The girls first Christmas

We had a great first Christmas this year with our girls, they seemed to be interested in the unwrapping of the gifts more than the gifts themselves. They would watch us as we tore into their packages for them, but that was about as exciting as it got for them. They got tons of great stuff like some matching outfits, diapers, toys, etc.

We as parents are exhausted after all of the festivities and in much need of some sleep, maybe this weekend we can catch up. Here is a family shot in front of the tree at my mom's house.

5 Months

I cannot believe that the girls will be 5 months old on Thursday (Christmas Eve). They bring so much joy to us with their giggles and smiles. It seems that each day their smiles and giggles increase. We are so thankful for this Holiday season and for having such healthy and happy little girls to share it with.

As my last post indicated the girls are eating some solids, if you call rice cereal with formula 'solids'. Scott says Emma acts like a little bird when you feed her and he is right, she just waits for her turn with her mouth open and her head titled back. If you don't get to her fast enough she will let you know. Olivia does not like this new food, but we have found that if you add a small tsp of apple juice to it she will lick her lips and eat some, she still makes the funniest faces though. Savannah eats her food but she doesn't seem to beg for more like Emma, she will eat what she is given unless she would rather talk like last night. She is such a talker that we have trouble feeding her sometimes because she would rather talk and she can't talk if she has a bottle. So sometimes we have to wait 15 minutes to feed her so she can finish talking.

Here are a few pictures that I took with my co-worker who was so sweet to drop by with her professional camera to get a few christmas shots with the girls.

Emma:


Olivia:


Savannah:

12/15/09 - The Triplets Eat Solids

I'm not sure you can call Rice cereal solids, at least not the mixture we conjured up last night. We were so fortunate to have some help, our friends Jen-Lynn and Larry come over on Tuesdays to help out at the 9pm feeding so it worked out well to try it out last night. Unfortunately Jen-Lynn was coming down with a cold, but Larry still came, I love how excited he was about this new adventure. I know Scott and I had both been looking forward all day to seeing the girls react to this new thing. So here were our predications on how it would go down (all 3 of us agreed that this is how they would react)

Emma: She would love it and be very good at eating it (she may be the over-achiever)

Olivia: She would eat it maybe not love it but at least it was food and she does love her food (she weighs the most and for good reason)

Savannah: She probably would not eat it and would probably want nothing to do with it, we didn't think she would fuss but figured she would try to turn her head away from us like saying, no thank you (she is our most laid back and we figured it would take her a while to have any interest in this new thing).


So we were wrong on our predications, though not so much on Emma, these were the results:
Emma - she got the hang of it immediately and ate everything we gave her and seemed to keep begging for more.

Olivia - she took the first bite and when I went to give her the next she spit the first bite back out and let it roll down her chin. The second bite and pretty much all bites after that landed back on the bib. She made the funniest faces too.

Savannah - she really suprised us, she decided that she liked this new stuff and she caught on very fast, she ate all the bites we gave her.

12/15/09 - 4 Month Dr. Visit

Today the babies went to the doctor for their 4 month check-up. Everyone is doing great! The nurse that took us back to our room said she was really suprised that they actually look just like 4 month olds they bring back. Then when the doctor saw them he said he would have never guessed they had been premature. They are right on target for everything, height, weight, and even developmentally!


We are so blessed and are constantly amazed at these miracles God has given us. We would never have guessed that they would catch up so fast, usually it takes up to 2 years for a premature baby to catch up on everything, but our God is awesome and has really placed His hand upon our little girls. We are so thankful to everyone who continues to pray for our miracles.


Here are the girls waiting in the waiting room:



Their new weights are:

Emma - 11lbs 12oz, height 24.25in - this puts Emma in the 10% for weight and 50% for height
Olivia - 12lbs 12oz, 25in - this puts Olivia in the 50% for weight and 75% for height!
Savannah - 12lbs 4oz 24.25in - this puts Savannah in the 25% for weight and 50% for height


Emma, Olivia, and Savannah waiting on the doctor:



On another note, Monday night (right after I published the blog about Emma and Olivia laughing a lot) Savannah gave us her first laugh, it is music to our ears so cute. We didn't catch her on tape that night but here she is tonight talking and smiling, she has found her voice in the last few days and it is adorable here is the video:

The Triplets Meet Santa

I am trying to get better about writing more frequently. We are really starting to get the hang of the triplet parenting thing. It is exhausting but it is becoming more and more rewarding. Both Emma and Olivia have started laughing out loud, it is so cute. You should see Scott and I try to make them laugh, it is probably a pretty funny to just watch us.

We wanted the girls to meet Santa this year, but we have had mixed feelings on taking them to the mall as we are trying to stay as germ-free as possible. Our doctor is actually more worried about the flu this year than RSV which is surprising. When one of us leaves the house we have to wash up once we get back before picking up the girls. This is hard for me because when I get home from work they smile at me and I can't pick them up right away.

So instead of taking them to the mall we opted to take them to the Charlotte Moms of Multiples Christmas event. They had a very good Santa at this event and we got to take lots of pictures of them. They did great sitting together but when we tried to get pictures of each one individually it was a little more traumatic. Savannah looked horrified and Olivia just cried and cried. Santa tried to console her it was so sweet. Emma was a great picture taker as always, here are a few pictures:
Emma:

Olivia crying and being comforted:

Savannah looks a little terrified

Here is the group shot with Santa:

Who's Crib is This

Ok so tonight when I was putting the girls to bed something funny happened. I first took Olivia up and tucked her in, then I came back downstairs for Savannah and I took her up and put her in her crib and she had this really funny look on her face. I actually said, "Savannah what is wrong", about 2 seconds after I said that I realized it was Emma that I had just put in Savannah's crib and not Savannah. I laughed and picked her up and put her in her own crib and I think she knew what mommy had done because once I got her in the right crib she gave me a sweet smile as if to say, it's ok mommy I love you anyway.

Poor girls, I am sure there is a lot more mixing up to come.

Nov. 22nd - 4 months

The girls will be four months old on Tuesday, it is amazing how fast the time has gone. They are growing so fast and we are enjoying every minute. About 3 weeks ago the girls started consistently sleeping through the night. They go to bed around 10 and sleep til about 7:30 or sometimes 8, it is awesome to be able to sleep at night again. With Scott's mom gone we have had to become more efficient with some things like feeding, we have a great system down and can get them all feed in 30-45 minutes.

We are enjoying all of their smiles and we even heard our first laugh today from little Emma, it was so cute, I was tickling her belly and face with my hair while changing her diaper and all of a sudden she laughed, it was so sweet. They are much more interactive now and have lots of facial expressions, I think they are starting to notice their sisters more too.

Scott and I are very excited about the holidays that are coming up quickly.

Here are some Halloween pictures of each:

Emma:




Olivia:




Savannah:






Here is a recent picture I took of all three.

Cuddles Fur - This is a funny story

Ok so yesterday morning I went to get the girls up before leaving for work and I noticed on Emma's crib bumper that there was fur, I was like how in the world did our cat Cuddles manage to climb into Emma's crib and more importantly when was she in there. Just as a little background here, our cat cuddles does not have claws and cannot jump very high not to mention she has absolutely 0 tolerance and interest in the babies. The fact that they are in her house perturb her.

Anyway so then I look at Olivia and Savannah's crib and I notice that there is more hair in theirs, but Emmas is the worse. I call Scott in to take a look and he decides that the only possible way she could get in them was from jumping from a fold-up chair onto Savannahs and then jumping in between (sounds like a lot of work to me). So we removed the chair and asked Haley (the nanny) to wash their linens. We made sure Cuddles did not go in their room anymore. Oh but the story continues...

So then today I woke up and went into their room and picked up Emma to take her downstairs and low and behold if there wasn't more fur, except this time I noticed that the only place that had this 'fur' was right underneath her head, then it occured to me this is not Cuddles fur this is Emma fur, she is losing her hair! So I looked at the other cribs and yes that is exactly what it was very fine baby hair, it was so sad, but funny.

Poor Cuddles got blamed for something she did not do, we gave her extra treats :)

10/23 - 3 months

The girls are continuing to do great. They are all smiling now and interacting with us more. Here is a little about more about each girl

Emma:


Emma is our smallest, it seems that she will likely be petite as she has very delicate features. She has the most facial expressions and it is funny to watch her. Emma really watches and studies everything, we think she picks up on things pretty fast. For example, sometimes just seeing you come into the room can make her stop crying, but if you go to pick up someone else she gets upset. Tuesday night Emma was our first (and so far only) baby to roll over, she and her sisters were lying in the pack-in-play for 'tummy time' and Olivia started crying (not a very unusual scene) but when I peeked over at them I saw that Emma had rolled over and was touching her, lol.

Olivia:

As evidence from the scene above, I think Olivia is very dramatic about everything already, she may be our drama queen. She is still the biggest and tallest, we think she will be very tall. Last time at the doctor's she was in the 50th percentile for height and she was 6 weeks early! Olivia is and always has been the most alert, she has the biggest eyes that just look around all the time and observe everything, she is cute to watch and if you can make her life she gets a huge giggle look on her face.

Savannah:

Savannah likes to study her sisters, she is usually very content and just watches them. She has a lot of expressions with her eyes. When her sisters cry she gives them this sideways glance that makes you think she is saying, 'what is your problem' it is too funny. Sometimes her and Olivia will 'get into it'. Like last night Olivia was crying and so Savannah started crying, and seriously every time we got Olivia quiet Savannah would stop crying but as soon as Olivia made even one noise Savannah would do the same. Savannah was trying to go to sleep so it was like she was being annoyed by her sister, it was funny watching them egg each other on.

As everyone knows Halloween is coming soon, the girls are going to be pumpkins. at their age there really isn't much to choose from. We are going to take them by some of the neighbors in the new triple decker stroller, it will be fun. My niece and nephew are also going to come join in the fun.

Mom and Dad are doing well, the girls are sleeping about 6 hours at night so that really helps us to get some sleep. We are hoping they will be able to stretch that out just a little longer soon. We are sad that Scott's mom will be leaving us next week, but we are so thankful for the time she has spent here with us.

9/24 -- 2 months old

I know that this is a long overdue update, can you believe that they are 2 months old today? The time has really flown by, mostly because we stay super duper busy all the time. On Monday a nurse came out to weigh the girls and their new weights are:
Emma 8lbs
Olivia 8lbs 8oz
Savannah 8lbs 2oz

They are much more alert and awake now, which makes things more fun sometimes but also more frustrating. It seems that when they are awake if one of them decides to cry the others think it will be fun to join in (not fun for mommy and daddy). It is funny because sometimes if we can get one to stop crying they will all stop, but then sometimes they will continue until everyone has had their turn at being held. We are working on getting them on a good schedule during the day so they will be awake at the same time and then nap at the same time.

You can already tell that they are going to have very different personalities. Emma is pretty laid back and easily comforted. Olivia is the most alert and playful but she is the one that likes to be held the most and let's you know when she is not happy about being put down, she is our cuddler. Savannah is usually very content, but she has a temper and she can wail the loudest, often times setting off her alarm. Speaking of alarms, both Emma and Savannah have been doing great and we have had very few instances of 'real' alarms and the instances seem to be slowly diminishing.

We have had many visitors over the past month including Scott's brother and sister-in-law and their new baby Dominic, he is 2 weeks older than the girls, but he looks huge compared to them. Also Scott's dad was able to see them for the first time this past weekend. Here is a picture of Scott's parents with all the girls:

Here is a picture of my parents with my girls and Stephanie's children (Jesse and Bethany):

The girls have made a few outings now that we have bought a minivan. Before purchasing the minivan it took two cars to take the girls anywhere, but now we can all fit into one vehicle. We bought a used Honda Odyssey and are really enjoying the extra room it provides for us and the girls and all their stuff, lol.

Other than lack of sleep Scott and I are doing well, we have even managed to escape to dinner twice (once on our anniversary even). This is my first week back at work. I am working full-time but and am able to work from home some. Scott is still working full-time, but his contract with Wachovia will expire at the end of the year so he is looking for something more permanent.

I want to thank everyone that has helped us in adjusting to this new exciting (but very tiring) life. We are very grateful for the hot meals many of you have brought. We are especially grateful to Scott’s mom for staying with us and helping with everything, including midnight/early morning feedings.

Here are some recent pictures of the girls:

Emma:

Olivia:

Savannah:

Our little Pumpkin Patch: Emma on bottom left, Olivia on bottom right, Savannah on top:

8/25 - Life with triplets

This will be a lengthy update since it has been a while since we have been able to write. First let me just say that everyone is home and doing well. As of today we had to put Emma on a monitor so her and Savannah are both on monitors for apnea/bradycardias. Here are the details on everyone:

Savannah was able to join us on Wednesday, August 19th. We had originally thought that she would come home on Saturday the 15th but she had another bradycardia, it was severe enough that she needed stimulation and choked on her reflux so they wanted to keep her a few more days. This episode had occurred right after her formula feeding (they all get 2 formula feedings a day for the extra calories) so we asked if that could be causing these episodes. It appears that several of the episodes were followed by formula feedings so we switched her to all breast milk with 2 feedings of fortified (adding a powder for extra calories). She has done great with this and has not had any of these episodes. We did opt to bring her home on the monitor though so that we would be able to monitor her more closely. Here are some pictures of the homecoming:

Last Thursday the 20th everyone went to the doctor together, wow that was quite the experience. We still have not purchased a van so we had to take 2 cars, just the logistics of everything was a nightmare, we have not been anywhere since! The girls weights are now:

Emma - 5lbs 8oz
Olivia - 5lbs 15oz
Savannah - 5lbs 9oz

Emma's story begins yesterday when after her feeding at 6pm she choked on her food, we are very fortunate that my mom was here and watching the girls, I had only gone to take a pee break when I heard my mom calling Emma's name and I came running only to see that she had started to turn blue, it was very scary but before I could make it to her, my mom had already gotten her to start breathing. Needless to say no one slept last night as we waited for her appointment today. She is fully recovered from the spell now, but we do have her on a monitor and also on reflux medicine which is what seems to be the underlying problem.

As for me in the midst of all the chaos I have contracted mastitis which makes me achy, feverish, and tired (basically I feel like I have the flu), I am on antibiotics now and trying hard to recover.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support during this difficult but rewarding time. We have had some great helpers (Scott's mom, Elissa, my parents, my sisters, etc.) and some great food from neighbors, friends and family. We could not be doing this without you all, I think we may have underestimated how hard this would be but everyone has been so great and we are grateful!

On a much lighter note, last week my "College Mom" Elissa decided it was time for a photo shoot. She had gone out and bought these adorable white gowns for the girls and then she posed them, here are some of the results that Lynn (my MIL) was able to capture (aren't they awesome)

(left to right - Emma, Olivia, Savannah)

8/13 - First Nights Home

First let me say thank you to everyone who has already helped out, we have had some awesome meals and terrific help. My mom has been staying with us to help out and it has truly been a blessing I am not sure we would still be sane without her. Also, we have been eating very well and believe me we would probably have been eating PB&Js everynight had it not been for all the help we have already received.


Emma and Olivia have adapted well to life at our house, we have put them on the same eating schedule as Savannah so that when she comes home it won't be hard to get everyone eating together. They eat at 9,12,3,6,9 during the day. The night time feedings have been hit or miss, one night they only got up to eat once, but every other night it has been a few times and then someone (they take turns) won't go back to sleep. This is not much different than what we expected but we are a little nervous about adding the third one, we only have so many hands, lol. Funny story about the first night, we got them up at midnight to eat and Emma did not eat much but Olivia ate most of her bottle. Scott then put them back in their bassinets but Emma was fussy and seemed hungry so I got her up and let her eat some more, half way through the bottle I realize that it wasn't Emma I was feeding but Olivia and the little booger was eating again!


Emma and Olivia went to the doctor on Tuesday, Emma was 5lbs and Olivia 5lbs 8oz so they have both grown a good bit. We have another appointment tomorrow so hopefully they are still gaining weight. Here are a few pictures of them coming home:

Thank you for the extra prayers for our little Savannah, she is still having a few bradycardias and so today we and the neonatologist decided that we should bring her home on a monitor. We are ready to have everyone home and if she didn't come home on the monitor it could still be weeks before she was released. We are hoping to bring her home this weekend. We can't even begin to tell you how excited we will be to have our family all together and home. It is funny though, because it feels like our journey is really just beginning.

The hospital also took some newborn pictures of the girls, feel free to check out their pictures:
http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=fb0cbb6e-cabb-46ad-95ac-ae06be170964

8/9 - Coming Home

The big day has arrived, tomorrow Emma and Olivia will be coming home from the NICU! We are so excited to have our girls coming home, but also very sad that Savannah will have to stay at the NICU alone. We had thought that maybe they would all get to come home together, however Savannah has had a few spells of bradycardia which is where her heartrate slows down for a few seconds. We have been there twice when it has happened and it is scary, please pray for her and also for her sisters that they will not have any spells. The bradycardia is very common in premature infants and the doctors have reassured us that she is very healthy and just needs to grow a little more. Currently their weights are: Emma 4lbs 12oz, Olivia 5lbs 2oz, Savannah 4lbs 8oz.

Scott and I had a chance to spend the night last night at the hospital with Emma and Olivia, it was just an opportunity to do everything ourselves but in a controlled environment. We made it through the night with very little sleep but everyone was feed and clean at the end. We realize now how much help we will need, the girls eat every 3 hours but it takes almost an hour for them to eat even with 2 people getting them ready, that left less than 2 hours for us to sleep in between. Many of you have offered to help when the time came, and now it is here. My sister put together a website for us to help us organize meals and occasional yard work and house work. Please visit our site at: carecalendar.org, the calendar id is 13609 and the security code is: 8878. If you have any questions or would like to help in another way, please feel free to email my sister Amanda Williams at williams614@ymail.com.

Here are some new pictures of the girls:

8/4/2009 - Sarah is back

Hi, this is Sarah again. Scott has done a great job keeping everyone up to date, but now I get to tell a little bit more from my view.

I am now on bloodpressure medicine and it is helping but it is still a little high, they will continue to watch it but think it is temporary. My swelling is still very bad especially in my feet and legs. My incision is slowly healing, but on a more interesting note, we found out that even though my incision is a bikini cut on the outside, they actually cut my uterus up and down like a classical c-section. So this explains why the healing process has been a little different than a typical c-section.

I was so blessed in the hospital (both times) with visitors, gifts, flowers, etc. Scott got me the cutest 'push' present it is a ring with 3 rubies (July's birthstone) and each girl's name engraved. He was getting very nervous that the babies may come in August and ruin his plans, lol! Here is a picture:

Also my mom got me a shirt that said, "Sometimes when you pray for a miracle you get three" and Scott's mom provided lots of the preemie clothes so the NICU has been so kind to dress our girls everyday. They look so cute all dressed.

Now for an update on the girls. The girls are now all in 'big girl' beds this means they are in the regular bassinets that all babies are in after birth. The only thing left is to have their feeding tubes removed. Savannah's tube was removed on Sunday but only because she kept taking it out. The nurses said they will leave it out until she refuses to finish her bottle, which has not happened yet. All the girls are a little past their birth weight now, they are growing so fast. We are hoping to have some or all of them home later next week.

On Sunday I was very sad that I had not had a chance to hold all my girls at the same time, so that evening we asked the nurses if they could arrange that for us and they did! Here are the first pictures of our family:

7/30/2009 - Sarah is admitted to the hospital

After I posted the last blog, things quickly changed for us. Sarah had a follow-up blood pressure check with her OB on Thursday, her mom had spent the night and took her to the hospital to see the babies and to get her bloodpressure check per the orders when she was released on Tuesday. When they took her bloodpressure it was at a very dangerous level, in fact the nurse thought she had made a mistake and had another nurse double check, they told her she could not leave the office or go see the babies until she saw the doctor. They ran some lab work and went through everything in her file. They wanted to rule out pre-eclempsia which was what she had been admitted for before the babies. Though post partum pre-eclempsia is rare it does still happen. Once they could rule that out they could treat her high blood pressure with oral medicine.

Finally around 3pm they decided that it looked like it was just high blood pressure but with numbers like that they could not send her home. So they admitted her to the Matthews hospital and started her on bloodpressure medication. They told her it would be at least 24 - 48 hours before they would consider releasing her. Today they did more blood work and saw something a little concerning so we are here for another night.

As for the babies all of them are doing great, they are right across the hall from Sarah so I get to see them a lot which has been nice. I read them books at night and go over during feedings. Sarah has been able to see them and even breastfeed several times today. The nurses say that Olivia looks a lot like Sarah and that Savannah looks like me (but cuter). The neonatologist also came in this morning and said that he thinks they will be here for another week at least, and only because they need to grow some more. They are almost all back up to their birthrates and will hopefully quickly continue to gain weight and eat all their meals. We love seeing their little personalities come out: Emma is vocal and they call her 'wild woman'. Olivia is very laid back and sleeps a lot. Savannah is our cuddler and our smallest. They have started dressing them in the premie outfits that we brought in, here are a few pictures:

7/29/09 -- 5 days old

Scott here again. Sorry it has been so long since Sarah or I have updated the blog. We can't begin to thank everyone for their support and encouragement throughout Sarah's pregnancy and also now. We appreciate all your prayers and support. Everyone is doing great, but we had a small setback with Sarah on Saturday. She started feeling poorly and then became very sick that night, throwing up several times. They had to restart the IV and confine her to bed for the next 12 hours. She did not get to see the babies on Saturday and that was very hard.

On Sunday things started looking better and she was able to go down and see the babies. We also enjoyed a few visitors on Sunday and Monday. On Monday they told us that if we were interested the babies could be moved to Matthews hospital, they were overcrowded downtown and felt that our babies would benefit from being closer to us and at a facility that wasn't as crowded. We talked to the neonatologist and the benefits to us being able to see the babies more were definitely worth the move. By Tuesday they decided Sarah was well enough to be discharged and they were also ready to move the babies. The babies left in an ambulance at the same time Sarah was discharged, Scott went straight to Matthews hospital to make sure they arrived. Here are a few pictures of them packed up for the trip.

Here is Emma and Savannah rooming together

Here is Olivia all packed up

The decision to move them was a great thing for the babies. As it turns out they are the only babies at the NICU in Matthews and so instead of one nurse they have two. The care they receive is just as good and it is a lot easier for Sarah and I to visit them since they are so much closer. The nurses were so excited since this was the first set of triplets ever to spend time in the NICU there.
This morning we went to Matthews and saw the babies, they are doing well. They do have some jaundice so they are getting photo therapy for a few days, they look so cute in their little diapers and very comfy. They did great at feeding today, Emma and Savannah are great at breast-feeding already!

Here are some new pictures of the babies

Nana Marrow with Savannah

Grandma Roux with Savannah

Scott and Emma

Sarah with Olivia and Savannah

Aunt Stephanie with Emma

Amanda feeding Olivia