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
Monday, 24 December 2012
Sunday, 9 December 2012
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!
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!
Friday, 7 December 2012
Sunday, 9 September 2012
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
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
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Finally home!
Yesterday was a very special day for our family. Finally after 7 weeks and 6 days Addison, Spencer and Hudson were finally able to join us at home.
Addison ended up having her nasal gastric tube taken out on Tuesday and basically we were just hoping for the best and that we could get her feeding so we could go home. So after Mr TAN and I spending a day and night at the hospital with them we were able to leave. Addison has to have some special fortifier added to her milk to help boost her calorie intake and weight gain. I am still managing (just) to provide them all with expressed breast milk but already feel my time and energy levels are sapped and Addison and Hudson are not so great at breast feeding as otherwise I would try twin feeding. Currently we are racing through about 1.8 litres of milk a day for them and that need is continually increasing so really don't feel that confident.
So we have now been home for about 36 hours and so far so good. They are all waking to feed every 3-4 hours and it takes the two of us just over an hour to get them all fed, changed and back to bed. In between I am busy expressing, sterilising, washing and of course entertaining Oliver. Mr TAN has been fantastic with helping with the feeding of everyone and we have even both managed a rest today thanks to some helpful visitors.
Starting on Monday I do have someone coming to help for 8 hours a day 3 times a week while Mr TAN is at work. I am so grateful for this help that will be provided for the next 13 weeks just to help with all the feeding and to get adjusted with this huge lack of sleep.
Keeping this short as they are just starting to wake for feeds again so here is a few happy snaps.
Addison ended up having her nasal gastric tube taken out on Tuesday and basically we were just hoping for the best and that we could get her feeding so we could go home. So after Mr TAN and I spending a day and night at the hospital with them we were able to leave. Addison has to have some special fortifier added to her milk to help boost her calorie intake and weight gain. I am still managing (just) to provide them all with expressed breast milk but already feel my time and energy levels are sapped and Addison and Hudson are not so great at breast feeding as otherwise I would try twin feeding. Currently we are racing through about 1.8 litres of milk a day for them and that need is continually increasing so really don't feel that confident.
So we have now been home for about 36 hours and so far so good. They are all waking to feed every 3-4 hours and it takes the two of us just over an hour to get them all fed, changed and back to bed. In between I am busy expressing, sterilising, washing and of course entertaining Oliver. Mr TAN has been fantastic with helping with the feeding of everyone and we have even both managed a rest today thanks to some helpful visitors.
Starting on Monday I do have someone coming to help for 8 hours a day 3 times a week while Mr TAN is at work. I am so grateful for this help that will be provided for the next 13 weeks just to help with all the feeding and to get adjusted with this huge lack of sleep.
Keeping this short as they are just starting to wake for feeds again so here is a few happy snaps.
Addison
Hudson
Spencer
Monday, 13 August 2012
When will they be home?
The plan had originally been to aim for today, but, and I kind of expected it we have been delayed. Spencer and Hudson have been on full sucking feeds since Friday and are doing well. They are on demand feeds with a 4 hourly limit and are ready to come home. Spencer is a really good feeder at the breast, but Hudson not so much. Where Hudson lacks with his breast feeding he more than makes up for by the way he chugs down his bottles. The little greedy guts gulps down his bottles so fast he is gasping for air, where Spencer keeps more of a steady pace.
Young Addison seems to be all that is holding us up from coming now. She feeds really slowly and is struggling to finish her bottles on her 4 suck feeds. The other 2 feeds she is still having by a nasal gastric tube. They do prefer that they are on all sucking feeds for 48 hours before they come so if we are aiming for Friday we are running out of time. So it is only a matter of waiting for it all to click together for her.
We are not prepared to bring them home separately as we would not be able to get in to visit Addison as the hospital is just that bit too far away, and the hospital is supportive of us in this decision.
In the last few days we have noticed that all 3 of them are starting to get much better head control and they are also starting to wake up a bit more. While they are looking around they have also started to give us some lovely eye contact too.
We are as ready as ever for our trio to join us at home and everything is as ready as I ever in visage it to be. So now we wait....
Young Addison seems to be all that is holding us up from coming now. She feeds really slowly and is struggling to finish her bottles on her 4 suck feeds. The other 2 feeds she is still having by a nasal gastric tube. They do prefer that they are on all sucking feeds for 48 hours before they come so if we are aiming for Friday we are running out of time. So it is only a matter of waiting for it all to click together for her.
We are not prepared to bring them home separately as we would not be able to get in to visit Addison as the hospital is just that bit too far away, and the hospital is supportive of us in this decision.
In the last few days we have noticed that all 3 of them are starting to get much better head control and they are also starting to wake up a bit more. While they are looking around they have also started to give us some lovely eye contact too.
We are as ready as ever for our trio to join us at home and everything is as ready as I ever in visage it to be. So now we wait....
Friday, 3 August 2012
How Will I Do It?
Well I must be on a roll tonight but this is something I have been asking myself pretty much for the past few months. How will I do it? How will I feed all 3 babies at the same time, so I am not constantly feeding? How will I settle all these babies, again hopefully at the same time? How will I continue to give Oliver the attention and time that he is accustomed to?
Let's start with the first one. I really have no idea! I love the benefits and lets not forget the convenience of breast feeding, after all there is no washing up but I am missing one boob. Do I twin feed two and somehow prop feed the third with expressed breast milk or formula? Do I just breast feed a different baby every feed and prop feed two babies? The benefit of this is I could still help Oliver read books etc and move about easily if needed. I am hoping I won't need to do too many feeds by myself but the reality also is sometimes I will need to. So really I don't know the answer to this question and will not know until we are living it. So far I am still feeding all three expressed milk but from what i have heard a lot of mothers with triplets are fine while the bubs are in hospital and it falls apart once everyone is home, and that's okay and will not be disappointed if this happens to me as let's be honest I am not Super Woman.
As for settling them, I am not going to have the time or the energy to pat, rock or wear these babies, so yes there is likely to be some screaming from everybody and we will do what we need to do to (hopefully) get everyone for a sleep at the same time. Mr TAN with his work situation is not able to take any extended period of time off of work so although he works from home I will be unable to rely on him for a lot.
Lastly for now Oliver who has our undivided attention for nearly 3 years now. I am hoping that his easy going and loving nature will make this change easy for him and I hope that we still get some of that lovely one on one time that I have been so enjoying these past few months as he has growing into a little boy. Oliver has already told me that Spencer is his favourite and would like to sit next to him in "mum's big bus". He was also quite concerned when we changed Addison's nappy. He looked at me quite complexed and said "Addie's willy gone" after I explained that Addie was a girl like mummy he was quite happy. Then we went on to change Spencer's nappy. Oliver then told me that Spence has a little willy, this soon followed with him telling me that he had a big willy, this followed with "Daddy has a big, big, big willy" needless to say this left my mum, the nurse and I in hysterics. Out of the mouths of babes.....
Let's start with the first one. I really have no idea! I love the benefits and lets not forget the convenience of breast feeding, after all there is no washing up but I am missing one boob. Do I twin feed two and somehow prop feed the third with expressed breast milk or formula? Do I just breast feed a different baby every feed and prop feed two babies? The benefit of this is I could still help Oliver read books etc and move about easily if needed. I am hoping I won't need to do too many feeds by myself but the reality also is sometimes I will need to. So really I don't know the answer to this question and will not know until we are living it. So far I am still feeding all three expressed milk but from what i have heard a lot of mothers with triplets are fine while the bubs are in hospital and it falls apart once everyone is home, and that's okay and will not be disappointed if this happens to me as let's be honest I am not Super Woman.
As for settling them, I am not going to have the time or the energy to pat, rock or wear these babies, so yes there is likely to be some screaming from everybody and we will do what we need to do to (hopefully) get everyone for a sleep at the same time. Mr TAN with his work situation is not able to take any extended period of time off of work so although he works from home I will be unable to rely on him for a lot.
Lastly for now Oliver who has our undivided attention for nearly 3 years now. I am hoping that his easy going and loving nature will make this change easy for him and I hope that we still get some of that lovely one on one time that I have been so enjoying these past few months as he has growing into a little boy. Oliver has already told me that Spencer is his favourite and would like to sit next to him in "mum's big bus". He was also quite concerned when we changed Addison's nappy. He looked at me quite complexed and said "Addie's willy gone" after I explained that Addie was a girl like mummy he was quite happy. Then we went on to change Spencer's nappy. Oliver then told me that Spence has a little willy, this soon followed with him telling me that he had a big willy, this followed with "Daddy has a big, big, big willy" needless to say this left my mum, the nurse and I in hysterics. Out of the mouths of babes.....
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