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.

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........................................