And the Oscar goes to.....

Watching a few minutes of the Oscars last week gave me a great idea for a post and just haven't had time until now to write it. We have had so manypeople help us these past few months we find it only appropriate to thank them all here on our blog.

First a quick update from the past several days. Yes we are finally home,Mom and Dad anyway not the kiddo's yet. Everyone is doing great Amy-Jo is regaining her strength more each day. Elizabeth, Madison and Logan are all trying to get out of the hospital as fast as possible. Their feedings are progressing nicely which is key to gaining weight and getting out of that place! They checked everyone for brain bleeds (the biggest risk forpreemies outside of breathing issues) and we are all clear, big relief there. I will try to get some more pictures up this weekend, no promises though!

Okay now to the thank you's.

Amy-Jo's mom Shelly - for staying with us for 2+ months while Amy-Jo was in the hospital. She did laundry, stayed with Amy-Jo during the day while I worked and basically anything else that was needed. Shelly we couldn't have done it with out you!

My mom - for jumping on a plane back in November and helping us when we thought we may lose all the babies. Having her and Shelly here that week was good for both of us.

The 4 north nursing staff - Dawn, Amber, Jennifer, April, Angie, Lily, Neha, Ladana, Chantal, Liem, Chrissy, Margrate, Temmy, Natalia, Tammy and everyone else that had to put up with us for 3 months a big thanks. This is by far the best staff anywhere and we became good friends with a lot of our regulars. We miss you all!

Casey and Robbie Gerwer - They have helped in more ways then I can remember. They were the first ones to show us we can survive this thing. They have helped so much in getting us prepared for what ever is coming next. Not to mention all the toys, clothes and other goodies they have passed along to us. We honestly could not have done this without them.

Dave and Mariana - They watched our dog for the first two months we were in the hospital. This allowed me to stay with Amy-Jo and not have to head home every night to take care of our Blue monster. I think Mariana even got a little attached by the end, well maybe not.

Misty Urech - AJ's mentor. She has been there from almost the beginning coaching us along and helping in any way she could.

Tara and Steven Lenney - They were nice enough to throw us a baby shower here in Dallas for our friends who live in the area. It was such a great time (we actually had it before bed rest so a long time ago!) and since we will not be able to attend the shower back home in Michigan it was great to have this experience.

Aaron, Corey, Kristen, and Phil - For visiting us in the hospital and bring food/gifts along with some welcome company. With all of our family living in another state it was nice to have visitors to help break up the monotony.

The many, many people who have been nice enough to send gifts or donate hand me downs. We obviously have tons of things to buy so any help is so greatly appreciated.

And of course you the blog reader - Without your kind words and prayers I don't know if we could have made it as long as we did. It's the support everyone has shown that makes doing these blogs worth while. THANK YOU!

Video's!

Here are some video's we were able to take yesterday. Sorry about the unsteady filming I will improve I promise! Special thanks to AJ's parents for the Christmas gift that made these video's possible.

In order
Mom with Madi
Logan in his bed
Dad with Lizy
Lizy in bed

More Updates

Okay I have time for a quick update on everyone, no time to put pictures up though sorry.

They have all started feedings, about 3cc's per feed. It has been mostly mixed success as it is with most preemies. Sometimes they digest everything, sometimes they don't but we are making progress. Everyone is hitting the tanning lights today to cure a slight case of jaundice. Shouldn't be too long before they are off.

Logan is finally catching up to his sisters and is now on room air. He did have a little hiccup though. They did a sonogram of his heart and found what is called a Artial Septal Defect or ASD. Basically there is valve in his heart between the right and left chambers that is not closed. This causes his oxygenated blood to mix with his un-oxygenated blood, causing him to work a little harder to get good blood. It is not fatal and there is a 50% chance the valve will close on its own, if not they can repair it and he should live a normal healthy life. Here is a web site I found that gives some better details.

http://www.web-books.com/eLibrary/Medicine/Cardiovascular/ASD.htm

Mom is getting back on her feet and she hopes to get up to the NICU and hold the last of her babies today. She has had a chance to hold Lizy and Logan, but poor Madi has been left out. Its been hard trying to balance the pumping and feeding schedules to make sure we get there on time for touch time, but we are doing a better job.

I have some video I took last night that I will try to get up today. Their eyes open at feeding time so its the best time for me to try and capture them on film for the world to see.

A quick note about visitors. We can have visitors in the NICU, they can't hold or touch the babies yet but are able to stop in and see them with us. Restrictions are if you have been sick or around anyone that is sick in the last 2 weeks you cannot come by. But if you are healthy please stop by we would love to see you, just give me a call to find out when we will be around.

Finally, some people had asked about our little hero Cody who we lost at 18 weeks. His body remained inside for the rest of the pregnancy and they were able to gather the remains at birth and save them for us. We are planning on having him cremated and we will decide on any future plans later. This really was the hardest part of the whole delivery as it was very bitter sweet. But having the ability to save his remains and that the nurses were actually able to get little foot prints for us to save will make this a little easier. We firmly believe that he sacrificed himself for his brother and sisters, without which they may have not survived. He is now and will always remain our hero, I only hope one day when presented with an opportunity I can be as brave as my unborn child Cody was in his sacrifice.

Updates

Madison

Madison meeting mommy for the first time.

Logan


Logan meeting mommy.

Elizabeth meeting mommy

Elizabeth

CPAP, we don't need no stinking CPAP! Terrible grammar aside we got some good news today. Apparently, Elizabeth took herself off of CPAP in the middle of the night, not a big fan of it I guess. The nurses decided to monitor how she did and to everyone's delight she was fine so no CPAP for her, only room air. Around 1 this afternoon Madison was doing so well they took her off CPAP as well, couldn't let her little sis steal all that room air. Logan is still on oxygen but doing well.

For those who remember our little Logan's heart issue while in utero you'll be happy to know so far there is nothing showing up on any tests that should raise any flags. They are going to do a couple more but the thought is the heart should be fine. He is suffering from some positioning issues which have his head kind of tilted towards his left shoulder and his head is a little mis-shapen. Neither should cause any long term issues and the occupational therapist is pretty confident she can "straighten" him out. This is pretty common with multiples as the baby on the bottom has a lot of weight sitting on top of them, so basically no worries.

Mom is having a tough time, but is doing well. She is in a lot of pain and is finding it difficult to get in and out of bed, it really is too high for her and she struggles to use those ab muscles (can't figure out why). She is so excited to finally "officially" be a mom, she can't wait to hold them all. We should get to hold the girls later (I did hold Lizy earlier but Mom couldn't make it down) while they fed. They are getting fed through a tube that goes all the way to their stomach, they will try to introduce bottle feeding in about 2 - 3 weeks. They are on a strict every 3 hour feeding schedule and this is the only time they can be touched. Currently we are the only two that can hold them but hopefully soon grandparents can as well.

I am a little tired as we are not getting sleep so if this post has huge holes in information I apologize. If there is anything you are curious about please leave a comment and I will answer it next time I post.

Here are some photos of the babies from yesterday. We did not get too many today as I forgot the charger at home. Hopefully I can get some good close up shots tomorrow. For the record Elizabeth has a lot of AJ's features while Logan and Madison have more of mine. Still to early to tell if this is actual or just sleep deprived parents projecting what they want to see, time will tell.

Okay so I have made fun of everyone under the sun on this blog so now I must turn the table on myself. I was looking in the mirror yesterday and too my surprise I found 4 or 5 grey whiskers. I will be 29 in a week and my babies are less then a day old and I already have grey whiskers. By the time these babies are one I will have lost all my hair, grown a santa beard and waited in line at the bank, what a year in front of me.

First Baby Pics

Here are the first pictures from today. I am sending this from my phone so I am not sure what order they will show up but its either Logan, Elizabeth, Madison or Madison, Elizabeth, Logan.

Here are the weights:
Logan 3lbs
Elizabeth 3lbs 1oz
Madison 3lbs 3oz

*edit - The pictures above are Logan, Elizabeth and Madison top to bottom.

Happy Birthday

We are off to the delivery room at 1 PM. I will try and have pictures up this evening! AJ is doing good just started having a lot of contractions and all the drugs that have been working stopped, so its time. Very exciting and totally terrifying, can't wait.

Quick Update

Okay so yes we are still here AND still pregnant. Apparently these babies are never coming out, they like their current home and decided they will stick around for a few more weeks. Seriously, we are excited to be doing as well as we are and each day they stay inside is that much better for their long term health.

I had planned for a longer blog today but we are currently dealing with our first major crisis, NO INTERNET! Seriously what did people do before the internet? I guess they were so busy waiting in line at the bank they didn't notice. Total slam to anyone over 50 but still funny. So anyway I am punching this out on my Blackberry (over 50 crowd that is an email machine that doubles as a phone, man am I on tonight!) and my thumbs are getting a little tired. I'll try to send out an update later this week.

Just a reminder C-Section scheduled for March 9th if she does not go into labor before. It's starting to look more and more like that might be the case (okay so that was some obvious reverse psychology, sue me).

10 pounders

Quick update from today's sono. They measured the babies today and Logan was 3 lbs 5 oz, Elizabeth was 3 lbs 8 oz and Madison was 3 lbs 10 oz. All together that is over 10 1/2 lbs of babies AJ is carrying around! They did measure her cervix and it was at .4 cm and no that . is not a typo. A good cervix is 2 - 3 cm, when she was admitted and they were worried about us losing the babies she was .9, so clearly this is a sign we are nearing the end. Our guess is we are looking at this week sometime, strictly a guess no scientific proof. She is having A LOT of contractions and they are growing more painful by the second. She feels almost every contraction and even some cramping in between. We feel blessed to be where we are today, 30+ weeks was beyond our wildest imagination, so if even if we deliver we feel very lucky. If anything happens I will be sure to post on here before we head back for delivery so check in on us from time to time.

Just for fun we measured her belly and it was measuring at 43 inches around!

Pics - 30 weeks

Okay so nothing really to report, still no babies and everyone is doing well. As promised here are some belly pics, we are both even a little shocked at how large the belly is now.







Here are a few shots of the work in progress nursery. Basically its been painted and I put two cribs in there, so nothing special yet. This is just one of the many things we need to do once the babies finally come. The list keeps growing and everyday we are here the time we will have to complete these tasks shortens, fun stuff.




This is our dog Blue when he first got home from my friend Dave's 2 weeks ago. The tub he has his snout buried in is filled with his food. We normally yell at him for this but I figured since he had not been home in awhile I would let him dig in.

Should have bet the over

If the superbowl was the "total line" for when the babies would come, the over is a winner. For the 99% of you that have no idea what I am talking about its a reference to gambling, and it basically means we are still pregnant. Very, very, very pregnant. We had a sono today and no real updates. Babies are doing great, momma is doing great. She is doing her best to keep a positive attitude but she is more then ready for those babies to come. I wish I had more to report but it is really boring around here. AJ did gain a few more pounds last week, she has gained a total of 30 pounds. This worries me because I eat what she eats so I have probably gained a few more myself.

I have some good sono picks I will try to get up this week sometime and I will try to get momma to pose for some new belly pics.