The boys had their 15mo check up with the pediatrician yesterday and he said for the most part they are doing great! Nate weighed in at 20lbs 7oz. Mitch was 19lbs 10oz and little Eli was 18lbs 2oz. The boys are small even for their adjusted age, but we Probeyahns are not large people to begin with! However, Eli has been diagnosed officially as "failure to thrive" because he only gained 4oz in almost 4 months. We will be bringing him back to the GI specialist who will probably put him back on meds for reflux as he still vomits quite frequently. However he is a great eater! Probably the best of all three when it comes to finger foods. So it is a little frustrating that he just isn't growing as he should.

As far as motor skills they are doing well. Mitch and Nate walking and climbing. Eli isn't far behind! He is taking as many as 10-12 steps at a time and it will only be a matter of days before he is walking as well as his brothers. He is one determined little dude! He sees them walking and getting praise and he wants it too! Due to his Sandifer's Syndrome his core muscles just aren't as strong as the other two so activities like crawling and walking become a little more challenging for him. But I am so proud of his progress thus far!

All the boys are saying words and have quite the vocabulary already! Nate was the first to say a clear word that he associated with the correct object. The word? DUCK! :) The boys also say mama and dada of course as well as bye-bye, all done, hi, cheese, apple, ba-ba, go, ball, book, fish and something that sounds a lot like thank-you! They also know a few signs to go with their words like Mommy and Daddy, more, and all done.

They really love music and Elmo. They will sing E-I-E-I-O with Old MacDonald, they will roll their hands to The Wheels on the Bus, they will clap to Happy and You Know It and they really love the Jewel song Sammy the Spider. Elmo videos play often in our house as it will catch their attention and give mama a break for 30 minutes to do things like laundry, dishes, and blog! :)

We go for walks once or twice a day and the boys really love being outside. Unfortunately, at the moment we do not have a yard for them to play in but I will sometimes let them crawl around in the field across the street where we walk around the pond. They are so cute they way they are fascinated by the grass and they way it feels. We are in the process of buying a house and pretty soon the boys will have a nice fenced in yard to play in every day! I can't wait!

Sleep is still a challenge though naptimes have gotten better! We have gone down to just one nap a day and they will sleep from 11a-1p (give or take 30min). They wake up happy and refreshed and it.is.AWESOME. However during this transition time it is still tough for them to stay awake late in the afternoon so I am often trying to find ways to entertain them during that 5pm-7pm hour where they want to nap. If I let them sleep at ALL during that time they will nap for 15-45 minutes and then be up until midnight. However, even when I don't let them sleep during that time bedtime is still a challenge. These boys just don't like to sleep!! Its usually 9 or 10pm before I can get all three to sleep. And its a rare night where they sleep thru the night. They never sleep more than 9hours. We are usually up for the day by 530 (Although since the time change its been more like 6-7). I keep hoping and praying they will grow out of this and give us some reprieve!

Our goals for the months to come:

• SLEEP!
• No more bottles
• Drink from a straw
• No more mushy baby food - all finger foods and what the rest of the family eats
• Expanded vocabulary

And of course, some updated photos!

What makes a baby a good sleeper? Why do some sleep 12hrs a night from 6weeks old when others (like mine!) never seem to get the hang of sleeping more than 6hrs at a time? Is it parenting methods? Sleep training? Genetics? Plain ol' luck?? I have to think its a bit of everything. There doesn't seem to be some magical formula that works for everyone. There are hundreds of books about it. Even more forum and blog posts. Doctors say one thing, your mom will say another, while your peers have another opinion still. It is confusing and overwhelming.

Being 28wk preemies, our boys spent their first 2-3 months in the NICU where we had no control over their feeding and sleeping schedule. When they came home it was overwhelming. They had monitors, oxygen tanks, feeding tubes, reflux, medications, problems with sucking reflex and latching, and then there is the fact that there are THREE of them! With all that to deal with, sleep training was low on our priority list. We did whatever it took to get them to sleep so that WE could get some sleep too. In the early months because of their reflux they slept swaddled in their infant swings. We eventually transitioned them to their cribs but at that point they were so used to being rocked to sleep that we would spend hours rocking them.

When they got to a point where they were healthier - Eli got his feeding tube out, Mitch and Eli were allowed to come off the oxygen, Nate was cleared of needing a shunt - and they were eating well and more a on a schedule during the day, we started considering their sleep issue and how to tackle it. We had then at 6 months old and still currently at 14 months have 4 main problems:

1. They do not nap well during the day. We are lucky to get 20-40 minute naps from them twice a day and seldom at the same time. Plus, they rely on bottles or being rocked to fall asleep.
2. They do not fall asleep at night well. We spend 2+hrs every night getting them to sleep.
3. They seldom sleep through the night (meaning 8hrs - I can only dream of 12hr sleep sessions!). Usually 1 or 2 of them wake at least once, sometimes twice, in the middle of the night. There is no pattern to it, it is never the same baby waking and fighting sleep each night.
4. They wake up around 5:30 every morning and are up for the day. One wakes and cries and it wakes the others. They do not play in their cribs quietly. For awhile they would sit in their seats and watch a video so we could sleep a little longer but now they just want to play and that means we are up for the day too.

When we first started the sleep training process I was a big believer in the Cry-it-Out (CIO) method. I did it with my older son Jordan and it worked. It sucks going through it, but it worked. I had been pushing to do it for some time but with Mitch and Eli being on oxygen I just didn't have the support. Even when they got off the oxygen the concern over letting them cry too long and hard, and that affecting their breathing, was a big one. But we gave it a shot. We tried for over two months at both bed time and nap time. It did seem to improve matters but it didn't solve them. Most nights we spent well over two hours going through the process of letting them cry, soothing them, letting them cry, etc... until they would finally pass out. The more we let them cry, the more they egg each other on. One gets louder, another responds by getting louder too, and so on. If we let them get too upset they choke on their snot from crying and throw up. Every one of them has done it at some point. Then we have screaming babies AND a mess to clean up!

We have tried separating them (when we can) but our place is SOOO small. We have a two bedroom 1200sq ft single story villa we live in. The babies' "nursery" is a 100sq ft "room" off our living room that used to be our back porch. We built it out into a walled in room but there is no door. Where the sliding glass doors used to be is now curtains, mostly to help with keeping light out of their room from the rest of the house. My 9-yr-old has his own room at the front of the house and on the nights he is with his dad we put a baby to sleep in a pack and play in there. We also keep a pack and play in our room. So we tried letting them cry-it-out separately. Even though they eventually went to sleep, it didn't seem to help, even after an entire week of that attempt.

My husband is always searching the internet for ideas and solutions and he came across an article that is very against cry-it-out. It stated at that the baby doesn't fall asleep because he is learning to self soothe rather he falls asleep out of exhaustion. It says the baby feels a sense of abandonment and hopelessness that sticks with them for life. It was a pretty extreme article. But it was enough for my hubby to take a stand against the cry-it-out, which he never really liked in the first place. So on to something else...

We keep a regular schedule, every morning and every night. During the days the schedule varies depending on whats going on - ie. therapies, doctor appointments, picking Jordan up from school, outings and playdates, my work schedule, etc... But every morning they get a milk bottle when they wake then its breakfast at 8am. At night they eat dinner about 530-6, bath at 645, then its nighttime bottle and bedtime attempt starting 7-730. This is the same always. We have a rule that no naps are allowed after 4pm. So schedule is not the issue.

On a good day for us they will fall asleep drinking their nighttime bottle and stay asleep. On a bad night they drink their milk then cry and cry and cry. They will fight sleep until late - sometimes 11 or 12. And its not all of them. Its usually one sometimes two. But its never the same one or two. Then when they wake in the middle of the night its never the same pattern either. Every night we spend at least 2 hours trying to get them to fall asleep and stay asleep.

When they wake at night we first attempt to just pat their back and not pick them up. This hardly EVER works. Mostly it makes them cry louder and fight our attempts, thus risking waking the other two babies. So then we pick them up and rock them. Often this will do the trick but can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to achieve. If they don't relax with just rocking we offer a water bottle. As a last resort, if nothing else calms them, we offer a milk bottle, but if we are at that point even that doesn't always help.

We have tried giving them a bowl of oatmeal before bed, thinking a full heavy belly will help them sleep longer. It didn't. We have tried soothing music - makes no difference. We have tried getting them used to just being in their cribs playing - they hate it. We have tried putting them to sleep using a steam shower - which usually works but takes a lot of time and effort. We have tried letting them stay up later - they just get over tired and cry more. We have tried keeping a air purifier in their room that creates a white noise so they can't hear each others noise as much, but it disd't seem to help much. For awhile we took to walking them in their stroller until they fell asleep. And now, as a last resort because we are soooo exhausted by all this, we are taking them for car rides to put them to sleep. It works. They are asleep within 30 minutes and usually stay asleep. I have noticed they are waking less at night since we started this too.

Ok naysayers (I know you are out there reading this) - before you judge me - I am well aware that this is not a healthy habit for them. But this lack of sleep, this every night struggle, is taking its toll. Not just on me and my own lack of sleep. My 9 year old is suffering because of it too. He has to listen to the struggle and the cries when he is trying to sleep and it upsets and frustrates him too. It is affecting our marriage to a point. We go to bed exhausted and irritable and don't spend the time together that we need. Then we wake up tired and angry and it starts our day off horribly. We have to do something to preserve the sanity and peace in our family. So if driving babies around in a car every night for 30 minutes is what it takes, I'm gonna do it.

So I guess what it comes down to is this: No two babies are the same and while one method may work for one baby it may not work for another. When you have multiples this is compounded even further! One triplet may be a good sleeper but never really has the chance because of being woken up by another. Cry it out may work for one triplet but not for the others but you never really get the chance to know. Prematurity and health issues do have their part in it as well as the lack of space issue. And lets face it - despite ALL of this it could just be their genetic make up! They might just not need as much sleep as most babies.

So if I can get the boys to sleep by driving them in the car, I'm gonna do it. If I can keep them sleeping by picking them up and giving them a bottle in the middle of the night, I'm gonna do it. If they wake at 5am and refuse to go back to sleep or play quietly in their crib, then I have to accept that too. If they don't take naps longer than 30 minutes, there is nothing else I can do to fix it. This is the way it is. My babies are rotten sleepers - so be it. This is the way God made them. It sucks for us now but I know they will grow out of it eventually. In the mean time, if they only sleep like this:

...I'll take what I can get. :)

When I was pregnant with the boys I started this blog to keep my friends and family up to date with progress of the pregnancy and the babies themselves. Also during that time, I spent a lot of time in forums for multiple moms. When I realized that the forums weren't all that helpful I took this blog and made it a little more involved in hopes of helping other mamas like me. Part of why I didn't like the forums was because I was met with a lot of cynical and bitter "tenured" mamas who didn't seem to like that I was excited about having triplets. They warned: it's going to be harder than you think, it will take its toll on your marriage, your life will never be the same, your body will never be the same, it's expensive, triplets are hard hard hard!! Well, obviously I knew all those things in theory, but I didn't appreciate their approach toward me or their attitudes. I am a fairly positive person and this just turned me off completely; it put me on the defensive.

When I transformed my blog into this site to help others I was verbally attacked by some of these moms. I got several nasty comments, one so nasty it put me in tears and made me want to press charges against this woman, but she posted anonymously. I even went so far to track her IP address to a city in northern New Jersey. These nay-sayers said I would never be able to keep up with my blog and said "it will fall away just like all the others who think they are better than the forum". I was determined to prove them wrong. And I did great until I went back to work.

In June, when the babies were 6 months old I went back to work and then we lost our in home nursing care and all of a sudden blogging became so much more difficult. The last update I gave on the boys was last August! Ugh! I feel angry with myself for letting so much time go by, for letting those bitter moms who said I couldn't do it think they were right for even one minute. I have been approached by so many people who say they found my blog helpful that I feel like I am letting them down. Our friends and family who look forward to updates on the boys have been left in limbo. To you, I am so sorry!

It's not an excuse, but definitely a valid reason that I am so physically exhausted at the end of each day I can't fathom the thought of sitting in front of the computer trying to formulate intelligent thoughts! Not to mention, when I do have free time, quiet time, I want to spend that time with my husband or with a book or a movie. Yet each night while I lay in bed, I write blog posts in my head. In the shower in the morning I think of the pictures I want to post. While cooking dinner in the evening I think about the cute video I shot the day before and how excited our family in California would be to see it. While driving home from work I think about the funny thing Mitch did that morning that I know would make people laugh. When we have a bad night, the babies are crying and vomiting I think if I wrote about it and how we deal with it, I could help others who are struggling with similar issues. I think about all these things all the time and I write these blog posts in my head. Unfortunately, there is no bluetooth connection from my brain to my website that allows me to upload these blog entries wirelessly and effortlessly!! (Someone should seriously invent that! - lol)

So here I am, 6 months later, to give you a brief summary of the backlog in my brain!

In August, the triplets were 8 months old. At their 8mo check up Eli weighed 14lbs, Nate weighed in at 16lbs 10oz and Mitchell 15lbs 9oz. Growing boys!

We took our first (and so far ONLY!) road trip with them. We drove from Tampa to Atlanta, a trip that normally takes about 7 hours. On the way up we made it in 8! On the way home, it took 11. Overall the boys did very well for being in their car seats for so long, though we haven't been in a hurry to try it again! :) While in Atlanta we got to introduce the boys to my extended family, and also Matt's cousin and his wife and their daughter. In addition, we were lucky to coincidentally be there the same week Matt's brother-in-law Frank was there on business so he got to meet the boys for the first time too! We also had them in the pool for the first time while in Atlanta. They loved it!

Though still not sitting up on their own yet, the boys loved to play with their toys, especially their jumparoo! Here is Nate bouncing :)

Also in late August Jordan started third grade. I can hardly believe it!

September the boys turned 9 months old and got teeth! I was up with Nate (after bedtime of course) and he was chewing on my finger and "ouch!" I felt a sharp little tooth! It was amazing because two days later Mitch got his first one, then two days later Eli got his! A week later Nate got his second tooth, two days later Mitch got his and two days after that Eli got his second too. It was awesome. And other than a bit of runny nose they didn't seem any fussier than usual.

Also in late September the boys started sitting on their own. They were quite shaky at first but quickly caught on.

Because the babies were still not sleeping through the night and gave us a really tough time going to sleep at all I attempted sleep training in September by letting the boys "cry it out" at night and naps. It seems to help, a little. Naps became a little easier though they still only sleep 30-40 min on average and hardly ever at the same time. Bedtime did NOT get easier and ultimately we gave up on CIO deciding it just wasn't for us. The babies would egg each other on and cry so hard one would inevitable end up vomiting. Then we had crying babies and vomit to clean up and no one sleeping. Not good.

In September we made field trips to the Florida Aquarium and Lowry Park Zoo. The boys love outings! Our friend Lucas turned one and we went to his birthday party too.

In September Jordan started his third season of little league. This season he was in the "minor" league which means it was a little more serious than in previous seasons. The kids had to do the pitching and the catching. For the first time Jordan was on a full team so it was  a good experience for him to learn team play.

In October the triplets turned ten months old, 7 1/2 adjusted. The began getting on all fours and rocking like they wanted to crawl.  They got their top teeth in. Our weather finally broke and it was a little cooler out. We took advantage of the first nice weekend and took the babies for a walk along the causeway. They sat in the grass for the first time and were just enamored by it!

We found a house that we want to buy and nearby there is this awesome park. We took the kids there to enjoy the afternoon. The babies got to go on the swings for the first time and Jordan got to meet some kids who live in the neighborhood. Eli did NOT like the swings so he spent time playing in the wood chips.

Late in October we went to Sweetfield Farms where we got to eat kettle corn, pick out a pumpkin, pet some farm animals, make our way through a cornfield maze, and generally enjoy farm life for a day. It was a grand time! We even met another family with triplets. They were 11.

Jordan was with his dad for Halloween and we didn't really have anywhere to take the babies so we didn't dress them up in a costume. We did buy them some cute Halloween jammies though!

November began our busy time, which is saying a lot because our lives are ALWAYS busy! Jordan turned 9 this month and the babies 11mos. At the beginning of the month we went to a picnic at Fort Desoto with local triplet families. About 12 families attended and it was amazing to see so many triplets! And encouraging to know we are not alone in this craziness! The weather was beautiful and the location was perfect. My good friend and professional photographer Christy Waldner (www.seven27studios.com) was there to capture the moment and she did awesome.

Jordan turned 9 on Nov 22nd and we threw him a Lego party! We invited 5 kids to sleep-over and it was CRAZY! The boys had a great time though. We had a lego cake and lego-head cake pops. Jordan's dad bought him tickets to Legoland and all the kids bought him legos. We played lego creationary, angry birds, and guess what I am game. The boys stayed up until 4am! It was a long night! lol...

Of course November brought Thanksgiving which was pretty uneventful though we got to visit with some family. But best of all November brought crawling babies! Mitch and Nate started crawling and Eli followed suit about 3 weeks later. Check out this awesome video Matt captured...

Just a few more photos from November....

December!! The month we waited a year for! The triplets turned one year old this month! Eli began crawling. Mitch began pulling up on furniture and walking along it. We celebrated our first Christmas with the babies at home. Our friends and family from out of town visited and got to meet the babies for the first time. It was a magical awesome BUSY time!

At the babies 12-mo check-up they all had ear infections! But their weights were good - Eli 17lbs, Mitch 18lbs and Nate almost 20lbs. They all have four teeth on top and two on the bottom. Doc said they look great! They are doing great for their adjusted age and are getting closer and closer to their actual age in development. We had our first professional photo shoot in December and the pics turned out great, thanks Christy!! Check these out...

For their birthday we decided to do something a little different. Since the babies were so premature and in the hospital for so long we didn't really get to have that "visit our new baby" thing in the beginning. And when they did come home they were on monitors and oxygen and feeding tubes. It was a crazy time. So for their birthday we held an open house and invited everyone! We took pictures with everyone who had a hand in helping us through the first year. In addition to our close friends and family we invited NICU nurses, our in-home nurses, people who brought us meals, neighbors, etc. From 9am until 9pm we had people in and out of the house. It was a lot of fun!

Our theme was Mickey Mouse and each baby got his own extra large cupcake frosted in their signature color. I spent two days making Mickey Mouse cake pops and we gave those to our guests.

The babies had a grand time, especially with their smash cakes!

We were lucky to visit with lots of out-of-town friends and family in December. First, in the middle of the month my dear friends Robin and Josh came down from Michigan with their 4 kids and we met them at Disney for day. It was so great to see them! And the babies did considerably well at a theme park all day.

Matt's sister Nicole and family came into town from Arizona for Christmas and got to meet the babies for the first time. What a great time we had with them! Brianna and Jake loved hanging out with the babies too. Then a couple days after Christmas Matt's best friends Brad and KC and their boys came to Florida from North Carolina. We had an absolute blast seeing everyone. It was sad to see them all go home!

Christmas was so special this year. The babies and Jordan each got one big present from Santa. We spent the morning in our PJ's playing with our new toys. It was great to see the kids enjoying themselves. Jordan helped the babies open their gifts and he spent time playing with them. He is really a great big brother!

OK so you see it's been a very busy few months! Do I get some sort of award for longest blog post ever? lol... BTW, it took me three days to finish this. But moving forward I hope to post something every few days, even if its nothing more than a picture. I also hope to find some time to update other areas of the site. Thanks for reading and following along on our journey.

Here are some the many things I've learned from being a triplet mom! Some are things other moms taught me, some we've learned along the way. Would love if you added a comment with something you've learned to add to the list!

My Nathaniel, my little warrior, my miracle baby: he is the reason we delivered so early. His cord failed and we almost lost him. When he was born he was swollen with all this extra fluid (called ascites) and he wasn't breathing and had to be resuscitated. This caused a grade 4 brain bleed - the worst you can have. The nurses all spoke among themselves that they didn't think he was going to make it. We were told he would have a 95% chance of some sort of cerebral palsy and should be prepared for him to be severely handicapped. We were later told he had hydrocephalus (extra fluid around the brain) and would possibly need a shunt placed in his brain.

The first few days were the scariest. But by the end of the first week he had lost most of the extra fluid and was so so tiny. While he was born weighing 2lb 11oz he got down to 2lbs 1oz. We got the news about the brain bleed (intra-ventricular hemorrhage or IVH) and we immediately asked for prayers for this little guy. And boy did we get a response! Complete strangers were writing to us telling us that they were praying for him. It was so uplifting.

Over the next couple weeks we were amazed and awed at God's response to prayers for Nathaniel. He was taken off oxygen assistance by the end of week 2 while his brothers remained on oxygen for months (well after they came home even). He was the first to begin taking breastmilk through his feeding tube. He began gaining weight and looking around! While he wasn't the first to come out of his incubater because he was so tiny he was the first to be strong enough to be held skin to skin.

Nate was even the first to come home from the NICU! We had him home by himself for a full two weeks. He was slow to take to breastfeeding but once he got it, he got it. He quickly became my best breastfeeder and my biggest baby.

Over the months to follow, as his brothers struggled with severe reflux and breathing problems, Nate continued to thrive. Through the Early Steps program we are fortunate to have a therapist here working with the boys every day of the week. They consistently comment how amazed they are that a baby with such a severe brain bleed could be progressing so well. He was the first to smile a real smile, the first to roll over, the first to try solid food, the first to put a toy from one hand to the other... he is definitely leading the pack!

And his nature is so sweet! He smiles all the time and loves to laugh. He is by far my most easy-going child. He loves to interact with his brothers. Whenever we put them down next to each other he rolls over and smiles, grabs his brothers' hands or arm and puts it in his mouth. When you've been gone and come home and reach down to pick him up he grabs your face and give you big wet kisses on your cheek (which at this level in their development is really just him sucking on your cheek but its still so sweet). He sleeps better than both his brothers too! He is just such an easy baby.

A couple weeks ago we took him to the neurologist for a follow-up appointment and current head ultrasound. We got the results back last week and we were shocked by them... Nate's brain is completely free of the blood and all the fluid is at normal range. It truly is a miracle. He still has damage from the bleed and there may still be some issues with his development over time, but so far we have seen nothing to indicate any trouble. For him to heal so completely and so quickly from such a traumatic situation is simply unheard of. The doctors are just amazed. We just give thanks to God for truly having a plan for this child. We are so excited to see what's to come!

As the boys get bigger, we have started to venture out with them more often. We have made it to the Florida Aquarium, Downtown Disney, and even to our favorite sushi spot. Anytime you go anywhere with a baby you have to allow for extra time to get ready, extra time while you're out for diaper changing, feeding and such... but when you have triplets you have to allow for extra time to stop and talk to strangers. The myriad of people who come up to you and want to ask a thousand questions is almost alarming! For the most part we don't have a problem talking to people, but sometimes I am tempted to put a shirt like this one on one of the boys just for fun...

Ok, just kidding. I wouldn't do that but I did have a chuckle when I saw that at the store so I snapped a photo. One thing I have learned from other moms of multiples is how to handle inquisitive people. Here are some things you may overhear if you went out with us:

Wow, triplets! You don't see that every day!
    --Actually we do!--
You sure have your hands full!
    --Yep, but our hearts are full too. So is our house for that matter...--
All boys? Lucky you. Girls are too much trouble.  --or-- Too bad at least one of them wasn't a girl. Were you disappointed?
    --We are very blessed and I could never be disappointed in what God has given us.--
Are they identical?
    --They sure look a lot alike!--
How do you do it?
    --We just do.--
I'm glad its you and not me.
    --Me too.--
   

Are they natural?
    --Is there such a thing as artificial babies?--
*chuckles uncomfortably* I mean did you use fertility drugs?
    --Nah we just did it three times in one night.--
Do you have help?
    --We have some but can always use more! Wanna change a diaper?--
Do triplets run in your family?
    --Run? They can't even walk yet...--
My brother's uncle-in-law's step-daughter has triplets too!
    --Wow.--
Did you know you were having triplets?
    --Well, we were expecting monkeys but were relieved when it was just three babies.--
You're gonna need a bigger house!
    --Are you in the market to buy the one we currently own?--
Are they on a schedule?
    --If you can convince three 6-mo-olds to sleep all at the same time I will hire you.--

I joke, but in all honesty we don't have any problem with people wanting to talk to us about the babies. It truly is a miracle that we brought three little boys into this world all at once and are managing to raise them. Some multiple mommies I've read in forums seem to be really put off by such interactions, but I try to think how I might act if I didn't have three babies at once. I'd be just as guilty of saying some of the things we hear all the time, so I do my best to be patient, gracious and understanding. No one tries to be offensive when they approach us and it is merely curiosity. Most people have never met anyone with this many babies at once and its fun for them. They probably go home to their families and say, "Guess what I saw today!? Triplets!" 

Well, guess what I saw today? Triplets :) Just like every other day. And they are as cute as ever. **LOVE**

A couple weeks ago the boys turned 6 months old! They are growing and changing so fast I can barely keep up. At their 6-month check up last week Nate weighed in at 13lbs 14oz, Mitch at 12lbs 7oz and little Eli at 11lbs 1oz! They are all 24in long and looking more and more alike every day! Mitchell is rolling over like its nobody's business and both Nate and Eli can roll over too, although they more selective about when and why they roll. They are all periodically sleeping through the night but we haven't had a night where all three sleep all night at once yet. They are all laughing and purposefully playing. Nate and Mitch both spend time sitting in Bumbo seats and the jumparoo swing. And did I mention everyone is off oxygen and we are completely medical equipment free!!

The biggest change that has come along is that Eli got his G-tube removed last week!! It had been bleeding around the stoma site and we had made a several trips to the emergency room and doctors office but they couldn't seem to get a handle on it. They wanted to replace it with a Mickey Button (which is like a permenant port) but he was making such great progress and taking all his milk by mouth so we pushed for them to remove it completely. Boy are we happy they did! The last week has been awesome for Eli. He is happier than we've ever seen him and already making developmental progress. Plus he looks so much healthier. His face is really filling out!

This week we also started introducing cereal with mashed bananas! Its so much fun seeing the boys faces as they explore the new tastes and textures. The still spit out more than they swallow but its a great start. Impressively, but really not surprisingly, Eli seems to be our champion with the solid food thus far! He just loves it and smiles and coos through the whole thing.

A couple weeks ago we had some friends come visit and we took the opportunity of having extra adults on hand to take the boys out on thier first official outings. First we took them to the Florida Aquarium and they absolutely loved it. They were so well behaved all day. They were enamoured by the huge tank and big fish swimming by. We even ran into another family from Brandenton with 2 yr old triplets in tow with a choo-choo wagon. The next day we took the kids to walk around Downtown Disney. We spent most of the time in Lego store and I tell ya I feel like we were the main attraction! So many people wanted to see the babies and ask a ton of questions. I loved it and the boys were awake and alert and loving the attention. It was a lot of work getting them out of the house and I don't think we would have done it without a third adult but I'm so glad we did!

It has been over 6 weeks since I last updated the blog. TOO LONG! But let me tell you, these have been the toughest weeks of our lives. Having one newborn baby is a handful. Having two is difficult. Having three is insane! And then add to it that two are sick and it makes it hard beyond words. There is no time for anything but caring for babies! I say this in both frustration and love. It is both the hardest and most rewarding time. Watching the boys grow and discover new things is amazing and such a joy. But watching them struggle to breathe, struggle to eat, and cry out in pain for hours at a time certainly takes its toll.

Since my last update much has happened. First, about 3 weeks after coming home, Elias ended up back in the hospital for 10 days because he was not eating, projectile vomiting everything that did go in, and losing weight. He ended up having surgery to place a G-Tube where we can feed him directly through his stomach.

It has now been about a month and Eli is doing much better. He is still struggling to eat much by mouth and he still spits up more than a normal baby should, but he is gaining weight, albeit at a slightly slower rate than docs would like to see. We are having to give him a special formula that is easier for him to digest and we have to add extra calories with a sugar powder called Polycose. In addition to all that, it was determined that he aspirates (fluid goes into his lungs) when he swallows so we have to thicken the formula too. When he is fed he has to be upright as much as possible. He can't be moved much afterward. Every little detail has to be paid attention to so he doesn't throw up everything he eats. Anything he doesn't take by mouth of his daily intake goal has to go through his tube either by a syringe that we manually push or by a pump that hooks into it. It is quite a process overall.

In addition to his feeding troubles, Eli has also been diagnosed with Sandifer's Syndrome. He arches his back severely due to the pain from the reflux. It has gotten so bad that he does it even when it is not reflux related now.  We are having him evaluated this week by the neurologist just to rule out anything neurological. Assuming that its not, then it is simply muscular. Either way he will need physical therapy and we hope to start that in the next week or two as well. Here is a picture of Eli arching while sleeping. He seems perfectly comfortable like this.

As you can see Eli is also still on oxygen. He is doing better though. He only requires 0.1-0.2 liters to maintain his proper saturation level now. And his lungs no longer have fluid in them so that's good. He is slowly making progress.

The boys are officially 4 months old now and at their last check up they got a great report card! Nathaniel is our little champ and is a solid 10lbs 8oz. Mitchell had a slump in growth but is now back on track and is currently weighing in at 9lbs 2oz. Little Eli, who used to be our biggest baby, is now our small fry weighing 8lbs 8oz. They are all smiling and cooing. No one is rolling over yet, although Eli has done it by accident a couple times because of the arching.

Breastfeeding has taken a turn for the better! I am hardly pumping at all now because I am directly feeding so often. Nate, my longtime holdout when it came to breast feeding is now my champ. He takes about 2/3 of his feeds directly from me. Mitchell who has always been my boob man (lol) is doing well too. He takes
about 1/2 of his feeds directly. Eli, due to his feeding issues doesn't regularly breast feed, but I do let him try now and then depending on his physical well being. I have actually been able to tandem feed a couple times too, although not for very long as the boys get wiggly and start bugging each other and then inevitably start crying.

Nathaniel is doing extremely well. He is generally a happy baby and likes to complain only when he's not being held. He eats great taking twice what Eli takes. He has even started sleeping through the night from time to time at 6 hour clips. What a blessing!! He did have an enlarged left ventricle in his heart, but at the latest cardiologist appointment they determined that it corrected itself and all is well. We don't have to come back until he's three! I love when doctors tell me not to come back! lol.... His brain bleed is slowly disappating and the hydrocephalus at this point is stable and not progressive therefore no need for a shunt. Doctors are extremely happy with his overall progess. He isn't showing any signs of physical delay and even his cognitive
skills are improving with each visit from the therapist. He is our little miracle baby and we are so grateful for all the prayers that have been out there for him!

Mitchell is our moody one. The nurses in the NICU tried to convince me that he was the crabby one, but I never believed them! Well, I do now. He has happy moments where he is alert and smilingbut then he will cry for hours with no consoling. Ah Colic how I loathe thee! We did discover a cool remedy that helps (doesn't fix it but does help it) called Colic Calm. Its a gripe water with all sorts of natural root extracts and it seems to calm them down immediately. Unfortunately it also seems to cause a bit of a diaper rash if used too often so we have to use it sparingly. Another thing that calms Mitchell is my pillow case. He loves to snuggle with it and he even will put it in his mouth and try to chew it. Its cute! And great to see him make a developmental milestone of putting something in his mouth on his own. Mitchell's health is improving greatly too. He is currently still on oxygen but we hope that when we go back to the pulmonologist next week that he will be able to come off it. We give him a few hours a day without it and he does really well.

Because Eli has been so sick it's hard to gauge his personality just yet, but overall he seems pretty laid back. We have found that he likes anything that is soft and textured. We have couch pillows that have a shag carpet-like surface and Eli loves to lay on them and rub his face on it and he grabs at the fibers. He also seems to really love the stuffed bunny we got him for Easter.

Well, it's officially taken me three separate days to get through writing this post. I have a ton more I could say and a million pictures to post, but in the mean time I hope you enjoy the update!

That's right, Eli is home and my trifecta is complete! He came home last Friday night. It all happened so quick! We knew they were moving in the direction of getting him home, but he seemed to still be struggling with eating and his oxygen. But he had three strong days and that was all they needed to give him the green light to come home! Now, I am super grateful to have him here, don't get me wrong, but I have to wonder if he was really ready. Its been a rough few days with him. He is on oxygen, an apnea monitor, and pulse-oximeter and he takes breathing treatments thru a nebulizer twice a day. In addition he has to have special thickening additive in his milk. He still struggles with the whole concept of coordinating suck, swallow, breathe. He is really slow and often chokes on his food. He also does this thing where he violently arches his back and throws his head back like he's in pain. He mostly does it during feeds but I've also seen him do it while he's sleeping. We have already had to increase his amount of oxygen he's receiving because he was desatting right away at home on the level they sent him home on. We have appointments with the pulmonologist tomorrow, the peditrician the day after that and an evaluation by Early Start on Friday. I'm hoping at least one of these will be able to give us some insight on how to help him. In the mean time, I ask for your prayers for him and for us.

We've had a ton of help since having all three home and I am very grateful. A dear friend set us up on a site called Take Them a Meal and we've had so many wonderful people bring us food. Also my mother in law, my own mom, even my grandmother and aunt visiting from Michigan have come to help us overnight. Also, we were briefly approved for Home Health Care so for 4 hours each day we've had a nurse. Even with all this help, I am exhausted. Feeding three babies and pumping for them is so time consuming. Especially when two of the three are struggling to eat well because they can't breathe well. When I do get a chance to sleep it is rarely restful sleep. I worry about the monitors going off (which they do often) and I even when I have all hands on deck I have a hard time sleeping thru babies crying. (And YES I know I should be sleeping instead of updating my blog but the world needs updates!! lol)

Today the boys are three months old! They had their due date on March 11 so they are about 2 weeks old adjusted age. They are getting so big all weighing in over 7lbs and Nate coming in at almost 8lbs. Speaking of Nate, he is doing so well! He's been home for a month now and is eating well and growing like a weed. He is monitor free and has passed early screening for CP (cerebral palsy). Of course with him we could see issues at any stage in his development but the doctors seem optimistic at this point. Mitchell is doing ok at home too. He is still on oxygen and an apnea monitor and we have added a pulse-oximeter. Its good to see how he's responding to the oxygen and we've been able to knock down his flow to only 0.2L. He still struggles to eat and we are working on finding the right combination of things with him to help his reflux and suck, swallow, breathe coordination. He is gaining weight which is what is most important. All three boys eat on demand and more often than not wake up hungry all at the same time. I've tried like mad to get them on a schedule but it is near impossible. Mitch and Eli both are nursing well but tire easily and end up finishing with a bottle. Nate still seems to dislike nursing and will latch on but fights me on it. I continue to try daily with all of them. I truly believe one day its just going to "click".

Well, I can hear Mitchell stirring and making his little pre-wake grunty noises so I better wrap this up. Here are a couple pics from this week....

After 75 days in the NICU Mitchell came home! He's been home a week now and is doing well. They sent him home on oxygen and an apnea monitor. It is a little overwhelming. Caring for two babies is one thing, caring for two when one is struggling to breathe is a whole other thing. It is a lot of work and tireless vigilance. The apnea monitor has had a few false alarms, but a few real ones too. Mostly it alarms due to a high heart rate every time Mitch gets angry that we aren't feeding him RIGHT NOW! :) But it has shown a couple minor self-recovered bradys and one alarm where he stopped breathing briefly. Scary.

Like when Nathaniel came home we had a few rough days at first. Mitchell didn't seem to want to eat, fighting against it at each feed. Then he started projectile vomiting. We nervous new parents freaked out a bit and rushed him into the pediatrician. After a once over and talks about taking him to a GI doc asap the pedi says... "maybe he just doesn't like the taste of neosure." (We were instructed to fortify the breastmilk with Neosure powder to add calorie count to their intake). So I put him to breast and like magic he ate like a champ! Go Mitch! So ever since we have stopped putting neosure powder in just to see how they do and both babies seem to be doing better. They sleep more soundly and there has been no more projectile vomiting or refusal to eat. We were told that we should start slowly introduce back in though because of the minerals found in it that are not present in breastmilk but are important for preemie bone development. So I plan to start that tomorrow.

I requested and had to fight for home health care assistance. My insurance policy covers such care if we qualify and I felt that we should qualify! But apparently coming home on oxygen isn't enough to warrant HHC. So I rallyed for it. I basically broke down on the phone with the insurance case manager. I told her if it was just one baby on oxygen I could understand denying it. But with two babies home and third on its way also with oxygen it was just too much for one person! So she was able to get it approved for one week for 4 hours a day. The company providing the care is awesome and have worked it out so we can stack the 4 hour shifts overnight for one full 8 hour shift every other night. It has been nice to have an extra pair of hands and a trained pair of eyes to watch over Mitchell. After the one week is over I have to make an appeal for an extention. If AETNA denies it I can request it from medicaid which also covers the boys for their first year. So there is hope that we will continue to have HHC for awhile.

We have had a bunch of help since the boys have been home. The first week, when it was just Nathaniel, my aunt came and stayed with us for a week. My mother-in-law has also been over several days to help. Its great because they help with laundry and cleaning and allow a break to sleep for an hour inbetween feedings. In addition, we've been blessed with awesome friends who have provided us meals. We have had a meal delivered every day for almost an entire week now. I am so very greatful for all the help. I wish I knew how to repay it! One day down the road I will definitely have to pay-it-forward!

Elias is still in the NICU on day 81. They are working hard to get him to a point where they can safely send him home on oxygen, but right now he is just requiring too much. We ask for your continued prayers for him and also for Mitchell that God will heal their lungs. It is so difficult to watch your baby struggle to do something as simple as breathe.

This week, on top of introducing baby #2 into our house, I got sick with a bad sinus infection. I am now on antibiotics for the next 10 days. And because I am allergic to penecillin (and all forms of it) I have to take an antibiotic that unfortunately affects my breast milk. Which means I cannot breast feed or give my pumped milk to the babies for the next 10 days. OUCH. I continue to pump to keep up my supply but it is such a blow to our progress. Even Nathaniel was starting to show interest the last couple days. In addition I will have to take a chunk of stored breast milk to cover the spread of time. I guess its a good thing I have so much stored. I would be devastated if I had to give full supplements of formula this early.

I am already feeling better after only two days on the meds so at least that much is good. But unfortunately I won't be able to go to the NICU to visit Eli for a few days still. Poor little guy all alone over there! I will say though that the nurses have been great and so understanding of our situation. They have been giving Eli extra attention because they know we just can't be there as often as we would like to be. (To our nurses reading this... we love you and are so grateful for all you do!!)

Well, the boys are sleeping so I better try and sleep too. Thanks for reading. :)