Happy Easter!

Easter in the NICU: not ideal, but we made the best of it! We even took our first family photo! Everyone is doing great! I'll update with specifics sometime this week, but we should have the girls home by this time next week (as long as they can control their apnea). Tyler is making great strides and won't be too far behind! He's tiny, but he's tough!














Whew! I don't know about you, but all that excitement wore us out!!!! (And the doctors wonder why they have sleep apnea. Hmmm...)

Ellison Caught Up!

This little beauty has come a long way! She officially weighs as much as Haley! Both girls weigh 4 pounds, and little Tyler is gaining quickly and is at 3 pounds already! Ellison made up the 8 oz difference in less than 3 weeks! Because of that, she had her feeding tube removed and started bottle feeding today! These milestones are so amazing for us to witness - especially considering they are still 7 weeks from their original due date! Haley was also allowed to try the bottle again. Both girls did great - our nurse did the feeding and really taught Jeff and I so much about what to expect out of them. I think this will be a learning process for he and I as much as it is for the babies! Actually, Ellison took to it right away and did much better than anyone expected her to do! They both had some problems with coordinating their breathing and keeping their heart rates stable, but now we know what to expect and how to help them through it. Not to say we've got it figured out - NOT EVEN CLOSE. I looked at Jeff tonight after 45 minutes of trying to feed Ellison - he had sweat dripping from his forehead and she was sound asleep. Not a good combination! I can't claim to be any better - Haley's hair was dripping wet by the time I got done with her. I looked at her when I was burping her and she had her mouth wide open and her tongue sticking out, panting like a dog. Lord help us!

Tyler is still doing great! They are increasing his feedings every day and decreasing his need for IV supplements. He will be bottle feeding before we know it! We've noticed he's finally started sleeping more hours in the day - his little body doesn't need to work so hard to breathe, so he can just relax and focus on growing! I think he'll be crawling before he comes home! The nurses try and keep him in the middle of his isolette, but he keeps creeping forward toward the hole at the end. I think he's trying to escape! He has pulled his feeding tube out of his throat more times than we can count. He ripped it out so forcefully today that it left a small bruise where the tape was! I really think he just wants to come home. Hopefully he won't be too far behind his sisters - it won't feel right until they all come home!

Here is a photo of Ellison and her first feeding! I'll update photos of them all sometime next week!

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Jeff got to feed Haley by bottle for the first time on Saturday! This may not seem like a big deal, but it is a HUGE step for her. Preemies are not born with the natural ability to suck, swallow and breathe at the same time - their brains are not mature enough to do all three together. For the past two and a half weeks, they have all been fed by a tiny tube that goes to their tummy. The nurses hook up a syringe and the milk just drains down to their bellies - voila! Once they learn to bottle feed, it is just a matter of a short time before they can come home. Obviously, this is something we've been looking forward to since they were born!

When Jeff gave her the bottle, she did great! It was like she knew exactly what to do with it! We really thought we were on our way...until...first, a little cough, then a little choke. Jeff pulled the bottle out of her mouth and she seemed to regain her composure, so the nurse told him it was okay to continue. Wrong. A few more seconds passed and her alarms started going off. She forgot to breathe! Her oxygen levels started plummeting and she started losing the color in her face - AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! The nurse grabbed her and shook her a little and she snapped back to reality and started breathing again. If Jeff had been hooked up to a monitor, not only would his oxygen stats have fallen, he would have registered a massive cardiac failure! Haley recovered within a few seconds - not so for poor Jeff. He's still pale.

Here are some photos of her first feeding, BEFORE the breathing incident! Hopefully they will let her try again in the next few days!

Haley Rae

Last but surely not least, it's Haley's turn!

The doctors were surprised at Haley's birthweight since the ultrasound we had four days before their birth estimated her at one pound less than she actually was! Since she was born at such a good weight (in preemie terms), she has done really well and will most likely be the first to come home. She is no longer on any IVs to supplement her feedings and is relying strictly on breastmilk at this point. This can change if she doesn't gain weight, but so far, so good! She cracks us up - she is perfectly content to lay there and let everyone wait on her hand and foot! Tyler and Ellison stir around when it's time for a feeding, but not Haley! She just snoozes away! We were starting to worry that this wasn't normal, but the doctor assured us that since she really doesn't have any stress on her system, she's just sleeping and recovering from the birth. Not stirring around actually limits the amount of calories she burns unnecessarily! It's so fascinating to see how different they are in personality and looks!

Ellison Dale

Today is Ellison's day! She is gaining weight like crazy and has been moved from feeding every 2 hours to every 3 which is a great step for such a tiny baby! We've nicknamed her "Frogger" since she likes to lay on her tummy with her legs pulled up like a frog! She's so active and opens her eyes when she hears our voices!

Of the three, she's the one who has been giving us the most gray hairs! While she is gaining weight and is in really good health, she has episodes when her heart rate slows way down and her monitor alarm goes off. She is able to pull her heart rate back up on her own without any other stimulation, which is great, but we still worry! The doctors and nurses assure us this is perfectly normal for a preemie, but that doesn't make us feel any better when the alarm goes off! She's also had a little trouble keeping her oxygen levels up high enough, so she goes on oxygen occasionally to help her out. Again, nothing out of the normal for a preemie - just something to freak Jeff and I out and remind us that we're definitely not in the clear yet.

Here are some of her more recent photos! She's such a ham!

The NICU nurses have been absolutely amazing! Ellison wanted to pose with one of her favorite night nurses, Stacy!