One year on.....

This week marks that it has one year since we found out we had triplets on board.  I vaguely went into the ultrasound room hoping to see a heartbeat, never in a million years did I expect to see three. 

What a whirlwind the last 12 months has been from being told all these dreadful statistics and risks, deciding to wing it and not go down the selective reduction path, growing and delivering 3 HEALTHY babies, going through the NICU and premature birth experience and now managing a crazy busy life with a toddler and 3 infants.

To say that the last 12 months have been emotionally and physically draining would be an understatement.  It has tested our beliefs, our relationships, our patience and most of all our strength.

Now we are blessed to have 4 beautiful children who are all growing beautifully.  The bubs are now close to 7 months old (or 5 corrected.)  We have started solids which is messy!  Addison isn't all that keen on most food, but the boys just love it.  Spence and Hudson are both rolling however it is not being used as a mode of transport, yet.  They are continuing to sleep through the night and are up at 6 just like their big brother.  They are all full of smiles and laughter and are really starting to interact with each other whether it be sucking each others toes, holding hands or even weeing on each other. 

There was a period a few months ago where Oliver was going through a real patch and was taking it out on his siblings.  I am pleased to report that this has now eased and has been replaced with blowing 'blueberries' on their tummies and kisses.  I can also now say that after a few days of hard work, lots of smartie rewards and a few extra cloths in the wash we now only have 3 children in nappies full time. 

I am now starting to have trouble sleeping myself which doesn't seem fair.  I am really struggling to 'switch off' and am such a terribly light sleeper it really doesn't take much to wake me.  I also thing that now that we have been home for nearly 6 months I am really starting to feel trapped.  I am struggling to get out with the kids both on my own or as a family.  I find it tricky as the bubs don't really feed all that well and if I am out for any length of time I still need to express which can be awkward when out and about.  I am also starting to feel isolated from my friends particularly at the moment I think because of school holidays and a lot of our normal activities have had a break, but as a whole I have found I am not seeing my friends as much as I would like.  So not sure whether it is because it is assumed that I am too busy or perhaps they are busy with families of their own. 

I have reached a stage where I would be happy to give it up expressing and am amazed at how long I have persisted for but at the same time it gives me a wonderful reason to sit and read a book etc for 20 minutes a few times a day.  If I were to stop then I would have no excuse to put my feet up a few times a day.  So for now I am happy to continue.

On that note I am going to take myself of to bed while there is still peace and quiet and enjoy an early night...

Hudson loves his tucker, I guess that is why he is the biggest!

Spencer loves his too!

Addison isn't real sure which is why she is still the littlest by about 2 kilos!

Bath time with all my babes!

 

 

My last few blog entries :)

Well I will keep this short and very sweet but it appears as if our darling Oliver has worked out how to post blogs here from my phone!  I have now deleted them but I have kept the post that where he managed to post 4 photos from my iphone, this is something that even I struggle with...

So there is a post with 4 photos on it, and I am just eternally grateful that they are not the photos he took when he followed me into the bathroom, especially considering it took me nearly a week to discover these little entries.

Apart from that all well here and will update in my detail in the not too distant future...

We survived 6 months!

Yesterday marked our fabulous trio's 6 month birthday, it was also one year to the day that we found out we were expecting a new addition to the family.  Yesterday afternoon was a stinking hot day and as is our annual tradition on the 23rd of December each year our town has a very cute Christmas pageant in the evening.  So the family gathered here for a barbecue before heading down the street for the celebrations.  Oliver was very excited as he got to ride on one of the fire trucks with Mr TAN and had a lovely time riding the fire truck and waving to all his friends that he knew, although by the end he was exhausted.  The rest of us watched on and the trio were very well behaved.

We are ecstatic to have survived the first 6 months as parents of Higher Order Multiples and although our lives have changed very dramatically for the better I now couldn't imagine it any other way.  Our lives have been busier, and we probably don't venture out of the house as much I would probably like but when you see the smiles on those 3 little gorgeous faces it is all well worth it. 

Last night was another major achievement Addison, Spencer and Hudson to celebrate decided to sleep through the night without a peep until 6am.  So with any luck it will become a regular occurrence.  Hudson has now started rolling and Spencer and Addison are not far behind. 

I am also very happy to have reached a huge milestone in that I have now been expressing milk for them for 6 months.  This is such a huge achievement for me, as my original goal had been for the duration of their hospital stay I have well and truly surpassed that now.  One of the benefits I have recently discovered apart from all the health and financial benefits is I get at least 20 minutes of time to sit and do nothing 6 times a day.  So in this time I often make phone calls, Facebook, emails etc but recently I have discovered it is also a great time to read.  In the last 2 weeks I have started (and finished) the first two twilight books and straight after I finish this I will get to start the third. 

Oliver is very excited to be celebrating Christmas this year and is really getting into the spirit of Christmas and we managed to get down for a Santa photo.  So this Christmas is very exciting for us and really has renewed our spirit. 

So on that note on this beautiful Christmas 'silent night' I am going to pour Santa a glass of bubbly and get ready for the next feed. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all

3+++ months (or 5+ corrected)

Hi everyone!  It has been a while between posts as life has been busy and this is my third attempt in as many days as my entries keep disappearing into cyber space. 

My days have been filled with feeding, expressing, household chores, feeding, expressing, playing with Ollie, sterilising etc, etc.  The trio are still feeding mostly 3 hourly during the day which still takes an hour plus a bit longer now that they are starting to spend a bit more time awake.  Then I spend 30ish minutes expressing it doesn't leave much time in between.  The trio are going through nearly half a litre of milk each and every feed so they do get a bit of formula too.  We were very fortunate to have some extra help approved so I now have someone here to help me 8 hours a day 5 days a week, which is brilliant on those days when I need to catch up on some much needed sleep.

We are still feeding through the night sadly although we have started not getting them all up once one wakes now, which unfortunately means I/we are up three times as much.  Addison has proven to be a true champion and will often go through to 5 or 6 am, the boys on the other hand love their food and don't seem as convinced that eating over night isn't necessary.  Mum has still been staying to help me with some of the night feeds during the week which is a massive help.

Our darling son has since turned 3 since my last entry and sadly has started to drop his day time sleep.  I would dearly love for him to toilet train but he is just not ready and has told me it is too hard.  He adores his brothers and sister although we do struggle with how rough he is with them.  We do struggle to keep him entertained whilst we are feeding hence the lack of social outings, which I am missing a great deal.

Addison is such an easy baby and I am sure if all babies were like her, there would be many more babies in the world.  She is very quiet and placid and only cries when she is hungry if she is put down.  The little darling even got forgotten about the other night and eventually fell asleep quietly in her bouncer.  Before we came out and found her and she hadn't made a peep.  She is just now growing into her 000 clothes and is just over the 5 kilo mark now.  So still a lot smaller than her brothers by about 1.5 kilos.

Spencer is a relatively easy baby and is often caught lying in his cot quietly looking around.  He does big goofy gummy smiles and is quite a spunk.  Spencer is quite a rascal to feed and prefers his milk warm and to be walked around the house to drink, which is getting tricky now that he is getting heavier.  Some of the boys 000 clothes they are now growing out of and Spencer has jumped from the 50th to the 60th percentile in recent weeks.

Hudson is still the biggest (just) and half of the time he is a lovely smily, happy, talking, baby and he will often give you a funny wink when he smiles.  Such a flirt!  The other half of the time he will scream like a banshee this awful high pitched scream that goes right through you.  Which he seems to do for a few hours on a nightly basis.  So hopefully he gets over that soon as it is getting kind of tiring, especially when I am after an early night.  Hudson is now somewhere above 6.5 kilos and is somewhere near the 70th percentile.

Mr TAN and I are still amazed at all the love and support we have received from family and friends.  We have been overwhelmed with meals and offers of help, this help has made our journey so much smoother and really cannot thank those people enough for the difference this has made.  Every day I look at my four amazing children and am overwhelmed with love and cannot believe my luck, considering the odds we were given in the start.

I have been connected with an Australian group through Facebook for people with Higher Order Multiples and I am astounded with the odds that most people are given regarding triplet pregnancies and the likelihood of having 3 healthy babies at the end of it.  There was a discusiion recently and it seems most are told they have less than a 30% of having 3 babies at the end of the pregancy.  So I hope those statistics are wrong as there are also so many good outcomes.  So it seems we are very blessed indeed!

From left-righ Addison spencer and Hudson

Home Life

We are now entering our fourth week of being home and where do I start... So far things have been going ok.  Just before we got home I applied for something called Special Child Care Benefit, so because of that I have a nanny for 3 days a week from 9am to 5pm.  This has made a huge difference as she helps with all the feeds, washing, dishes ect and also allows me to have some one on one time with Oliver and even catch a snooze most days.  My mum is helping one full day per week and with some of the night shifts.  Although she is looking to help with a lot more as Mr TAN is not able to help with them much anymore as it is beginning to affect his work. We are also still lucky enough to have lots of supportive friends and having meals dropped off twice a week.  I can not say enough how appreciative we are of this and how much of a difference it makes.

We are going through about 21 plus nappies per day, lots of loads of washing, and even though I am still expressing after each feed we are needing to top up the bottles with formula, and much to my surprise we are more than half way through our second tin in a week. 

They are still feeding 3-4 hourly on demand and when they are feeding 3 hourly it is really hard work!  If there are 2 of us doing the feeds it takes a good hour to get everyone fed, burped, changed and back to bed.  Then following this I express If I attempt this on my own it takes a good hour and a half.  By the time I get back to bed it is only 90 minutes before we start again.  They fed 3 hourly 2 nights in a row over the weekend and tempers were short.  When Oliver is out for the day or asleep it is much easier to manage, when he is home however and I am stuck feeding he tends to destroy the place.  Regardless of how much television or snacks I have available to him.  We have a one up, all up policy for feeds, and I have been trying like mad to master the art of prop feeding (supervised) so I can manage feeds on my own but so far no luck.  Both of the boys have each picked a different 3 hour window to be whinge and unsettled.  For Hudson it is from about 4-7ish and Spencer has chosen the 10pm-1am window,  Thankfully so far Addison is still quite content and is a very placid easy baby.  Although at times they do set each other off and we do have quite a regular chorus happening.

Last week I ventured out with them for their first check up and all is well.  They are all gaining weight steadily and the doctors are happy.   They are all now 2 weeks corrected or nearly 12 weeks old actual age. Won't that get confusing!  Addison and Spencer's umbilical hernias still look fine.  Addison as of a week ago now weighs in at 3380grams, Spencer 3970 grams and Hudson or chubby cheeks as Oliver affectionately calls him is 4170 grams.  The boys have their follow up hearing checks at the end of the month as they both failed the initial one in one ear, from what I hear is quite common to fail initially and can be for a number of reasons. 

On the way to the appointment I had a bright idea of stopping and having lunch in a popular cafe strip.  I can see why seasoned HOM parents soon have a long list of responses to nosey (rude) people's comments.  Yes I do have my hands full, and yes even my heart full.  Lucky I didn't have their big brother with me too.  So if you see someone with a very big pram with her head down to avoid talking to people it is probably me, but I really don't fancy stopping to speak to every single person about how awful it must be to be blessed with 4 lovely children even if I do spend most of the day and night feeding. 

Until next time here is a picture of them taken this morning after their feed.  From L-R is Hudson, Addison and Spencer