Quick Update

April 30th, 2008

Nothing new to report at this time. The babies are all doing well and we look forward to the day that their monitors will stop blinking and beeping. It is really quite bothersome.

Yesterday Nurse Becky put a bow in Brooklyn's hair. Her very first bow! Paul was the first to see it and he fell more in love (if that is even possible). Paul also had the pleasure of getting sprayed by Cal during his bath last night. Aidan weighed in at four pounds and one ounce yesterday. What a big boy!

Aidan is still rotating between the CPAP and the nasal cannula. Brooklyn has been doing a wonderful job on the nasal cannula and Cal is still on the CPAP (I took the above picture when the nurse was changing his CPAP mask).

Have a great day!

HaPPy 3 wEEkS!

Calahan saying "No more pictures, Mom"





Brooklyn and Mommy
Aidan and Daddy



































April 29th, 2008


Today Aidan, Brooke and Calahan turn 3 weeks old! I just called for a morning update and they are doing well, just those pesky bradies and desats.


Yesterday was an amazing day for me. I got to kangaroo with Brooklyn. I am not sure if I have explained kangaroo care or not, so here it is...kangaroo care is holding your naked baby (with a diaper on) against your own naked chest with a blanket over the baby to help keep them warm. Brooklyn and I kangarooed for 2 hours and 40 minutes. It was amazing to feel our little girl's heart beating against my chest, to listen to her breathing, to watch her move and to smell her fabulous baby scent. The first hour Brook did a lot of desatting and sometimes she was so low, I thought my heart was going to break, it was really tough for me and very stressful to watch the monitor numbers and hear the beeping. But after that first hour, she did a wonderful job and only had two minor desats. It was the most precious hour and forty minutes. I could do it for days. Brooklyn's Daddy and Nurse Melissa (love her) came in periodically to check on us. We were having an amazing time! I have to admit, I took home her blanket and hat so that I can smell her at home which only made me miss those little ones even more. I woke up several times in the night to smell her. I miss them so much when we are at home.


The problem with kangarooing is that after spending three hours with Brook, I only had a short amount of time with the boys (and so it begins). I read them each a story (Barnyard Dance) and said a prayer and then it was time for Paul and I to go home. I felt guilty for not having spent more time with the boys, but Daddy was there with them.


Paul also had a very special day in the NICU. For one, he was a diaper changing fool. He also was able to feed Aidan his dinner. Most importantly, Aidan was fussing and crying. Paul put his hands in the isolette and placed one hand on Aidan's head and the other one around his feet to give him some loving boundaries. That calmed Aidan at once and touched his heart. He is the best Daddy!


Calahan seemed to be more content last night as well. His poor little nose is tired of the prongs from the CPAP. He prefers the CPAP mask, but the respiratory therapist says it is necessary to change it occasionally. So he only had the prongs on for three hours while we were there. Cal has the sweetest little face and we are so anxious for him to start trying the nasal cannula so we can see it better. Dr. Karen (our new pediatrician-YAY!) said that Cal's lung x-rays have improved some. THANK YOU GOD! So he is able to lay on his right or left side for now. She said Cal will let us know if that isn't working for him.


Thank you for keeping up with us. Every day is exhausting and we truly appreciate your support and prayers. I tell all of the babies about the support, love and prayers that so many people are sending their way.

P.S. I give up! Today I got the spacing and paragraphs to work...but I couldn't get that big white space to go away. Ugh!

No News is Good News!

April 28, 2008

Here are a couple of pictures to show how tiny these babies really are. Lots of people have been commenting on the babies looking "big" in the pictures. I am happy to announce that all three of our munchkins have graduated to the three pound club. Aidan is even creeping up towards four pounds.

Brooklyn had her first photo shoot this past week and here you see her foot in Mom's hand and her fingers around Daddy's ring in Dad's hand. That little girl already has her Dad wrapped around her finger.

All three kiddos are doing good with the exception of their bradies and desats. Brooklyn likes to hi-sat at 97. I think that will have to be her soccer number one day; she likes it so much.

Aidan is switching back and forth between the CPAP and nasal cannula every six hours or so. I love when he is on the nasal cannula so we can see his sweet little face. Aidan is being bolas fed his Mommy's milk once every three hours. He is getting 8 cc. Yesterday I got to feed him by holding the syringe and pushing little bits in at a time over a fifteen minute period. All the while I was holding his pacifier in his mouth and he was sucking away. It was great! Not ideal, but I will take it for now.

Brooklyn is on the nasal cannula and doing well. Brooklyn just finished her loading dose of breast milk and will go up today. She likes to drop her body temperature here and there during the day. We are hoping "this too shall pass".

Cal is still on the CPAP and his nose is so irritated. Yesterday the nurses had to suction out some crusty boogers and blood. I was so sad for him. Cal is eating 7 cc of milk an hour now...which is his maximum feed until he gains some more weight.

All of the babies cry sometimes when the nurses are messing with them, but yesterday Aidan and Cal would cry when no one was bothering them. This made me so sad because I just wanted to reach in there and pick them up to comfort them. It is extremely difficult to know that there is nothing Paul or I can do to help other than set our hand on their backs and talk to them. I am hoping that their cries are to tell us that they have a wet diaper or are hungry.

The babies will be three weeks tomorrow and I will try to update more. I have lots of information but Paul and I are heading to the hospital now. We have been getting home very late and are always exhausted. It is strange to think that we are sitting down for most of our time with the babies, yet neither one of us has ever been so tired in our lives.

As always, thank you for the prayers and please keep them coming! No doubt, God has wrapped his loving arms around all three of these children.

Much love,

Kristin

(Sorry about the spacing and paragraph problem. I have tried several times to fix it, but can't. I will play with it when I have a minute. It drives me crazy!)

Heaven on Earth

April 24th, 2008

Last night was amazing!! Paul and I got to hold Brooklyn for the first time! Then I got to hold Calahan; which I didn't think would happen for quite some time. It was the GREATEST FEELING EVER! Our hearts were bursting with joy and overflowing with love...we were holding OUR very own babies. Babies that are a part of Paul and a part of me. INCREDIBLE!!

As of last night here are the updates:

Calahan now weighs 2 lbs. 11 oz. He was getting a blood transfusion when we arrived last night. They had to put an IV in his left foot because the blood can't get through the PICC line. Cal is now on 3 cc of breastmilk and will probably go up to 4 today if he tolerated his feeds well in the night.

Brooklyn joined the THREE POUND CLUB weighing in at 3 lbs. 1 oz. She is on her tenth day of antibiotics today. Her white blood cell count came down from 43,000 to 29, 000. Average range is 7,000-12,000, so we still need it to come down but she is heading in the right direction. She started feeds two days ago and is now tolerating them well. Nurse Brenda pushed for the doctors to try her on the nasal cannula yesterday and she was doing well while we were there.

Aidan weighed 3 lbs. 6 oz. yesterday. What a big boy! He is on his 5th day of trophic feeds (loading dose .5 cc) and doing well. Hopefully tomorrow he will go up to 1 cc. Aidan continues to desat and hi-sat, but always recovers on his own. Nurse Stephanie decided to try Aidan on the nasal cannula as well for fun.

I spoke with the NICU this morning and the babies had a good night. Aidan and Brooke are still on the nasal cannula. Aidan and Cal had bradies and desats. Aidan did have one episode of apnea where they had to step in and bag him. Brooke had one of the nurses concerned with her midnight poop, so they sent it to the lab and it came back negative for blood, so hopefully that was nothing. There was also a lot of air in her residual so they will keep an eye on that as well. Overall, a great night!

Many people have been asking how I am doing physically after 77 days of bedrest, c-section, etc. I am doing pretty good, but that is only because I have the most amazing husband ever. When I walk or stand my ankles have a lot of pressure on them and it is difficult to walk or stand in one spot for very long. Likewise when I sit, my butt hurts despite all of the extra padding. Go figure! Paul is always very conscious of these things and reminds me to take it easy. I can't bend down because it hurts my knees and I still have a shooting pain down my right leg when I try to bend down. I love sitting indian style and I am slowly able to do that again, but my joints are still stiff. My incision is healing nicely. I still can't see it unless I look in the mirror because it is hidden by my big belly. Yet every day Paul tells me how beautiful he thinks that I am and what a great job I am doing. He is the best!

Mentally, I cried quite a bit the first week or so in the NICU due to the hormones and all of the beeping and flashing that goes on. But now I am used to those things and only cry tears of joy when we are spending time with our babies because they are completely amazing! Thanks for asking. I guess you just don't take the time to think about yourself when you have kids. Your whole world revolves around them. The time flies when you are spending time with them and stands still when you are away from them.

Paul is also doing well. He gets up early to go to work, comes home and we head to the hospital until 9 or 10. I am sure it will start to wear him down soon, but he is so strong. I am constantly amazed at how well he handles everything. I thank God every day for him. He always knows what to say and do.

I hope you are having a wonderful day. I will end this post with a video of Brooklyn. Love to all!

Happy Two Weeks!

Daddy holding Aidan (I will flip later, we are leaving for the hospital right now...) Brooklyn trying to take her CPAP off
Cal stretching out his legs

April 23, 2008

The babies are two weeks and one day old today! They are doing well. In the last three days we have had mostly good news with a minor set back here or there. The main one being Cal's lungs. He has PIE on his left lung and atelectasis in his right lung. They are currently treating this in a non-evasive way. They are keeping him on his left side or on his tummy. This little guy loves his tummy. Too bad when he gets home it is sleeping on your back with some supervised tummy time. I explained PIE in a previous post. Atelectasis is defined as "a state in which the lung, in whole or in part, is collapsed or without air". Poor little guy! Worst case scenario is a chest tube. Please pray for his little lungs to heal on their own and quickly! For a brief moment the nurses thought that Cal was going to need to be reintubated. But our little guy proved them wrong. He is working a little bit harder than they would like to see, but he is still holding his own.

On the up side for Cal, he is getting 2 cc of milk every hour and tolerating it. As a matter of fact all three of the kids are finally drinking breast milk. This is exciting news for me! All of the pumping I have been doing will start to pay off. All of the kids have some residual when they pull it back up, but they are getting better at digesting the milk every day.

The other minor set back that we encountered over the weekend was Brooke having a low temperature despite her isolettes attempts to regulate it. Her white blood cell count is also still high which means she is still fighting whatever infection she may have. She is on her 9th day of antibiotics today, so hopefully we are almost finished with that.

Of course we still have all of the bradies and desats, but that is to be expected. Paul and I will both be so happy when those are over...no alarms, no red lights. One day...

Other big news...everyone has pooped. Isn't that terrific! Some have needed the help of suppositories, but the end result is the same. POOP!

Paul held Aidan on Monday and he did great (both of them did great), no desats or anything. I changed Aidan's diaper yesterday. It was so much fun to touch him. He loves to look at you when you talk to him. His eyes are beautiful.

The doctors have not retested Aidan or Brooke for their PDA's, but they are showing no signs of them still being open. Hooray Babies!

Again, thank you for your thoughts and prayers. Please keep 'em coming! Little do these babies know how very much they are loved by so many. We really appreciate all of you!

Ups!

Aidan's beautiful blond hair Brooke with her eyes open

Cal with his eyes open Brooklyn saying a prayer for her and her brothers

April 20th, 2008

The last two days have been quite uneventful! We LOVE uneventful days! As I have mentioned before they all have some A's and B's (apnea and bradycardia). Apnea is a pause in breathing that lasts 20 seconds or more. Bradycardia (brady) is the slowing of a baby's heart rate from its usual range of 120-160 beats per minute to a rate of less than 100 beats per minute. These are two very common problems in premature babies. Most of the time all three of our babies are able to self recover from these episodes. Every once in awhile a nurse needs to intervene to help remind them to breathe by stimulating them or blowing air in their face (bagging). The babies also do what is called periodic breathing. This is when they take some deep breaths and then pause for five or ten seconds before taking the next one. Here's a little bit of info on each babe:

Biggest Boy Aidan (CPAP)- Aidan weighed in last night at 3 pounds 3 ounces. He is down from 3 pounds 5 ounces from the day before. However, they are getting a lot of different fluids, so that explains the fluctuation. He has finished his last round of ibuprophen and will start back on my breast milk today. Aidan has the most beautiful blond hair! We still can't believe that all three of our babies have hair.

Beautiful Brookie (Intubated, but not for much longer)- Brooke is slowly coming back around to her normal SASSY self. She is moving around much more and trying to pull her tube out and her wires off. That's our girl! She weighed 2 pounds 13 ounces yesterday. Her white blood cells are still high, so they think she is still fighting whatever infection she may have (they found nothing in her blood work up or lumbar puncture). Today is day 6 of antibotics for her and they will most likely treat her for ten days. This morning they did a sprint and a blood gas on her and both looked great. She will be extubated some time today. Brooke has dark brown hair and lots of it. Paul thinks she needs a haircut.

Baby Boy Cal (CPAP)- Cal continues to amaze us! Cal weighs 2 pounds 9 ounces which is what he weighed at birth. Cal has tolerated his feeds (my breast milk) for 5 days so today they will start to give him a little bit more and hopefully he will start gaining some weight. They took him off of the aminophylline (a relative of caffeine) yesterday which helped him with his breathing transition from the tube to the CPAP. Hopefully he will be able to continue breathing on the CPAP without too many A's and B's. We also got to watch Cal get a bath last night. The babies get baths every other day. He wasn't a big fan, but we are quite certain he slept well after such a big event. Cal also has brown hair, a shade lighter than Brooke's.

So...the prayers are working and we are so thankful! Before long we will be holding the babies (kangaroo care), bathing the babies, changing the babies and all of that good stuff. We can't wait! Please continue to pray for these little ones.

This morning the NICU called and they have a 5 hour surgery in the room (which means the baby is not stable enough to be moved). We cannot go to visit them until the surgery is over. What a bummer! But we wish for the best for that little baby and we are thankful that it is not one of ours.

Paul and I are SO in love with these three cuties! Enjoy this video of Cal getting a bath.

Better Days

Friday, April 18th, 2008

The last two days have been much better. Of course the babies have had some setbacks, but for the most part they are doing well. They have had some great nurses and we are very thankful for that. Some of our favorites are: Melissa, Tonya, Stephanie, Anne, Kemmie, Kelly, Brenda and Anna. It takes a very special person to be able to their job. Our doctors have been incredible as well: Dr. Schumaker, Rebecca, Karen, Megan and Lauren. It is amazing to think about all of the friends that we have made in the last month and a half at U of M. When we walk onto the fourth floor of that hospital we pretty much know everybody. Many of my East nurses come to visit the babies. Today Kelly, Mindy and Noelle came by to check in on them. They are loved by so many.

Here are the updates:

Mr. Aidan - Aidan tried the nasal cannula again yesterday morning and he was desating so they put him back on the CPAP. Nurse Stephanie said he had a tiny bit of poop in his diaper today. She said that might be the reason that his tummy is showing some signs of bloating. I hope that is the case because a puffy tummy is one of the reasons they suspected that Brookie had an infection. Aidan had his 5th dose (2nd round/2nd dose) of ibuprophen today. They did an ultrasound on his ductus (PDA) and it has gone from "wide open" to "small". That is great news, now it just needs to be closed. The doctors also did a scan on his head and he still has the brain bleed but remains at a grade one (we'll take it). If Aidan's platelets are better than 50 and he has good urine output after his next dose of ibuprophen then they will start him back on feeds (breast milk). Last night Aidan curled his little fingers around Daddy's finger. It completely melted my heart. He is such a sweet boy!

Baby Brooklyn - Brooklyn is still intubated (oxygen at 21%-room air) and being treated for an infections. They still haven't found evidence of one in her cultures, blood work or spinal fluid but she is acting like she is sick. Her platelets are low and her white blood count is high:both signs of infection. The doctors are continuing to treat her with a 7 day course of antibiotics. The antibiotics cover the following possible infections: groupie strep, ecoli, skin staff infection, and strep. Today they took an x-ray of Brooke's belly and it showed a small amount of air in the wall of her bowel, but they did another x-ray later and they couldn't find it. This would be called pneumatusus. So they will keep an eye on it. If she does have pockets of air in her little tummy they will treat it with a tube to section out the contents and another 7-10 days of antibiotics. Brooke had her arterial line taken out of her belly button today, but they put a PICC line in her poor little foot. When we returned after dinner it looked bloody and like it really hurt. I just wish it was me getting all of these pokes and things. It is so hard to see their little bodies with lines and wires and pokes and blood. One of the other things that breaks my heart is to see Brooke try to cry with the intubator in. I try my best to stay with them when they are uncomfortable or upset, but sometimes it is too much to bare. It is much easier to watch them when they are sleeping and peaceful.

Peanut Cal - Cal is still on on the CPAP and doing very well. His oxygen level is 27% (room air is 21%). Baby boy is still getting my milk and I hope he can continue. The nurse said he does have a rounded tummy but he is doing well with the feedings. He is still on the biliblanket for his jaundice because his level is 12.9. He also had his head scan today and it showed that he still had two IVH's that are both at a grade two now. So one has grown a bit, but we won't worry about that just yet. I had some concerns about him because he seemed to be shuttering and shaking some. I let the nurses know and they put the frog (a funny looking bean bag) over him. I wasn't sure if he was cold or what was going on. The nurse said that he could just be startled and that they do that in the womb. Who knows? It just didn't look right to me and I have learned to tell them whenever I have a concern. Pretty soon, they are going to ban me from the room. I really do try to not be a pain in the butt...but these are our three children we are talking about. Cal still hasn't opened his eyes yet, but it is tricky to do with the CPAP on. I asked the doctor about it today and she said that it is normal for him to not open his eyes. All of the kids will have eye exams when they are 36 weeks old.

Before we left last night I read each of the babies a bedtime story, Guess How Much I Love You (Thanks Fortner!). I started with Aidan and cried quite a bit while reading it. As I read it to Brooke and then to Calahan I was stronger. They need their Mom and Dad to be strong for them. All three babies were calm while I was reading. I'd like to think that they were comforted by my voice. For tonight's bedtime story I am going to read The Three Little Bears.

This morning I called the NICU for an update and everyone had a "pretty good" night according to the nurses. Aidan had a couple of brief brady episodes but he mostly recovered on his own. His nurse said that when she is doing his labs, blood gas etc. she is giving him a break from the CPAP and he is doing well with that. What a good boy he is! Brooke's nurse said she was a "little peanut last night". Her blood gas (taken from an artery, capillary or vein to check the ph level of the blood, amount of oxygen in the blood, potassium, sodium, etc.) looked "great" and her vent levels are good (room air). Her antibiotic (venko? levels) were high which means that they weren't moving through her blood so well. I am not sure what the plan is for that, but will find out later today.

Many people have been asking us what we need. At this time we would love your prayers and good thoughts and your understanding if we are not getting back with you via phone calls, e-mails, comments, texts, etc. We are overwhelmed every day with information and emotions. By the time we get home we both crash only to wake up the next morning and do it all over again. Although I sometimes feel there is no end in sight, I am so thankful for every moment that Paul and I spend with our precious babies and for all of the prayers that our surrounding our family at this time. God is definitely listening!

Have a wonderful weekend!
With Much Love,
The Doods