So Much To Be Thankful For

Yesterday we celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a family of 6! We've been through so much over the last year. And we have so much to be thankful for (for starters I'm thankful this is a blog. Otherwise that last sentence would make me cringe). Yesterday morning is a perfect example. We got up with the boys and fed them at 7, then I spent my morning playing in the living room with my 3 miracle babies. Then I woke Addison up to watch the parade and we watched it together (and the dog show of course). The boys even watched the parade! 

Mason watching the parade

Logan watching the parade

James watching the parade

Addison watching the parade with Mason

Ha! They were cracking me up! They don't watch tv so this was a rare treat. And they loved it!

Oh and Brian was in on the baby time too!

When Addison asked me what I was thankful for this morning, I said lemonheads. True story. I am very thankful for lemonheads. But I'm thankful for so much more. 

First, the obvious. I'm thankful for my amazing miracle babies. They've already proven that they are the strongest little boys I know!

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband who puts up with my unique kind of crazy and only picks on me a little for being crazy. And I'm super thankful that he does so much for me and our family!

I'm thankful for my beautiful, smart, sweet, and sassy daughter Addison! 

I'm thankful for my family who has supported me more than I could ever ask over the past year. 

I'm thankful for the amazing NICU nurses, neonatologists, respiratory therapists, lactation consultants, therapists of every kind, surgeons, and I'm sure so many more who kept our babies alive when they were so tiny and helped them grow. These people are angels on earth. Seriously. 

I'm thankful for my career as a lawyer and for Jack, who refers to me as his law partner, even though I'm kinda still a baby lawyer. 

I'm thankful for my awesome triplet mommy friends on Facebook. I've never met them but these ladies really helped me through some tough times and they provide great advice and support every step of the way! It is so wonderful to have my triplet mama Facebook groups. Otherwise I would be lost on this whole triplet journey!

I'm also thankful for the Mann Van, which I got back Wednesday! Yay! I never thought I'd say that! Ha! But the Mann Van is awesome and it kept us safe when we got in the wreck a few weeks ago.  

I'm thankful for sleep. This one needs no explanation. Sleep is glorious. You know it. 

And the counterpart to sleep - coffee. I'm so thankful for coffee. I love coffee!

Also candy. I love candy. A little too much. 

And 100 calorie popcorn.

And I'm so thankful for everyone who has prayed for us this year, everyone who has sent us meals, cards, gifts for the boys (sorry if you didn't get a thank you card! Babies came while I was in the middle of them but I am so appreciative!), and everyone who has visited (and everyone who has stayed away because you were sick). 

And I'm so thankful for Addison's sweet friends and their sweet parents. I don't know that we could have done all we've done without these girls and their mamas helping out! 

So there. I made a thankful list. I'm sure I left so many things off the list but it's a start! I've thought about doing the daily "I'm thankful for" thing on Facebook for the month of November but I'm sure I would be one of those people who run out of things to say by Nov. 10 and then just start repeating! Ha!

Oh one more thing I'm thankful for . . . It's Christmas Time!!! Yay! We had to wait until Thanksgiving was over, but now we can start celebrating my favorite time of the year!

And last but not least, a few pictures from yesterday. I didn't get the boys Thanksgiving outfits, but they did wear some pretty awesome vests! I planned on taking a group photo and it started out great. James and Logan were in a great mood. Then Mason happened. So no group photo. Here's some individuals though.

Sometimes my ideas don't work out. Thanks Mason! Ha! Oh well! 

6.5 Months (and lots of pictures)

Well hello again! It's been a while since I've posted. Ok it's only been 2 weeks but that's a long time for me! And I feel like so much has happened in the last 2 weeks! I planned on posting after our November newborn clinic appointment. That was 2 Fridays ago! I'm not even sure where to start at this point! How about pictures, then an update on appointments, etc.? Ok so it's mostly pictures! That's what everyone comes here for though right?

We finally fit into our Arkansas onesies! We wore them the last 2 Saturdays. And the Hogs won. I know it's because of us. We'll wear them again this weekend. WPS (Woo Pig Sooie for you non-Arkansans)

Mason

Logan

Logan not quite sitting up on his own yet!

James

We also got to wear our awesome hats for the first time! I bought these on a triplet resale page and I LOVE them! 

Mason

Logan

James

Bonus picture of James because it's so cute!

We also tried out our jumper finally! They all like it but they're not quite big enough yet! I have to stack magazines so their feet touch! Logan and James actually will jump a little. Mason basically just sits there and chews on the seat (but he will jump once or twice each time I put him in it!)

Mason

Logan

James

And now for an update on the babies! We went to the Newborn Clinic for a follow up with Dr. Peeples 2 Fridays ago (Nov. 14) and they boys are doing great! Here's their updated stats for 6.5 months (these are Nov. 14 stats. I have newer ones but I'll post those with the 7 month post)!

Mason:

Weight 12 lbs. 5 oz.

Length 22.43 inches

Logan:

Weight 11 lbs. 3 oz.

Length 22.23 inches

James:

Weight 11 lbs. 14 oz.

Length 22.23 inches

Mason didn't really have an appointment so no changes for him! He just got measurements and a flu shot (yuck!)

Logan got to go down to 1/4 liter on his oxygen. Yay! He's doing great! He has an appointment with a pulmonologist in January to follow up on his chronic lung disease (his sick preemie lungs basically). Dr. Peeples was going to wait to see him until after that but I convinced her to see him back in December. I'm hopeful that he can stop the oxygen in December! Fingers crossed! He's doing great on 1/4 liter, which is good news because he has discovered his cannula and likes to take it out of his nose and chew on it!

James had an appointment also to check his weight gain and his reflux. He's gaining weight in the normal range so that's great! His reflux seems under control too so we tried weaning his Prilosec. That was a bad idea! We went right back to the previous amount after 24 hours! 

Here's a picture of the boys at their newborn clinic appointment:

Mason

Logan

James

Then they got sleepy and passed out!

Logan (left) and James. Mason was being held by Dad!

James had another appointment last Friday with the hypertension clinic. That's right. My baby has hypertension. Apparently this is pretty common in preemies. They get it because of the umbilical lines put in at birth. Somehow a clot goes to the kidneys and stays there, causing high blood pressure. James is on meds for the high blood pressure but other than that this does not affect anything and should go away on its own. His blood pressure was great on Friday. The plan is to hopefully keep his meds at the same dose until the dose is insignificant based on his weight, then we'll just stop it.

Here's James before his appointment:

And after:

Other than appointments we've been staying really busy! I had a really busy week last week at work with 2 huge hearings. And Brian has been under the weather too on top of everything else. Just to make sure that the babies don't get sick, Brian has quarantined himself downstairs and has been wearing a mask around the babies. Luckily he's doing much much better! I learned a lot from Brian being sick though! First I learned that Brian does A LOT to help out! I mean I knew he does a lot already but it really shows just how much when he's down. And I also learned that I can do it all if I have to. But I would prefer to have Brian's help! Believe it or not, I do like to sit down occasionally (and that does happen most days too). But raising triplets and a 10 year old is a team sport! Here's a picture of our bottles for just 1 day!

Brian does way more than just make bottles! I'm so glad he helps out like he does! It helps keep me sane (if that's even possible)!

Ok now I need to go to bed (and hopefully sleep until 6 am). I'll leave you with a few more random pictures from the last few weeks!

James with all his goodies in his swing

Logan after his synagis shot today. He cried but he was tougher than his brothers!

Mason. Come up with your own caption for this one!

Mason asleep on the floor. Otis is always nearby!

Happy Mason 

Then and now I made for World Prematurity day!

And last but not least, a selfie of me!

In-Out Day

Today's our "in-out" day! You probably have no idea what I'm talking about unless you're a triplet mama or maybe if you have a preemie. I didn't realize this until earlier today when Brian looked at me like I was losing my mind when I told him what today is. While it's true I may be losing my mind, I didn't make this up! "In-out" day is the day the babies have been here the same amount of time mama was pregnant! I guess most people don't celebrate "in-out" day because they stay pregnant for 40 weeks so maybe it's not as special. But for me, it's pretty special! We celebrate everyone's "in-out" day in my triplet mama Facebook group! (BTW best Facebook group ever. You should be jealous). 

So here are my pictures:

27 weeks, 6 days out!

Last preggo picture - 27 weeks in

Mason - 1 day old (with his cotton ball diaper)

Logan - 1 day old

James - 1 day old

It's crazy to think that the boys have been here as long as I was pregnant! Even crazier because I didn't even know that I was pregnant until December! (We got pregnant in October! So just over a year ago!) 

We've been through so much in the past year! We went from a small family of 3 to pregnant with spontaneous triplets to a NICU family with 27 weekers to finally all together as a family of 6 after 5 months in the NICU to now. What's now? Well now is when we're finally settling in to a somewhat normal routine and finally getting used to our new big family of 6!

Here's where we started the last 27 weeks and 6 days:

And now this:

It's hard to believe they started so tiny! (They're still tiny but they seem HUGE to us compared to where they started around 2 lbs.!)

Also, after 27 weeks and 6 days, we finally got our first family photos done today! I can't wait to see them! Our photographer was great and super patient! And I had spit up in my hair like always but I think I'm the only one who noticed!

First Fever, First Wreck and First Trip to the ER

Today is one of those days I wish we had "do overs." Well I wish my poor little Logan could have a do over. He had a rough day! But I'll go ahead and share the ending - we're home and we're good. 

Today started like every other day. Well sort of. We got up around 6:30 (Logan and I were up off and on from 2:30-5:30 too). We fed the boys, they swang, we got ready for work, and we took everyone to school. 

Then the school called. Logan had a fever. First fever. Poor little guy! I was actually surprised they called about Logan. See Mason and James have been snotty for the last few days and we've been sucking snot every few hours. FYI they make this new nose sucker called a Nose Frida where you literally suck the snot out (there's a filter so the boogers don't go in your mouth of course). It's awesome. Whoever bought this for us thank you!

Back to my story. Logan has not been snotty. He has been cranky (see above - he was up off and on half the night). So I was surprised. But I picked him up and took him to work with me. And I called the pediatrician! I know it may seem crazy to call the dr for just a fever but we have ex-27 weekers with chronic lung disease. And Logan is still on oxygen. So we will probably call the dr every time just to be safe. You see, a normal cold can send these little guys back to the hospital. (We ended up there today but not for that reason. Keep reading). 

Logan was so good today. I was able to work a full day and I was productive too. Yay Logan! He didn't feel too great at first  so he just slept in his car seat. 

He played under his play gym then he took a nap. 

So then we headed to the doctor. We didn't make it. I made a left turn at a light and a lady ran the light and hit the Mann Van. First wreck. The light had already turned red and I was still in the intersection because the a-hold in the lane next to me - which was not a turn lane - turned left in front of me. Who does that?! Anyways, she hit the back passenger side and all the airbags went off on that side of the van. And Logan was on that side too. He was startled but otherwise ok. 

So I pulled over onto a side street. And while I was moving my van, the lady who hit me fled the scene. That's right. A hit and run. Again who does that?!

Did I say this was my first wreck? Well it was. Well first wreck if you don't count the time we hit a deer last thanksgiving. First ever when I was driving. I was pretty scared! 

Luckily the Mann Van was still drivable once the cop cut the airbags out for me so I could see out the passenger side. 

By this time it was too late to take Logan to the pediatrician. Brian talked to the ped and he said take Logan to the after hours clinic. Well turns out they won't see kids who have been in a wreck. So we had to go to the ER. First trip to the ER. Luckily Brian met me at the boys' school and went too. 

Mason and James went for moral support. (Mason was eating so not in the picture). 

By the time we got to the ER, Logan's fever was gone. And his lungs sounded clear! That was my concern so I was so relieved! They kept us for a few hours for observation due to the airbag deploring right by Logan. Then we got to go home finally! I've never been so happy to be home! I'm sure Logan felt the same way too! 

I'm just glad this day is over. I feel like I've earned a grown up drink. But I'm too tired. Maybe tomorrow.

Note: this is also my first blog post straight from my phone so if the formatting is off or if it's not edited like my  other posts, that's why. (Update - I had to fix the formatting because I'm OCD and it was driving me crazy just thinking about it!)

Our First Halloween

We had a great first Halloween! Mason, Logan, and James dressed up as Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3 from The Cat In The Hat. So cute! Thanks Nana for the costumes! 

The boys wore their costumes to school and they went trick or treating at school too (or so I'm told). They didn't go out Friday night though because it was too cold! They did help hand out candy though. 

And they wore festive pjs too. 

(Side note: Logan has discovered his hands and he thinks they are the BEST THINGS EVER! Always in the mouth!)

Addison had a great Halloween too! She was a zombie!

And her scary poses:

Our neighbors do a group Halloween party so she went to that. Brian and I took turns inside with the babies so we both got to go too! 

And here's a few more Halloween pictures:

Brian was a zombie too!