May 10th, 2009

Hello everyone! Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there! Shara's first Mother's Day has been great. Chad and Sarah came up for the weekend and made a huge breakfast this morning while Shara, her Mom and Mom-mom got to open presents! It was a very good day.

The SD3 are doing well. Drew is chilling at home and has been doing good. It is so great having him here. Just looking at him makes us smile. He has his first pediatrician visit tomorrow, so he gets another car ride!! He has been very active and loves his new Boppy Bouncer seat!

Julia has had a very good weekend. She had an awesome nurse yesterday that took the time to work with her and her feeding, and managed to get her to take a full bottle. She has actually taken 3 more since then. It was so awesome that she took the time and it has really helped.

Madison is doing good and loves to make tons of noises. I think she will be a rambler when she learns to talk. It looks like she should be ready to come home soon, just not sure the exact day yet. It is going to be a wild ride when they are all here!!

Here are some new pictures of the brood for your perusal! Talk to you soon!

Drew

Julia

Madison

May 8th, 2009

Hello everybody!

Guess what? We have our first member of the SD3 at home! Drew got sprung loose Thursday, May 7th, the day after the triplets' 2 month birthday! He is doing well and settling in at home. It is such a different experience having a baby in the house and not having any medical stafff, monitors, etc. We are loving every second if it! Drew has been a good boy, a little fussy while he is sleeping, but we found some lullaby music played on his MP3 player really soothes him.

Madison seems to be the next one to be ready. She passed her car seat test and we were told by one doctor that she would be able to come home Saturday, but another doctor came in and wants to keep her over the weekend, just to make sure she is ready. It works for us, as whatever they think is best is what we will do! She could be home as early as Monday, but we shall see!

Julia is a little behind her sister, but doing good as well. She is still learning to drink from the bottle and has yet to start taking feeds from the bottle only. Also, she seems to have some reflux and some nasal issues, so the doctors have her on Prilosec and are putting some special drops in her nose. Hopefully that will get her on the path to coming home soon!

To house all of the little ones, we did go out and get ourselves a new mini-van. We got the Toyota Sienna and love it already. Here is a picture of the new ride!

Let the craziness and fun begin as the SD3 come home! Here are some recent pics for your enjoyment! Keep checking back for updates!

Drew

Julia

Madison

May 2nd, 2009

Hello everyone! Update time again. Boy, how time flies lately.

The babies are doing well, and getting bigger all the time. Their weights as of the 1st are:

Drew - 4lbs 5oz

Julia - 3lbs 14.6oz

Madison - 4lbs 1.6oz

As you can see, they are definitely packing it on, hahaah! Drew and Madison are taking all their feeds by bottle and Julia is right behind them, learning how to take a whole bottle. Here is some exciting news. If all goes well, we could see Drew and Madison come home by late next week! They are hitting all of the required milestones, and the doctors have asked us to bring in their car seats so that they can be ready to do their car seat test. Julia is close as well, and once she can take all her feedings by bottle, she will be ready to rock and roll too! We are really excited and nervous at the same time. We were not expecting to hear they would be coming home this soon, so we are going flat out getting everything in order. We are getting the nursery finished, getting all the supplies needed, and we even bought a mini-van this week!!! Everyone asks the million dollar question, "Are you ready?" Well, we think we are ready, at least we hope we are, hahah!

Nothing is definite in terms of their coming home, so we will keep preparing and take it one day at a time. We will keep everyone posted though as we get new information.

Here are a few pictures of the little ones. They are sooooooo cute and they are getting so much more active and alert. They are just so fun to be around!

Drew

Julia

Madison

April 24th, 2009

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in updates, but I have been travelling and just now have been able to sit down to blog.

The triplets are doing well and have had a big week.

Here are their weights as of tonight:

Drew - 3lbs 13oz

Julia - 3lbs 6oz

Madison 3lbs 7oz

They are getting big and are all now at the point where they wear clothes and get wrapped! In fact, Madison is already out of her isolette and in an open crib! Drew should do the same tomorrow! It is crazy how fast things have gone. Also, they all started to take bottles! Julia is just starting out with about a half a bottle a day. Madison is taking about 2 bottles a day and Drew is taking all bottle and his feeding tube has been pulled out! It is so great to see him with nothing on his face! Madison just has the tube for now, but no oxygen help. Julia has the cannula still, but is doing great with it!

The doctors and nurses keep asking us if we are ready, as one or two of them could be coming home in less time than we expected. We are definitely moving at a higher pace, getting clothes washed, lists done, closets organized, etc. We need to still get some more things in order like getting all the supplies ready, getting the mini-van and all that! We can't believe that soon we are going to have babies in the house! How cool is that!!

The babies are 7 weeks today and 34 weeks gestational equivalent. They are doing great, but it is hard to fathom they are still 6 weeks early right now! They get bigger everyday and it is fun to watch them change. I have attached a new picture of each so you can see how they are doing.

Time for bed, but thanks again everyone for all your well wishes and support. Keep it rolling and keep checking back for the latest updates!

Drew

Julia

Madison

Here's an extra of Madison, having a "long day" ;o)

April 16th, 2009

Hi everyone! So tomorrow is the SD3's 6 week birthday, making them the equivalent of 33 weeks gestation! They are doing well and growing like crazy! Here are their weights if you can believe it:

Drew - 3lbs 3 oz

Julia - 2lbs 15oz

Madison - 2lbs 13oz

Isn't that awesome? We are so excited to see their growth and you really can tell the difference in them week to week. This week has been a good one, with the exception of me having to travel for the first time since they were born. It was quite weird and hard to be away from Shara and the kids. I couldn't wait to see them, so we went straight from the airport to the hospital last night.

Everyone is doing good. Drew is actually not using any cannula for breathing as of now, and is doing very well. They tried doing the same with Julia, but it was too early for her. We have no idea why they did it, but she is back on cannula and much more comfortable. The doctors are also weaning Madison off her oxygen with the hopes of getting her to be off cannula soon.

The doctors are saying if they continue to progress like they are and the room opens up, they will likely be moving across the hall to continuing care in the coming weeks. It is so strange to think about them not being in the pod they have been the last 6 weeks. Also, once they reach about 3lbs 5oz, they would start seeing if they are able to maintain their own body temperature and be able to start wearing clothes. All leading up to the ability to move them into open air cribs. Who knows when that will happen, but it is so exciting to be talking about it!

Time seems to be crawling and flying at the same time. It seems like the triplets have been in the hospital forever and that it will never end, but at the same time, time is rushing towards the day they come home and it sometimes feels like we won't have enough time to get prepared! Weird, I know, but so is a lot of things these days.

Anyway, I attached new pictures of the three of them, plus an extra special picture. While I was traveling, Shara got to hold ALL THREE babies TOGETHER for the first time! Unfortunately, the picture is via cell phone, but how cool is that!!! It really hits home when you see all three of them together. We hope you enjoy the pictures and we will keep everyone posted on the SD3's progress. Keep those well wishes and prayers coming!!

Drew

Julia

Madison

Together again for the first time!

April 6th, 2009

Hey everyone! Just wanted to post a few new pictures of the triplets from today. They are doing good today and we got to spend a lot of time with them. Shara got to hold all three of them today for the first time! Not all at the same time of course! More pictures are posted on the SD3's photo album on Snap Fish. Talk to you soon!

Drew

Julia

Madison

April 5th, 2009

Hello everyone! The babies are now a month old! Feels like it was just yesterday that Shara was rushed into delivery and the SD3 came into our lives. Things are going well. Julia had some issues over the weekend though. She caught an infection which caused her breathing to labor and she ended up on the ventilator on Saturday morning. As of now (Sunday night), Julia is off the ventilator and back on the nasal cannula. She has been doing well with it, and hopefully we will have this fully behind us soon. They started her on antibiotics really early and the medicine seems to be doing its job. She is doing better and acting like her old self (getting mad at her nurses and wanting to move all over the place), which is a welcome site!

Drew and Madison have been good, and overall behaving themselves. Madison has been a ball of fire and very active. We actually have to work on getting her to go to sleep sometimes! Drew has been steady and very funny, but now has been treating the NICU to his own brand of scent as his poops are quite awful, hahaha!

The triplets are doing a good job growing overall:

Drew - 2lbs 10.2oz

Julia - 2lbs 11.9oz (couple of those ounces are due to the added stuff on her she won't have tonight)

Madison - 2lbs 4oz

Once the babies reach 3.3 lbs, they will get to start wearing clothes! That is certainly going to be a site to see! You can really start to see them getting bigger and it is very exciting. They also get their first eye exam this week.

We have posted more pictures on the Snap Fish link, but here are some of the latest for everyone to see. We hope you enjoy!

Drew

Drew

Julia

Julia

Madison

Madison