Saturday, January 30, 2010

bath time/bed time


Willie Grace after her bath

it's 8:40 - time to eat and then go to bed

Oscar's hands rarely leave his face

Lainey's little bird face means she's ready to eat

Lainey and Oscar fight it out

Lainey won

Good night! Love, Willie Grace, Oscar & Lainey

Friday, January 22, 2010

Bye Bye Hospital


As of Monday, we are a complete family of five living under one roof.  Despite having a very good hospital experience we are glad to be "off and up out " of that place.  We were pleasantly surprised on Friday when the docs told us that we needed to be ready for Willie Grace to come home by Monday.  She as well as the other two have done better than expected and to have all three of  them out of the hospital in under three weeks is more than we had hoped for.

Willie Grace fits right in and the kids have been getting along great.



Bridgett and I took Lainey and Oscar to the doctor for Lainey's second check up and Oscars first.  Every thing was looking good.  Lainey is up to 5lbs. 7oz. and Oscar is 5lbs. even.  We will be taking Willie Grace for a check up next week.


Life at our house is pretty interesting.  Bridgett, has masterminded a ferocious schedule and and is using her mother as the "task master" to keep the kids and me in line.  The kids seem to be figuring it out pretty quick, I have recieved more than my fair share of  "realingments".   Having three kids is amazing, but takes quite a bit of work.  We are very thankful for those who have offered and have been able to help out.








Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Lost in the Middle





Oscar came home Thursday.....





















And so begins the life of Oscar wedged less than 30 seconds between two sisters.























As you can see Lainey was super excited about Oscar's pending arrival





More to follow " Were putting the band back together"

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

What day is it?


I think it is Tuesday. I know that it is 45 minutes before feeding time. Lainey is already awake. Bridgett is squeezing in her first 30 minute nap of the day and I just realized that there is not enough time for me to sleep before having to wake up and feed Lainey.

Lainey came home Saturday night and Bridgett and I are getting to enjoy the introduction to life as new parents in the traditional manner of not sleeping, eating cold meals at weird hours and wondering what the heck is going on.


Right now Lainey is wearing a white onesie and some funny little white pants with feet that make her look like a cross between a white ninja and a male gymnast. She is sitting between me and the computer propped up in a boppy pillow sucking on a pacifier that is attached to a stuffed lion as I write this post.

Anyway, so far so good. Lainey had her first pediatrician appointment today and is doing very well. She's managed to gain weight (up to 4lb 11oz) in the 4 days we've had her home, so I guess we're doing something right. Oscar and Willie Grace are continuing to do very well in the NICU. Oscar is planning on coming home on Thursday. If he behaves himself, his neonatologist will allow him to get his way. He is up to 4lb 3oz now. Willie Grace is planning her NICU escape sometime next week... but she hasn't let us know a date yet. She is up to 3lb 9oz.

We have been able to get up to the hospital to spend time with Oscar and Willie Grace every day, but we have to do it in shifts. It has been a mother's love that has allowed me and Lainey to take a solo mission at the house unchaperoned. Today Lainey and I had a lot on our plate, like walking the dogs, fixing a broken irrigation pipe, going for a jog... but opted for napping and eating instead. I think we will get to the other stuff later.


Bridgett and I are getting the hang of a three hour schedule, which is basically a contest to see how fast you can prep/change/feed/burp/clean/change again so you can nap before you do it all over again. When done well, with the cooperation of the eater, you can actually get almost two hours. The trick seems to be to accumulate as much of those two hour blocks before the next day starts. As it sits right now both Bridgett and I are loosing and I am not sure who we are playing against (and that is just with one kid). It can get a little crazy, but the prize is right in front of us every time we look down.



Bridgett continues to amaze me by keeping us all in line while recovering so quickly from all of the "physical abuse" from the pregnancy. We are eagerly awaiting the last two thirds of our people to get home (at least Bridgett and I are, Lainey might be ok with the current set up) from the hospital. As you can see from the pictures, this kids are packing personality right from the start.







Thanks for following.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

a beautiful gift

on the first day after the babies were born, i was asked if i would like to have some pictures taken by a volunteer group that does scrapbooking for patients and families in the NICU.  Now i had planned on starting my own scrapbooking adventure with the triplets seeing as though i should have quite a bit of extra time, but realized my opportunity to bow out gracefully here.  It turns out that Beth, the volunteer who showed up, was a professional photographer who generously donates her time to a program called First Memories Texas, designed to help families cope with, what can be a tramatic experience in the NICU. She captured some pictures for bridgett and I during the first days of the babies lives that we never would have been able to do on our own.  In fact, the pictures that i sent out with the first email were taken by her.  She has been back several times to take more pictures of them and put together a slide show from two of her visits. 

Here is the link to the slideshow: www.studiobimages.com/slideshows/Davis

bridgett and i keep watching it over and over again in awe.  We are so grateful to Beth who has given us a gift that is beyond words.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Day of Life 9


They let Bridgett out of the hospital Sunday Night.  I say let her out as if she had been begging the doctors for days to let her go.  While is was nice to leave the 15' X 20" hospital room with almost zero privacy and an extremely uncomfortable vinyl couch, the realization that we were leaving without the trio was very difficult, needless to say.  With heavy hearts, we said good-bye and left them in the care of the NICU staff. 

Bridgett has stuck to a pretty rigid breast pumping schedule (big surprise) and at this point is basically feeding all of our children.  It has been pretting amazing to get to see first hand what this does for a mother and her children. In her effort to maximize milk production has been pumping every two and a half  hours, which as you can imagine makes it difficult to get much sleep.  Just as with the pregnancy, she continues to amaze me with her ability to handle all of this as gracefully as she does.

We are trying to finish up last minute things around the house in the mornings and spending most of the afternoon and evenings at the hospital.  All of the little ones continue to do very well.  The doctors think that Lainey may be ready to come home as early as Friday or Saturday.  Bridgett and I took our madatory CPR class today and Lainey will have a carseat test tomorrow, both of which are required before any babies can leave the NICU.  It will be pretty exciting to get one of them home.  Tomorrow night Bridgett and I will be going on what some have said might be our last date ever.


Oscar and Lainey have been spending some time getting reacquainted on 'the outside'.




 No more feeding tube



Bath time for Lainey

Sunday, January 3, 2010

"Day of Life 5"


"Day of Life X" or "DOL Y" This is what they call it in the NICU (Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit) when refering to how old babies are. This is Will writing and we are on DOL 5. I have temporarily/permenantly taken over Blog duty as we have charged Bridgett with the task of birthing, recovering, feeding and nurturing our 3 children. So the only thing left for me to do was this and with it will come many spelling errors. In our haste to get out information to everyone Bridgett and I both sent out emails. I have posted them as earlier entries for you to read and view the pictures if they did not reach you. Since that time both Oscar and Willie Grace have graduated to the Level 2 nursery and all three are back together again.


Bridgett is doing much better despite still being very anemic and starting to get back into the swing of things. She has made it to the nursery every day so far (walking there today) and her motherly instincts could not be more apparent as she comforts and soothes our little ones. After a rocky start with the breast pump, a little help from my friend Champe, and my wife's ablitiy to stay on a schedule has really paid off.

All of the kids are doing very well and are making progress toward leaving the hospital. We have no idea when that will be as there are many factors which contribute to this decision. As you may have read in the previous posts or emails, all of the babies are very little. Because of this they have almost no body fat and have trouble regulating there own body temperature. The doctors want to see that they eat well and steadily gain weight. They are now known each as a 'feeder, grower'.  This is very sophisticated NICU terminology..
So far, all three are eating very well.


 As of day 2, Lainey, the prodigy, has been bottle feeding (as opposed to getting fluids through an IV or milk through a feeding tube inserted directly into the stomach via the nose or mouth). She hasn't met a nipple she didn't like. She seems to have her father's appetite which has proven to be a real benefit for a premature baby . She actually gained weight today which is great and will more than likely be the first to go home.

Oscar is also bottle feeding but has proven to be a bit of a finicky eater (I wonder where he gets that from). What he doesn't eat in his bottle, he gets through his NG tube in his nose.  He is doing very well and also put on some weight as of today. Bridgett has breast fed Oscar a few times and he seems to like that best. Bridgett is now pumping enough milk to feed all 3 babies, impressive given the odds... 3 babies & only, umm, 2 milk sources.
Just to clarify, when I say weight, I am talking about grams...an entire meal for Oscar is only19 ccs. We don't even talk in terms of ounces or pounds when is comes to their eating & weight gain. 
 


Willie Grace mader her first attempt at bottle feeding today with Bridgett and did well. She is getting most of her food through a tube but should transition away from that shortly. She is proving to be pretty fiesty, actually she's a total maniac.  She is already causing trouble as she decided to test my ability to stay calm while ripping out her IV and bleeding on my leg during what was supposed to be some nice father/daughter bonding time. Fortunately the nurse was right there to take care of us both and Bridgett did not seem too bothered as I came to her with my hat in my hand. She says wild ones like Willie Grace pull these
stunts all the time.
So as you can see, the fun has already started. Bridgett and I have leared a lot about each other and are quickly learning that even in the early hours of life, these tiny little people have pretty distict personalities.  On this note, I am still on my quest to determine a favorite.  Let me clarify this.  What I really mean is that i am trying to figure out which one is the cool kid (most like me) to be my surfing buddy and keep me company.  I am leaving the door open for all of them, but it seems only fair for Bridgett to have at least one brown-noser for herself. You may notice that, other than a sort of creepy picture of me and a breast pump we seem to be a little short on pictures of the boys. Although I believe that this is possibly a trend that will continue, I will work harder to get Oscar a little more face time.



We look forward to sharing our family with you as we grow.