They're heeee-rre. . .

My body is preparing me to not sleep for the next 20 years or so.  I haven't really slept at all the last two nights for some reason. . . It's probably similar to Axel being too tired to sleep sometimes, except that we handle it differently.  He throws a fit; I lie awake staring at the ceiling, thinking about the magnitude of the last couple of days and thanking God for both the man on the pull-out bed next to me and the blessings of four incredible sons.  I may feel differently in a few years when I'm cleaning up the pee on the bathroom floor, but we'll worry about that when it comes.

Word travels fast, and surely most of you who are reading this have heard that we've welcomed our triplets into the world and are on the road to living under one roof, the six of us.  We had scheduled the operation for Wednesday morning at 8:00.  The specialist we'd been seeing really wanted to be a part of the procedure, and that was the first day she suggested.  I was ready to meet these little monsters, so that became the day.

Things couldn't have gone better in the operating room - the doctors were thankful to be able to perform the surgery in a controlled environment, with staff in place and no chaos.  There were 18 people in the room including Jesse and myself (21 if you count the babies); they'd turned down a few calls from medical students and other hospital staffers who thought it would be interesting to observe triplets being born.  Even in a big city hospital that deals in high risk pregnancies regularly, delivering three babies at once is a big deal apparently.

I was wheeled in to the surgery at 8:00, and was back in my room recovering before 9:00.  Jesse put on his blue paper clothes and was escorted in as they were beginning the surgery. At 8:23 we had our first boy, and within that same minute Jesse stood up and was able to tell me himself we had another boy.  Baby C was tucked up in there pretty high, but two minutes later, at 8:25, the whole room laughed in disbelief as they announced the third, a boy.  We were all pretty sure there was at least one girl in there - Jesse and I each have a brother who thought we were having three boys, and I know a few of you out there voted that way (voting is closed, FYI!), but it seemed unlikely to us to have three of a kind.  However, it is also unlikely to have three babies at one time, so we ignored statistics again. 

As for their names, we were not entirely prepared for three boys (or three girls)!  We had a few of each that we had talked about, and really settled on two of each, figuring that would be safe.  In the end, we landed on Scandinavian first names and used our grandpas' names as middles.  Eero (sounds like 'arrow') seems to raise the most eyebrows, so let me tell you where we got that.  I am an architecture and design nerd, and one of my favorite designers is Eero Saarinen.  You are all familiar with his work and probably have no idea - seen the arch in St. Louis?  JFK Airport?  The art museum on the lakefront in Milwaukee?  These are all his works!  And so we have Eero Winston, from Mr. Saarinen and my grandpa Winston.

I actually had a great uncle named Rex, who I can't say I ever met, but Jesse thought that was an excellent name and liked that it also had an X in it (like Axel) - then so is named our Rex Herbert, after Jesse's grandpa Herb.

Magnus is one we had discussed when Axel was being named, and honestly I don't know if we thought we could get away with naming a kid Magnus.  The name Axel surprised a lot of people but those who know him know what an Axel he is, and we figured the same could work for our youngest and smallest boy.  It's a big name for a little guy, but he is a fighter and will absolutely grow into it.  Magnus Arthur, as we each have an Arthur in our family trees.

I'm quite often too enamored with my little dollies in the isolettes to really hear what the neonatal staff is telling us - thank God Jesse is listening.  For the sole purpose of not giving you the wrong information, I'm going to say only that each one is doing well and will be joining us at home in a few weeks.  Eero, born 4 lbs 0 oz and 17 3/4 inches long, has not needed much assistance of any kind.  Rex, 4 lbs 2 oz and 16 1/4 inches long, and Magnus, 2 lbs 14 oz and 15 3/4 inches long, each had some assistance keeping their airways open but have graduated from that, and are spending some time under the blue lights for the jaundice stuff.  Magnus had an issue with his cord implantation inside the womb and that is why he was so much smaller, but he's just as strong as his brothers.

I've accurately predicted that Baby A (Eero) would be calm and cooperative; Baby B (Rex) is the naughty one (the staff has said to us as we enter the nursery that he's the feisty one), and Baby C (Magnus) is the fighter. 

I'm going to stop writing now, just because I think I could fall asleep and should take advantage of that, and because I've been working on this posting for a couple hours and am tired of holding the computer in my lap! Also I'm realizing that this is maybe not the most well-organized writing, but again, my brain is scattered.  We will update again when I am more educated about the actual medical status of our babes, and have settled in a little bit to being parents of four!  Tried to attach some pictures down here - see if it works.  We held them for the first time today, and as I expected, it's hard to put them down because we can only take them out once a day for about 15 minutes.  Precious time!  This is turning us into very sappy people.

 Eero

 Rex

Magnus

Thanks for reading, everyone, and for the prayers and well wishes - we couldn't be happier!