accomplished a few tasks. We realized how much we need to get done before the kids come home.

Stay tuned will probably have a special photo tomorrow for everyone.

Evan was upgraded to an open bed.......

Evan was upgraded to an open air bed. We went to get a cover for a boppy pillow and when we returned he had a new bed. She said he peeed everywhere. So, they decided to change his bed.

Upgraded to an open bed..........

Ethan was upgraded to an open bed today. Both the boys are off the IVs. Olivia is allowed to be put on a portable monitor so that she can come visit in their room. She has another roommate. They are doing really really well. They all three got put to the nipple today. Not much action, mostly slept. But it is a start.

Olivia

Evan

Ethan

Olivia is off the IV................

Olivia is off of her IV. Next week they will try giving her a bottle and see how she does. The boys will probably be losing the IVs in the next few days and follow the same plan. They are growing up so fast. :)

It has been awhile....................

Olivia is off her nasal cannula and she will be off her IV today or tomorrow. Evan came off his cannula yesterday. They are hoping that the boys will come off their IVs in the next few days. Ethan and Evan are over their birth weights. Olivia is not far away and will probably pass it soon.

They think they will be home by Thanksgiving. Most likely they will come home one at a time. Actually, Olivia is doing so well they suspect that she will be the first to come home.

I have been commuting back and forth between Lima and Toledo. The drive is not too bad. A little boring.

Thank you Courtney for all the soda pop tops. I don't know how you collected so many so quickly. It is really good for the house.

They are planning on a baby shower on December 5th. Everyone please mark your calendars and be looking for your special invitation in the mail.

We appreciate all the gifts, thoughts, and prayers from everyone.

Please check back for more news.

One week birthday..............................

Today will be their one week birthday. It is hard to believe it has only been a week since they were born. It seems a lot longer ago. Everyone is doing well. Nicole and I received some much needed rest. I think the fall back helped with that. We were laughing because Nicole's 28th birthday is today and she has three kids now. It just seems funny to us.

We are getting ready to go up and see the babies. Have an update later.