Update 04/28/07

Hello all! Sorry we haven't posted any pictures recently, it's been a whirlwind past two weeks. I've tried the last three days to make time just to get the pictures downloaded off the camera and I've finally got it done. Anyhooooo...here are a bunch of recent pictures of the kids - some after Alex came home and others now that all are home.

Jeremy

Here's Judy and Alex, Judy was Alex's primary nurse and one of our favorites in the NICU:
Alex ready to be discharged from the NICU:Alex strapped in his carseat:Alex saying goodbye to the NICU:
Baylee checking out Alex:Baylee keeping a protective eye on Alex:Alex in his new bathrobe (thanks Great Aunt Nan!) after his first bath at home:Alex already has the Lenzendorf scowl down... :)The back seat of the truck is loaded with kids!:

Kinda full back there... :)Trips in their Moses baskets:Zonked out after getting home:The cribs in the final arrangement. It took a while to figure out the best way to maximize space.Baylee (or Mother Hen as Jen calls him now) watching over the trips.

They are coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a quick note between phone calls...... we will be bring Liz and Zach home tonight!!!!! Zachary was supposed to be discharged on Friday but had some issues that the doctor wanted to keep him there over the weekend. After speaking with the doctor on Monday, he wanted to keep Zach one more day. I believe the real reason was so Liz could catch up and come home too. So we got the news early this afternoon that they are breaking out. We are super excited. After a long 68 days, we will have our whole family home. Although it will be a little chaotic, we are looking forward to having them here. It will be strange not having to call or go to the NICU everyday. We will miss our wonderful nurses, but plan on keeping in touch with them. Well I have got to run so I can leave to go get our babies!!!

Love, Jen

He's home!

Sorry to have kept those of you didn't know yet in suspense. Alex came home with us Friday evening! It felt great to finally be able to bring one of our babies home, but it was difficult leaving the other two there. They'll be following soon though. The benefit of bringing only one home though is that it allowed Alex, us, and the animals a break in period to figure out how things are going to work around here. No matter how much we prepared and others tried to explain it to us, there's no way to be completely ready for when he came home. Things were a little frantic to begin with, but not too bad. We all have actually gotten some sleep and I think we're getting the hang of it. We figure about the time we get things pretty settled with him another one will come home and the whole house dynamic will change again! :)

There are tons more details, but I have to try and get something accomplished before we head to the hospital to see Liz and Zach this afternoon.

Thank you all for your support. We'll try to get pictures of him after he got home up on here when we get a chance.

Jeremy

Exciting news!!!!!!

We did not go to the hospital Wednesday due to the snow. We did not want to risk getting into an accident. Unfortunately Jeremy has not seen the kids since Sunday. He feels awful.

We got some great news today.................Alex is hopefully being discharged Friday or Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell I am a little excited?!?!?! It is not official until there are written orders from the doctor. We have been told that the orders should be written tomorrow. Judy, Alex's nurse and a favorite, started the discharge paperwork tonight while we were there. They have told us that discharge could take a couple of hours due to meeting with different people and paperwork, so Jeremy has taken a half day. Alex has done well at letting the nurses know when he wants to eat. He is taking anywhere from 75 cc to 95cc of milk every 3 to 4 hours. He weighs 6#10 ounces today. He is doing great!!!

Liz and Zach are doing well too. Liz now weighs 5#11 ounces and is off of her cannula except for feedings. So we can finally see what her face looks like! I must say she is a beautiful little girl, but I am a little bias! :) Zach weighed in at 5# 5 ounces today. He is working on his feedings, before we know it he will be coming home. All three have continued with their immunizations, just another step towards going home.

We are so excited to be finally bringing someone home 8 weeks after they enter this world! I cannot wait to lay on the couch with him on my chest or watch him sleep in a normal crib or listen to him coo on the monitor or to be woke up by a crying baby instead of boobs that need to be pumped or just start feeling like a parent! Tomorrow will be a bittersweet day as we bring one home and leave the other two there but it will not be long before they join him. We will keep you posted with the homecoming and pictures (I am sure there will be a lot, don't want to miss a moment). You will most likely not see a post in the next few days as our family begins to start the next leg of our journey. Bring on the bonding process!!!! Love, Jen

Day 54 and counting

Today I went to spend the afternoon with the kids. Soon after I arrived today the boys were taken to be circumsized....not a good day for the boys. Today the kids also got their first immunizations done. I was only there to see Liz's get her shot. Like her mother, she was a real trooper....only cried a little bit. I held her hand to comfort her, which seemed to help. We also found out that she is being weaned off of the cannula. It will only be used during feedings. We can't wait to see her without those darn stickers on her face. Everyone has been doing great with their feeding. Zach was even taking a bottle at every other feeding. They are thinking about putting Alex on 'ad lib on demand', which basically means that he will tell them when he wants to eat. With this he must continue to gain or at least maintain his weight. I was at the hospital a long time today. It was another busy day. Hard to believe it has been almost eight weeks!!! No pictures taken today.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone. The triplets first holiday was spent unfortunately in the hospital. We went to see them in the morning. We dressed them in their Easter outfits and gave them their 1st Easter bunnies. We took many pictures but only some are posted here. The kids gave their nurses some candies to help celebrate Easter. The nurses helped the kids make cards for us, which of course made me cry....it does not take much now a days. Grandma and Nana also gave the kids Easter bunnies....it is true about rabbits multiplying!! :) After spending the morning with them we headed back home. Hope you enjoy the pictures...we had fun taking them. Love, Jen

Alex in his Easter outfit with his 1st Easter bunny:

Zach in his Easter outfit with his 1st Easter bunny:

Liz in her Easter outfit with her 1st Easter bunny: Mom with all three: Liz, Zach & Alex:
Dad with all three- Alex, Liz & Zach:

RSV

Hello all. For those of you that know what RSV is, don't worry, the kids don't have it right now. For those of you that don't know, RSV stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus. We're still learning about it, but it's like a bad cold or pneumonia. It's peak season is the about the same as the cold and flu season, fall to spring.

The reason I'm posting about it is that we've learned that our kids will have a tougher time fighting it because they were born prematurely. If they were to get it now they would have more trouble fighting it than a full-term baby because they did not receive all the immunity to fight infections (from Jen) before being born. They would almost certainly have to go back to the hospital if they got it. We want to continue our success when they come home.

We have been extremely fortunate that the kids have not had any infections so far, as it is very common (almost expected) for babies in the NICU to get at least one infection while there. Our good fortune is in large part due to the limited amount of visitors we have brought to the NICU as well as our commitment to washing our hands and using sanitizer prior to handling the kids.

What this means is that we need to limit the number of people the kids come in contact with and ensure that they don't come in contact with anyone who is sick. There are a number of rules that we are going to have to follow when they come home based on hospital recommendations and research we've done.

1. No children visitors during RSV season during the first 2 years.
2. Limited children visitors during off season during the first 2 years.
3. Children visitors are not allowed to touch the babies.
4. No visitors/helpers that have been sick within the last 10 days.
5. No visitors/helpers that feel they are getting sick, even just a little tingle.
6. All visitors/helpers will be required to wash hands and use sanitizer prior to touching/holding the babies.
7. Visitors/helpers will only be able to hold one baby at a time.
8. We will be limiting outings with the babies.

I want to stress to everyone that we are not trying to prevent anyone from seeing the kids, but we need to do everything we can to keep them healthy. We've waited a very long time and worked very hard to get this far and cannot let our guard down now. We are our childrens' advocates and need to be strict about this issue. I'll be the first to admit that despite the fact that the kids were born premature, I figured as soon as they were allowed to come home that we would be able to proceed as would be done with full-term babies. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Although we can expect no long term effects from them being born premature, the first few years of their lives will have some differences from full-term babies.

We don't know exactly how we're going to handle holidays and things of that sort, but we will try to make things work as best we can. Again, we don't intend to offend anyone, but we ask that you please respect our wishes and follow the above rules and any that we may need to add in the future. Thank you.

Please contact us with any questions, comments, concerns, etc.

Jeremy

Update for 04/03/07 through 04/07/07

This weeks not too many things have happened. So here is an overview:
Feedings
The kids are all continuing to tolerate feedings and are all growing. The amounts per feedings have increased. Alex is now getting 54cc, Liz is getting 47cc and Zach is getting 44cc. They are all still working on getting the nippling thing down. Alex is suppose to be nippled at every other feeding, Liz is at twice a day and Zach is at three times a day. Depending on how awake they are at feeding time, how much stamina they have and if they show the cues for wanting to be nippled depends on how well they do. All seem to be great at the sucking part and are good at the swallowing and breathing. They are working on their endurance. This is something that the doctors, nurse and us have no control over. They are all breastfeeding well when given the opportunity. In fact, I breastfeed both boys at the same time, which they did great!!!
Monitors
As you know both of the boys are connected to the monitor that monitors heartrate and respiration. Liz is also connect to that as well as monitor for percent of oxygen in the blood and the cannula. Good news for us this week was she was weaned off of her oxygen. So she is on room air and is at 1/4 liter flow. Basically, she is at 21% oxygen which is what we breath in normally (room air) and just gets a puff of air. She is doing great. She gets a little extra flow during feeding but is turn back down when finished. We still do not know if they will come home on monitors. We will not know until we get closer to getting them home.
Homecoming
Many of you have asked us when they are coming home. Unfortunately, we do not know. We would love to say this week but we don't know. We have been told for the last couple weeks that it might only be a week but so far this has not been true. When we first started this roller coaster ride, they told us they would be home by the original due date, which at that time seemed so far away. I told Jeremy the other day that that does not seem so out of the question anymore. Like everyone else (even more) we want to bring them home. As some of you may have noticed over the last week or so, we may have been a little short with each other and sometimes others. We do not mean to be short with anyone, but we are extremely frustrated to say the least. Our nurses have told us that it is prefectly normal. We see our kids on less and less support yet still cannot take them home. Unfortunately, the ball is in the kids court. They have requirements to meet that we cannot force them to learn. We would love to be able to give the good news of their homecoming but at this time cannot give you a date. We look forward to that day and have our fingers crossed that it will be SOON!!! Again we apologize if we have been short with any of you. We hope you understand.

Love, Jen

You know you are a parent of a preemie when....

When we visited the kids on Friday night they had received little beanie babies as well as this list of things for parents of preemies. And yes, these are all very true!!! I hope you enjoy.

1. You use strange initals (C-PAP, CCs, NICU, NG) when discussing your child.
2. You actually remember how many CCs make up an ounce.
3. You count his/her weight in grams.
4. The skin on your hands is peeling from washing so often.
5. You hesitate when someone asks his/her age, but you know exactly how much he/she weighs.
6. The answer to "how old is your baby?" is 30 minutes long.
7. When someone asks his birthday, you reply "which one?"
8. You start to understand some of the things they say on ER.
9. You turn into Kung-Fu Mom when someone tries to touch your baby.
10. You attempt to measure just how much spit-up he/she just had before you clean it up.
11. You know how much he/she weighs before putting him/her on the scale at the doctor's office.
12. You cry at Maternity Ward and get mad at Baby Story.
13. You see a 7# newborn and say "Wow! She's so BIG!"
14. Your baby is months old before he can go to the mall.
15. You have never explained why your baby is on an apnea monitor.
16. When someone says how tiny your baby is, you argue that he is huge and to demonstrate you whip out pictures of him from the NICU.
17. You do a health check on people when they come to your house to visit.
18. You make people wash their hands before going near your child.
19. You want to scream when someone says that she just wants to have this baby now - at week 28, 32 or 34.
20. You are so amazed when someone actually tells you your baby is big for his age.
21. You tried to find a place to buy newborn size diapers in bulk.
22. You called half your relatives when the baby grew out of their first pair of pajamas.
23. You never take your child for granted.
24. You worry about RSV season and it is still weeks away....
25. You know what "RSV" stands for.
26. You donate his/her tiny clothes to the NICU and marvel that they seem so small - when they were too darn large.
27. Your son/daughter gets a simple cold and her doc sees her within the hour.
28. People say "He CAN"T be ___ old... he's too little!"
29. It has taken them 5 months to grow INTO newborn clothes.
30. You pick up 2 pounds of ground beef and think that your baby was born at the same weight.
31. You buy "Purell" in bulk.
32. You can stare at your baby for hours when he sleeps.
33. You know about oxygen tanks and regulators more than the company supplying it to the airplanes.

Update for 03/27/07 through 04/02/07

Here is the update for the last week.

Tuesday March 27, 2007
Today I did not make it to the hospital due to trying to get things done around the house. We did have an exciting thing happen today......Zach got taken off of his cannula. So we will finally be able to see his face without equipment being attached.

Zach's 1st picture w/o the cannula:

Wednesday March 28, 2007
Today there was not much new. We did get to see Zach without the cannula for the first time (see picture above). The boys feedings have been increased again and everyone is working on nippling.

Thursday March 29, 2007
Today I went to the hospital for the afternoon. It was a busy day. For the first time of probably many, I got the kids mixed up. What kind of mother am I??? I gave Alex a bath today and then realized as I was holding him that it was Liz's turn for a bath. So after I was done with Alex I gave Liz a bath. The doctor put an order in for the speech therapist to come see the kids regarding their nippling attempts. So I met her while I was there. Alex was seen by her prior to me getting to the hospital. All three will be seen tomorrow. She believes that as much as we want them to nipple that they will do it on their time. I then met with the lactation consultant for breast feeding Zach. He did a great job!!! By the time I left everyone was resting comfortably(see pictures below).

Alex sleeping in the warm sun:

Liz sleeping:
Zach all snuggled up:
Friday March 30, 2007

Tonight I gave Zach a bath since Alex was done yesterday and we are not planning on being at the hospital on Saturday when he is officially due for a bath. I also got a chance to breast feed Liz with some success. She was supplemented afterward with a bottle, which I got to feed her. It was a learning experience since they are just learning all the steps to drinking out of a bottle. The did good with the speech therapist today. They will continue to be worked with. Also as a surprise to Jeremy, we were both holding the boys so I decided to give Alex to him and get a picture of the boys. I think he liked it, just a little:)

Daddy and his boys:

Mommy feeding Liz with bottle for 1st time:

Saturday March 31, 2007

Today we did not go to the hospital. All are doing well. We did find out that all have had their hearing test done and they were all normal. They also had their eyes checked on Wednesday and they are still developing normally. All are gaining weight and tolerating their feedings. We have another five-pounder, Liz.

Sunday April 1, 2007 (April Fools Day)

Today prior to going to the hospital we tried putting all the car seats in the truck. They DID fit, which is very good. It also looks like we will be able to fit them in the car, but we did not try all of them. Daddy got to feed Zach today with the bottle. Zach finished the whole thing!!! Here are the kids stats for today:

Alexander (Alex): 5#12oz.; 19 3/4"

Elizabeth (Liz): 5#1.8oz.; 18 1/2"

Zachary (Zach): 4#7.8oz.; 18"

All are looking great!!!!

Daddy feeding Zach:

A very full ride:

Monday April 2, 2007

Today we took our CPR class which is required for getting the kids released. After class we spent the rest of the afternoon at the hospital. Today Daddy got to feed Alex by bottle. Both did very well. I breast fed Zach and gave Liz her bath. The boys are starting to do a little better with nippling. Liz is taking her time on nippling and moving forward. Her oxygen levels were down today which was nice to see.

Daddy feeding Alex with bottle for 1st time:

Zach out cold after a good breast feeding attempt:

A short note

Jeremy and I have discussed that we are starting to forget how small the kids were at first, but we are reminded quickly of their size - see picture below.

Zach's hand on Mommy's hand:

A funny

So I know why people who have gone through this experience have written many books. I think I may be able to do so myself. It will be called...You Know When You Have Been in the NICU Too Long When......

The NICU's sink and paper towel dispensers are automated. So I was at home and went to the sink to wet a paper towel and was waiting for it to turn on by itself. Oops:)

Well I will end this here. Stay tuned for further updates.

Take Care, Jen