3 weeks old

It is hard to believe how much has changed in these past few weeks.  From being very large and uncomfortable to now being relatively mobile and comfortable considering I have recently had a fairly major surgical procedure.  We have also gone from being a cosy family of 3 to a much larger family of 6.  It is also incredible the changes that we have seen in Addison, Spencer and Hudson.  To see them all on oxygen in isolettes and at times on CPAP and under lights and looking so skinny after they lost 10ish% of their birth weights - Hudson was a bit more than this.  To now seeing them all breathing on their own and now having the ability to regulate their own body temperature. 

When I arrived at the hospital I was very pleased to see all three in an open cot, Spencer and Hudson had been in an open cot for a few days, but Addison has now joined her brothers.  All that has been holding her back is she was that bit smaller from the start. 

Addison now weighs 1740 grams
Spencer now weighs 1935 grams
Hudson now weighs 2020 grams

The two boys (again because they are a bit bigger) have been graded on to 3 hourly feeds, and Addison is still on 2 hourly but I imagine hers will change this week.  They are tolerating their feeds really well and are not spilling at all.  Now that they are beginning to get the sensation of being hungry they are starting to wake up when they are due for a feed so we are lucky enough to see them with their eyes open more often.  Now when I go into the hospital I spend most of my time trying to teach the babies to breast feed.  I manage to get them to attach and depending on how awake and hungry they are they do manage to have a bit of a feed but do tire quickly.  So considering they are not meant to be born yet and are still only 33 weeks gestation they are doing really well.  They had their  routine follow up brain scans this week which didn't show up anything, thankfully.  They were checking for bleeding on the brain which is quite common in premature babies. 

We are still exclusively breastfeeding and are keeping up just fine. The hospital has enough for at least 24 hours in case we are not able to make it one day for whatever reason.   The time I am spending expressing at home gives me a chance to sit quietly and read, 50 Shades of Grey is on the list currently and who knows when I will get a chance to start and finish a book again.  I also read recently how many calories are burnt by breastfeeding and based on that it worked out to a huge 800+ calories per day. 

This has also seen the first full week of me driving to the hospital and back every day.  Luckily Ollie hasn't had to come with me this week as his beautiful Grandma Jen and Poppy have been able to help out and keep him entertained.  But he will be coming down with me most days from now on and playing in the creche at the hospital.  So far I have been going down every day and limiting myself to 2 hours as I am really tired from both still recovering and expressing during the night. 

Oliver has made the transition out into his new bedroom and his 'big boy bed' very easily since I have been home and has been asking to go to the hospital to see "Huds, Spence and Addie" but due to his illness he hasn't been in the past week but will come in for a visit this week with me.  I have also really enjoyed spending some one on one time with him this past week as I really feel like I have missed out on some beautiful time with him these past few months and he is at such a beautiful age.

Lastly here are some photos in order of Addison, Spencer and Hudson

Two weeks old - Better late than never

It is hard to believe that a while two weeks ago since Addison, Spencer and Hudson entered our lives in such a hurry.  The last week has been fairly drama free for the beautiful trio. 

Each had regained their birth weight by Wednesday and have continued to gain weight steadily since generally averaging about 30 grams per day.  Originally that had been fed expressed breast milk through a nasal gastric tube continually, but now have all been upgraded to two hourly bolus feeds.  This feed is allows gravity to feed it through the tube.  Spencer ended up with the same mystery virus that Hudson had last week so ended up with an iv again for his course of antibiotics. 

The past week I have been staying in a motel close to the hospital to be near our babies and have been spending most days at the hospital.  Unfortunately Mr TAN and Oliver have both been sick this week so from Tuesday on I had no contact with either of them.  Thankfully they are both much better now.  I am finally back at home which is so nice to be back with my boys.  So now the daily commute will start...

A week and a bit on...

Well it has been just over 1 week since we became parents of 4 overnight.  The shock has finally settled and we are all slowly recovering.

I am still a little sore from the ceaseraen, but slowly improving each day.  I personally wouldn't choose to have one again (haha).  Initially the day after birth I had a good 8cm+ of abdominal seperation, which for a few days was quite when I was up moving around.  Today after a quick visit to the hospital physio that has now gone down to only about 3cm, phew!  Since being discharged from the hospital I have been staying in a motel nearby to the hospital to rest up and recover a bit more before heading home.  This has been really nice as I am still extremely tired and I have also wanted to make sure breast feeding is well established. 

I am a big fan of the benefits and the pracicalities of breast feeding and at the moment I am just managing to keep up woth my trio's needs.  Nine days in and between them we are going through 33ml of breast milk per hour and this is increasing almost daily.  Initially my goal is to at least ensure they are exclusively breast fed while they are still in hospital.  I would love to continue this once I get home but I am also a realist, and realise that trying to twin feed 2 babies, and chasing a toddler with one more hungry mouth to feed might not work and be more trouble than it's worth.  At the very least I will endeavour to feed a different baby each feed so they are at least getting 2 one on one cuddles and feed with mummy per day. 

As for the magnificent trio all are generally doing really well.  They were all of the CPAP within a few days, and moved from the NICU to SCBU (special care baby unit).  All have been under lights at least twice but at the moment they are okay.  Again all three are breathing on their own and are not on any oxygen, all are being fed by a continuos syringe through a nasal gastric tube.  Hudson has generally been a few days behind the others as he did not get any surfactant when he was born, but in hindsight probably would have benefited from it.  He also had an umbi line(?) in for a few days so was initially grumpy as he started his food a little later.  All 3 are about 50ish grams off of their birth weight so doing well in that respect.  Poor little Hudson had a little swelling under his chin this morning so had to go back on an iv and have some tests done but all appears to be nothing thankfully. 

Tomorrow they will be 32 weeks gestation and we are hoping to have them all home between 37-40 weeks gestation so sometime in mid to late August.  Mr TAN and I have been overwhelmed with all the love and support people have shown us.  As for their big brother Ollie he is missing not having his mum at home but has still been having some visits with us all and loves patting his sister and brother's heads and holding their hands.  I am looking forward to being home with him next weekend.  I can also see many similarities between all 3 and their big brother including their dad's worry lines that Ollie was also born with, just 3 much smaller versions.

I have had lots of cuddles with all three including lots of skin to skin and including some double cuddles which was the most amazing feeling and I didn't know who to look at.  It will probably be another 2 weeks or so until they are all of their monitors when I can have triplet cuddles. 

Lastly I will leave you with some pics from the last week.

Addison 1 week old

Hudson 1 week old

                               Hudson on left and Spencer on the right Mum's first double cuddle

Spencer 1 week old

                                                 Double cuddle with Spencer (L) and Addison (R).  Lucky Spencer gets all the double cuddles as his cot is in the middle

The birthday 23/06/2012!!!

On Thursday I headed down to my ob appointment and all looked great.  Got to have a good look at all 3 babies and everything was swell.  I was now measuring the equivalent of 47 weeks pregnant.  It was also arranged for me to be admitted into hospital on the Sunday to rest and await the arrival of our babies.

Friday I woke up and it just felt like another normal day of being big and uncomfortable.  About 12.30ish I started getting strong regular braxton hicks.  I had a few visitors during the afternoon so stayed lying down while we chatted and caught up.  By about 4ish it was still carrying on in spite of resting, panadol and lots of glasses of water.  I called the doctors rooms and she suggested I come in to get checked out.  So I got Mr TAN home and off we went.  I bought some of the things with me I had packed to take down for my extended stay just in case.

When we arrived at the hospital we were taken through, and it was just lucky that our student midwife who is also a HOM mum was on her last day of placement.  Everything looked and felt fine, but they gave me my first dose of steroids and admitted me.  This was at about 7ish.  I got taken up to the labour and delivery ward and got made comfortable where I told them adamantly that they needed worry as we were not having any babies tonight.  I tried to send Mr TAN home which is about an hours drive from the hospital, but he decided to stay close by with a friend just in case.  Mr TAN tells me now that my obstetrician told him to stay close by.  So I got comfortable and tried to get some sleep.  At around 10 I still hadn't gotten any rest as the Braxton Hicks were now constant and not easing at all, so it was decided I would get some pethidine and try to relax my irritable uterus so I could get some sleep.  I finally drifted off but woke suddenly at around one needing to go to the toilet.  I felt damp already so put it down to the pethidine, and my very squashed bladder.  I started to feel a gush as I walked to the toilet which I thought may have been my waters breaking to get to the toilet and see a whole lot of blood.  It was at this point that I became really scared.  I hit the buzzer and suddenly the room was full.  They couldn't tell if my membranes had ruptured or not and hooked me up to monitor the babies.  The bubs were all doing great, and had strong heartbeats.  They called my obstetrician again and she was going to come in.  After another large gush of blood they called her again and she said it was time, I was going in for a cesarean to have my babies.  At this point I called Mr TAN and the student midwife to get them all back in.

By this time I was so scared and I didn't understand what was happening and wouldn't let the midwife leave.  I wasn't in any pain, just scared about not knowing what was happening.  I was also only 30 weeks and 4 days pregnant and totally not mentally prepared to be giving birth so soon.  The next bit is a bit of a blur as I am being prepped for surgery, I had the neonatoligist come in to talk to me about all the different possibilities, anaesthetists amongst a whole lot of people buzzing about.  Mr TAN arrived, and my student midwife in just the nick of time before we got wheeled in. 

When we got into the theatre it was a hive of activity as the 3 little cots were set up and everything being prepared.  I got Mr TAN to do a head count and there were 20 people in the theatre.  Then it all happened fairly quickly.

At 3.08am Addison Rose was born weighing 1460gm and 41.7cm long.
At 3.09am Spencer Graham was born weighing 1600gm and 42cm long.
At 3.11 Hudson Ray was born with a scowl on his face and weighing 1710gm and 41.4cm long.

It was discovered during surgery that Spencer's membranes had ruptured and his placenta had started to detach which was causing the bleeding.  But we will not know what happened first whether it was the braxton hicks that caused it, or if the braxton hicks were because of his placenta. 

So now just over 24 hours later and everyone is doing well.  Addison may be coming of CPAP today and is starting to be fed small amounts of food and is under lights.  Spencer is under lights and he swallowed a bit of blood and is also on CPAP.  Hudson still appears to be the grumpy one and keeps pulling his iv out, so now has one going into his cord.  He is on CPAP too and is the only one not under lights at this stage. 

As for me I am taking things slowly and apart from the shock and surprise of having 3 babies yesterday am feeling okay.  I managed a small cuddle with Addison yesterday which was just beautiful.  Anyway am about to head back down to the nursery.  So will just leave with some pics

My bump on Friday.  Didn't think this was going to be the last one

Addison Rose having her mummy cuddle

Spencer Graham

Hudson Ray

Growing!

.Well yesterday was yet another growth scan and I am now 29weeks and 4 days pregnant.  As far as triplet pregnancies go, I guess this has been a fairly boring and complication free one.  The babies are getting harder and harder to scan these days as there is just a giant mass of heads, bodies, arms and legs.  B's head is nestled deep down in my pelvis making it very hard to get her head measurememts, and baby A is still tucked sort of behind B making him hard to get to as well. 

But after waiting for an hour to be taken in for the scan we finally got there and all is well and as I suspected by my growing size and discomfort.  Both of the boys are now weighing around the 1500gm mark, and our little girl is weighing about 1350gm.  The MFM doctor is really happy with how things are going and is confident that we shouldn't have any problems making it to 32-34 weeks.  So if we continue the way things are going all bubs should be around the 2 kilo mark when they arrive. 

In terms of how I am feeling it is getting harder and harder each day that passes.  Walking is becoming quite painful, and my whole body aches.  Even rolling over in bed is getting increasingly difficult and painful.  Now that my belly has started to grow width ways, as well as length it is getting harder to lay on my side and I am now resorting to spending half the night trying to sleep sitting up.  Yesterday morning I woke in the most excruciating pain as either B or C's foot was jammed up high in my ribs under my breast.  I could feel the lump there and had to try to free it.  I am still struggling with breathlessness, even reading a story to Oliver has me puffed out.  In the long run though we are now in the home stretch of this pregnancy and I am being admitted into hospital next weekend.  Every day and week is a bonus and is best for the babies so until then everyone else will need to put up with my complaining.

The stuff around the house is coming together too, Oliver's room is all carpeted and painted and we have the furniture so just need to move him out there and hang the curtains.  There is still a bit of painting to do but there is no real rush.  This week we have also sorted through all the clothes we have been given and boxed them up in the separate sizes ready for use.  So all we really need to do in the nursery is assemble the cots and put up the wall mural that I bought, but there is still plenty of time for that before these babies come home.  We have had so much help and support these past 2 weeks and it has made such a huge difference.  My mum is currently staying with us as I am finding it to hard to find the motivation or energy to even make toast, she will be staying until next weekend to help out until I go into hospital.  As I sit here Mr TAN is about to sit his first exam for uni then he just has one more to sit before he takes the next semester off. 

Well that is all I have to say for now, but will take a new bump pic later as I think it has been a while.

Today's Checkup

Today I had one of my obstetric appointments and all is still going great guns.  Mr TAN has now banned me from driving and everybody has agreed with him much to my disappointment, which I am not complaining about I just don't like being dependant on others. 

I am now measuring 43cm - YIKES!  For those of you who don't know what this means it generally relates to the equivalent of how pregnant you are IE 30cm is 30 weeks pregnant.  The babies are now all between the 50th and 70th percentile, which is fantastic news and I am looking forward to seeing how much they have grown at my next growth scan next week. 

Generally apart from being constantly breathless, headaches, being huge and in pain, the reflux and how squished all my internal organs are now I am feeling pretty good.  My high resting heart rate is still a concern so need to keep an eye on it and watch out for swelling and dizziness.  I have also been told IF I make it to 35 weeks a ceaserean will be scheduled for then, although the way I am beginning to feel already I am not sure if I will make it that far.

I am now finding myself with very little energy and basically just move from the couch to the bed.  Thankfully my mum has moved up to help me as of this week which is making a huge difference.  She has been helping with all the general household chores like cooking, washing and helping to care for Oliver.  With her help I believe I can manage an extra week at home but we will need to play that one by ear.

One thing that I am beginning to have fun with though is the comments I am getting from strangers about the size of my belly.  For example I was browsing in the shop at the hospital and a customer was having a conversation with the lady behind the counter, this is how it went:
Shop Lady "Busy day?"
Customer "Yes, people keep having babies"
Shop Lady "Look at her she is about to have a baby"
Me "I'm about to have 3" this is the fun part
All faces turn to me "3" "your having twins?" "Are they those ivf babies?"
Me "Yes, triplets, yes they are natural ;)"
This was then followed by a whole lot more clucking, this is just one example but it is becoming more of a daily occurrence when I leave the house but it is keeping me entertained....

Are there any other HOM parents out there that have had fun with these kinds of things?

My second goal!!!

Well today it is official, I have finally reached my minimum gestation goal of 28 weeks!  This also means that I am officially in the third trimester of pregnancy.  Lastly and most importantly I have been told that babies born at this gestation have a 95% chance of survival. 

On Friday night we made a late night dash to hospital as my Braxton Hicks started to become painful and regular.  Luckily it all turned out to be nothing, however they did keep me in for observation and rest until Monday. 


We are still planning on having me admitted to hospital from 30 weeks for a few reasons.  I am finding it harder and harder to cope at home on my own.  So for the next 2 weeks I have someone here permanently to help me.  I am really feeling it now if I do too much and tend to suffer the consequences, which I am sure is the reason why I spent the weekend in hospital.  Mr TAN is also finding it increasingly stressful to have me at home as he is constantly worrying about what I might be doing. 


Being in hospital also made me realise just how hard it will be.  The private hospital which is closer to home and much nicer do not want me there, even if it is just for respite.  The major public hospital where the babies will need to be delivered is busy, much further away from home.  I found I was always hungry, even after each meal.  They also only had food available 3 times a day compared to the nice one which feed you 6 times per day.  Also being a vegetarian the menu options were the same every day,  I also found it really hard to sleep.  I am finding it hard now at the best of times but being on that horrible little bed, with crying babies in other rooms, and being woken up 4 hourly for obs I cam to rely on the Tamazapan they were giving me to help me sleep. 


So apart from the physical discomforts there were the emotional ones.  After Mr TAN left me on Friday night I didn't get to see him again until I came home on Monday afternoon.  I did speak to him a few times but it wasn't the same.  Also over that whole weekend I also only got to see my baby boy for about 15 minutes on the Saturday.  I got to speak to him about twice a day but it just wasn't the same as seeing him and holding him in my arms. 


My weekend away however did bring some advantages.  Mr TAN has managed to finish the construction side of things so that is all now complete, plus he has now made a start on the painting too.  We are hoping the painting will be finished by the weekend so the room will be ready for Ollie before I end up in hospital. 


So I guess at the end of all of this being in hospital will have it's advantages.  It means that each day and week we can keep these 3 precious miracles in utero is a massive plus, and less time they will need in the NICU and SCBU units after birth and the sooner we can bring them home and begin our lives as a family of 6.