One Crazy Month

Well, to say the least it has been one crazy (yet the best) month!

The first couple of weeks in the NICU were crazy going back and forth.  I felt like I was about 12 years old.  My mom would drop me off and pick me up each day, as well as pack my lunch! All of the nurses there were amazing and soooooo helpful! I hated leaving them 

each night and would cry most times when I left, so thank goodness it was such a short stay.  I feel so bad for the families that have such long stays there. We are soooooo lucky that they were so healthy!

Max came home at 13 days and the girls not even 24 hours later.  In order to come home they had to be maintaining body temperature, which they had been for awhile, gaining weight, which they had been, and taking their entire feeding by mouth for 48 hours.  Max did that the day before the girls.  Mia needed some serious force feeding, but finally did it!
They would take about half of their bottles then need to be hooked up to the feeding tube for the rest.
I became a total psycho and would call after each shift change to beg the nurse not to hook her up because I couldn't bare the thought of leaving one behind!

We are 4 weeks old (technically 38 weeks gestation today).  The couple of weeks, all they did was sleep.  Now that they are nearing their due date they are starting to be awake more.
Poor Max has reflux, so last night was not good. He gets super cranky, basically screaming bloody murder after he eats, then spits up a good ounce or so, so then he's fussy because he's still hungry, but if you give him more the cycle just starts again.  It breaks my heart because I can tell he's in pain and I can't do anything to help him;( He did start his medicine yesterday and we're already noticing a difference though.  So hopefully nights to come will get easier. Thank God for Andrea and Greg who came to babysit today so we could sleep!  As well as Christina, my mom, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law who all did the same last week.  My best friend from college, Callie stayed for 3 days last week to help, which was amazing as well.  She got up with a baby through out the night, cooked, cleaned, did laundry! I actually considered holding her hostage!
They were put on a great schedule in the NICU, which we've pretty much stuck to.

One of my favorite pics, from our first night home all together!

They eat every 3 hours.  It took us a couple of nights to figure out that we both don't need to get up with each feeding, so we are now taking shifts, which helps a ton because the other one will get a longer stretch if we each just do all 3 and they are each about 30 minutes apart, so it's pretty manageable.  We do have a night nurse, Megan who is a gift from God!!!  She works in the NICU at St. Luke's, so she had them each time she worked and she is a friend of one of my best friends, so I had met her before and feel beyond comfortable with her here.  The plan is for her to stay about once a week. When she is here she has all of them all night, so we can get caught up on our sleep.
Our schedule is pretty crazy.  If it goes as planned it takes around an hour and a half to feed them, so we have about an hour and a half  in between feedings, which is spent, cleaning bottles, changing diapers, doing laundry, pumping, and filling bottles...I am miraculously keeping up with them for the most part.  I did develop mastitis on their second night home...great timing, which slowed me down for a few days, but we're back in business!  I'm not sure how it will work as their volume increases because I'm producing the same amount each time, but I just eat like a cow to keep up right now and pray that it continues.
I'm recovered from my C-Section for the most part.  I'm still a little sore, but feeling better each day.  That was the most excruciating pain I've ever felt!

We had the best Christmas imaginable!  These were the three best gifts I could ever have asked for and to have them all home for Christmas was truly a miracle!  We are beyond blessed!
A home health nurse from Children's Mercy was coming twice a week to weigh them. She is only coming once this week for the last time.  This is so that we didn't have to get out with them to take them to St. Luke's twice a week.  Last Thursday Max weighed 6 lbs 11 1/2 oz., Molly 6 lbs, 3 oz. and Mia 6 lbs, 4 oz. They were averaging 1 1/2-2 oz per day, so they should all be close to or over 7 lbs now.  They are just doing amazing!
I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year!  I will post again when I have a free chance, which doesn't happen too often!

XOXOXO

Well, that didn't go as planned!

Contraction!!!

VERY soon-to-be Mommy and Daddy

 Sooooooo, I woke up to go to the bathroom Wednesday morning and MY WATER BROKE!!The scheduler that I am, of course had not planned for such an event!  I started freaking out, Chris started running up and down the hall, after he informed me that my water had broken because he had dreamed about it that night (weird!).  I started throwing stuff in my hospital bag that was mostly packed, and we were off!
 The car ride there was the worst 45 minutes of my life at the time.  Looking back it is pretty entertaining and if we had it on film people would die laughing! We left the house around 7:45 so it was rush hour.  Chris did everything I asked him not to. The first thing he did was turned the flashers on, after I asked him not to because I knew that sound would make me nervous.  The entire ride there he kept trying to get on the shoulder, he honked and cussed out every single car we passed, screaming at them to get out of the way.  He acted like every car knew we were in labor and were purposely sitting there and not moving!  Needless to say, this was not the finest moment of our marriage!  We were yelling at eachother, when my sister called and came over the bluetooth in the car (you know our Oddyssey is pretty jazzy!) so she got to hear this.  I put her on my phone because she informed me that she was going to calm me down.  She had me close my eyes and took me to a Christmas village!!!  If you know Andrea, you know she LOVES anything Christmas!  It did take my mind off of my husband's insane driving, but didn't quite calm me down!

Once we got the hospital and got checked in it was around 8:30.  The prepped me and finished a scheduled C-section prior to mine and started mine at 11:00.  The babies were out as follows:

Molly Jo Lucas 11:18 am
4 lbs,13 oz. 17 3/4 in.

Mia (poor baby still has no middle name) Lucas
4 lbs, 13 oz.  17 3/4 in.

Max Christopher Lucas
5 lbs. 3 oz. 17 1/4 in.

Molly

So far the babies are doing AMAZING!  I have no words for what God continues to do in our lives.  The fact that I made it 34 weeks is amazing in itself. To have one healthy baby is a miracle and I have 3 healthy babies. I am overwhelmed with how blessed we are.

Mia

T

Max

 They have each lost a little bit of weight ,which is normal.  They also have a little biliruben, but not enough to be put under the lamp.  They also each have episodes of apnea and bradycardia. What happens is that they forget to breathe for 15-20 seconds (apnea) and their heart rate might slow down below 90 beats per minute, which is the bradycardia. I initially panic when this happens, but they self correct each time.  The doctors say it's completely normal for premature babies.  They are used to sucking in amniotic fluid and at 34 weeks are not quite ready to breathe the air, so sometimes they forget.  But, they all self correct and he would imagine that it will continue until they're term. Not one of them had to be intubated though, which again, is a miracle.
There is still no way to predict when they'll come home, but it should be around the 15th.  They must be maintaining their own temperatures, gaining weight, and not having any of the apnea or bradycardia episodes for a week.

I am feeling better and better each day.  I walked quite a bit today and the more I'm up and moving the easier it gets.  I had a rough start though.  The doctors explained that a c-section recovery for a singleton mom and a  multiple mom two very different things.  I was in the most excruciating pain that first couple of days and for some reason the pain meds were not working on me. So, they had to play around with those to figure out what worked for me.  Once we figured out the meds I've done much better.  I had also lost too much blood during the surgery, which is very common for multiples, so they've done 2 iron transfusions (a common replacement for a blood transfusion) because my hemoglobin was so low.  This, in addtion to the fact that I had 3 babies cut out of me is why I've had zero energy.
I am on the mend though. I've been moving around a lot today and was able to walk almost all the way to the NICU and back!!!
I should be discharged sometime tomorrow.  While I'm ready to get out of here, I cry every time I think about leaving without them.  I'm pretty sure I will need a sedative in order to leave.  I just have to keep things in perspective and remember that they are in the best place for them right now and they are soooooo very healthy, and I'm going to get to take them home so soon!

Our new family!!!

THANK YOU ALL for all of your well wishes.  We have such an amazing support system.  The power of prayer is an amazing thing. I know that we would not be as well off as we are without it.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

We love you all
XOXOXO