Three For Thursday – Triplets 9 Weeks Old Update

Owen In A Crib

The Tres Bambinos are nine weeks old today, or 36 weeks for you guys keeping score gestationally.  They've come such a long way in this time.  Everyone has more than doubled their weight:

Bella Marie – born 1lbs 14oz, now 3lbs 13oz

Owen – born 1lbs 14oz, now 4lbs 3oz

Noah – born 2lbs 4oz, now 5lbs 14oz

In many ways, Owen is doing the best at this stage.  We get to bottle feed him once a shift, for a few minutes, though he doesn't always know what to do with it.  He was the first one in a crib, and has been doing well since.   Surgical has been coming to see him to plan out re-attaching his small intestines to his large intestines.  He needs to be stable, which he has been, and at least 4 lbs 8oz.

Owen and Uncle Antnee

 Noah is now in a crib too.  I didn't grab any pictures this time because he had to be put back on the C-Pap mask for his breathing.  He was real sluggish over the weekend, not seeming to fuss when the nurses would routinely draw blood from him.  Normally he would be wailing.  So they ran some tests on him and he has a Uterine Tract Infection (UTI) again, but this time a different strain. 

He's on medication and seems to be doing better.  He was quite active yesterday. 

They have him on Lasiks too, to drain some of the water out of his system.  He's quite puffy and isn't unrinating quite so frequently as he should be.  It seems to help when they give it to him but a consequence is that his potassium levels get really low after that.  A combination of low potassium and the use of a diuretic such as Lasiks can cause heart failure in a preemie.   So they have to monitor him real close, and he can't constantly get the Lasiks.

Owen and Aunt (me)Lissa

 Bella has had her ups and downs over the last week as well.  She also needed some Lasiks treatments because excess fluid around her lungs is making it harder for her to breathe.  She was really struggling Tuesday night and they had to put her on the high-flow Canula to help her breathe. 

She is starting to fill out, finally.  She was quite tiny for the longest time, and still a fair bit smaller than her brothers but she looks terrific and each day gets a little better. 

Nikki and I are doing well.  We're tired alot.  She spends most of the day at the hospital and then picks me up from work.  Thanks to a kamikaze deer, we're down to one vehicle…and of course it had to be the new mini-van that took the hit.  Normally, we go home for a quick bite to eat and then back to the hospital till around 11pm. 

We come home after that and I try to keep the blog up to date, because I enjoy the stress relief of the creative output.  It doesn't leave much time for Nikki and I to spend quality time together but hopefully the kids will be coming home in the next five weeks or so.  I don't think we'll hit that August 27th date that was originally predicted, just because of the numerous ups and downs. 

Anyways,  thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.  We truly believe that they help.  Focused prayer is perhaps more powerful than any other force in the universe.