Growing Like Weeds

The home health nurse stopped by yesterday for the babies' assessments. We had some more great news! The babies continue to gain weight nicely. These are their weights as of yesterday:

Isla - 6 lbs 2 oz
Solomon - 6 lbs 9 oz
Simon - 6 lb 14 oz

Our nurse checked the oxygen saturation on the babies and they all appear to be doing well on 1/16. The next step is to slowly move them to 1/32 but this won't happen until they can consistently stay at 1/16 without dipping too low. Next week might be a good time to run another oxygen test. We'll see. We're in no hurry but it sure will be nice to get rid of the big tanks. They make getting around that much harder.

First Week Home - Establishing a Routine

The first week home with the babies has been wonderful and exhausting. They came home on a 3 hour feeding schedule that they were used to from staying in the NICU. This was a demanding schedule!! It took anywhere from 1 hour to an hour and a half to get them fed and then we had to put them back to bed in their crib. Sometimes they would fall asleep right away and other times they would stay awake for a very long time. This meant we might get anywhere from 1 hour to a couple minutes of down time before the routine started all over again. This is what we have been doing around the clock since we've been home. Hopefully this explains the lack of communication over the last week. Please forgive us. It's been busy!! Thankfully Grandpa and Grandma E (Ben's parents) have been here to help the whole time. I know they are thoroughly enjoying the babies but probably wishing they were getting a lot more sleep!!

The babies are doing well and gaining weight. A home health nurse comes to our house twice a week to do an assessment on each of the babies and runs oxygen trial tests to see if their oxygen can be lowered. This test measures the O2 saturation in their blood to see if they are getting enough oxygen at our high elevation. Right now all three of the babies came home with 1/16 L oxygen and when we tried to lower it to 1/32 L this week, they weren't ready. They will remain on 1/16 L for a while longer and another trial will be done next week.

Our Pediatrician has seen the babies twice now. The first visit was the first Friday we were home and he saw them again yesterday. All of the babies have gained appropriate weight since they have been home so Dr. S. moved them to an ad lib feeding schedule which means we can feed them when they get hungry rather than sticking to the 3 hour schedule. Last night was our first trial run of this schedule and it wasn't as easy as we were hoping. It might be an easier transition with one baby but with three you have little ones waking up at random times. I don't think anyone got much sleep last night. Each day should get a little easier and we can tweak it as needed. We're just praying we can figure it out sooner than later so we aren't walking zombies. :)

These are current weights from yesterday's appointment:
Isla - 5 lbs 11.5 ounces (1st percentile)
Solomon - 5 lbs 13 ounces (1st percentile)
Simon - 6 lbs 6 ounces (4th percentile)

The percentiles are based on their actual age (4 weeks) and not their adjusted age (which would be negative 1 week since their due date isn't until Thursday). So they will all be around 6 lbs or more by the time their due date comes, which is a small but normal weight for a newborn.

Babies are home!!!!!

Isla, Solomon, and Simon are home!!!  They all came home yesterday.  We were hoping to share the news earlier that they were coming home, but Isla was borderline with eating enough and it wasn't until yesterday afternoon when the Dr. was filling out the discharge papers that we received confirmation.  We packed up the car with 3 car seats across the middle row, my parents in the back row, and all of our bags and the oxygen tanks for the babies.  The "baby bus" passed it's first test. :o)

They are all taking full bottles consistently and their only treatment now is 1/16 L of oxygen.  They were on 1/32 L down in ABQ, but we're ~2000ft higher so they got an extra bump up for the trip home and will probably be weaned in the next 2-4 weeks.  Now that we no longer have to deal with feeding tubes and all of the monitoring wires stuck to them, a single oxygen tube seems like a piece of cake to deal with.

Thanks everyone for your thought, prayers, help, and everything else you've done for us.  We're excited that our babies are ready to just be normal newborns.

Day 18

It's been awhile since an update.  The regular flow nipple has helped but there were still lots of ups and downs with the feedings over the weekend.  Starting yesterday, Solomon was put on a "shift minimum" again and has been eating enough by bottle without help from a feeding tube.  He even took an extra 10 mL this morning.  If he keeps this up, he could come home in the next couple days.  Simon and Isla are taking full bottles more often, and both took a full bottle this morning.  Isla has had some problems with spitting up, but it hasn't been bad enough for the team to be overly concerned and it would have to get worse for her to require medication.

They are all gaining weight well.  Solomon is now 4 lbs 12 ozs, and Simon and Isla are well over 5 lbs.  This is very nice because if they are over 5 lbs they can likely go home in our car seats.

Everything else is going well with the exception of normal baby problems like sore bottoms.  As much as we wanted to take the babies home awhile ago, there are definite advantages to being under constant medical during their first few weeks.  Our babies will come with their belly buttons healed and on a schedule and just ready to be normal babies.

A New Hope

Day 14

A NEW HOPE

It has been a period of difficulty with

taking bottles.  During this time, Isla

Solomon, and Simon have rarely

eaten more than half of their

required nutrition by mouth.

This morning, their nurse devised

a plan for the ultimate weapon, the

REGULAR FLOW NIPPLE, which 

has enough flow to quickly feed an 

entire baby.

Pursued by Isla, who has not yet

tried this new device, Solomon and

Simon have taken their entire

bottles this morning.  Their is hope

that they will all be able to race

home and restore freedom to the

Ellingson household....

P.S. I had a little too much fun with this post.  If it didn't make sense to you, ask your resident geek. :o)

12 days old

Not much news on the feeding front. Everyone is still on an every-other schedule with bottles and feeding tubes. They all usually take about half of a bottle. Isla and Solomon will sometimes take nearly a full bottle but not consistently, while Simon rarely if ever takes more than half. Isla and Solomon tend to fall asleep when they're done eating, but Simon just starts looking around and scoping things out -- he's very social. They all keep going up in feeding volume as they go up in weight. They are all gaining well and Simon has broken the 5 lbs mark which means that he can probably go home in his car seat instead of a specially designed car bed for babies under 5 lbs.

Simon hasn't had anymore spells, so his discharge date is now governed by feedings just like Isla and Solomon. Alicia is doing well with pumping and has kept up with the triplets so far (a little over the 1020 mL they consume each day). She's been pumping every two hours during the day and then sleeps during the night until she wakes up in agony and needs to pump (about every 3-4 hours), so it's been a pretty rough schedule. She's getting as much sleep as she can and is starting to regain her strength, which she'll need when the babies come home.

10 days old

More feeding and growing. Yesterday we were told that Isla was 4 lbs 8 oz, which is 1 oz below her birth weight but she's gaining steadily is probably back at her birth weight today. Solomon has grown the most and was 4 lbs 1 oz, and Simon tops the charts at 4 lbs 14 oz. Not much news when it comes to feeding. Isla had a stellar stretch and took 3 full bottles two night ago, but we haven't seen that Isla since and she's back to her old self (usually taking about half a bottle.) The boys are gettings half their feedings by bottle and half by tube. They usually take about half a bottle as well.

Isla, Solomon, and Simon are just plain acting like 36-week babies. Simon had a "spell" two nights ago where his heart rate dropped to 72 bpm. This isn't unusual for babies his age and he self corrected, but he bought himself at least 5 more days in the NICU since babies have to go that long without a spell before going home (4 days left now).

Alicia and I have been spending a lot of time with the babies and we were really starting to get exhausted today. Our nurse said as long as we have "the world's most expensive baby sitters" we should take advantage of it. We took 3 hour nap (with a pumping break for Alicia) and it was nice. We'll probably go out for ice cream tonight and just take it easy.