Happy one week my angels

I am so proud of my angel babies.  They are doing so well!!  Shocking the doctors with their progress and making the nurses earn their money!  :)

So I guess for only being 31.5 weeks gestation, my babies are huge and doing INCREDIBLE.  I will say, through the whole pregnancy we've prayed for a short NICU time.  I knew from day 1 that the chances of them spending some time in the NICU were pretty high.  Unless I made it to 36 weeks, it's pretty much a given.  

All of the kiddos are still in the NICU (keep in mind they're only 32 weeks along).  The doctors say typically they'll be discharged somewhere around their due date, July 10th.  Do I think they'll be in there that long? Absolutely not!  But I won't tell you my guess as I don't want to jinx it. I was discharged from the hospital yesterday and literally cried the entire way home and all night.  I know my babies are in great hands, but it killed me that I was leaving them.  I'd give anything to sleep in a cot next to their beds, watching them all night! It's going to be a rough couple months without them home.

I"ll start with Aurora's one week progress.

Aurora Leigh

Little Miss Aurora - the tiny one out of the bunch. She started out last week on CPAP, bili lights, only IV nutrition, caffeine, and a heart murmur.  She's my little fighter though.  She had brother and sister on top of her in the womb so she's going to be our tough cookie.  Today she's on a small amount of oxygen, caffeine and increasing her feedings everyday.  She is still getting food from her IV, but has momma's milk along with it.  

Gavin David

Our handsome Gavin - who stole momma's heart.  He started out last week on CPAP, bili lights, caffeine and only IV nutrition.  Sound familiar?  Yeah, he and Ari were often head to head in my belly.  It's no surprise that they're progressing at the same rate.  Today he's on a small amount of oxygen, caffeine and increasing his feedings everyday.  He still has an IV for food, but momma's milk is definitely his favorite. 

Madelyn Mae

Little miss Madelyn - the overachiever.  Madelyn came out of the womb in a race to come home.  Unlike her brother and sister, she's only needed oxygen, bili lights, caffeine and IV nutrition.  Today she made her momma and daddy so proud as she got her IV out.  She eats momma's milk only now!  Today the only thing that Maddie is still on is the caffeine.  The nurses said today that she'll be in an open crib in no time!

So when can they come home?  They need to be over 4.5 pounds, be able to regulate their body temperature, no episodes for 5 days, and take a bottle.  Unfortunately they don't introduce bottles until 34 weeks gestation (next Thursday May 29th)... yes I'm counting down the days.  As for gaining weight, it's important that they don't lose weight once they're in an open crib.  You burn more calories when you're cold, so we gotta make sure they're still gaining.  The reason the babies are on caffeine is because sometimes they forget to breath.  They call these "episodes" where their heart rate will drop below 80.  Sometimes the nurses have to intervene and put their hand on their back or nudge them.  Other times the babies will just start breathing on their own.  Madelyn has had 5 episodes but nurses only had to intervene once.  Since she was having episodes they automatically put Gavin and Aurora on caffeine as well.  Episodes are super common in preemies... They grow out of them as they get older.  

More good news... we were told our crew will probably be moved to a different section of the NICU.  The section they're in now is for babies that need acute care.  Our fabulous trio doesn't need to be watched 24/7.  We wake them every 3 hours for feeding, diaper change, temperature check, and once a day they're weighed.  They have all sorts of sensors on them that beep when their heart rate and oxygen get below a certain point, but they're doing so great!!  Our nurses are so amazed at how interactive our trio our.  Usually at this gestation they're pretty mellow and sleep 24/7.  Our bunch is quite the squirmy crew and HATE all of the wires hooked up to them.  Can't tell you how many times they've pulled out their feeding tubes, eye masks, and oxygen out of their nose.  They're just ready to get rid of it all. :) 

To those momma's who get to hold and snuggle their newborns 24/7 - I envy you!  I know our time will come but man is it HARD.  My first day up in the NICU our Maddie was crying in her isolate and I just cried with her.  It killed me that I wasn't able to pick her up and make everything better.  We're allowed to take the babies out once a day for 30 minutes if they're swaddled or 1hr if I'm doing skin to skin.  As of today, they've officially all been held by mommy and daddy.  When they were first born they had their IV's hooked up to the veins in their umbilical chord and we weren't able to hold them at all.  I got to hold Maddie last Thursday, Gavin this past Saturday, and Aurora just today.  

I cannot thank you ALL for your prayers and positive thoughts.  These babies are truly doing AMAZING!!!!  

Now for some pictures...

 Gavin suntanning under the bili lights

Daddy and Aurora - he's smitten!

Madelyn and Grandma 

Mr. Gavin snoozing

My absolute favorite picture of Madelyn. :)  

Aurora - mid yawn... Ooh my heart!