MoreThanWeExpected.com

~ GWEN RHIANNA ~

Born July 1st, 2006 at 7:46 pm, she weighed 9 lbs., 1 oz. and was 21.5" long.

Her APGAR scores were 8/9.

Gwen was always a big baby, which was evident even before she was born.

THE TRIPLETS

~ TESS OLIVIA (aka Baby A) ~

Born February 25th, 2008 at 12:55 am, she weighed 4 lbs., 14 oz. and was 17.9" long.  Her APGAR scores were 6/7.

Tess was the lead baby, at the bottom of the uterus, and therefore was the weakest because she bore the weight of her sister and brother for 8 months.  Tess began her life in the real world on a C-Pap machine for apnea in the Elliot Hospital's NICU where she gained weight and got strong enough to come home just 2 days after her little brother and sister, on March 13th, 2008.

~ NORA PAIGE (aka Baby B) ~

Born February 25th, 2008 at 12:56 am, she weighed 5 lbs., 8 oz. and was 18.5" long.  Her APGAR scores were 7/8.

Nora is Tess' identical twin but spent most of her time in utero hanging out with Holden.  She was the biggest and strongest baby but also needed help breathing and was on an C-Pap machine for apnea and needed some photo-therapy for jaundice a few days after she was born.  She did great in the Elliot's NICU and came home March 10th, 2008, exactly two weeks after being born.

~ HOLDEN ANTHONY (aka Baby C) ~

Born February 25th, 2008 at 12:57 am, he weighed 4 lbs., 13 oz. and was 17.9" long.  His APGAR scores were 7/8.

Holden was the most active in utero and was no exception after being born.  He was the only one I heard cry in the delivery room and needed the least amount of oxygen supplementation and help breathing as his apnea episodes were infrequent and often self corrected.  Holden did have jaundice and needed to spend several days under the UV lamps while it improved.  Holden spent his time with his sisters in the NICU but overcame his jaundice and his apnea to come home on March 10th, 2008.

My belly stretched to planetary proportions; believe it or not I was actually all belly, not much fat (well, not much fatter than when I started anyway, LOL).  Here is what I looked like, at around 33 - 34 weeks, about 1 week before going into labor.  I would never have shared this picture with the world as I think it's a little personal but since my mother has shown pictures of my belly progressing to gigantism to everyone she's come in contact with since I got pregnant it's a moot point.  Oddly enough she thinks breast pumps and nipple shields should be kept private but my naked belly is good enough to share with strangers at the grocery store.

So here's all the exciting news you've been waiting for!  New news and of course, new pictures!

All three of the trips are doing awesome.  They are growing wonderfully; Tess is up to 7 lbs, 10 oz and 19"; Nora 8 lbs and 19.5"; and Holden is now 8 lbs, 2 oz and 20".  In fact, our pediatrician is so happy with how big and healthy they are she is going to treat them like "big kids" (full term babies) as far as their vaccination and check-up schedules go.  They won't have shots until the next visit which is still two weeks away, thank goodness!  Because they were born late-pre-term and because they're doing so well, the pediatrician also said that by the time they're 4 months old (real age) they will have caught up to full-term babies their age developmentally.  Obviously awesome news!!

Gwen has grown quite accustomed to having them around, though they sometimes wake her up at night.  (It's hard when Tony and I are each feeding one and the other one is screaming in the crib.  Since we can't really tend to all of them at once they will have to learn early to take turns but until that happens they just scream, and wake up Gwen.  We feel bad for her and even our sitter has noted that she has days where she seems especially tired and that it must have been a rough night, LOL.)  Gwen loves to help out with the babies, either telling them it's okay when they're crying or holding a bottle in their mouths.  When they're on the bed with us she'll lie right down next to them and get face to face with them and tell them stories or ask us questions.  She has to say night-night to them every night and if she can't get in to physically kiss each of them she at least blows them a kiss.  She has even taken to burping her baby doll.  She's an adorable, wonderful kid and is going to be a great big sister!

Tony and I are fairing as well as can be expected for parents of newborn triplets.  We are only getting between 4 and 5 hours of sleep a night, which is interrupted at midnight when the kids start fussing for their 1 am feeding.  We keep saying if we could just get 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep we would be able to make it out of the zombie-like state we've been in since March 10th.  We've been planning our attack for training them to sleep through the night for a while now but nothing seems to be helping.  We might have to leave that one up to Mother Nature as they will drop the feeding when they're ready (damn it).  The whole feeding chore takes us an hour (or an hour and a half if I'm by myself) and we go through more spit cloths than diapers most of the time.  They have gotten better at not fussing in between feedings and sometimes (never during the night though) they actually need to be woken up for a feeding now.  Little by little, slowly but surely, things will get better.  Since we're starting at the bottom there's no where to go but up.

On to the pictures!!  They've lost that gross newborn look as they get older and fill out and are starting to develop little personalities of their own.  Here's a sampler:

3/10 - Nora & Holden, homeward bound!

3/17 - Tess (L) & Nora (R), showing off their identical-ness.

3/22 - In the crib, snoozing and/or fussing.

           Tess, Nora & Holden                 Tess (background) & Nora (forefront)

3/24 - Tess (L) & Holden (R), hanging out at lunch time.

3/27 - Holden after lunch, he almost always demands a pacifier.  Very high maintenance...

3/29 & 4/2 - Tess snoozing, a rare occurrence where she actually looks sweet.

4/4 - Grandma J with the girls.  Forever online for all the world to see, payback for toting around and showing off pictures of my preggo belly for the last 10 months.

4/8 - Nora, snoozing in the Boppy and spending some quality alone time with Mommy.

4/9 - Nora (L) & Tess (R) show off their identical-ness again, and how their personalities are shaping up.  Little brother Holden hangs out with Mommy for a few hours of special one-on-one time.

Big sister Gwen, showing off her  big sister skills...

With Holden

With Nora

With Tess

Over the last few weeks we've been very busy, even more so than usual.  We've had doctor appointments and milestones aplenty.  Here's a synopsis of what we've been up to and a few (lol) new pictures...

When babies are born they have a blood test to determine if they have any genetic diseases or disorders.  The state of NH tests for 32 disorders that, if caught early, a course of treatment can generally be established to help the baby thrive with their condition.  Towards the end of their stay I was spending the day visiting the kids in the NICU and the resident pediatrician informed me that from their newborn screenings, they had found that the girls tested positive for Cystic Fibrosis (Holden tested negative, and upon further research after the fact, Gwen had tested negative as well).  My heart sank knowing that CF is ultimately fatal but she assured me that 99% of the time when they test positive during the newborn screening they end up being only a carrier of the gene mutation and don't necessarily have Cystic Fibrosis.  Still, I spent the rest of the evening crying.  Tony and I did extensive online research to find any information we could on the newborn screening process, the incidence of false positives and more than the basic knowledge we had of CF itself.  We found a good deal of information online but my saving grace was my brother, a molecular biologist/protein chemist/science nerd.  I wasn't previously aware but he had worked for a pharmaceutical company that was pioneering new treatments for Cystic Fibrosis and he was a wealth of information and new hope as he had worked directly with the gene mutations and development of new treatments as well as the CF Foundation.

The girls would need to have a Sweat Test to determine if they were just carriers or actually had CF but we would need to wait until they were old enough to produce enough sweat for a good result, which wouldn't be until they were at least two weeks past full term.  We knew there was only a .03% chance that the girls would actually have CF, and a 99.7% chance that they were just carriers of the gene mutation but just having to wait for a result was killing us.  Since both parents have to be carriers of a CF gene mutation for their offspring to have the disease, but since neither of us knew of any family history of CF, we decided to get tested ourselves to see if we could at least put our minds at ease.  Tony's and my doctor set us up with the basic genetic carrier testing for the 23 most common mutations.  Tony tested negative, I tested positive.  This was fantastic news as the girls' chances of inheriting CF were diminished even further.

Last week we brought all three of the triplets (at the genetic counselor's advice) for their sweat tests.  Nora and Holden were both given clean bills of health.  Tess did not make enough sweat to provide a result but since she and Nora are identical, in theory she will be negative as well but will need to be retested next month to make sure.

On Tuesday we brought the triplets in for eye exams because preemies who have been administered oxygen can develop retinopathy of prematurity, an eye disease that can cause blindness.  Luckily, all three were cleared for any early signs of an issue and we were told that because they were born over 3 pounds and because their oxygen treatment was limited, we do not need any follow ups.  Yea!

We just brought the kids home from the doctor for their two month well visit.  They did awesome, despite getting their first round of vaccinations since leaving the hospital, and they even did fairly well with that.  As you might assume, the girls were quite whiney about the whole ordeal and afterwards, but Holden was a little Randy Savage Macho Man and only cried when he actually got the needle.  Tess is now 9 lbs, 5 oz and 20.75" long; Nora is 9 lbs, 12 oz and 21.75" long; and Holden (aka "Moose") is a whopping 9 lbs, 14 oz and 22" long.  In order to stay sane and get some sleep I've stopped nursing/pumping but the kids are obviously still thriving. 

Last week Holden smiled and rolled over (belly to back, and has done so three more times).  Nora has started cooing and reaching for toys and just this morning when I picked her up for breakfast she gave me a big, squinty-eyed, toothless grin.  Tess has made smaller strides because she's too busy being fussy; besides cooing a couple of times she's noticed her hands, and found one of them while she was trying to focus on and reach for a hanging toy; instead her own hand grabbed her attention on the way to the toy and she popped it in her mouth for an exploratory taste.  All three of them are lifting their heads up while having tummy time and holding it steady for a little bit unassisted when we hold them as well as turning to find us when they hear our voices.  We've changed their feeding schedule, feeding them more per feeding but stretching the feedings apart, and have been keeping them up during the day in bouncy seats and swings and play mats, in an effort to try and get them to sleep through the night.  No dice.  They have started sleeping a little better, about 3 hours at a time, but still sleep better during the day than at night (of course!).  Things will get better, hopefully sooner than later.

Here are some pictures, the proof that we take good care of them, most of the time anyway...  :-)

4/14 - Co-sleeping all lined up, (L-R) Nora, Tess, and Holden

4/16 - In the car seats, (L-R) Tess, Nora, and Holden

4/21 - Holden having some tummy time and working out those neck muscles; Tess being angelic (so unlike her)

4/23 - A smattering...

           Nora having tummy time         (L-R) Holden, Tess, and Nora just hanging out

    Saint Tess (how very ironic)                    Tired Tess

Little man Holden, just being cute

(L-R and bottom to top) Nora, Tess and Holden in bed, crashing into one another (as you can tell they have quickly outgrown the novelty and space saving "all in one crib" tactic)

4/25 - Nora in the rocker seat and Tess modeling big sister Gwen's hat

4/29 - Nora (L) and Tess (R), having a friendly conversation

I don't have dates for these (taken by my mom, somewhere around 4/12) but they're cute so I figured why not throw 'em up here...

      Holden & Nora

(L-R) Tess, Holden, and Nora

Things have started to get a little more tolerable on the terrible triplet and toddler front as of late.  Tony and I were able to get out of the house for his cousin Jen's wedding last weekend which was fun; I wasn't sure what to do with myself while we were kid-free for 8 whole hours.  I got drunk; a fine way to spend the evening in my opinion, LOL.

Back at the homestead, Gwen spent last week sick with a cold she picked up at day care.  She started feeling badly on Saturday with a temp of 101.  The next day her fever spiked to 103.7.  On Wednesday her temp was still hitting 103+ so we brought her in to the professionals.  Turns out she developed her first ear infection (in both ears!) and needed her first course of antibiotics.  We never even knew it; she wasn't tugging at her ears or anything typical, just acting sick and miserable.  The pediatrician said that the fever probably started with the cold but lingered as a result of the growing infection.  When I brought her in, the infection had just started and the doctor advised getting in her two antibiotic doses for that day before bedtime as she speculated the infection would hit its peak that evening.  The next day, since Gwen was on antibiotics, we sent her back to day care.  I was afraid her staying home would make all the rest of us sick, never mind the fact that when she was home on Monday I was by myself with all four kids and had to do shots of tequila that evening to keep from losing my mind, LOL.  Tony and I both started Zicam to no avail... he came down with symptoms around the same time Holden did.  I started with the sore throat and dry burning cough on Monday; Nora started with it on Tuesday.  Today I woke up with no voice and a horrible cough; by this afternoon my ass was dragging and my head was stuffy.  Tess seems like she'll be next to get this virus as she's been increasingly stuffy.  Great...

Other than the whole family fighting a cold, things have been going well.  Tess had her CF sweat test which came back negative, a result we were sure of in our hearts but are happy to have on paper.  All of the kids started sleeping for a 6 hour stretch, on their own, without any sleep training.  We modified their daily schedule so that they're eating more per feeding but at fewer intervals; their last feeding is at 6 pm and then they go off to bed, in an attempt to get them sleeping through the night (this technique was developed for multiples and was taken from the book The Baby Sleep Solution).  Right now they are having trouble actually falling asleep at bedtime because they're used to going to bed much later (we eliminated an 8 pm feeding) but once they drift off they're managing to sleep through until around 2 am or so.  Excellent progress!!  We have a light at the end of the tunnel!  And while Gwen was home and I was juggling four kids it dawned on me that in another month or so they will be able to hold their own bottles at feeding time, saving me about 4 hours a day.  WOO HOO!!!!  This revelation was another glint of hope for an easier child rearing future.  That was until Gwen climbed out of her crib tonight, giving us (and herself) quite a scare.  I guess moving her to a big girl bed will be for the best since we'll be needing her crib for one of the little kids sooner than later (Holden is sleeping in the bassinet basket in the Pack N Play).  Our main concern is that the staircase going up to her room is in her room, making us nervous that she'll get out of her crib and fall down the stairs.  We're working on making things as safe as possible but can only work so fast.  Jeez, these kids need to slow down and cut us some slack!  LOL

The kids are growing so fast, and filling out quite bit; they're starting to lose that "newborn look".  Nowadays Holden's tipping the scales at 11.8 pounds, Nora at 11.4 and Tess at 11 even.  On top of that, I measured Nora last week and she was 22.5 inches, which means she grew almost an inch since last we checked.  Wow!  Here are some pictures (about 30 out of the 300 we took):

Tess (forefront) and Nora (background); Gwen wants to be part of the gang:

Tess:

Nora:

Holden:

Tess, passed out in the swing; Nora, screaming in Gwen's arms:

(L-R) Nora, Tess and Holden, who are starting to take up a little more room in their car seats:

Holden, doing anything he can to watch the race, having tummy time, learning to suck his thumb, and sleeping like an angel:

Nora, smiling and cooing at the toy bar:

Poor Gwen, during her sick stay at home:

Nora, smiling and cooing at the ceiling light and Mommy:

The girls (Tess in purple, Nora in pink), having fun together time.  These pictures crack me up because they look like those boardwalk photo-booth pictures.  LOL

Tess, Nora, Holden & Gwen... Last look until we update again!

We just had the kids to the doctor for their 4 month well visits and Holden now weighs 13.3 pounds and is 24.25” long, Nora's up to 13.2 pounds and 25.25” long (wow!), and Tess is 13 pounds even and 24.5”.  They are all doing great, thriving and coming right along hitting their milestones.  And while they tend to reach their milestones at their corrected age, I can see the gap between their true age and their corrected age starting to close.  Our pediatrician even commented on how they are fitting the mold of any regular 4-month-old.  (They're already on the tail end of their 3-6 months size clothes and size 2 diapers!)  In fact, they are taking so much formula (they each drink 32 oz. a day) that she said the next step was rice cereal (already, yikes!).

Holden's been rolling over tummy-to-back since he was just a few weeks old and has been perfecting his back-to-tummy roll, which he now does with ease, so much so that he prefers to sleep on his tummy.  Tess too.  Nora is almost there but still is getting stuck on that one arm, so she sleeps on her side, LOL.  They have all begun purposeful reaching and grasping so we've started giving them little blankets and rattles to explore and play with.  I've also noticed that they are kicking a lot, especially Nora and Holden, and have witnessed frenzied tummy gym and mobile kickboxing.  They all do great with tummy time, lifting up their shoulders and holding their head steady to get a new view of the world around them.  They're becoming increasingly strong and are just around the corner from holding their head steady on their own, and soon thereafter comes… sitting up!  I swear Holden is trying to crawl; he works so hard to get his legs under his belly and just kicks like crazy.  It blows my mind.  The best news by far is that they have all started to sleep through the night!!!  We can count on Holden to not wake up and Tess does a pretty good job too.  Nora's the only one who still gives us a hard time, waking up several times between 1 and 3:30 most nights, but she's coming along.  They are super happy babies, always cooing (Nora's going to be our talker) and smiling, and I've even had Nora and Holden laughing and giggling a couple of times, which is adorable and heart-melting.  And now that they're interactive and we're actually getting sleep, they're starting to grow on us...

I've taken over 600 pictures this month alone (obviously a proud stay-at-home mama); here are some of the more precious photos, evidencing that the kids are clearly growing leaps and bounds.  If you hover over the picture it will give you a who’s who, in order, left to right.  :-)

The kids are doing great, already 5 months old (4 months old corrected) now!  Tony and I have been talking about how neat it is to see their personalities as they start to develop because each one is so different.  They are all reaching exciting milestones, just all at different times, so it’s fun to see who can do what first.  For instance, Nora and Holden both jibber-jabber A LOT but Tess does not; Tess and Nora can grab their toes but Holden can not (his limbs are short and stocky); Tess has developed severe stranger anxiety but Nora and Holden could go either way; Tess can blow raspberries and spit bubbles all day while Nora can only do it once in a while and Holden can’t at all; all three of them are laughing, passing toys from hand to hand, reaching, grasping, and trying to crawl (they inch themselves halfway across the room and I don’t even see them do it), but no one can sit up yet.  I have been testing their bottle holding abilities but since we use glass they’re a little heavier and it may be a while longer.  Damn; I’m still waiting for that one!   :-)

I’ve been trying to get them on a napping schedule as they had been cat-napping throughout the day up until last week.  Knowing that Gwen will be staying home with me starting in September, I thought it best to make all major changes to the kids’ schedules prior to.  We are trying a 2 hour nap after breakfast, a 2 hour nap after brunch and a 30-minute to 1 hour nap after lunch (which they are still taking while hanging out in swings after eating).  This will allow me many opportunities: private time for Gwen and I to play, setting up the day’s bottles, working out, showering, eating lunch, feeding Gwen, etc.  Most importantly, it will get the kids used to napping in their cribs for longer periods of time which will result in them napping better now and as they grow up. We’re still in the early stages so the kinks are being worked out (and Tess isn’t taking as well to it as Nora and Holden are) but like everything else, I will stick it out and hopefully it will all fall into place soon.

Another big change we’re working on is switching their formula.  They have been on special preemie formula since birth (which has 22 calories per ounce; standard formula only has 20 calories per ounce) but once they turn 6 months old our insurance will no longer cover it so we have to transition them onto a standard formula.  Also, I have been dying to get them onto Nestle Good Start Supreme Natural Cultures formula before starting solids.  (Recent research has shown that babies who are breast fed are less likely to develop food allergies due to the fact that it is easy to digest and protects the intestinal lining as it matures.  The Nestle Good Start Natural Cultures incorporates probiotics, which we all know have been shown to increase intestinal health and appear naturally in breast milk.  Yes, I sound like a commercial but I swear it works.  Gwen was on the Good Start Supreme after weaning and she never had a problem transitioning.  The Good Start is the closest thing to breast milk, hands down.  The proof is in the diaper: since we started transitioning the triplets onto the Good Start their poops have changed, becoming more like that of a breast fed baby.  Also, since the Good Start is made with partially broken down proteins, it does not stain or stink like other formulas.  I should buy stock in Nestle; I don’t know why more companies don’t take advantage of these scientific advances in their formulas.)  Our pediatrician gave us the OK to start transitioning them as long as we mixed the Good Start rich to incorporate the extra 2 calories per ounce that were being lost by not using the preemie formula.  The mathematical equation I was given was 1 and 3/4 scoops for every 2 ounces of water (typically you would only put one scoop into 2 ounces of water) which I have been using for the last three weeks, but have questioned more than once as it was almost doubling the amount of formula you’re supposed to use.  When I weighed the kids, as I do every few weeks, I found that each of them had gained approximately 2 pounds in 3 weeks, which is a lot!  As I thought it through, all the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place… the kids have decreased their individual formula intake from 30-32 ounces to 21-24 ounces, their poops had become harder and they were peeing less, and they had gained a lot of weight in a small period of time.  I had my mathematician husband do the math and he found that instead of getting 22 calories per ounce they were getting 35!!!  (The equation should have been written as 1 scoop of formula to 1 and 3/4 ounces of water, an honest mistake when you’re seeing four kids in the same room in an hour.)  I quickly called the doctor who said it wouldn’t hurt them that they were getting so many extra calories and that I could just decrease the amount we were mixing in back to 22 calories or, at this point, mix the formula regularly as their weight is no longer a health issue.  So I am spending this week with three very hungry, confused kids as I take their caloric intake down a few pegs each day.  Once they consistently consume 28-32 ounces again we will have to start cereal so I’m hoping I can have them on the Good Start a little while longer before going down that road.  For crying out loud they can’t even sit up, how are they going to eat off a spoon?  LOL  By the way, for those who were curious, Holden weighed 14.14, Nora 14.13, and Tess 14.10.

Here are some new pictures!  Again, I gave a description to each picture to identify who is who.  Enjoy!!!   :-)

For you Gwen groupies…

And a rare glimpse into what our lives have become: