Happy Birthday Daddy!

September 1, 2013

Well once again it is in the early hours of a day and while the rest of you are sleeping, I am up waiting to pump.  Today is Adam's birthday!  I am saddened that we cannot be together to celebrate but hopefully we will be together next year. 

It also happens to be the girls' 2-month birthday.  So much has happened in the past two months that it is simply unbelievable. 

KILO PARTY!

All of the girls have finally surpassed the one kilo mark ~ which according to the doctors is a big deal.  This means all of the girls are over the two pound hump as well.  Hopefully they can keep growing bigger and stronger because we cannot go home until they at least double their weights. 

I keep pumping and currently I am averaging 50 ounces of a milk a day.  I was told by lactation specialist that the girls will eat any where from 60 to 90 ounces a day combined total...this is A LOT of milk to pump!! 

We currently filled our deep freeze and half of our regular freezer with milk.  Amy took back three coolers of milk to put in her deep freeze for us until the girls come home.  On top of that, I have over half the freezer filled at the Ronald McDonald house and a freezer filled at the hospital.  And yesterday Adam had to go purchase a new, larger deep freeze for us to store milk in...I hope the girls are hungry and keep eating! 








Miss Cecilia has been doing her part and has a current weight of 1040 grams...Drum roll...this is double her birth weight!!  She was even made a special sign for near her isolette to celebrate this historic milestone! 

Cecilia still has spells and unfortunately requires assistance (usually bagging) 3-4 times a week.  These episodes are quite scary for everyone involved.  Hopefully she will grow out of this and master the skill of breathing soon.

She thankfully has begun to have output from her ostame.  We, strangely, had a small period where the doctors were worried she was pooping too much, however it appears this has passed.  The doctors are now talking about the possibility of revision (rerouting her poop from the stoma back through her mucus fistula so it exits her body through the colon).  This will allow Cecilia the best chance of having normal bowels moving forward.

Isabelle, our monster baby, is doing quite well.  Her current weight is 1230 grams and she looks it!  It is incredible to look at Cecilia and then to go and look at Isabelle ~ it gives us hope that Cecilia will catch up one day. 

Iz also has this amazing fuzzy hair which you cannot help but smile at ~ She likes to play games with the nurses too!  She'll start desating and then when the nurses come over to check on her, she'll look up at them and smile and raise her saturation levels to the "happy zone."  It is incredibly cute!  Speaking of her oxygen, Iz is getting closer and closer to leaving CPAP and earning herself a high-flow nasal cannula.  This also brings her one step closer to learning how to nurse...

Zoe is also racing her way towards losing her CPAP, graduating to the high-flow.  While we are optimistic, we know not to over celebrate as this step could take weeks yet.

Additionally, poor Zoe has decided that she did not want to miss out of the procedure bandwagon and will need to undergo surgery for ROP this week, more than likely on Wednesday.  The laser surgery will involve Zoe being re-intubated, taken downstairs (off the unit) to surgery, and being put to sleep.  The surgery will last anywhere from 2 - 5 hours we've been told.  Please keep your fingers crossed for Zoe. 

Zoe has been having the hardest time gaining and keeping her weight.  Currently she weighs 1050 grams (which is only 10 grams more than Cecilia).  The doctors are working on this for her and hopefully we can get it figured out soon. 

The start of September brings additional changes for the girls as we will need to get used to new residents again.  This can be a very frustrating part of having the girls at a teaching hospital...thankfully however we will get Mark, the fellow, back this month.  Mark has a favorite triplet and is not afraid to let us know ~ Mark placed Zoe's breathing tube at her birth. 

We also get to keep our same group of nurses (for the most part) who know and love our girls.  Sadly, one of our favorite nurses, Cecilia (no I am not kidding), left Mayo to take a position as a traveling nurse ~ we wish her well and hope she follows up on the girls.  While we lost Cecilia, we have kept Miss Patty  : )  If I could figure out a way to either steal Patty away from Mayo or clone her to come take care of the girls, Adam and I would be set for life!  Patty is an element of sanity for Adam and I.

We have borrowed Nemo's mantra of "Just keep swimming" and hopefully we can not only survive this journey but we can thrive and grow.  While it may be easy to start feeling down or sorry for ourselves, we have to remember ~ we are incredibly blessed to be in this position because it means our girls are still here ~ still here, fighting and growing and letting us fall more in love with them daily. 

Thank you every one for your thoughts, prayers and words of encouragement.  Many of you have asked what you can do to help us, however right now we simply need you to continue praying for the girls.  Once we come home and actually start our lives together as a family we will have a better idea of what will be helpful (meals, cleaning, snuggling, etc.). 

Also, please know that I apologize if you have sent a gift or a card and I have been unable to get back to you.  We are more than appreciative of your thoughtfulness. 

All our love,

Adam & daneille