Three months old!

The triplets are three months old as of this past Saturday (The 17th of September). Quarter of a year down...

Not a whole lot to add text wise. They're eating 4 or so ounces every 4 hours, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. We're all hanging on to the tattered threads of what's left of our sanity as best we can, knowing things will eventually get calmer around here. Some day.

We've been trying to take monthly pictures of them next to specific stuffed animals. For comparison of growth, here's Blake's one month picture:

And his three month picture:

Brian's one month picture:

And his three month picture:

And last but definitely not least, Kaelynn's one month picture:

And her three month picture:

I had planned on taking some group pictures tonight as well, but we just ran out of steam. That's sadly been happening a lot lately. I apologize for the infrequent updates, and for the lack of writing tonight, but we're all just so tired.

Here are a few pictures I took of the "Conference" a week or two ago though, when we tried placing all three of them in their Bumbos:

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!

So we've been a wee bit busy...

I'm sure no one will be surprised when I say we've been a wee bit busy these last few weeks. I'd hoped to have more frequent blog updates, but when you catch yourself trying to catch a quick nap at a red light, making blog posts tends to fall by the wayside...


Our time in the Special Care nursery seemed to fly by. Blake and Brian were released and allowed to come home on July 12th, just 5 days short of one month in the hospital. It was extra chaotic at first, although we appreciated the welcoming we received from friends and family!

Even Baldric (Our cat who thinks he's a dog) had to come check out the new members of the household.

It was emotionally difficult to leave Kaelynn in the hospital, but it did give us the benefit of getting used to caring for two infants before all three were here. Kaelynn had had another brady (Bradycardia) shortly before she was discharged, which meant she had an automatic 5 day extension of room service at the hospital. We struggled to split our time between the two boys at home, and our younger daughter at the hospital, while also trying very hard to not neglect our older daughter Kali!

Everyone's been pitching in to help, and it's been VERY VERY appreciated!

Finally, on July 19th, Kaelynn was deemed ready to come home as well, and our family was finally complete and whole.

All three were finally together again, for the first time since they were in the womb (Not counting the brief photo shoot referenced below, of course)!

Right before the boys were discharged from the hospital, the hospital contracted photographer wanted to do a photoshoot of them. Honestly, we were just going through the motions and initially didn't intend to buy the pictures. But, when we saw the proofs, we bought the prints, and more importantly, the digital images and their copyright. Following is a sampling of some of those pictures:

We call this one "Thirty Toes"

And this one is by far our favorite. We've started referring to it as the "Allstate picture"

Sorry for the disjointed writing in this update, but I had a lot of material to cover, and, well, we're all pretty disjointed right now! We're starting to fall into a routine, with my dad covering the morning feedings during the week (THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!) and Tarla, Tarynn's mother covering the EARLY morning feedings and most of the feedings during the day, with Tarynn and I getting evening, and spot coverage here and there (Admittedly, Tarynn is doing FAR more than I am!) I can't express my thanks enough for ALL that have pitched in and helped... Hillary Clinton was close. It doesn't take a village to raise a child. It takes a FAMILY (Of both blood and friendship) and I don't know what we would do without ours!

As is tradition for babies on blogs, we've given each baby a stuffed animal, and will try to take regular pictures of them next to their stuffie for a visual indication of their growth. Here is the first round of those.

Brian (Froggie) 7/24/2011

Blake (Horsie)

Kaelynn (MooCow) (She wasn't terribly thrilled with this idea!)

Also this past Sunday we attempted our first family outing of Tarynn, Kali, Blake, Brian, Kaelynn and myself just to see how it would go. It was definitely a bit of an undertaking, but went better than I was expecting it would.

Three baby seats in the van (Thanks to Tarynn's dad, David Meier for giving us the van!!!)

The triplet stroller drew MANY looks, comments, etc wandering around Babies R' Us!

We don't plan on making many trips out with everyone (Especially once RSV season starts. Ugh!) but it's good to know we can before we NEED to.

Okay, that's all for now...

A lot has happened in the last week

This last week has been a complete blur, a lot has happened since our last real blog update.

The delivery was hectic, to say the least. I counted twenty people in the OR for the c-section. Besides the usual people, there were TWO OB's performing the surgery, and each baby had their own NICU nurse, respiratory therapist, and I believe a neonatalogist was present as well, as well as a student that we consented to.

There was a problem with Tarynn's epidural. They described it later as her having "hot spots". Basically, there were parts of her that were supposed to be numbed that weren't. And one thing surgeons really don't like is for their patient to suddenly scream in pain and jump around on the operating table. They quickly gave Tarynn some stronger drugs to her IV to make her more comfortable, but unfortunately that meant she wasn't able to be as lucid as she'd like to be for the delivery.

But, most importantly of all, it looks like everyone's okay. I wish Tarynn had been able to be more conscious during the birth, but she's okay, and the babies are okay.

Today is the triplets one week birthday. Wow... This last week has really REALLY flown by. All three are off their CPAPS and have been for several days, breathing room air with no assistance. Brian and Kaelynn are off their IVs as well. Blake's still a little smaller, but so far he's gaining weight faster than the other two. I believe he's returned to his birth weight. The other two are getting close, but haven't quite gotten there yet. (Babies tend to lose a little weight after birth and it takes them a bit of time to gain back to where they started, that's normal.)

These pics were taken earlier in the week, when mommy was able to hold each for the first time. We're gonna try to go back tonight and get some "1 week" pictures of all three, I'll update this post if we're able to do that before we collapse from exhaustion.

I've probably said it before, but I can't say it enough. To everyone that's stepped up and helped us, or even offered help... I give you the most sincere, deeply held heartfelt THANK YOU! All of your assistance has helped us massively!

Kaelynn Elizabeth Ecton

Brian Keith Ecton II

Blake Dale Ecton

Few pictures of the new Ecton Pride

No fancy wordplay this time, I'm just too tired, but here are a few pics of the new ones:

Kaelynn:

Brian:

Blake:

Three Becomes Six

It's been a VERY long day, and I still haven't had a chance to upload pics yet, but:

Kaelynn Elizabeth Ecton
3 pounds, 10.2 ounces
16 1/4 inches

Brian Keith Ecton II
4 pounds, 1.6 ounces
16 1/2 inches

Blake Dale Ecton
2 pounds, 15 ounces
16 inches

All three are in very capable hands in the NICU, and will be for some time yet, but for their age and size they so far seem to be very healthy.

Mom's pretty beat up, but resting. Dad's in a daze that's expected to last at least the next 18 years...

More details to come later. We're both really beat and trying to rest.