Rollercoaster

Wow its been a long time since I had time to sit down and write a post, I apologize to our friends and family for the lack of updates. It has been an emotional couple of weeks which I will get more into, but first let me say the babies are all GREAT!

They are 1 month old today, hard to believe as it has flown by. I have no doubt that before I know it they will be asking for the keys to my flying electric car, made by GM (ya I'm a believer). The current weights are Madison 4lb 7.6oz, Elizabeth 4lb 9.2oz, and Logan 4lb 8.8oz. Madison is now taking two bottles a day, this is big. As long as she continues her current pace she could be ready to come home in as little as two weeks, provided she also quits having Brady's. Logan and Lizy are a little bit behind and we are hoping to see some significant improvements at their next bottle trial Friday. They were all moved into open cribs this week, which means they are able to maintain their own body temp, another big milestone.

While all this was going on AJ and I were stuck at the house unable to visit. I came down with a chest cold and wisely stayed clear of the babies in the early stages. I wasn't sure if I was sick, but played it safe and glad I did. Amy-Jo then caught my cold and we were both banned from the room. Banned may be to harsh of a word, more like strongly advised to stay away until we feel better. This was not easy, AJ wanted nothing more then to be with her kids and staying home was killing her. Not to mentioned my Dad was in town and we were taking on some home improvement projects that proved to be a little messy. They look good now but at the time, lets just say I doubt the kids will ever be able to equal the mess their Grandpa and I created this week. Urrr, let me take that back I don't want them reading this one day and take that last line as some kind of "challenge". Thanks to my Dad for the hard work this week getting the house ready for the babies and bringing down the shower gifts.

So, the shower gifts, um ya a little much people. Not to say Amy-Jo and I are not truly grateful, because we are, but y'all shouldn't have (how did you like the Texan coming out there). It was crazy the amount of gifts everyone sent. We are so lucky to have such great friends and family willing to help out. Truly overwhelming. I took an aerial picture of all the gifts, pretty big pile. We had this big plan to take pictures of us opening each gift and send it to everyone, but we opened them over about a three day period and usually between the hours of 9PM and 11PM so the picture thing kinda got pushed aside. But to recap, Amy-Jo smiled a lot, ooo'd and ahhh'd some, and cried a little. I tried my best to keep up with wrapping paper, selecting the next gift and writing down the bazillion things everyone gave us. It was fun and we so wished we could have been there will all of you, next time we have triplets we will definitely be there.



Finally, I couldn't end this post with out mentioning the tragic news that this world lost one of its finest people this past week. Amy-Jo's Grandfather, Donald Begley Sr., passed away suddenly Saturday at the age of 80. Since joining this family I have had the honor of spending a few holidays with Grandpa, always donning his white bucket hat, and I can say this world is a sadder place without him. He was always the first to tell a joke or pull a prank, and made you feel part of the family right away. You could tell the second you met him the love and pride he felt for his family. He loved life and it showed. Don will be missed. http://www.ourmidland.com/articles/2009/03/17/obituaries/1646769.txt

PHOTOS!!!!

Finally I have photos. I am planning on adding more but its late and I am whipped. Everyone is doing great! Our friend Aaron came back today and took a bunch of really great shots. A few of them are already added in but I will get a bunch up once we have them. Madi has been little camera shy lately so we do not have as many photos of her yet, but we will soon!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

NICU we hardly knew ya

Great news from baby land, all three have been moved out of the NICU and into the Special Care nursery. Special Care is where all NICU babies land before they go home, it means they are digesting their meals fine and off IV. We still have a long road ahead before they come home, but at least we are past the more critical stages. From here we are all about learning to eat from a bottle (they need to suck, swallow, and breathe) and growing along with maintaining their own body temp and going five days without a Brady (a brady is when they "forget" to breathe and their heart rate drops). But it is reasonable to believe they could be home in 3 to 4 weeks.

The Special Care nursery is a very cool place, it probably has the nicest rooms in the entire hospital. We have a double room with two pull out couch beds that look to be 10 times more comfortable than the one I slept on for 3 months. We can stay the night whenever we want and basically this is where we prepare to take the babies home. We have not slept over yet, basically because there really isn't anything we can do at this point since they are still getting all their feeds by gavage.

Amy-Jo is slowly regaining her strength. This was a tough week though as for most of it Lizy and Logan were in special care with Madi left behind in the NICU. She was a few days behind on her feeds so it took her a little longer to move in with us. And since the NICU and Special Care are not only on different floors but in different buildings Amy-Jo has been wearing herself out! I mean I pick her up after work and she looks like a zombie. We get home and she pretty much crashes for the night, long days for sure.

Great news (at least for me) CHICKEN is back on the menu! During her pregnancy we found that chicken was one of the "trigger" foods and was banned from all meals. She had been avoiding it thus far just in case there was an episode she didn't want to hurt her healing tummy. But last night I made her order boneless buffalo wings and she was able to eat, and more importantly enjoy, them. Big score for my waistline. Amy-Jo doesn't need to worry about hers as she is back to her pre pregnancy weight and still losing.


Pictures, okay I know I owe everyone some pics so hopefully I was able to get some up after posting this. If not I will try to soon. A good friend of ours here locally turns out to be a wiz with the camera and she is coming by this weekend to get some really good pictures of everyone so I will get those up ASAP as well.

What an amazing husband...

Hello everyone! I thought I would chime in real quick following Brandon’s last post as he deserves some thanks and awards himself.

I have to say what a wonderful husband I have, he has been so amazing through this entire experience. Brandon stayed at the hospital with me every single night and made sure I had anything I needed, whether he had to run to the store everyday or out to get some food. That is a total of 94 days, to think that he did that for me and our babies demonstrates how great he really is. I could not have done it without him by my side or without his strength and humor keeping me sane.

With our little miracles he is absolutely wonderful and I have never seen him happier. He doesn’t stop smiling when we are in the NICU or even just talking about them. He is already the best father I could imagine him being and I know if it were possible to be better he would be.

I also wanted to send out a belated Happy Birthday to him, last week he turned 29, just one year to 30 honey! I love you more than anything and I thank you for being so wonderful and taking care of me through this amazing journey as you always have.

Love, Amy-Jo