Our family is complete! We continue the story of growing our littlest members. . .

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Dear God,

Please help our babies grow so we can bring them home.

We're back on the third floor of North Memorial.  Jesse has just expressed his regret for not naming one of our sons Ernie.  Ernie Nelson.  Apparently that is one of the announcers for March Madness.  A few years ago he thought we should name a kid Smush after one of the college players, so I should probably try to get the remote away from him this time of year.  On the upside, I don't believe we'll be having any more children, so his name ideas will run out of steam pretty quickly.

This is probably the longest I've gone without writing something, so I am trying to think of what has happened since last time.  I'll just go with the most recent stuff.  Our boys have been doing really well, until the last couple of days.  Before the nurses hook up their feedings at meal time, they attach a syringe and pull out of their feeding tubes, to see if there's anything left in their stomachs from the last time.  Well on Thursday we got a call that Rex had some blood come back in his.  They weren't sure at the time what was happening, thought maybe his feeding tube was irritating him.  Turns out he has some kind of bacterial infection and wasn't being his feisty self, so they took out his feeding tube and put in another IV.  He wasn't really interested in eating for awhile, so he needed some nutrition.

Today we found out that the other two boys also have this infection, but don't really have any symptoms.  They're all being given some medicine now and it should be cleared up in five days or so.  Rex is eating again, and is generally back to his old (can I say that about a 3-week old preemie?) self.  When they didn't know if Eero and Magnus had this infection, we were to be wearing gloves and gowns to handle them, which made me feel like we were working with blood borne pathogens rather than our own children, but safety first, I guess.

Please help our babies grow so we can bring them home.

We spend a lot of time in our little suite in the NICU, feeding our babies, taking temperatures, changing diapers and clothes.  It's very peaceful as our boys are so far very good babies who don't really make a peep unless they need something.  That's not really the case in the bigger nursery attached to us.  We're thinking they're regular human babies in there, but they produce some interesting sounds occasionally, which kind of makes us feel like we're in the exotic bird exhibit at the zoo.

Magnus is out of his isolette now, too, so they're all maintaining their temperatures, a big step toward going home.  If we can get them eating via bottle or breast at every feeding, they'll pretty much be good to go.  When that will happen we can't exactly say, but could be only a week or so.  The one doctor told us yesterday that it's often like a light bulb going on, and they are just all of a sudden ready to do everything they need to do to go home.

Please help our babies grow so we can bring them home.

Their feedings are going really well - they're all nursing like champs and take bottles when I'm not there, which is causing them to gain weight steadily.  Eero is up to 5 lbs 6 oz, Rex is up to 4 lbs 15 oz (and would probably be more if he hadn't been slowed down by this infection speed bump), and Magnus is 3 lbs 14 oz.  One nurse on Friday said she has a hard time telling them apart, but we can do it.  Eero is blonde and fair, Rex is darker and has chubby cheeks, and Magnus is darker and of course small, and always has a wrinkled, concerned forehead.  We've taken some more pictures, but I haven't really looked at them yet, so perhaps I'll get them up here tomorrow.

One of the nurses has looked up the meanings of their names, which we didn't really bother to do, and here's what they are:  Eero = ruler, Rex = king, Magnus = great.  We may have a power struggle on our hands.  Plus, throw in Axel.  Something's gotta give.

Please help our babies grow so we can bring them home.

It's been interesting hearing how everyone has ideas on how we will have to handle this when we get home with all of these boys.  It seems we're going to need a full-time nanny, an open-door policy where volunteers come and go as they please, and our mothers will have to move in with us.  No one has said, "I think they'll be just fine on their own."  I have to say I'm vaguely offended by this, but just chalk it up to personality differences.  Everyone else is way more overwhelmed by this situation than Jesse and I are.  Maybe some people would need all of those things, and maybe after a little while we will, but I don't really think we'll know what/if we need until we try it on our own.  I'd like to try.

On Thursday we had corned beef and pretended we were Irish, as we've done for the past few years on St. Patrick's Day.  This time I put it all in the crock pot right after lunch and walked away until supper time.  That is a fantastic way to cook; I use my crock pot as much as anyone else, but it might be my new best friend.  If anyone has any slow cooker recipes he/she'd like to share, I would love to hear them.  I'll share mine, too, so it's not a one-way street.

Please help our babies grow so we can bring them home.  We're definitely making the best of this, but it's getting tiring.  Most people go in to the hospital, have a baby, and go home a few days later and carry on.  I stayed in the hospital for over five weeks and the babies have been here for almost four weeks after that.  It's hard.  Please let us bring them home.  Amen.

Here are some more recent photos - this is Eero, Rex, and Magnus.  They've definitely all got their own looks. . .




Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Happy, happy birthday, babies!

It makes me feel old to say this, but I think the American Idol contestants are getting weirder every year.

Anyway, we carry on living two different lives: the one at home in Kerkhoven that we've had for three years with Axel, and the one that started two weeks ago in Minneapolis when we added three more little boys to our family.  It's hard to know where is the right place to be.

Last Thursday we returned to the hospital for our first visit since we officially checked out.  On the way there, we bought ourselves a new (to us) vehicle to haul all this testosterone around.  Disclaimer: the car is probably way cooler than we are - a black Escalade.  Let's just say we got a good deal, it's got a few miles on it, and I am lucky to have a husband who can greatly extend the life of a car, as that is his job.

We arrived at the hospital to find Eero and Rex actually wearing little sleepers - they look so grown-up!  Magnus was back under the blue lights that day, so he was still in just a diaper, but still adorable.  And by the way, that kid has got some hair.  See the picture below.  The highlight of the evening was that Axel got to meet his brothers.  The nurses let us sneak him in, but he had to be very quiet because there was a couple in the nursery who were upset that their nieces and nephews couldn't meet their newborn.  That seemed like a non-issue to us, because they should have been able to understand a sibling beats nieces and nephews, but whatever.  There are some interesting people in the NICU.  I don't think I've mentioned the woman who didn't know she was pregnant and gave birth in her bathroom at home (and yes, she has been in contact with the show "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant").  There was also someone whose friend Xavier could now visit because he just got out of jail.

Back to the point, Axel got to see his brothers, based on the fact that he was current on his vaccinations and had never been in daycare.  He peeked through the isolettes in awe at each one, and was visibly concerned about Magnus's blue lights and protective eyewear.  We took him back to our room after a few minutes, where he hid in the closet and started to cry.  When we asked him what the problem was, he said he didn't want to be in this room.  Why not? we asked.  "I want to see my brothers!" he cried.  There were tears streaming down his face, not his occasional tantrum tears, but tears of real sadness.  This of course got my tears flowing, because he was so genuinely sad.  "I won't make them sick!" he sobbed.  It was a hard few minutes, but reassuring to us - at least he likes them.

When Axel is asked about his brothers, he holds up his fingers and says he has three brothers.  When asked their names, he says, "There's Rex, and Mag-uh-nus (he's turned it into a three-syllable word), and. . . what's the other one?"  Eero! we say.  Eero! he repeats. 

Grandma Mary picked up Axel on Friday morning, and then we were able to spend lots of quality time with our three littler boys.  They're able to come out of their isolettes for longer periods of time now, and although holding them is 95% of what we can do for them right now, it's wonderful to be able to do that.  We are also welcome to change their diapers and take their temperatures.  I was encouraged to start "nuzzling", which is practice breastfeeding.  The little guys were into it as much as they could be at this age, but mostly just sleepy, so I'll try that again when we go back this weekend.

When I called Monday night I was told the boys had all graduated to the next level of nursery.  They're not the smallest or the sickest, not that they ever were sick exactly.  But it's progress. And Eero and Rex are no longer in isolettes; they've moved on to cribs!  At that point they were doing well maintaining their own temperature, which they need to keep doing as well as gaining weight, both of which take a lot of calories.  The nurse said they've still got some growing to do before they're allowed to come home, but it's a step in the right direction.

Magnus may be there for awhile longer - he's just so little.  This weekend I held him for the first time without crying.  Something about him just makes me cry . . . I think it's just that he's so small and had to fight so hard inside me to get as big as he did.  They had to change his feeding schedule - instead of getting a large amount of milk every three hours, he gets a small amount every hour, a continuous drip.  His tummy wasn't digesting the larger quantity as well as they'd like him to, but this seems to be going much better.

I am going to close with a few random tidbits.  My wedding ring has made it back onto my previously fat, sausage-like fingers - hooray!  Rex projectile pooped on Jesse when he was changing his diaper, but we shouldn't be surprised. . . he also peed on the doctor as she removed him from my stomach (remember, I said Baby B would be naughty).  We got the bill for my helicopter ride - without insurance, $26,000.  Luckily we have insurance and our final cost is significantly less.  Finally, the one thing I can do regularly for my little boys is hook myself up to a breast pump and bring the milk to the hospital.  Axel came upon this one day, and very plainly told me, "Your bigs are boob."  Of course I am blessed when I am not pregnant or breastfeeding, but he is right.  My bigs are boob.




His brothers have a perfectly respectable amount of hair, but they can't compare to Magnus.

I'll take more pictures this weekend when we go back to see them.  Happy two week birthday, boys!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Home Bittersweet Home

Well there is nothing to make a person appreciate her own bed like a five-week sleep in a hospital bed.  We arrived back at the big green house outside of Kerkhoven late Sunday night with a car full of stuff, exhausted.  The house actually looked pretty good when we came in, at least until Jesse unloaded the car. . . then we could no longer see the dining room table, the floor around it, the island, etc.  I wandered around as if I'd never been there before, I think in disbelief that I had actually made it home - at some point I managed to squeak out, "It's a nice house."  And it is.  I went up some stairs for the first time since I left home, and it took longer than I'd like to admit, but that's where the bed is.  And God bless whoever invented pillow-top mattresses and down comforters.  They are amazing. 

Axel stayed with the grandparents one more night, so the house felt very empty and sort of depressing.  We have four children and none of them were home - something a lot of people, myself included, might normally be excited about, but it was actually quite sad.  All of my time in the last couple months has been about producing healthy children, and I had done that but come home empty-handed.  It's kind of an exclusive club, having a baby or babies and not getting to bring them home from the hospital right away.  It's not a feeling I'd wish on anyone!  I think it's probably hard to imagine if you are not a parent, and even if you are, it was way tougher than I even thought it would be.

I had Jesse call the NICU last night to check on the boys.  If I had called I think I would have cried, something I am prone to do lately, especially when missing my babies.  Their feeding amount had already doubled since we left them on Sunday night.  Eero was finishing up under the blue lights.  Magnus, the little champ, had already had his IV taken out, and Rex and Eero would probably lose theirs by this morning.  So they are breathing on their own, and only hooked up to little feeding tubes right now - swallowing is one of the last things to develop in babies and they probably haven't mastered that yet, but the nurse told me they try to start sucking/eating by 34 weeks, which would be next Wednesday already.  They're doing great!

Before we left on Sunday night we got to do a kangaroo hold (I think that's what they said). . . we take our shirts off and hold the babies up against our chests, one at a time.  They snuggled up and the nurses cover them with blankets and we just sit and rock and hold them, our bodies keeping them warm.  It was the greatest hour of my life since we found out we were having triplets.  I can't wait to go back and do it again!

We were going to try to hold out on going back until the weekend, but neither Jesse nor I can stand it anymore so we're heading back tomorrow morning.  There are boarding rooms at the hospital for parents of babies in the NICU, so we'll go back to our hospital sleeping arrangements.  It's pretty much a regular hospital room without the housekeeping and nurses, so it doesn't differ that much from my previous extended stay where the housekeepers never showed up and I had to remind the nurses that I needed care! 

Axel is going to stay with Grandma Mary again.  He is not allowed in the NICU because he is a germy kid under the age of 12.  That was the other sad part of this situation - when he finally came to the hospital to see us after the babies were born, he was not allowed to see them.  He asked us many times if he could, and though he wasn't terribly upset by it, it was hard to tell him he could not meet them yet.

On the way to the metro area we are stopping to look at a bigger vehicle, our most necessary adjustment to being a family of six.  I hope it works out, because it makes me feel like we're closer to bringing our little boys home - we'll have a car that we'll all fit in!