Life is good!

Well, we've been home with 2/3 of our trio for one week now. Along with our new babies, we've also had 10 additional house guests! My parents came for a few days last week, staying Thursday through Saturday. My sister and her four kids arrived last Thursday and left this morning. Rob's parents entered the scene Sunday night and will be staying for a while. Plus, an old family friend was driving through Wichita on business Monday night, so we offered our one remaining bed to him for the evening. It's been a busy week, to say the least. However, in the few spare moments I have before going to feed the babies again, I wanted to post some new pictures. Life is good!

Saturday morning, we ALL walked up to McDonald's for breakfast! Yup, that stroller holds one more. :)

Keira's first bath. She LOVED it!

Keira's all clean.

Taerik's first bath. He HATED it!

Taerik & Keira's first Sunday at church.

 There were lots of extra cousin hands to help hold babies!

 "Rest Time" for the big kids.

Aunt Heather was a big help, too!

Cuddle time with Taerik!

Keira  is SO kissable!

Aunt Heather meets Drake

Tuesday night, Grandma & Grandpa Fuller, along with Aunt Heather, agreed to watch all the kiddo's so that Rob and I could have a date night. A delicious meal at P.F. Changs, followed by some one on one time with Drake at the hospital, proved to be a great time! 

Drake is still in the hospital. He is doing well but still needs to pass a few tests. He was finally moved to an open crib. Now he just needs to gain weight with on-demand feedings, as well as pass his car seat test. We are STILL praying he will come home this week! 

Two Cuties Come Home

What a miracle! At only 33 weeks and 6 days gestational age, Taerik and Keira were released to come home today!!! No more tubes, wires, or monitors. They spent only 17 days in the hospital. We are praising the Lord for His goodness!

On Monday, the doctor told us that in order for our babies to come home, Rob and I needed to spend a 24 hour period with all three of them in the special care nursery. I guess that this is hospital policy for unusual cases, such as multiples, preemies, or inept parents. Hoping we were not considered the latter, we went up Tuesday at 1:00 in the afternoon and spent the night with our babes. We were responsible for all their care. It was actually a good experience for us to work into this major lifestyle change with doctors and nurses close by. After a busy evening of feeding, monitoring, and changing, Taerik and Keira were cleared to be discharged at 3:00 PM today. So, our family grew by two overnight and eagerly awaits the arrival of our last little munchkin.

Drake is doing awesome, too! The doctors keep reminding us that he is actually performing quite normal for babies at his age. The other two were just remarkable. Little Drake seems to be a bit more laid back and we know that in his own time he will decide it's his turn to come home, too. His doctor suggested that it could be as soon as this weekend, however we're not holding our breath. It seems more likely that it will be next week sometime. That's still in time for Mother's Day, so keep praying! Drake should be moved to an open crib tonight sometime, as he was doing well at maintaining his body temperature. Also, his IV is scheduled to come out tonight. His last hurdle is taking all of his bottles by mouth, without the feeding tube. While on his heart medication, he had been getting all of his nutrients from his IV. The meds also caused him to retain a lot of water. Now that he is off of those, he is doing much better and starting to look a lot more like his brother. In order for him to come home without monitors, he also needs to have no apnea's lasting longer than 10 seconds through Sunday. Babies need to go for 7 days without these and his countdown started last Sunday. Until his release, either Rob or I will go up every day and spend some quality one on one time with our last little bundle.

At last nights assessment, the babies were all weighed and measured. As of that time, their stats were as follows -

Taerik

4 pounds, 14 ounces

16 inches long

Drake

4 pounds, 10 ounces

17 inches long

Keira

5 pounds, 1 ounce

16 inches long

We are once again praising God for His goodness! Though tired from a long night Tuesday, and another restless one scheduled for this evening, our hearts overflow with thanksgiving for these precious blessings! We wouldn't trade them for the world!

Keira & Taerik

Drake

Just waiting for Drake

Coming Home Soon?

"You might want to bring your car seat Monday," our nurse advised at tonight's visit. She seemed to think that Keira and Taerik would be coming home early this week. We will see....

We were excited to find that Taerik was moved to an open crib today. He is maintaining his body temperature like a champ and eating most of his bottles. Apparently, he can go home as soon as he will take ALL of his feedings from a bottle for a 24 hour period. Rob and I have had no problems getting him to drink all his bottle, but he hasn't cooperated quite so well for the nurses.

Keira is doing awesome at finishing all her bottles! She even got her feeding tube removed today. Her isolette is all the way down to 27 degrees Celsius, which means that sometime tonight she will also be moved to an open crib. If Keira can maintain her body temperature for 24 hours in this new environment, she will likely be coming home.

Drake is also doing very well, however he still lags a little behind his brother and sister. He is off the heart medications, as it seems that his duct has closed up sufficiently. His breathing is significantly improved and he has been gaining weight. In fact, he has gained the most so far and is almost caught up in size to the rest of the trio. Drake is now feeding from a bottle again, but is only taking about 15 ml at a time. He needs to take around 35-40 ml. He also needs to maintain his body temperature. Currently, his isolette is heated to about 29 degrees Celsius. Please pray that he would be able to come home shortly after the others. It is difficult to think about them not being together.

We are reminded often how well our babies are doing. My original delivery date was scheduled for May 1 (34 weeks). This means that some of them could potentially come home before they were even slated to be born. Several nurses have commented how amazed they are at the progress. We attribute this all to prayer! Thank you all so much for continuing to bring our family before the Lord!

9 Days Old

Our babies are 9 days old today and still doing great! Here's a quick update on each one -

Taerik - His IV was taken out and he is now feeding entirely from a bottle. He has been spitting up a bit, so we are still trying to figure out how much he should be eating. His isolette is heated to 29 degrees Celsius. In order to come home, this temperature must get down to 27 degrees, while still maintaining his body temperature. He is dressed in preemie clothes, making him all the cuter. He has blonde hair and enjoys making weird expressions with his eyebrows. Taerik is definitely the most alert of the three.

 The two boys...guess which one is Taerik.

Brothers

Drake - He is certainly starting to fill out, especially in his face. At birth, there just wasn't anything to him, however, his cheeks are quite kissable now. He has regained his birth weight and then some. Drake still has some minor issues with his heart. The doctor noticed a murmur the other day and so an echocardiogram was ordered. They discovered that he has Patent Ductus Arteriosus, a condition in which a certain duct in the aorta does not close off at birth as it should. They stopped feeding him by bottle several days ago, in order to give him some medications. A second echocardiogram was performed today. The duct has gotten smaller, but still has a ways to go. So he will get medications for a couple more days, in the hopes that it will close up like it needs to.

Keira - Little Miss K almost came home several days ago. She was feeding entirely from a bottle and maintaining a good body temperature. In order to come home, each baby must hold a consistent temperature for 24 hours. About half way through, she dropped a little low and so her isolette temperature had to be raised. She is doing fabulous and just needs to pass this one final test before her release. Of all the babies, Keira is definitely the one with the loudest opinion. She is really the only one that we have heard cry with any sort of conviction. We're thinking she'll be just fine handling herself with four brothers.

Griffen and Rhys finally got to meet their new siblings. We warned them profusely that there was to be absolutely no coughing, sneezing, or getting germs on the babies. You have never seen two boys wash their hands more in your entire life. They scrubbed down about 20 times. I caught Griffen washing his arms AND legs. Not sure what he was thinking there, but he sure was clean. Rhys kept asking me if he was allowed to breathe yet.

Griffen meets Taerik. 

Rhys meets Taerik. 

 Griffen holding Keira for the first time.

Rhys feeding Taerik 

Boys help feed Taerik a bottle. 

 Griffen holding Drake

Rhys with Keira

Sometimes the hospital stay can get a little long. And then we get something like this...

We certainly do feel very blessed and cannot wait to bring these precious babies home! Our family tries to go up to the hospital every day now. We are usually able to help feed, change diapers, and check temperatures. After that we like to hold them and sing to them. At about 7:30 PM, we kiss each one good-night. You can usually hear Rhys poking his head into an isolette and saying, "This is your big brudder. I love you."