It's still Wednesday, right? Good. I'd hate to slack on my goal of weekly Wednesday entries on the first try.
I've known for quite awhile that I'm not as bright as I used to be. The condition is certainly related to me aging, but exponentially worsened by the number of children I've had apparently. Yesterday Grandma Marsha came to watch Axel, Eero, and Rex while Magnus and I headed into Willmar to run errands, grocery shop, etc. I made my list of things to get, clipped a couple coupons, packed the diaper bag, and loaded Mags and all he requires into the big rig and drove to town. As I put the car in park at Menards I realized I had forgotten my purse. Can't do much shopping without a purse. Since I had gotten the babysitter and loaded everything in the car, I drove back home, got my purse, and drove back to Willmar. Dumb.
Even with just one little baby I draw attention to myself it seems. People see Magnus and ask if he is brand new - not exactly, I say, but he's one of three and the smallest. Oh my gosh... and we start that whole thing again. I try hard not to stereotype, but there was even a large man with a big mustache and a leather Harley jacket in the grocery store who stopped me and commented on how little and cute Magnus was, and then I had that conversation with him. My dad probably sent him to make me smile.
Magnus is officially done with his caffeine. He's been home for two weeks and hasn't had any of the breathing spells, so now hopefully we are on the way to being done with the monitor, too. A week from now the apnea program that monitors him will download his data from his time with us and then a neonatal doc will determine whether he's ready to be rid of it. He's generally a very pleasant kid and doesn't give us much trouble at all. He spends a lot of time in the baby bouncer seat, which is at a comfortable angle to help control his reflux.
If all babies were like Eero people would have more babies. He is so content and easy to please, as long as he's not hungry. He's really filling out and has big chubby cheeks now and at least two chins.
If all babies were like Rex people would think twice about having more babies. He's really a dear, but likes to be held most of the time. Like the NICU people told us, he just has a lot to say about things and crying is the only way he knows how at the time. He would eat round the clock if we let him, so his big cheeks will probably keep getting bigger, as will his growing belly. It's so exciting to see fat on these previously skinny boys. Even Magnus is looking so much healthier, and his skin doesn't just hang off him like it did after birth.
We've acquired quite a support team without trying - the Blue Cross insurance nurses call regularly to see how we're doing, as do the public health nurses and of course the apnea program nurses. I spend a lot of time on the phone with these people. . . they probably have no idea each other is calling, but I would think they'd realize that someone sitting at home with 9 week old triplets doesn't have time to small talk with someone she's never met. I hardly get to speak to the people I'd like to talk to.
This past weekend we loaded up the car and went to New Richland to celebrate Easter with my family. The trip from Kerkhoven to NR takes about three hours without stops; we usually figure in an extra 15 minutes for a bathroom break. This trip took six hours. It doubled. By the time we stopped to eat lunch, fed everyone, stopped for gas and a car wash, and ran into Target and fed everyone again then headed on to NR, it was six hours. Hope we can improve that number so we can continue to visit down there.
I must go to sleep now. I've got two guys sleeping in bed next to me and three more next to my bed, so I'd better close my eyes, too, before someone is awake again. Hope you all had a lovely Easter. Come on, Spring!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Now's the time to roll out the barrel. . .
. . . because the gang's all here! A week ago today we were able to bring home our youngest and smallest, Magnus Arthur. What a thrill to be done with that phase of our life and have all of our children home with us. Mags was still having his little breathing spells, so they put him back on caffeine and released him with a home monitor. They said that was the only thing keeping him there, and we'd get him home a lot faster if we were willing to use the monitor, so we agreed. We attended a special training to learn how to operate this thing, which monitors his heart rate and breathing. So far it's only beeped at us a couple of times when his heart rate went either high (getting his diaper changed and a little peeved) or low (just very relaxed, I guess). Oh, and if we accidentally unplug it or the leads come loose - that's usually the case. And this thing is frickin' loud, so we try not to do that. He'll do the caffeine for two weeks and the monitor for a month, and if things are looking good he can be done with that and go on as just a regular wireless kid.
We made our first public appearance with all three of them on Sunday, attending church. It required us to get up a good hour before we usually would to make the 8:45 service twenty minutes away, but we made it. There was a mini assembly line of feeding, undressing, bathing, redressing, etc., and once we had that system figured out it went pretty well. Today we took them to their two month check-up already; can you believe it? Me neither. Anyway, we seem to draw attention to ourselves everywhere we go with a crazy-haired three year old hanging off one of us and three infant seats, plus a diaper bag and Magnus' monitor. We probably won't be venturing out too much for awhile! There's no extra room in the Escalade, that's for sure. We'll be heading down to New Richland for Easter this weekend, so we'll test their long range pleasantness on the road. Will be interesting. . .
Check-ups were a process but everyone is fine. Eero is up to 7 lbs 7 oz, Rex is 7 lbs 2 oz, and Magnus is 5 lbs 7 oz. He doesn't care if he eats as much as his older brothers, so the doctor suggested we wake him up sooner than he requests and feed him more often so he can continue to gain and catch up. Both Eero and Magnus prefer to lay with their heads on the right sides which is causing them to be a little flat, so we've been given some tips for physical therapy that will encourage them to use both sides and round out their heads again. And a public health nurse is coming every Friday to check their weights and make sure they're growing so we don't have to repeat the process of bringing them to the doctor once a week. Nice.
Having four kids under the age of three does rearrange a person's world quite a bit. Housework suffers, as does personal hygiene occasionally. We are definitely sleep-deprived. After Axel was born I remember marveling to myself on how little sleep I could actually function. In college I totally would have skipped all my morning classes with this lack of rest. Shout out to Eric and Heather Hendrickson, people from my hometown who also welcomed triplets in November - their feature in the New Richland newspaper quoted them as saying they'd be bored with just one baby. I laughed then, but they've got a point. I don't know if we'd be bored, but we have kind of adjusted to chaos as the norm.
Axel is a terrific big brother. I would have bet with confidence that he'd put pillows in their faces when they cried, but it's quite the opposite. The other morning as one of them lay on the floor crying for a bottle I was preparing, instead of yelling himself or trying to shut them up, he just lay down next to him and looked him in the face. It was like an unspoken, "I'm here for you." Super sweet and frankly unAxel-like. He's full of surprises. Lately his life is a musical; he sings half his words, albeit offkey, but still hilarious. He also repeats commercial jingles, e.g. "Save big money at Menards," and "We are Farmers, bum buh bum bum bum bum bum." It's possible we watch too much TV.
Jesse is, I think, really going to enjoy having four boys here with him - what a great excuse to play video games and watch sports. The unfinished basement will probably turn into a boy zone soon, and they can all head down there and fart and talk about boobs and cars and I will never have to hear any of it. Hooray! I am actually loving the idea of having "a boy house", as one of my nurses called it. I can have more of the haircare and clothing budget to myself. Plus, as my uncle Curt so wisely advised me, if you have a boy you only have to worry about one penis; if you have a girl you have to worry about them all.
Last night I ventured out alone for the first time since having four kids in my house. It was such a treat just to be in the car by myself and blast the radio! I went to get a much needed haircut, my last one being in December (yikes). My usual stylist is on maternity leave so I had someone else do it. It's just a trim, I thought, pretty much anyone can do that. This woman, who had clearly spent a fair amount of time in the tanning booth and was a lovely shade of orange, told me her motto is "The higher the hair, the closer to God," then literally backcombed that theory on to my head. After sleeping on it, I was able to tame it down this morning, and it's not as scary as I originally feared. Whew.
If you've called, emailed, or texted us in the last couple weeks and we have not returned your message, please do not be offended! Just try us again if you would. We're getting better. I'm going to try to be better at this, too, as the story is not over. My goal is once a week, and since this is Wednesday, I will try to write on Wednesdays. I get the feeling people are checking the blog for progress reports which I have not kept up on the last little while, but promise to improve. Wednesdays.
Here are some new pictures - first the peaceful sleepers. . .
Eero
Magnus
RexThen you can see what a time we will have over the next several years trying to get everyone to look at the camera for a decent picture. . .
Not bad . .
Thanks again to everyone for all the well-wishes and prayers the last few months - surely they've helped us and we're grateful for everything you've done.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Bringing home baby (A . . .then B. . .)
That's right! Don't know how many of you have heard, but we're gradually getting our family together at home. Last Monday we were able to take Eero home with us. We went on Sunday and spent some time with all the boys, had some visitors, and then took Axel to a hotel for one more night as a threesome and so he could swim in the pool.
He's been telling us for weeks that he "needs" to go to a hotel, even saying, "I feel I have to." Since he felt so strongly about it, we figured we better take him! He loves the pool, and suddenly thinks he can swim. I don't have a swimsuit I'm prepared to wear in public, so I man the ground while Jesse goes in the water (sometimes Axel decides to run down the edge of the pool and wants to jump in the deep end when no one is there to catch him, and since he's not wearing floaties of any kind, that would be bad). He swims/flails off by himself, which is terrifying for me because it appears he is just struggling to get above water, but when he comes up he's not coughing or spitting or anything, so maybe he is swimming. At least he's not afraid of the water.
We were to pick up Eero after lunch the next day, and so, as I see happening many times in my future as the only girl in the house, we went to Hooters. We then collected Eero from the hospital, and brought him home. As we pulled away from the hospital Axel asked him if he liked to watch the airplanes in the sky, and of course Eero didn't answer. A couple minutes later he asked him if he liked it when we went over bumps, and again, silence. Disappointed, Axel finally asked, "Does he talk?" Teehee. Eero has been a very good baby, unless he really needs something and then lets out a very high-pitched shriek that he must have picked up from the exotic birds in the room next to his at the hospital. But otherwise good.
On Tuesday we got a call that Rex was ready to join his brother at home on Thursday, and so within a few days we went from a threesome to a fivesome rolling in the Escalade. FYI, if you have an Escalade, people will stare at you as you drive through north Minneapolis. Might want to lock the doors. Anyway, we took off back to the Cities on Thursday and brought home baby B. He, too, has been very good thus far, and is not as ornery as I expected him to be, yet anyway.
Axel loves his little brothers. He can't stop kissing them and wants to show them all kinds of things. Within the first 10 minutes of Eero being home, Axel thought he would like to watch a movie with him, eat a mint, and look at the Walgreens ad. We've finally got him understanding that he should not pick them up by himself, and it will be awhile before they want to pillow fight with him.
Leaving the hospital with Rex on Thursday was the hardest leave since the first time we came home, because this time we had to leave Magnus there all alone. Before I took comfort in the fact that these three little jokers had each other, and even after we took Eero home Rex and Magnus were together, but now it's just him. He's not ready to come home for a little while yet . . . he's had a couple little spells, where he decides not to breathe for a little while and a nurse has to stimulate him to remind him. They want to make sure he's not doing that anymore when he gets home, where we won't have a monitor to be aware of the spells. The doctors have noted that sometimes babies go home with monitors, but we'd kind of like to be done with all of that when we take him home. No more monitors!
We haven't left the house too much since bringing home these two little boys, but when we do we turn a lot of heads. People stop us and say, Oh, you had twins! The rest of the conversation goes like this: Actually we had triplets, but one is still in the hospital. Oh my gosh! You're going to be busy. Are these your first? No, we have a 3-year old at home, too. Oh my gosh! You are really going to be busy. Congratulations! Wow. Oh my gosh. . . and we part ways. On Friday we had a few of these in Cub Foods, except one woman came back to the cereal aisle, handed us a hundred dollar bill and said, "You're going to need that," and walked away. We tried to give it back to her but she just shook her head and kept walking. I've heard of random acts of kindness, but that was really something.
On Friday Jesse and I will have been married five years. It got me thinking about that day, of course, and then all the stuff that's happened in that time. We got married. Started building (and someday hope to complete :) ) a house. My dad's cancer came back and he passed away. We had a baby. I'm two classes away from a master's degree and a teaching license. We had three more babies. And a bunch of other stuff, but those are some of the big points. That's a lot of change in five years. Think about the last five years . . . how has your life changed? Maybe more than you think.
I'll try to update a little more - I've just been a bit preoccupied. Honestly, though, taking care of two babies is so far not that much different than caring for one. Check back in a few months when they become mobile.
He's been telling us for weeks that he "needs" to go to a hotel, even saying, "I feel I have to." Since he felt so strongly about it, we figured we better take him! He loves the pool, and suddenly thinks he can swim. I don't have a swimsuit I'm prepared to wear in public, so I man the ground while Jesse goes in the water (sometimes Axel decides to run down the edge of the pool and wants to jump in the deep end when no one is there to catch him, and since he's not wearing floaties of any kind, that would be bad). He swims/flails off by himself, which is terrifying for me because it appears he is just struggling to get above water, but when he comes up he's not coughing or spitting or anything, so maybe he is swimming. At least he's not afraid of the water.
We were to pick up Eero after lunch the next day, and so, as I see happening many times in my future as the only girl in the house, we went to Hooters. We then collected Eero from the hospital, and brought him home. As we pulled away from the hospital Axel asked him if he liked to watch the airplanes in the sky, and of course Eero didn't answer. A couple minutes later he asked him if he liked it when we went over bumps, and again, silence. Disappointed, Axel finally asked, "Does he talk?" Teehee. Eero has been a very good baby, unless he really needs something and then lets out a very high-pitched shriek that he must have picked up from the exotic birds in the room next to his at the hospital. But otherwise good.
On Tuesday we got a call that Rex was ready to join his brother at home on Thursday, and so within a few days we went from a threesome to a fivesome rolling in the Escalade. FYI, if you have an Escalade, people will stare at you as you drive through north Minneapolis. Might want to lock the doors. Anyway, we took off back to the Cities on Thursday and brought home baby B. He, too, has been very good thus far, and is not as ornery as I expected him to be, yet anyway.
Axel loves his little brothers. He can't stop kissing them and wants to show them all kinds of things. Within the first 10 minutes of Eero being home, Axel thought he would like to watch a movie with him, eat a mint, and look at the Walgreens ad. We've finally got him understanding that he should not pick them up by himself, and it will be awhile before they want to pillow fight with him.
Leaving the hospital with Rex on Thursday was the hardest leave since the first time we came home, because this time we had to leave Magnus there all alone. Before I took comfort in the fact that these three little jokers had each other, and even after we took Eero home Rex and Magnus were together, but now it's just him. He's not ready to come home for a little while yet . . . he's had a couple little spells, where he decides not to breathe for a little while and a nurse has to stimulate him to remind him. They want to make sure he's not doing that anymore when he gets home, where we won't have a monitor to be aware of the spells. The doctors have noted that sometimes babies go home with monitors, but we'd kind of like to be done with all of that when we take him home. No more monitors!
We haven't left the house too much since bringing home these two little boys, but when we do we turn a lot of heads. People stop us and say, Oh, you had twins! The rest of the conversation goes like this: Actually we had triplets, but one is still in the hospital. Oh my gosh! You're going to be busy. Are these your first? No, we have a 3-year old at home, too. Oh my gosh! You are really going to be busy. Congratulations! Wow. Oh my gosh. . . and we part ways. On Friday we had a few of these in Cub Foods, except one woman came back to the cereal aisle, handed us a hundred dollar bill and said, "You're going to need that," and walked away. We tried to give it back to her but she just shook her head and kept walking. I've heard of random acts of kindness, but that was really something.
On Friday Jesse and I will have been married five years. It got me thinking about that day, of course, and then all the stuff that's happened in that time. We got married. Started building (and someday hope to complete :) ) a house. My dad's cancer came back and he passed away. We had a baby. I'm two classes away from a master's degree and a teaching license. We had three more babies. And a bunch of other stuff, but those are some of the big points. That's a lot of change in five years. Think about the last five years . . . how has your life changed? Maybe more than you think.
I'll try to update a little more - I've just been a bit preoccupied. Honestly, though, taking care of two babies is so far not that much different than caring for one. Check back in a few months when they become mobile.
Eero and Rex - enjoying each other's company on the living room floor.
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. . .
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.
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!
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!
Friday, February 25, 2011
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.
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!
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