Making up for lost time

Brian's been after me for a while to update the blog with a post about my recollection of the events surrounding the birth of the triplets. This has been difficult. Why? Because there's so much to remember, write, review, rewrite, delete, etc., etc.. Seems like people know the facts, so what I'm adding are really just my feelings on the occasion. With that in mind, I'll just put the highlights and move on.

Tuesday, June 14th I did something extremely rare: I left work early. Didn't feel good, was tired. It wasn't relevant, really - the diastolic flow problem with Blake had zero impact on me and was completely unaffected by anything I could have done. It was simply funny that I left early the day before, fully planning to be in the office after lunch.

That's why I freaked out when Dr. Rinehardt told us I would be escorted to Admissions. I felt helpless, nothing was ready, I hadn't packed or finished the nursery or watered my plants or anything. It was a shock, still a blur going through Admissions, but walking down the hall towards the north elevators I had a strong desire to go outside. Just for a minute. Maybe go sit in the car for a minute. We did not. Honestly, I believe Brian was afraid I'd run for it. Looking back I wish I had insisted - perhaps I'd have felt more in control.

Ante-partum (48 hours bedrest) was physically uneventful. For the most part I laid there. Mentally it was harder. That first night was absolutely horrible, everything I was afraid of happened - I couldn't sleep, I took Ambien, still couldn't sleep, ate jellybeans, was still up, took Xanax, still couldn't get the f... to sleep. The next night we took care of that - Xanax, then Ambien, then nite-nite pussycat. Slept pretty well, considering.

The room was HOT. I've never been so warm, sweating and sticky, hoping for a relatively cool breeze through to the hallway. Except... everyone else was shivering! WTF? The first dr said it wasn't the steroid shot. Later my dr said it was, actually. I'm sure it was. It might be the last time I'm ever the warmest person in the room, at least until menopause.

We talked a lot about babies. Several times a day they monitored the heartbeats. Fascinating to hear them, to know if they were sleeping, hiccupping, moving, calm, upset. It was hard to be excited, though, because it wasn't time for them to be born. None of us were ready! The steroid shot was to jump-start the babies into readiness for the world. I was so lucky to have Betsy and Megan!

Betsy and Megan finished out the nursery. I'd gotten the big stuff in place the weekend before but it needed finishing, putting up some of the clothes and hanging the boards and getting a glider and organizing anything. One thing I wanted to do were get letters, paint them white, then 'hang' the bulletin boards for each baby. I couldn't find the letters at WM and hadn't had a chance to go to Michaels. They did that. Angels, they are. Thanks. = )

This post is now too long. I'll pick up the delivery next time...

Growing growing growing, keep them babies growing!

The babies had a checkup with their new pediatrician last week, so we have some official size and weight measurements...

Kaelynn: 21.25" & 7lbs, 12oz.  (Birth 16 1/4" & 3lbs, 10.12oz)
Brian:     21.75" & 8lbs, 12oz.   (Birth 16 1/2" & 4lbs, 1.6oz )
Blake:     21" & 7lbs, 8oz.         (Birth 16" & 2lbs, 15oz )


Here are a few updated pics of the kiddos:

Kaelynn:

Brian:

Blake:

All Together Now!

They had their first tub bath last night, here they are all clean and in their new outfits from Aunt Joan:

Blake getting his first bath:

Brian seemed to really enjoy getting a bath!

And no complaints from Kaelynn either...

I even let my guard down and handed the camera to someone else for a few shots!

Here's Brian I holding Brian II

And here I am doing the tricky two at once feeding (Mommy can feed all three at once! THAT's talent!!!)

Mommy getting ready to feed all 3 at simultaneously:

And in other news, big sister Kali has started 3rd grade, and is enjoying being a cheerleader.

With all the commotion of taking pictures in the baby room, Hank just had to come around and stick his nose into the proceedings to see what was going on!

I guess that's about it for this time. The babies are doing just what they're supposed to be doing, eating and growing... We're somehow keeping up with them, although that's getting to be even more of a challenge with my being back to work (And back to a new and far more demanding job) and with Tarynn going back to work this coming week, but we'll manage and get through this.

One final shout out - To everyone that's been helping, but ESPECIALLY the grandparents (Tarynn's mom Tarla and my dad Roger especially!) without ya'll, I don't know how we'd have made it this far. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU! Love ya'll!