November 6, 2011 - 3 months old

Ok, ok, I know that I have been such a slacker at getting some new photos up here.  So this is the first of hopefully quite a few back posts to get some updated photos out!  I guess you could say that we have been busy...

Marly Jane

Marly with big bro Garin

Chloe Marie

Elia Kay

Chloe (back left), Marly with Garin (center) & Elia (back right)

Big Brother

Marly (left), Elia with Garin (middle) & Chloe (right)

40 toes!

The whole family!

Elia

Hope you enjoy these photos.  I will be working very hard over the next few days to get some more updates on here!!

October 20, 2011 - Home for a month!

Well, as you can probably all tell from the lack of blog posts that there hasn't been much down time to get things like this done since the girls came home from the hospital.  It has really been good though.  We are truly blessed to have three of the most patient and content baby girls in the world!  I have been working towards being at home with them 'alone' and have now accomplished just that.  It is not that we don't appreciate a helping hand from time to time, but our family has had help for so long now and we are just so excited to be our (not so little anymore) family.

We really appreciate all of the families and people who have brought over supper for us.  It was really nice those first couple of weeks to not have to worry about cooking on top of adjusting to our new family.  Thanks L.G. for lining up so many great meals!

So the girls...are great!  Everyone is healthy and happy!  We came home with no monitors or meds...just a couple vitamin supplements...and we continue to be that way.  The girls are growing like crazy!  Marly is still in the lead at 8 lbs 3 oz, then Chloe at 7 lbs 7 oz and then Elia at 7 lbs 2 oz (these are all as of October 11th, just over a week ago now).  To we figure that they have all doubled their birth weights!  On Oct 11th, they went in to see their doc and get immunizations.  He was very impressed with all of them and I believe a little impressed that mommy is keeping up on the breast feeding!  (We had quite different opinions on that shortly before the girls came home)  So yes, breast feeding!  I have to take a moment to pat myself on the back here as it really hasn't been an easy task to accomplish.  I figure the girls eat 6-8 times a day and drink approximately 3.5-4 oz per feed, which would mean that my body produces somewhere between 1.5-2 gallons of milk for these girls every day!  Yes, that was gallons!  Watch out Bessy, Trish is in town!  I was absolutely amazed when I calculated that one out!  And the girls are still little yet, so who knows what that will become as they get bigger.  I will not claim that I am Wonder Woman as they do all get 1-2 bottles of formula per day because I cannot keep up with their growth spurt and constant eating in the evenings (they feed every 1-2 hours for about 6 hours straight in the evening).  I need some autonomy and a break from having someone attached to me!  Yikes!

Otherwise the girls are great!  They are sleeping 4-6 stretches through the night.  I think we were both expecting the worst for when they came home, but it really hasn't been that bad.  I have actually taken all of the kiddos out of the house a couple times by myself already!  I didn't think that would happen for at least 6 months to a year.  So we are very impressed and happy with our new additions!

And big brother...I don't think that we could have been more blessed...yet again!  He is so great with the girls.  And such a great helper too!  He is still giving out many kisses to help his sisters get big quicker!  I think he is just so happy to have his family back home and have his life back to normal, or at least our new form of normal!

We have to admit that we don't have many new pictures of the girls because each of us is always busy with a baby!  It isn't like the first one where there were two parents with one baby to share.  We are now out-numbered!  But, here are a couple of our newest pictures:

September 23, 2011
Marly (left) & Elia (right) passed out with Mommy in the recliner.

September 25, 2011
Garin & Daddy playing at the Pumpkin Patch

September 25, 2011
Garin & Daddy are pretty cute as a squirrel and a sun!

September 25, 2011
Garin on a pony ride...thanks cousin T.G.!

September 25, 2011
Garin riding the kiddy zip line

September 25, 2011
Our first family picture at the Pumpkin Patch
Mommy has Chloe (left) & Elia (right), Garin and Daddy has Marly

September 25, 2011
Garin on the big zip line!

September 29, 2011
Snug as bugs...again!
Elia (left), Chloe (middle) & Marly (right)

October 4, 2011
Marly (left), Chloe (middle) & Elia (right)
All dressed up!

October 4, 2011
Big Brother Garin is feeding his sister, Marly

October 4, 2011
Chloe taking a nap with Mommy

October 13, 2011
Big Brother Garin helping bath baby Chloe

October 14, 2011
Elia taking a snooze with Daddy

October 16, 2011
Chloe is so precious!

October 16, 2011
Marly is sure thinking in the swing!

October 19, 2011
Chloe (left), Marly (middle) & Elia (right)
Snug as a bug...yet again!!

October 19, 2011
Chloe (top), Marly (middle) & Elia (bottom)

September 18, 2011 - There's No Place Like Home...

Well, for those of you waiting patiently for more info, I have to admit that I am back dating this post to show the actual date that this post should have been made.  So please be aware it should have been posted on Sunday, September 18th.

During the last few days, I started grabbing some photos of some of the amazing nurses that took care of our girls over the past 6 weeks.  Here are some of the fun shots we got:

Thank you so much to all of the nurses who went above and beyond everyday to make sure that our little girls were being taken care of so well.  Each of you have made such an impact in their lives as well as Craig and I.  We will always have a special spot in our hearts for all of the amazing 'aunties' the girls have acquired!  We will be forever grateful for all that you have done.

September 17, 2011
Marly (left), Chloe (middle) & Elia (right)
First (and definitely not last) posed picture of the trio!!
You can see a couple more of these photos on http://www.medcenterone.com/babies/search2.asp

September 18, 2011
Chloe (left) & Elia (right) playing kissy face!

September 18, 2011
Daddy pushing Chloe and Mommy pushing Marly (front) & Elia (back)

September 18, 2011
Marly (back left), Elia (front left) & Chloe (right)
in the strollers on the way out of the hospital

September 18, 2011
Marly (left back seat), Elia (right back seat) & Chloe (middle row seat/black car seat)

September 18, 2011
Marly (left), Chloe (middle) & Elia (right)
snug as little bugs in their bed at home

So far so good at home.  We really believe that we have the happiest and most content babies in the world!  It has been much easier than we ever would have imagined.  I think we feared the worst and that it would be more than two parents could handle with a 3 year old as well.  Life has been very busy and there is not any 'extra' time to relax.  After five months of being split up, we are just happy to be home, all together as one big family.

September 10, 2011 - One month later...

Ok, so my apologies go out for all who have been hoping for some new pictures of the girls as well as an update on how they are doing.  I guess we could say that we are only just beginning to feel how busy life is going to be with triplets!

The girls are all doing great!  They turned one month old this past Tuesday!  They have all been moved out of the isolettes (incubators) and into a crib that they all share (look for the pictures below).  They came off of their pulse oximeters (measures how much oxygen in their blood) today as well.  They have all been busy working on their nursing too.  Chloe will be on full breast feeds tomorrow and Elia and Marly are just slightly behind.  Their feeding is the only thing that is still keeping them here.  And yes, I am attempting the impossible here...breastfeeding three babies.  I might be insane, but I am going to try.  I may fail miserably, but I have to at least try (I will gladly take any moral support on this one!!).  Once they all learn to eat then they are free to go home.  Hooray (but very scary too)!  We believe that they should be able to go home with in the next couple of weeks.

Marly weighed in today at 5 pounds 11 ounces and Elia is taking up the bottom end at 5 pounds 7 ounces.  So they are growing like weeds!  Chloe is somewhere between those two, but I can't seem to remember the weights every day.  I must have a lot on my mind or something...  They get measured every Saturday night and last Saturday, Chloe was taking up the lead at 19.5 inches, which is 3 inches longer than when she was born.  Her sisters were both 19 inches as well.

One funny thought is that the doctors originally wanted me to carry the girls to 35-36 weeks.  Tomorrow (Sunday) would be 36 weeks.  There is no way that I would have been able to walk if I had all of them in my belly still!  Pretty crazy thought!

Ok, onto the pictures...

August 21, 2011
Marly (left), Chloe (center) & Elia (right) with Mommy

August 24, 2011
Marly (left), Chloe (center) & Elia (right) with Daddy

August 25, 2011
Chloe (left) holding Elia's (right) hand

September 1, 2011
Elia with Daddy

September 8, 2011
Chloe's 1st Sleeper

Septermber 8, 2011
Elia's 1st Sleeper

September 8, 2011
Elia (left) & Chloe (right) in their first shared bed

Setember 8, 2011
Garin holding Chloe "all by himself"
He is so happy & proud!

September 8, 2011
Garin holding Marly 'all by himself' for the first time.
I asked him to kiss her this time, but he had to sneak another one
in shortly after when no one was looking!

September 9, 2011
Garin holding Elia for the first time 'all by himself.'
He was so worried about her little head and neck!

September 10, 2011
Elia (front/pink hat), Chloe (middle/orange hat) & Marly (top/teal hat)
On September 9, 2011 the girls finally were able to snuggle with each other again,
which hadn't been done since before they were born.

I hope you enjoyed all of the pictures!  It has been so fun getting to know our babies and share them with everyone as well.  As we are doing the final preparations to bring these girls home, we have been asked by many people if there are things that they can help with.  Yes, there are!  If anyone out there has a great hotdish or quick, easy meals that they would like to drop off, we would surely appreciate those!  That is one of the MOST helpful things.  If you aren't the cooking type, a gift card to a fast food or restaurant is great too.  We are assuming that the first couple weeks are going to be difficult to get out to purchase household items, so if anyone would be willing to grab some groceries we would surely send you with the money to do so.  The final idea for those wanting to help is more diapers!  I don't think we could possibly get enough!  I would prefer Huggies in the newborn size.  Those are my pleas for help for the first few weeks after they come home.  After having our family torn apart during the flooding, the pregnancy, the babies birth, and even now as I am living at the hospital to nurse the girls; we are really hoping to have some quality family time and see if we can figure out how to care for all of these little ones!  Thank you in advance for any and all help that we can get!