33 Weeks

Today the triplets are a gestational age of 33 weeks and it is amazing how many changes they have had in the last few days.  First of all, they are off the CPAP breathing machines!  Monday morning it was decided that they were ready to try breathing on their own, and I was so excited to get to the NICU and see them without the CPAP masks covering their faces.  Jack and Alexis had a few "spells" where they stopped breathing momentarily (which is common in all babies, but especially preemies), so by Monday afternoon they were both put on a nasal cannula with a very low oxygen flow (1/32nd of a liter) but this really doesn't bother me as the nasal cannula does not cover their faces like the CPAP did and I know that babies can go home with a nasal cannula if they still need a little help.  Faith surprised us all as she is the smallest so everyone thought she might need the most help breathing, but she didn't go on the nasal cannula until last night.

Unfortunately the tape from Jack's nasal cannula is covering a lot of his face in this pic, but I think we might have a future thumb sucker.  His thumb is holding in his pacifier here :)

Faith

Alexis (before her feeding tube was moved and IV taken off)

All three love their pacifiers which is great as this helps them develop their sucking muscles which are needed to bottle feed.  Yesterday we tried to feed each of them a small amount of milk from a bottle just to see how they did.  In the past in the NICU, babies were not fed by bottle at all until they were 34 weeks as that is when the sucking skill is more developed, but by starting the triplets out a week early it gives them more time to learn what the bottle nipple feels like, associate that with milk (we are using breast milk only in the bottles), and to give them a little practice with swallowing.  This also gives me time to learn how to bottle feed an premature baby as it is sooooo different than feeding a full term baby.  I'll explain more in a later post, but for now here are some cute pics of each of the babies with their pacifiers!

Faith

Alexis

Jack

Jack's umbilical cord fell off a few days ago so this week he had his first "real" bath (they all have sponge baths every few days but this time he was actually put in the water).  Luckily, I walked in the room right as the nurse and OT and were getting ready to give him a bath so I got to watch the whole thing and they explained what they were doing so I could help out next time (it's a bit more complicated than just stripping the baby down and cleaning them as everything has to be slow and gentle).  I did get to give him the post bath massage, which I'm sure was his favorite part anyway :).  Even though he looks a little worried in the pics, he did great with his bath!

All clean!

It has been fun to start to learn the personalities of each of the triplets as they truly are each unique.  Faith's cry is so cute that I had to record it and share it with all of you.  We think she sounds a bit like a lamb :).  I'm sure the cry will change a lot as she grows!

Speaking of growth, all three have been doing a great job at gaining weight and have now passed their birth weights.  On Monday night Jack weighed 3 lbs 5 oz (up 2 oz), Alexis weighed 3 lbs 3.5 oz (up 3.5 oz), and Faith weighed 3 lbs (up 3 oz).

Jack and Alexis have also ditched their IV's as they are now getting enough fluids through milk alone.  Faith isn't far behind, so hers should be gone soon as well.   All three have also had their feeding tubes moved from their mouths to their noses.  The tubes couldn't be in their noses with the CPAP masks, but now that they are trying to eat from a bottle it is helpful not to have an extra tube in their mouths.  Yesterday the triplets were moved from a room on the east side of the building to a room on the west side of the building.  The NICU has been very busy lately and there have been many new babies that needed space, so since the triplets were among the healthiest babies on the east side they were moved to the west side (the NICU rooms have different levels of care with the eastern rooms having the most and the western rooms having the least).  Micah and I feel a little lost in our new room since the room we were in before was a bit nicer and we were comfortable there (larger room with only eight bed spaces and a view of the foothills), but hopefully the move means the triplets are moving right along and won't actually have to be in the NICU until their due date!

Holding Jack last night in our new space

Although a lot of changes have taken place in the last couple of days, there is no guarantee that there won't be setbacks as the babies now have to work extra hard to breath and grow.  From here they need to gain weight (they can't go home until they are at least 4 lbs), they need to learn to maintain their own body temperatures so they can move out of their isolettes, they need to learn to eat all of their milk from nipple feedings (no tubes at home!), and they must stay off of their CPAP machines (although I'm hoping they can wean off of the nasal cannula as well as that would be a mess of tubes around our house if all three were on the nasal cannula when they went home!).  All of these things can takes several weeks and most likely not all of the babies will learn everything at the same rate.  We will have to let them learn at their own individual pace, which can be frustrating since we want them home so badly, and there is a good chance that one or two will come home at a time so we'll still have to split our time between the NICU and home.  I think we will be in the NICU for at least 3-5 more weeks.  Thank you for everyone's thoughts and prayers!