March of Dimes

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McTriplet Mommy

March 2010

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THE ADVANTAGE

Sep 02, 2005 03:26am (EST)

Moms w/known high-risk pregnancies are at a huge advantage if you ask me. From the moment we heard "triplets" we knew this was going to be a hard pregnancy. We *knew* I would be on bedrest at some point. We *knew* the babies would be born early. We *knew* that we would learn about the NICU. We *knew* that it was possible (even probable) that I would spend some of this pregnancy in the hospital. We *knew* we had to get things ready for the babies as soon as was physically possible before something else came up. We knew all of this when I was 6 weeks pregnant. I always feel terrible about the people that had NO idea until they were practically delivering. We had a while to become accustomed to the idea!

We had the advantage of a high-risk OB from the begining. We had sonograms every other week to check my cervix which would eventually not be able to carry the weight of THREE babies. I was constantly reminded that, had this been a singleton pregnancy, I would have certainly lost the baby before we even knew what was going on. I was lucky to have been monitored so closely although I think I can read my body pretty well, too.

Of course, there are disadvantages. I always wonder if this HAD been a singleton if things would have turned out differently. I measured 38 weeks at delivery... does that mean I could have carried a single to 38 weeks instead of 23? Or maybe even longer b/c, while there were, of course, 3 babies, there were three sacs, placentas, three of everything that put so much weight on my cervix that was not meant to carry such a load.

Overall, I think I totally lucked out. Not to mention, if my first pregnancy *had* gone like this, there is no way I would have had two more. I cannot even entertain the thought of which two of these babies I would never have known.

I don't even remember how I heard about this website. I think it was when I was preparing for Walk America and saw it on the MOD site. I am so glad I did. Thank you for all of your support. I SHARE things here that I don't tell my friends. I SHARE things here that my husband doesn't even know. We are so lucky to have a place like this to go and SHARE and receive support! Thank you, MOD!

Posted by McTriplet Mommy | Comments: (3) | Permalink

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME...

Sep 01, 2005 04:06pm (EST)

wait, have i already used that phrase this week? still, you have GOT to be kidding me!!!..... here is what i was going to post this morning..... update at bottom....

WE MADE IT!!!
For those of you that know the very beginning of our story, sorry for the repeat…... When I was 6 weeks pregnant (and 3 days before an ultrasound revealed three babies instead of the one we thought was in there!!!) my husband had an accident at work where he became tangled in a conveyor and he hurt his leg very badly. His left leg had to be amputated above the knee later that night (well, early the next morning). This was May 21st, 2004. He was in and out of inpatient rehab twice. I was in the hospital three times last year, twice for a week each after my first two cerclages and then for a month starting on September 15th until after my C-section recovery after Isaac and Sullivan’s births on October 8th. The babies were of course in the hospital for months after their births. Lorne has been readmitted quite a few times , both scheduled and unscheduled, and Isaac has stayed a few times after scheduled eye surgeries. I am saying all of this for one reason….

We did it!!! August, 2005, was the first month since last May that NO member of our family had to stay in the hospital!! Yay!!!! Fifteen months in a row that we were separated, sometimes only for a few days, but fifteen months that for at least a day or two, we were not all asleep under our roof. What an awesome month for us this August was!!!

On a more personal note, we *finally* got in touch with my aunt and uncle in New Orleans. All of the phone lines into the area were busy or, more likely, down but we got a hold of my cousins who had talked to them. They evacuated to a hotel in Florida before Katrina hit and have been safe there throughout the storm. They have no idea what they will be going back to when they finally do return to their home but the two of them are safe. They are actually headed this way to stay with their daughter for a few days until they know more about what the situation is at home. My uncle said, "Everything that *really* matters we already know is FINE. We are both in the car, safely, together and headed to our family who is safe."

Life is so good!!

......end of anticipated post......

so sullivan has had this cold. we tried SO hard to keep it from isaac and especially lorne but this morning we had to take lorne to the ER at children's b/c he was working just a little too hard to breathe and sounded so terrible. he started coughing and wheezing a little yesterday and i thought, "You know, i will feel much better if i take him to urgent care tomorrow and they just tell me that he's fine," but by this morning, his eyes were all gooped shut and he was retracting and wheezing. so, of course, he is spending the night w/some lovely nurses at the hospital. ahh!!! talk about short lived!!!!

the good thing is he is *fine*. the ER drs debated on whether or not to keep him and i voted "keep him" so he stayed. they just kept wrinkling their noses when they listened to his lungs and i didn't want to take him home not any better than i had brought him in or what's the point? i didn't want to worry about him all night again tonight and take him back to the ER tomorrow. so, he is staying there, daddy is going soon to join him (although, hopefully lorne will be the only one flirting w/the nurses!!

). he is doing great, down a little on his oxygen settings and still keeping his sats up so that is good. just thought it was too "funny" that i wanted to post how we were hospital free for a whole calendar month and then lorne gets admitted the first day of the next one! ha!

Posted by McTriplet Mommy | Comments: (2) | Permalink

ONE DOWN!

Aug 31, 2005 09:11am (EST)

we had a follow up at the retina specialist's office today. this is the dr that has followed them since the hospital days (seems so long ago now!) watching their ROP closely. today sullivan got discharged from his care!!!! he will follow w/our pediatric ophthalmologist every six months for a while since he is at risk for nearsightedness but the retina dr said his ROP was completely "regressed." yay!!

lorne had a good appt, too. he said his right eye (his "bad" eye) looks great. he said anatomically, there is not much difference between the two eyes! lorne has had laser in both eyes but also had two vitrectomies and a cataract surgery in his right. no other treatment in his left and they look the same. good news!!

isaac did not have an appt today but came along for the ride (daddy was still sleeping and i didn't want to miss a chance to use our new stroller!). they were all VERY good boys for the hour we were there. i will surely post tomorrow about what happens at midnight but don't want to jinx it!!

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DUM-DA-DUM-DUM... THE EEG

Aug 30, 2005 06:02pm (EST)

you have got to be kidding me. bring my 11 month old in "sleep deprivation mode". put him to bed 2 hours late the night before and then wake him up at 4:00. not so much as a nap until his test at noon. oh, and take care of your other 2 11 month olds, too. you have got to be kidding me.

ok, i am being a little TOO dramatic (if you can believe it!). my MIL came over to be totally in charge of isaac and sullivan so i could concentrate on lorne. my mom came over to ride w/me and keep him awake in the car. i could NEVER have done it on my own.

we did great at first! i got him up at 3:30 just in case their clocks were different than ours.

we played for a few hours and a little bouncing on mommy's knee or his name said in his ear, a little tickle or a rattle near by kept him up. then, about 6:00, it got harder. we had a bath at 6:30 (was hoping to save this in my little bag of tricks until much later in the morning!) and it all went down hill. the bouncing was still working... a little... then we went to wet wash cloths... then peek-a-boo w/wet wash clothes on his face... then ice cold wet wash clothes.... then peek-a-boo w/ice cold wet wash clothes on his face... then ice.

.......a little background, he is typically on 1/2 liter oxygen 24/7. he has been a little "off" lately and we bumped him up gradually over the past week until he was at 2 liters last night....... so somewhere between the wet wash cloths and the ice cold wet wash cloths he started crying uncontrollably. i mean, he was crying a LOT all morning, as expected, but this was one of those cry until you puke or pass out things. he turned purple and i grabbed him and started screaming at him "lorne!! you're okay, buddy!!" (yes, really rational.

) so i bumped his oxygen to 3 liters, then 3 1/2 because he was still purple. he pinked up a bit and i called the eeg lab hysterical "is it _imperitave_ that he be THAT sleep deprived?!" of course it is. so i called the neonatologists for advice on the oxygen. i was still hysterical.

of course, THEY are at least used to seeing me cry!!!

anyway, we kept the poor boy awake, successfully, until his eeg at noon. i really think that *this* might have been one of the most stressful things that we have been through so far since the boys' births. it was so hard for ME to be the one making him so mad!!

the test itself went great, he slept through the whole thing of course, who wouldn't by then! then i carried my 22 pound boy the whole way to the car b/c i just wanted to cuddle him and tell him how sorry we all were!! they said they will forward the results to our drs (both the pedi and the ordering dr which was our neonatologist) in 2-3 days. so we are hoping that maybe monday or tuesday they will call us w/those results. i am just SO relieved that the test itself is over!! thank you all for your kind words, thoughts and prayers.

Posted by McTriplet Mommy | Comments: (6) | Permalink

MY BIG BOYS

Aug 29, 2005 03:27pm (EST)

so my kids are only 11 months old. too young to know that a "stroller" is a lame birthday gift. luckily, mommy and daddy *know* they are too young to know and can call it a birthday gift!! so it's a little early but we found a great deal we could not pass up. here is a picture of the boys in their birthday present! not just a stroller... the Cadillac of strollers.

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

isn't it great?! this is quite a gift for mommy, too... probably more for me than them! we can go for a walk, go to the park, run errands... the possibilities are endless!!

I took sullivan to urgent care yesterday, my poor baby was miserable! we knew that he was *really* sick b/c he was so cuddly! he would rather wiggle around and crawl than be held so we knew something was wrong! we have our first ear infection. yuck. the dr. at urgent care was amazed that my three boys hadn't had any yet. i told her about their births and how careful we have been! she was impressed. we are good parents.

on another note, lorne and i are getting some quality time tomorrow. he and i get to get up at 4:00 a.m. and *stay awake* until his EEG at noon. how in the world i am going to make sure my baby will NOT fall asleep, i have no idea! i mean, he's a baby. he falls asleep when he wants to, no matter what we are doing! oh, and i of course will need to feed and take care of the other two while poking and prodding lorne. ugh. i am looking forward to the test when i can relax!!! wish us luck... he has been having some weird oxygen saturation things going on and they are testing to rule out seizures. i don't know how it works, i am hoping we might get the results right away. i think that is wishful thinking!

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I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE

Aug 25, 2005 09:05am (EST)

please be aware that this is a horribly selfish, negative post. and i know that. but i am exhausted and sick so i hope you forgive me.

I don't want to do this anany more. i don't want a baby on oxygen and all of those monitors that wake me up all night and keep us from doing things with him we can do with the other boys like take him outside on a whim to get the mail or something. i don't want a baby that has no idea what life is like without all of those tubes and wires because that is all that he has known for the first year of his life. i don't want to worry ALL the time about what the next thing is going to be that happens with my sweet lorne. i don't want to get him up at 3:00 next tuesday morning to keep him awake for his EEG so they can rule out seizures (i am staying positive and keep saying they are going to "rule out" seizures and not "diagnose" them!) i don't want to fight with lorne over every bottle and have to feed him through a tube in his stomach because babies are supposed to want to eat! i don't want to watch my husband cry every time we take lorne back to the hospital for something new. i don't want to have the phone number for the NICU memorized. i don't want to take CPR classes because i will need them. i don't want my mom to keep telling me how strong i am and how much she admires me which just makes me feel more guilty on a day like today when i just want to stay in bed and cry. i don't want to rejoice in going 3 days without a doctor's visit for my boys because it is so rare that we have 3 days in a row without having to visit some sort of doctor. i don't want people to stare at isaac's little glasses and wonder what's wrong with him or constantly ask, "how do they figure out a prescription on a baby that small?" i don't want to continually answer, "no," when people coconstantly ask if his eyes are going to be "all right". i don't want to feel guilty about what i could have done that could have made their lives and futures different (which i KNOW is nothing, i did all i could but my subconscious won't let it go...). i don't want to see giant, pregnant people or new, hehealthyhappy babies and want to cry. i just don't want to do it any more.

I'm not saying that i don't want to take care of my babies or that i don't love every minute of it (well, almost every minute of it!) i'm just saying that i want to be done with the "preemie stuff" and have three little boys to take care of. when does that come? when lorne is finally off his oxygen? when he gets his g-tube out because he's finally eating? when isaac can get some less horridly thick glasses or even contacts so that we will get less comments from nosy strangers? when they start preschool? when they start kindergarten? when they graduate from high school? when they get married? when THEY have babies? i'm sorry i'm such a downer today. i really try so hard to stay up-beat but i'm just not feeling well and lorne had a *terrible* night last night after he FINALLY fell asleep at 1:30 after screaming for three hours. we had to triple the amount of oxygen he is getting for no reason at all. he just started dropping his sats... then we'd up his Os by a 1/4 liter and he'd drop again. this happened all night and he was just sleeping away. thanks for being my shoulder(s) to cry on. again, sorry this is so negative because i am not usually like that.

I will say that in 6 days we will have ended our first hospital-free month for this family in 15 months!!! lorne has an MRI next month where he will have to stay inpatient after so it is short-lived but that is a SCHEDULED visit which seems so different to us!

Posted by McTriplet Mommy | Comments: (4) | Permalink

BIRTHDAY PARTY

Aug 15, 2005 06:05pm (EST)

holy cow, we are planning a first birthday party for three babies! i think i will just cry all day.

i cannot believe how big my "babies" are getting! my little brother (the baby in the family!) left for college yesterday and my step-mom is a wreck... i get it now! using sippy cups and and sitting in high chairs eating finger foods. this time last year i was laid up in the hospital. my favorite part of the actual invite is "we have gone from 4 lbs 14 ounces total weight to a combined weight of over 60 pounds" i think most babies don't increase their birth weight by that much (was going to say "by X%" but i can't figure out the math

) we also said at the bottom that we have so much stuff (well, worded more eloquently) that what we really want for our birthday is donations to the MOD. we also attached a page-long thank you note for everyone who has helped us so much. wanted to post that here since so many people here have helped so much, too.....

We want to take an opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us this year… Thank you to everyone who helped Daddy in the hospital and visited and called him. Thank you to all of the doctors and professionals who helped Daddy feel better and get around better. Thank you to everyone who collected and sent money, gift cards, flowers, plants, snacks, cookies and gifts to us. Thank you for the homemade gifts of hats, quilts and blankets that were more comfort to us than you can imagine. Thank you for all of the cards, e-mails and calls to check in on us. Thanks to everyone who has held us continually in their thoughts and prayers, even though they couldn’t bring themselves to call because they had no idea what to say. Thank you to all of the great nurses and doctors who took care of us even before we were even born. Thank you to everyone who called and visited our miserable Mommy on bedrest. Thank you to people who mowed our lawn, shoveled our driveway, and helped move things around the house when Daddy couldn’t, and Mommy was not supposed to because of bedrest or still being weak after her C-section. Thank you to everyone who sent cards of congratulations and gifts when we were born. Thank you for bringing over or sending food so that Mommy and Daddy could spend more time with us, whether at the hospital, or at home, instead of worrying about dinner. Thank you for all of those diapers! Thank you for taking care of Mommy during her pregnancy. Thank you for visiting us at the hospital and letting Mommy and Daddy show us off. Thank you for saying how adorable we were even though we looked like aliens for at least the first two months of our lives. Thank you for respecting Mommy and Daddy’s decision not to have visitors when we first came home so that we could stay healthy through the winter. Thank you for continuing to respect that decision even as we got older and were staying healthy for surgeries and procedures. Thank you for sharing our exciting information and milestones with your own friends and family because you think we are THAT important! Thank you to all of our awesome teachers and therapists that have helped us get where we are today. Thank you for pledging or walking with us in Walk America to help other little preemies. Thank you for listening to all of the medical things going on with us and acting interested even if you have no idea what Mommy and Daddy are talking about. Thank you to all of our awesome grandparents for spending so much time with us helping Mommy and Daddy and babysitting so they can have a real dinner out sometimes! Thank you, everyone, for everything you have done for our family and us over the past year!!

There are so many people who have done so many things to help get us where we are today, celebrating our first birthday. But, we want to say an extra thank you to the staff of doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, social workers, techs and everyone else at the Research Medical Center NICU. We literally would not be here to celebrate our first birthdays without you. We consider all of you friends, and many of you family. Thank you for worrying about us on weekends, holidays and even when you weren’t on duty. Thank you for being proud of our accomplishments and letting Mommy and Daddy show us off in the unit when we visit. Thank you for understanding that the little things we accomplished that seemed huge to Mommy and Daddy really were HUGE. We love all of you.

here are 2 pictures... one we used for the top of the invite and my favorite one we didn't (i bet you figure out which is which!) these are 2 of about fifty digital pics. it's getting harder and harder to get all 3 to sit still together long enough for a picture!

Posted by McTriplet Mommy | Comments: (7) | Permalink

A WHOLE NEW VOCABULARY

Aug 12, 2005 05:35pm (EST)

I just thought i'd share this where it would be appreciated!

I was behind a truck today with PTL very big in red letters on the back. it was something that started w/P Truck Lines but i was very curious! also clicked some link the other day about PDAs and, duh, took me to an electronics store. a year ago, i would have never thought of these "words" at all!

I feel so "smart" that i have learned so much and, yet, sad that i know so much about these things, along w/sooooo many other preemie terminologies. *sigh*

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OUR PT EVALS

Aug 11, 2005 12:40pm (EST)

well, the physical therapist came today to evaluate the boys. they were VERY cranky but, luckily, she mostly asked me about their milestones and only worked with them a little. they are 7 months adjusted, 10 actual now (lorne is almost 11 actual)....

lorne scored at about a 5 month level. this did not surprise me and i was thankful that he will be able to get services. his muscle tone is very weak and he really, really needs it. he is doing soooo much better lately, though! almost sitting by himself now!!

isaac tested at about a 8 month level which i also expected. i figured he was probably pretty on-track and is actually a little ahead (for adj age). he did not qualify for services but she said he was right on the border. she said that after his birthday in october, we would re-eval b/c they stop taking adjusted ages into account after they turn one.

sullivan scored at 10 1/2 months. TEN AND A HALF MONTHS!!! he is not even ten and half months old yet!!

he, of course, did not qualify for services which was a little disappointing b/c i know he could use all of the help he can get, just like any othe preemie, but how exciting!!

here are some pics i took of the boys today. isaac (in glasses) in "the pen" w/sullivan and lorne playing with mommy.

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LORNE'S CONTACT

Aug 03, 2005 05:47pm (EST)

lorne got his contact today to replace the lens he lost in cataract surgery! it was very easy, actually! definitely a two person job but he didn't seem to hold a grudge afterwards. our first eye doctor originally told us that we would have to put it in each morning and take it out each night. when we went to the doctor today that does the contacts, he said we can leave it in for a week (or even two!) and then take it out overnight and clean it and put it back in. this sounds much better! tomorrow we start patching his left eye so his right one can get stronger. yuck. i think this is going to be the hard part!

isaac's glasses check went well today, too. i almost wonder if we made the wrong decision going with glasses in isaac's situation instead of contacts (lorne was required to get a contact since his is just one eye but we were given the choice for isaac. since he has had cataract removals in both, he qualified for glasses.). i would love to see my little boy without those glasses on! and i think they would be sooo much less conspicuous and would create less questions which i hate. we'll see, the doctor said his prescription could change in less than two months! we could change our mind then, i guess.

sullivan is doing great. he is soooo mobile. i am so proud of my boys. we are getting a PT eval next week through EI and our OT said sullivan probably won't even qualify b/c he's so close to on-track for his actual age of nine months! amazing.

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