Time with Grandma and Grandpa!

Maryn, Brynn and Leah have gotten to enjoy some fun time with grandma and grandpa lately! Mom's been at home fighting a cold, so she hasn't been able to be at the hospital. (say a little prayer for quick healing) Grandma and Grandpa's are filling in spending time rocking the girls and singing them songs. The babies love spending special time with their grandparents!

All the girls are doing very well. They have restarted Maryn's feedings at about 2ml every 3 hours to "prime" her tummy. They will slowly continue to move up feedings from there. Brynn and Leah are handling their feedings well. Pray that the feedings continue to go smoothly.

Maryn is still having some apnea episodes, so please pray that those go away as well. The doctors said they are pretty normal up until about 33 weeks (we are at 32 weeks now), we just need them to stop before she is able to come home!

Thanks again for all of your emails, calls and prayers!!

Peter, Ali and M. L. B.

Weigh in (as of this morning):
Maryn-3 lbs 9 oz
Brynn-3 lbs 14 oz
Leah-3 lbs 4 oz

The Girls Have Moved

The girls were moved to the Special Care Nursery at Abbott last night at 10:30 pm.
They now have their own wing with in the nursery so we have a more peaceful and relaxing setting to sit in.
All 3 girls have started their feedings. The doctors decided to stop Maryn's feedings for a few days since she was not digesting all of it each time. They have said this is pretty normal and will start her on feedings again on Monday.
Leah's murmur seems to have closed completely.
Brynn's murmur is very faint and tough to hear, so it is close to being gone as well.
Now our little ladies just need to stay healthy, add weight and be able to keep their body temps up on their own.
Please continue to pray for the girls as they continue to grow. Pray that they are able to tolerate their feedings without any problems.

Here is an updated picture of little miss Maryn.


Peter, Ali and M. L. B.

Brynn and Leah Meet Again!

Here is a photo from this morning where Ali got to hold Brynn and Leah together for the first time. Leah had a very confused look on her face and just stared at Brynn. The tube that you can see in their noses is the feeding tube that is run to their stomachs.

Wednesday Afternoon Update

I just heard from Ali down at Children's and the doctors are not recommending surgery at this point.
It sounds like Leah's murmur was very tough to hear, so hopefully it is closing.
Brynn's murmur is still loud but the x-ray confirmed that it is closing, just slowly.
They are going to start feedings this afternoon for both of them.
Maryn has moved her feedings up to 4 ml every 3 hours so she is progressing along well.
They are talking about moving to the Special Care Nursery next week.
Thank you all for your e-mails and calls of support today, praise the Lord for closing those murmurs.

Peter, Ali and M. L. B.

Wednesday Update

Here is a quick update on each of the girls.

Maryn -

She is doing very well and has started her feedings of 2 ml every 3 hours. She is off of her oxygen and breathing room air without assistance. She had developed a pocket of air in her lungs but it looks like she is dealing with that on her own as it is getting smaller. She has closed her murmur completely. She is also off of her photo therapy as of now. The doctors are very happy with her status.

Brynn -

Brynn is still breathing room air on her own and doing well. She is off of photo therapy for now as well and gaining back the weight that she lost over the first few days. She has not been able to close her heart murmur so they are doing an x-ray this morning to decide if they will need to perform surgery this afternoon to close the hole or not.

Leah -

Leah is also breathing room air on her own and doing well. She has had a few episodes of forgetting to breathe, so they put her on the same meds as Maryn to assist her with remembering to breathe. Leah has also gained back the weight she lost in the first few days. She is also just like her sisters and off of photo therapy for now and doing well. She is also just like her sister Brynn and has not closed her heart murmur so they are going to do an x-ray on her this morning as well to decide if they will need to perform surgery.

The doctors have told us that all of this is very normal and in the grand scheme of things our girls are doing very well. Please pray that Leah and Brynn were able to close their murmurs over night and that surgery will not be necessary and they will be able to start their feedings like Maryn.

We will continue to update as we can, our Internet at home is not working right now so it has made updating the blog a little more difficult.

Here are a few more pictures as well.

Leah:

Brynn:

Maryn:

Update and Pictures

We spent most of yesterday down at Children's with the girls and they all looked great.

They are all breathing room air and off of oxygen.

All 3 of the girls have very sensitive skin, so they are getting some rashes from the tape that holds in the IV's and what have you. (That came from mom, she gets rashes from band aids, tape, etc as well.) The girls keep moving around and loosening up the IV's , so they have to find new locations for their lines every few days. Yesterday they put in Picc Lines for all 3 girls. These are just more permanent IV's so they won't have to prick the girls every other day trying to set an IV.

Maryn finally had her O2 removed and the heart murmur meds seemed to work for her so she should start feedings today. Brynn and Leah started a second round of murmur meds yesterday since the first round did not work for them. Please pray that this round works and we don't have to consider surgery. They aren't showing any other signs that the murmur is causing problems--it just isn't closing.

I have attached another photo of each girl below as well.

Please pray for Ali and I as we need to make decisions and watch our little angels go through this journey and as always their strength, health and growth.

Peter, Ali and M. L. B.

Brynn:


Leah:


Maryn:

December 1st Update

Well, today is Ali's homecoming day!

She will get to see her house and all of the changes that have happened while she has been on bed rest. When she went on bed rest it was 90 degrees outside and as she is heading home we are getting 10" of snow. Oh how time "flies!"

The girls are doing well, we were able to hold all of them yesterday for an hour or so each. The girls just steal your heart when they hold on tight--pretty strong for 3 lbs.

Each girl has a heart murmur that they have given them meds to help close. They will not be able to begin feedings until Wednesday now since the drugs are hard on their stomachs. So that means that they will be in the NICU until at least Wednesday. They need to start taking feedings before they will move them to the Special Care Nursery.

Please pray that the meds work and the murmur's close and stay closed and that they take to their feedings quickly so we can move them out of the NICU.

We will continue to update as things progress.

Thank you for all of the prayers, calls, flowers (the nurses are amazed with the flowers), visits, etc. They mean the world to us.

Thanks again.

Peter, Ali and M. L. B.