Spending time with our Great Grandparents..............

We slept in our beds all night......................

These smiling faces slept in their cribs all night for the first time. They had been sleeping in bassinets up until now. Evan went down with relative ease. Ethan was a bit more challenging. I would rock him to sleep and then lay him down and instantly awake. Finally I just laid him down and left him. He fussed for awhile, about 20 minutes but later gave up and went to sleep. He turned himself in the bed as you can see. Olivia still gets up through the night occasionally so she will remain in the bassinet until she can sleep completely through the night.

Ethan cannot decide if he likes the cereal or his hand better. He really made it a challenge to feed him.

Saturday morning with the gang.............

Saturday morning with the gang. The boys don't like to help with the laundry. Olivia didn't mind. We enjoy these mornings when we can all hang out together.

Cereal for the boys.................

The trio went for their four month check-up on Tuesday this week, they are all doing really good according to Dr. Freshwater. Evan is 13 lb 7 oz, Ethan 13 lb 6 oz, and Olivia is 10 lb 1 oz. He gave us the OK to start the boys with rice cereal. He wants us to wait for Olivia for a little bit longer. He said they are actually catching up to a normal full term baby quite well. As you can tell from the above picture, Evan absolutely loved the cereal. Ethan did well too, but not as messy with it surprisingly. We don't go back for two months.

After the appointment Tuesday, we went with the trio to Max and Erma's for dinner. They did really well on our 3rd trip to a restaurant. They slept for the most part. The boys were awake for a little while, but slept the majority of the time. We naturally got stared at. A fact of life that we are going to have to get used to. Someone told me we should get T-shirts printed that say, YES! They are triplets, YES! We wanted them, and YES! We can tell them apart. The last is funny to me since we have two boys and a girl.

The kids are getting so long. They are moving to larger size clothes merely for the length. There is only an inch between them all with Ethan being the longest followed by Evan and finally Olivia.

Gloria (Nicole's Grandma) is doing very well with the babies in the day time. They have worked out a nice time schedule for themselves.

On an odd note for all the dads that have to do the dishes at their house, invest in the Dawn Power Brush. It is an absolute lifesaver. Takes all the work on. We received one as a gift and I don't know how I did dishes before without it. It doesn't make doing the dishes fun, but it sure does make it a whole lot easier. And with the triplets, we can always use items that make life easier for us.

Nicole pointed out to me that I sometimes repeat myself in my postings. I forget what I posted the last time and realize now that I occasionally re post the same thing. New things are always going on but sometimes with all that is going on it gets difficult to keep everything straight all of the time.

Update on Ethan crossing his eyes, Dr. Rosenthal said, "that is a good thing as long as he doesn't hold them that way for a long time or they stay that way." He also said, "Ethan has realized he has two eyes and that he is more developed."

The video is of Evan and how he has found his thumb. They are all learning and exploring the world around them so much. The other night I read from Mother Goose to the boys (Olivia was sleeping) for quite awhile. They just sat for the longest time listening to me read the stories to them. After some time it was time to fuss. That ended the reading session.

New puppets for us.......................

We were visited by all of our grandparents this week. We really enjoyed seeing them. Our special friends got us these wonderful puppets. We really enjoy playing with them.

Olivia sometimes sounds like a little kitty. This has earned her the nickname Miss Kitty. She was really making noise this morning, but of course once you get the camera ready it turned to tears.

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

The babies received their synagis shots this week. Olivia cried like never before. Nicole said you would have thought someone had cut her little arm off. She also had her eye check-up, continual improvement. She goes back in a month for another check.

The trio were visited by both sets of their grandparents this week. They really enjoyed seeing them. Will get some new pics up of them tomorrow or Sunday.

The latest and greatest..................

Tomorrow the trio gets their last synagis injections. These are the shots that help protect against RSV. The next day Olivia gets her eyes checked again. On Friday the Help Me Grow people return for another visit. They are really keeping us busy and they are not even in any extracurricular activities yet.

When Olivia gets her eyes checked again, we are going to ask Dr. Rosenthal about Ethan crossing his eyes quite a bit. He crosses them very frequently and it has become a little worrisome. Next week they go for their four month check up with Dr. Freshwater. We are really anxious to see how much they are weighing now. Evan is like our little butterball turkey. They all are gaining weight but Evan seems much heavier. They are continuing to do new things on a daily basis. In the last few weeks they have realized they can put their hands in their mouths. Just tonight we were on the floor playing on the mat and they were absolutely infatuated with the mirror on top. All three of them were studying that mirror trying to figure it out. I have read several books to them and Ethan will just sit and soak it all in. The boys are sleeping through the nights almost every night. Olivia sleeps halfway through. She is not taking as much formula as the boys and I don't think it can sustain her for that long of a period.

Each day when I get home from work I wonder what new things they have figured out today. I told Nicole just tonight that I cannot wait when they can put their little arms around us and give a little hug. Nicole and I really cannot complain about our babies, they have been good. We didn't have to deal with colic. There were several nights we both thought how are we going to get through this, but we made it. I always love when people ask how we do it with three babies. My response to them is how do you do it with one. You do it! We have no choice but to do it, they rely on us for their needs. I just cannot understand the logic of some people. It doesn't make sense. Yeah there is one more of them than us, but we come up with creative ways of dealing with them.

It is getting late and there is always something to do around the Camper household, will have more pics or update soon.

Happy Valentine's Day......................

Day off with the kids.....................

We got to spend the day with the kids on Wednesday due to the snow. The trio was very excited when we told them we got to stay home. See pics above. We had a good time.

Mom wouldn't let us go outside to enjoy the snow, we could only watch from inside. Next year we are definitely going out into the snow.

Weekend Winter pics..........................

Snow storm................

Ohio was hammered Friday and Saturday with a snow storm. We didn't realize that we didn't have enough formula to make it through the day on Saturday. This forced me to brave the elements to go to Kroger and get some formula. It took awhile for me to clean the drive out, but I made it to the store and back with no problems.

The boys and I spent the rest of the day in bed. Nicole and Olivia spent the day on the couch all day. We all got to catch up on our sleep today. It was really nice to just relax and catch up on sleep. We need more snow days so we can spend the day bonding like today.

More photos....................

You have all been wondering................

You probably have all been wondering what is going on with those Camper's, we are still hanging in there. The babies are getting a lot bigger and are now requiring more time. They are no longer sleeping most of the days away. Each and every day they are becoming more alert to their environment. The boys hanging out together.

Sleeping before going to church. The boys sweaters were a little small, but they had to wear them at least once.


Olivia is telling everyone hello.

Ethan and Olivia are over this picture thing.

We have had a lot going on these past two weeks, for starters the kids asked for the car keys and when we said no, they decided to break our garage door and swing like monkeys in our closet and break the shelves down. No, they didn't really ask for the keys to the car, but the other two things did happen. The garage door and the closet decided to have mishaps on the same exact day. Luckily the garage man fixed the garage door, but the closet was up to me. I just finished it tonight and it looks really good. Fresh coat of paint and brand new shelving.

The babies are doing really well. Ethan is now off the apnea monitor. He was discontinued last Monday. They were really impressed with how well he is doing. Olivia continues to get her eyes examined to watch for changes. They are still improving and she shows no signs of needing any additional treatment. Evan is still hanging in there, besides his reflux issues, we have not had any real problems with him. We hope to continue that streak. As I said earlier, they are really becoming alert to their environment. They are beginning to interact more with us and developing their motor skills.

Because they were premature we qualified for the Help me Grow program with the State of Ohio, it is a program that monitors them developmentally. They will measure them in certain categories to make sure they are not falling behind, if we find they need help in a certain area we are set-up with the necessary folks to help us. It is a no cost program to us directly. Obviously it is probably tax payer funded, but I think it is a good program to monitor little premature babies for developmental issues that they may have.

Nicole I believe is happy to be back to work most days. I think she finds it to be a nice release to have adult conversations with people and not just have 3 little ones looking at you. She is working nearly forty hours every week and we are trying to find our groove with that. What I mean by that is we had a nice balance with work loads around the house to get our chores done. Now with both of us working 40 hours every week, it has become a little more trying to balance work and home. I know that we will get it. Sooner than later would be nice.

I apologize to everyone about my lapse of weeks in an update. Like I said there has been a lot to deal with. I am the bookkeeper for our church and our desktop computer crashed, which had all my records on it. This caused me to spend several days over the past two weeks scrambling to get things done in time for our annual business meeting. With a little help I managed to make it. I will try to be more astute in getting updates and photos up on the blog. Hopefully we don't have any more mishaps coming our way anytime soon.

I look forward to everyone's comments on how big the babies are getting.

A long time...............

We had a rough weekend this past weekend. Nicole was not feeling well Friday night and Evan and Olivia were not well on Saturday and Sunday. It was a rough weekend. This did not warrant me time to give updates to everyone. Nicole and the babies are doing well now.

Nicole went back to work Monday. She was supposed to go to the office, but an employee at RTI went to work with bacterial meningitis. The president of the company sent out an e-mail that told employees if they do not want to come to the office for a few days they could work from home. Nicole worked from home on Monday and Tuesday. She went back to the office today.

Olivia goes tomorrow for her check-up on her eyes. Ethan goes next week for his appointment with the pulmonologist. My hopes are to get rid of this apnea alarm.

I will try to get some new pics up because the babies are getting so big!!!!!

Olivia follow up.......

She is not out of the woods yet, but her retinas continue to show improvement. She returns in another week to check on her progress. He said they looked better but wanted to keep checking up on her.

Olivia has an appointment...........

Olivia has an appointment today for her eyes. They are doing another check-up to see if additional surgery will be needed. We get to travel in the snow storm that is currently gripping the area. Hooray! Please note the sarcasm. Will have an update later to let everyone know the results.

New Year's Eve.................

We would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. We spent a good part of the evening sleeping, but then the trio decided we should party a little. Luckily we all woke up just before the ball was to drop and watched it. I hope everyone enjoys the photos of the little ones in their New Year caps.

Olivia goes again this week for a follow up on her eyes. The Dr. doesn't think she will need another type of operation on her eyes, but he said if he knew for sure he would not be having us come back. So they will continue to monitor her eyes to make sure that the retina does not begin to pull up off the wall of the eye. We have found another concern with Olivia, with her left hand pinkie finger. We thought it was cute that she would hold her little pinkie out, but recently realized that she does not really bend the finger at all. It seems that she has no motor control in that finger. We are going to have Dr. Freshwater evaluate it and see what we should do. We probably won't know how much function she will have until she gets older. Please be thinking of little Olivia.

Olivia and I are waiting to see the Dr.. She is dialated and just sleeping. It is very busy here today. Will have update later.

Bath time.............

Olivia

Ethan

Evan

Waiting for our bath time.

Olivia with her new stuffed lamb.....

Olivia with her new stuffed animal. She got this for her surgery on her eyes. Mom thought dad bought too big.

Our 1st Christmas............

Our 1st Christmas with Dad and Mom.

New updated look....................

The old look was getting a little old, so we have upgraded to a new look for the new year. Everyone is doing quite well here. Olivia has her follow up appointment tomorrow for her eyes. Hopefully she will get a good report and not need any further laser treatments.

I will be uploading new photos later tonight. Check back soon!!!!!

Unhappy babies....................

Today has been a challenging day with the trio. Evan and Olivia have been very unhappy babies today. We suspect they may be catching a little something. They have really kept the two of us moving today. Hopefully they are just having off days and will be better tomorrow.

Ethan is due at the pulmonoligist at 3 pm tomorrow. I am not sure he will make the appointment with all the snow we are getting. I have to work tomorrow and Nicole is suppose to take him. She is not happy about going to Toledo in the first place, let alone compound it with snow. She just now got a message that the sitter who was going to watch the other two has been quite ill all day today. So now it really looks like the appointment is getting moved. The office we have to go to has a strict policy about cancellations. If you do not show up to your appointment the only way back in is with a personal call from your physician. I guess I am going to have to use some of that Harold fast talk on them.

I know I said I would have more pictures today but it has been a long day and I haven't uploaded them into the computer.

Olivia's surgery................

Olivia had her eye surgery this morning. We arrived back at the NICU at 9am this morning and waited for the Dr to arrive. The Dr. arrived around 10:30 am and completed the laser treatment on the retina's of both eyes. We had to stay an additional four hours for observation. It was a good time for Nicole and I to take naps. At least I took a nap. Every time Nicole would be about asleep, either the nurse would come back or Olivia would let out a little cry. She did fine with the surgery and didn't hardly cry at all. They were surprised how well she did. We were sort of disappointed that the usual nurses we had while there were not on duty. We wanted to show how far she had come in the five weeks since leaving. She left at 3 lbs something and came back at over 7 lbs.

Will have some more Christmas photos up tomorrow probably. Keep checking back.

Christmas Eve 2009.....................

These little reindeer crash landed in our living room.
Olivia dreaming of dancing sugar plums.

Ethan is looking for Christmas cookies under the tree.

When can I open these presents?

We sure are glad it is Christmas. We are looking forward to Santa Claus coming to visit us.

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

Ethan does in fact have an inguinal hernia and will require surgery in the future. At this time we are watching it because it is relatively asymptomatic. Olivia will get surgery on her eyes on Saturday. She has blood vessels growing inward instead of along the wall of the eye. They look for her to have a full recovery and could possibly need glasses in the future, but she is already predisposed for that.

A time for prayer.............

The babies were dedicated on Sunday. The service was very nice and they received personalized bibles from our church. The Pastor that married Nicole and I performed part of the service. It was nice to have him join us again for such a special occasion.

The babies went to Toledo today for their retina checks. The appointment didn't go as well as hoped. The boys are fine, but Olivia has some blood vessels growing inward off her retina. The Dr wants us to go back tomorrow to see another Dr. It may require surgery, but we are not sure at this point. Be praying for little Olivia. Retinopathy of the retina can be quite debilitating if not treated correctly and quick enough.

The trio goes to the family doc in the morning for a check up. Ethan is top priority for the morning appointment. It appears the lad is suffering from a hernia. We have to confirm it with the Dr, but all signs are pointing to that in my opinion. The poor little guy is suffering.

Nicole went to see Dr. Schroeder today, good report. He was happy to see that everything turned out with the delivery and all. He set a goal to get Nicole to 32 weeks and helped achieve that.

We thought things were going really well and then all of a sudden it seems like the walls came tumbling down. So please be praying for us at this time. It is late and has been an exhausting week already. Will have update tomorrow on every one's status.

Photo after the dedication................

Home Alone Part 2..............

I was home alone with the kids today. Nicole went shopping and got everything completed. We didn't do much, just eat and sleep. The nurse was here the other day and gave another dose of synagis. This is the medication that protects against RSV. They were weighed and are at, Ethan 7 lbs 11 oz, Evan 8 lbs 3 oz, and Olivia is 6 lbs 6oz.

Tomorrow is the our big debut in Church. The babies are being dedicated tomorrow. The Pastor that married Nicole and I is going to help with the dedication. Pastor Robinson had been part of a revival at our church in the spring and had prophesied that we would be blessed with children. Not long after that we found out we were having triplets. God works in mysterious ways.

It is getting late and we have a big day tomorrow, will update soon.

Alone with babies................

I am home alone with the babies tonight. Nicole is out getting the Christmas shopping done. I just finished feedings. Ethan got a bath tonight. Olivia still needs one, but I have not decided to do it yet. Evan got his bath a day early due to a "blowout". We are having a good time hanging out watching The Sing Off on NBC.

I had forgot to mention a BIG THANKS to Uncle Tony and Aunt Linda for watching the trips last Friday. They had a really good time spending time with them. Nicole and I are grateful for the generosity that Linda and Tony have exhibited to us. We really appreciate it.

The Triplets will be dedicated this Sunday at Church. We wanted to get it done before the end of the year. God has given us three babies and we feel we should give them back to God.

Ethan is laying on my chest as I am typing this and is lifting his head extremely well. Evan is starting to wake up. I better go and see what is up.

Shopping results...............

The trip went really, really well. The babies slept nearly the enitre time. They woke up once for a feeding and then back to sleep. We went to four stores, but the babies only went into three. The mall was the most interesting of our visits. We were gawked and stared at. I had the double stroller with the boys and Nicole had the single with Olivia. Nicole couldn't help but laugh every time someone would make comments about the Triplets. It was quite amusing. We would be walking down through the mall and you would hear people in the stores say, "Oh those are triplets." The funny part is they really couldn't even see the babies. I was shocked that no one even attempted to get close and touch them. I know some people are probably saying, what are Harold and Nicole thinking. We felt it was OK to take them out this one time. We had decided that we would be firm if people attempted to get closer to them than we felt comfortable with. I know it seems selfish, but we needed an affirmation that, YES we can go somewhere with the kids and be just fine. Are we going to do this often, no. We had faith that they would remain protected.

The babies will get another dose of synagis this week from our visiting nurse. They are continuing to do quite well. Nicole is planning on returning to work on January 11th, 2010. We are continuing to discuss the babysitter issue.

We are planning to get the Christmas photos of the babies this week or early next week. It will be interesting to see how they will do with a photo session. I hope they will do really good. They did really well with the photos in the hospital. They were alert and took excellent photos.

Our 1st trip out with the Trio...............

Today will be out first trip out with them going to a place other than the Dr. We are going to go to the mall and finish up our shopping. There will probably be a lot of staring and glances from people thinking, "Oh my goodness, they have three babies." It will be a challenge taking them out, but we have to do it sometime. Will definitely be giving an update later on how this day was.

The triplets had a lot of fun spending time with Uncle Tony and Aunt Linda Friday night. Nicole and I went to her Work Christmas party. We really appreciate everything they have done for us. They were the 1st sitters that were not immediate family. I think Aunt Linda would have stayed all night if she could have, she enjoyed the little ones so much.

The babies are doing good. Ethan is taking zantac for his reflux issues and it is helping quite a bit. Evan is probably going to have to go on the medicine too. He doesn't reflux as much as Ethan, but when he does it is bad. Poor little guy has it coming out his nose and then wants to hold his breath. Your heart just breaks when it happens. Olivia is a champion at reflux, when it happens you just hear her swallowing it back down and she doesn't really even make a fuss about it.

The boys are right at the threshold of switching to 0/3 months clothes. They are really filling out some of the clothes they have quite nicely right now. Olivia is into newborn, but will probably stay there for a little longer.

We cannot wait for Christmas to be over. The tree takes up a lot of prime real estate in the living room that is desperately needed. The babies need their space. Really the babies need space for all their things.

Whenever we get a visitor in, they always comment on how calm and relaxed it seems at our house. We just laugh and think to ourselve, "Oh if you only knew." Everyone just plans on coming at the most appropriate time. Right after grazing time. They are usually asleep after that. However, it seems like in the past couple of days they will eat and then stay awake for quite awhile afterwards. It is strange how fast they are growing up. We received our hospital pictures in the mail and they have changed in looks a lot. Especially Olivia. She kind of looks like a different baby.

It is nearly 9:30 now and we should probably feed them and hit the road. Will let everyone know how it goes later.

The babies with their animals.....

Here are some darling photos of the babies with their animals. Absolutely adorable.

The babies had a Dr appointment yesterday. Olivia is 5 lb 9 oz, Evan is 7 lb 2 oz, and Ethan is 7 lb. Dr. Freshwater is quite happy with their progress. We go back in two weeks for another check. In two weeks we also go the retina specialist for a check up. All preemies are required to have their eyes checked.

Nicole and I are really tired tonight and we are going to try to get some rest. Yeah right........who are we kidding. We wouldn't trade any of this for anything.

My lateness.................

It has been awhile since my last update. Nicole has been getting a lot of flack for my tardiness. So I returned to work last Monday and the week went slow it seemed like. Returning to work wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I thought I would be totally exhausted during the day, but to my surprise I felt somewhat chipper.

As you can see from our new picture above, the babies are growing like crazy. They don't look like the little babies that came home from the NICU 3 short weeks ago. They are turning in to eating machines. At last weigh in Ethan weighed 6 lb 6 oz, Evan was 6 lb 8 oz, and Olivia was 4 lb 14 oz. With it being a week later I am sure Olivia is well over 5 lb and the boys are hovering around 7 lb.

Nicole had her baby shower yesterday. We received a lot of nice gifts and the turn out was good. There was a scare with the cake, because the gal was half an hour late. I stayed home with the trio. We had a really good morning and afternoon. We ate, slept, and did some chores. Well, we all did the first two and I did the latter alone. After the baby shower and we put most of the stuff away, Nicole's parents came and watched the kids for a couple of hours while we attempted to get some Christmas shopping completed. We bought one person one thing. I wouldn't call this an accomplishment on our part. Now we are trying to figure out the best time for us to get some more shopping complete.

This Friday Nicole's company is having a dinner for the employees and spouses. My Linda is going to watch the babes for us. She is a good friend of Nicole's and mine. We will see how good the party is going to be. The last couple of years we spent the parties in locations such as Las Vegas and Chicago. Bad economy left us in Findlay this year. Hopefully it will still be as fun as it was those times.

As I close my blog for this evening, it is with much sadness and heartache that I tell you Nicole has lost a very close and dear friend to her. Her Linda died this past week quite unexpectedly. Nicole and Linda thought a lot of one another and both started at the Right Thing at the same time. Please pray and be thinking of the Bunda family as they have lost an important part of their family.