Home At Last

Finally we had everyone home on October 3rd, just shy of 1 month old. It was a bit of a hectic time but we actually settled into things pretty quickly. Daniel was off work when the babies were born and then again when everyone was home. Both my parents and Daniel's were here with us off and on to help us out. We appreciated it so much!
At first the babes were eating every 3-4 hours throught the day and night. They didn't start stretching out their night time feedings until they were about 3 months old. That first month or two was kind of a foggy blur of feeding, me pumping, washing/preparing/sterilizing bottles over and over in a day. In the beginning I spent over 12 hours of the day/night feeding, pumping and doing bottle stuff.
Basically once everyone was fed and sleeping there was very little time to do anything except clean up and start getting ready for the next feeding.
Sleep came in bits and pieces through out the night but I could usually get a total of 4-5 hours. Your body just learns to function on less sleep (as all of you parents know). I know you are supposed to sleep when the baby(ies) sleep, however, that just wasn't as easy with 3 babies. I did get a few naps in when we had grandmas or grandpas with us.
I had problems with my incision not healing properly and went through a few weeks of home care coming to the house. It kept getting worse, so I had to go back in for another surgery to clean things up. I just had to stay overnight in the hospital and then came home the next day. What a relief it was to finally get that healed!


We quickly figured out the best way to feed 3 babies at one time. If I would have fed everyone separtately that is all I would have done all day. So in the beginning I sat on the floor with all 3 propped up on a pillow in front of me. Two bottles held with one hand and one with the other. It only took a little while to really get the hang not only feeding, but the burping part when everyone else wanted to keep eating.

After they got a little bigger I would have two on a pillow in front of me and one in a bouncy chair beside me. Maggie is the one usually in the chair because she is lighter than Casey to lift in and out of the chair with one arm and Mitchell is too squirmy. I could prop Maggie's bottle up with receiving blankets if I needed two hands for the boys. We have it down to a science now.


Daniel has mastered feeding two at once, so sometimes I get to cuddle just one baby. Or if we have company over and it's mealtime they get handed a baby pretty much as they walk in the door.

NICU Days

Everyday we couldn't wait to get back to the hospital to see Casey, Mitchell and Maggie and find out what kind of a night they had and how they were doing so far that day. When Daniel was back at work he would come to the hospital in the evenings. I would be there for most of the day and then again in the evenings. It was tiring to be spending most of the days there, pumping either at home or at the hospital and then back again in the evening. But I did not want to be anywhere else than with our little ones.
Most of the days there were good days. They were doing so well progressing from IV feeds at the start to tube feeds and then finally to bottle feeds. They also moved from very warm isolettes to having the roof taken off and finally to being in a basinette. We looked forward to hearing how many grams everyone had gained from the day before. That meant that were that much closer to coming home. Once they could eat well without any issues (no need for oxygen), they could maintain their temperature in a basinette and they were steadily gaining weight and at or near 5 lbs, they would be ready to come home.

Casey

Mitchell

Maggie


We had been waiting and wishing to hold all three of our babies at the same time for months and months. That day finally came two weeks after they were born. I was holding Mitchell at the time and a very nice nurse brought Maggie over to me and said that "she misses her brother" and handed her to me. Another nurse went and got Casey and all three of them (the four of us) were finally together again. It was such a wonderful moment to hold all of them together for the first time.





Our first family picture came the day that Casey was being discharged. This was also the first time that Daniel got to hold everyone at once.




On September 26th, Casey came home after being in NICU for 3 weeks. He enjoyed his time at home having mom and dad all to himself. Mitchell and Maggie had to do a little more work to do with eating. Then one week later on October 3rd, after 4 weeks in NICU, Mitchell and Maggie both came home.
Words cannot describe how great it felt to have everyone home with us and healthy.
This is the first picture of all of us at home. You can't really tell from the picture but they looked pretty tiny on those car seats.