7 Weeker Girls!

Wow, they are so close to two months old. Some days it seems like its gone so fast and other days seem like an eternity. Yesterday (Sunday) was a great day! They were all doing so well and it's amazing how great that makes your day. Sorry in advance for the pictures. For some reason they are all so blurry. There wasn't a whole lot of eventful things this week....

Mckenna- Mckenna doesn't have her Urinary Tract Infection anymore and is just finishing up her Cdiff antibiotics in the next couple days so hopefully (cross our fingers) she doesn't get anymore infections! I've had it with those and I'm sure she has too. Despite her setbacks with infections and being taken off food she gained some serious weight this week. Yesterday she was 3 lbs. 13 oz.! And I think it's pretty easy to tell. She is starting to definitely get the baby cheeks. Yesterday she was finally back up to full feeds like her sisters are and is going great with them. She desats (monitors beeping) here and there (mainly when her belly is getting full and she is getting reflux) but is still the steadiest with respiratory and has started the process of weaning her off of her oxygen (cannula). It takes a few weeks but hopefully she will do well. She was the first to start the weaning process. Nothing else really new with Mckenna except I can tell she is going to be a good, happy baby. She is ALWAYS smiling and rarely in a bad mood or irritable. Such a sweet little personality! Of course, as their mom, I think they all have sweet little personalities! One other thing about Mckenna, we weren't able to get as good of a picture of her but she was able to be dressed this week like her sisters are! She can't wear the right sleeve right now because of her IV but hopefully that won't be much longer. The first picture is her first outfit. She wouldn't stop wiggling so I had to take a picture of her swaddled so you can't see the whole thing. There's also another picture of Kenners. We think she looks a lot like Kyle, and yet (as you can see in the second picture), she looks an awful lot like my brother Scott and his daughter Laney (when she was a newborn). Weird... I guess cousins really do look alike.

Mckenna at 7 weeks old- look at that cute smile.

Mckenna- I've even seen my brother make this face! Ha ha!

Also, this is her first outfit!

Madison- Madison has had the least amount of setbacks this week. She has just kept to herself and grown. Like the others, lots of desats and beeping still going on. But she was the second one to start the process of weaning off oxygen cannula (one day after Mckenna). Yesterday she weighed 3 lbs. 10 oz. so she is still the smallest but not by much. She is definitely very social. She loves to be held swaddled so she can look at your face and has a hard time falling asleep when you are holding her, afraid that she'll miss you when she opens her eyes. I bet she will be the one when she grows up a little that won't want to go to bed because she's afraid she is going to miss something. We can't quite figure out who Madison looks like. It used to be that she looked like my other brother Justin and then she looked like me. Then she sometimes looks like her Grandpa Morrell. Heck, the other day I thought she resembled Kyle's sister Lisa. She's the ever changing face! I didn't get the best pictures of her (like I said, I struggle get a good picture of her in general) but she is definitely getting bigger cheeks as well!

Madison at 7 weeks old! She's almost smiling!

Carly- Carly had a little setback this week (little). On Friday she was just not having a good day. She was desatting all over the place and they were having a hard time reviving her. She just didn't want to breathe and was quite tired and lethargic. So they ran some tests and xrays and her lungs were fine but she was very backed up in the bowels (constipated) so they gave her an enema and ran some cultures for an infection. The enema worked very well (believe me, I know, I changed one of the diapers) and the cultures came back negative for an infection. So she might have been just having a bad couple days. They did put her back on CPAP for a few days to help her through the slump (which was frustrating at first, but I understand now why it was important). She also had to have her feeds stopped so they put her back on an IV for nutrition. Yesterday she was back on the nasal cannula and was almost back up to full feeds so it was just a little hiccup. It does help put me back into perspective about how well they are doing and not to get frustrated with things that really aren't that bad. Anyway, Carly hit another milestone. She was 4 lbs. 1 oz yesterday! I figure she will probably be the first to hit the weight milestone each time between her and her sisters. I'm just so excited that they are all almost 4 lbs! That is twice the weight they were born at. We've decided that Carly might be a little stubborn. She is quite laid back but when she digs her heels in, nobody is changing her direction. I'm glad she is a fighter, it's what has helped her get through this hard part of her life to want to live. Some pictures of Carly Loo! I am quite certain that Carly is a little Kyle in female form. I think she looks just like him. And yet, the nurses have told me that she looks like me. I can't quite see that yet. Except for the ears, she did get my ears, poor little girl.

Carly at 7 weeks old!

We couldn't quite get it at the right time but she was looking at me in that concentrated look before the picture was taken.

Kyle and I have to say that we have been so blessed with such beautiful healthy girls. We know that Mckenna's brain bleed is definitely not ideal but overall they are all doing so well! Thank you to everyone for all your prayers. We know that that is one of the main reasons they are doing so well. And thank you to all of you (since I keep forgetting to say this) that post comments. I love to read them and they definitely help to encourage me to stay happy and positive. We love you all!

Look how big we are-- 6 weeks!

So there have been good and not good things happening this week. I guess that happens every week. The bad is not horrible, just frustrating. Oh, one thing I need to say before I forget. Someone helped me remember that I haven't told everyone that the girls are all in the same room and have been for about three weeks. It's lovely that way (there are only three spaces in our room) so that we don't have to share with other babies. If the girls all go to the same crib though, then we might get a roommate. So, let's start with Mckenna:

Mckenna- Mckenna was having a stellar week. She had increased feeds all week and was almost to the full amount of feed (the other two have been on full feeds for a few weeks now). She only had like one or two days left on her antibiotic for the urinary tract infection she had and then they were going to take out her PICC line (IV that runs up her arm). Then she had a bloody stool and so they ran some tests and she has Cdiff. In a nutshell, it's an infection of the gut usually caused by taking antibiotics because not only the bad bacteria is being killed but also the good. So they had to stop her food (she's getting nutrition through an IV) for a few days and let her belly rest before they start her back up again. She's on a new antibiotic for the Cdiff now and has to keep her PICC line in until she's through the amount needed. So, she will be over the sickness soon. The only annoying thing is that it's very contagious so the girls room is now in isolation which mainly means that nothing can leave the room and everyone has to really wash their hands when they come in, and we have to be gowned (and the nurses gloved and gowned) to work with Mckenna. It's the hospital policy. So I could handle that for a week or so but.... once a room goes into isolation, it's in isolation for the girls remainder of the stay. So, even when Mckenna gets better they still have to be very sanitary (more than normal) around her. The main reason I'm so annoyed about it is because she will probably not be able to co-bed in a crib with her sisters during her stay in the hospital. But I might keep on pushing and maybe I can get them to break down and let her be with her sisters at some point. I just think that she of all of them needs her sisters the most. Anyway, Kyle tells me to calm down and not worry. But I must be stubborn (as we've learned this week that Carly is) and I just want the best for my girls. She is still having her brain drained everyday and the liquid is always getting lighter and lighter in color and we're still waiting to see how it goes for future diagnosis. But besides all that, Mckenna is an amazing little girl. The nurses are always amazed at how relaxed she is when she has her brain drained. She is always happy, even with having the most problems. I know she is a tough little girl and maybe that's why she can handle all the hard stuff. They even said that when most babies get Cdiff they are quite cranky and she is all smiles and happy as a clam. She's going to be a great baby to take care of. Anyway, we love little Kenner Bug! She reached 3 pounds this week but dropped back to around 2 lbs. 14 oz. after the Cdiff so hopefully she catches back up with her sisters. Here's some pictures where it's no surprise that she is smiling and happy.

Mckenna 6 weeks old!

She opens her eyes really wide- she loves to really look around when she's awake.

Mckenna once again, smiling! I think she's sharing jokes with the angels.

Madison- Madison (and Carly) had some exciting things happen this week! Madison was so close to 1500 grams (at 1500 grams they let the babies be dressed and start to wean off incubator warmth and air) that they let us dress her! And they let you bring in clothes from home for them to wear. Pajamas are pretty much the only thing allowed because they need something on with snaps up the front so they can have all the monitor tubes coming out to the machines they are hooked up to without more work for the nurses. I thought that those dress sacks might work but we learned the hard way last not on Carly that it's only P.J.s from here on through the NICU. So we dressed Madison and she looked adorable. Here she is below in her first outfits.

Madison 6 weeks old!

Are you my mother?

So cute!

Full picture of the whole outfit- thanks Uncle Justin and Aunt Nicole!

She loves to look at people's faces- I think she will be quite social.

I'm glad we got some good pictures of Madison because she is so difficult to get a good picture of. It's like she knows when to make a bad face for the camera. She will be the one crying in all family pictures I'm sure. And she hates to be out of her swaddle. She gets cranky and then I can't get a good picture of her in her clothes! But some of the best pictures I have of her are close up and swaddled. I call her my little cherub because I think she looks like those cherubs (like Cupid is a cherub.... I think). She has a smaller head and face than her sisters. Yesterday she weighed 3 lbs. 1 oz.

Carly- Carly is still the leader in weight. Yesterday she was around 3 lbs. 8 oz. As you can see from the pictures below, Carly was also able to be dressed this week (she was dressed first and Madison a couple days later). Oh! And another great thing about them being dressed means that we don't have to do skin to skin and can swaddle them and hold them! (We still do skin to skin every other day because the girls love it so much) So its the first time they get to look at our faces because they can't quite see us really well through the incubators. It also means that other family members can hold her too. So their Grandma Morrell was in town this week and was able to hold Carly for the first time. I think Grandma was in heaven! (Just to throw in- when Madison was first swaddled and held she didn't have her eyes open when I pulled her out and so when she woke up and opened her eyes in my arms she made the funniest face. She kind of startled like she was so surprised! She made this funny "Oh my goodness, what a treat" face. Then she smiled and just stared for an hour. So funny.) When Kyle and I first held Carly she was all about concentrating on your face. When she concentrates she furrows her eyebrows and kind of looks mad but I think she is just thinking. She must be a deep thinker. Also, Carly and Madison are "hot babies" as the nurses say because they have had no problem weaning off the air in the incubators. One nurse said that Carly is so low on air in her incubator that she's almost moving on air conditioning in there. So hopefully they will both be moved to an open air crib (co-bedded) in the next week. They are all still in the "not breathing" and then being encouraged by nurses and us phases as talked about last week and their monitors are still dinging all over the place. It makes the nurses nuts, and me too sometimes. They will probably beep like this for the next few weeks and then hopefully die down and then we can start trying to move them off the oxygen. One last thing about Carly, we were able to give her a bath last night (as in a real bath in water, not the sponge bath) and she loved it! She was so happy, she was breathing really really well because they have to take her off monitors when they do that. And after the bath we put her back in her incubator and dressed her and she just zonked right out. She was really relaxed and was sleeping very deeply. I love baths... Anyway, here's some pictures below of the girls. Hopefully by next week we will have some pictures of Madison and Carly sleeping together!

Carly's first dressing- 6 weeks old! Look at her yawn, she's bored with the whole thing.

There's the concentrated, furrowed eyebrows look.

Bath time! Look at her death grip on her feeding tube.

Grandma Morrell holding Carly for the first time!

Another cute outfit from Uncle Justin and Aunt Nicole. And she's almost smiling in this one.

Carly's additional picture

Here's the picture that didn't make it on the last post. I like Blogger but there is definitely some things that I would improve on it. I would definitely have an undo button like you have on Word or wherever it is. Or I would have a way to paste a picture into your paragraphs where you wanted it not just only put at the top. It would be helpful for scatter-brains like me. If anyone knows a shortcut that I'm missing out on, please let me know. Anyways...

Carly at 5 weeks old with ring. She loves when Daddy holds her like this.

Five Weekers

Well, it's been kind of a crazy week for the girls. The nurses explained to us that this is normal but they had kind of a not fun week. When they first went on the CPAPs and cannula they were rock stars and wouldn't drop their heart rates or oxygen levels and when they did it was only for a moment. This week I have learned how to revive my kids when they stop breathing! I know it sounds scary but don't worry--it's actually normal, as crazy as that sounds! It's just this stage of their prematurity. They are learning more and more how to breathe on their own (with assistance of cannula) and sometimes when they are "bearing down" either because they are uncomfortable, pooping, or getting reflux, they forget to breathe and have to be rubbed or helped along to remind them to breathe. They usually shoot a larger dose of oxygen up the nose and a lot of times that helps them to remember, oh yeah, I'm supposed to breathe! In a few weeks the nurses say they should be out of this phase and more automatically breathing on their own. It just hasn't been the best week because they have had a lot of "spells" when we are holding them so we have had to put them back in their incubators more than one time. But the week ended well yesterday as they were all angels and their beeps and alarms (that tell us that they were dropping, etc.) were pretty quiet. But.... even though it seemed like this week was a step backwards it did have steps forward too! For one, they are all on nasal cannulas now! So hopefully they behave and never have to go back on CPAPs. We'll see....

Mckenna: Mckenna probably had the worst week of the three. She was really lethargic at the beginning of the week and had tests run on a couple different routine things. They find out that her hemoglobins were low, and she had a urinary tract infection. Sooo.... she had another blood transfusion on Monday and they started her on antibiotics for the urinary tract infection. It's amazing what a little blood and drugs can do! By Saturday and Sunday she was doing much better. As you can see in some of the pictures when she was on the CPAP she also was retaining her liquids so she looks puffier than normal. She also had to stop her feeds for a few days because of all the fun stuff going on so her feeding is starting over again and she is only back up to 5-6 milliliters so far. Hopefully we can eventually get her to full feeds like the other two. Her brain stuff is doing pretty well though. They suck out about 10 mils of liquid from her brain everyday and it used to be a motor oil color (lots of old blood floating around) and now it is a light amber color. So hopefully it just keeps getting better and we just hope that she can eventually absorb her blood clots so that she doesn't have to have a shunt in her head the rest of her life. We'll just wait and see. Mckenna is also at 2 lbs. 11 1/2 ounces! So she is so close to 3 pounds! She is also a wiggler and a mover (enough that she moves a little too much and then can't gain weight). As you can see in the picture below, she will kick her legs and wiggle herself down into the bottom of her bed and have her legs hanging out of her swaddle. She does it about every half hour and it makes the nurses crazy because she won't stay in her tight swaddle.

Mckenna at 5 weeks with ring on left hand. As you can see, she has wiggled herself to the bottom of her bed once again!

Mckenna on one of the unfun days. She's holding Mommy's hand for support!

Funny picture I had to take. I opened up her cover over her incubator one day and she was just chillin' like this. Pretty cute!

Oh, one last thing with Mckenna.... I did get to hold her last night without a cannula attached. She was breathing on her own. I held her about an hour like that (and she was high sating which is really good) and she stayed off of it for an hour back in her bed before she pooped out and went back on the cannula. So she is really doing great respiratory-wise more than the others!

Madison: Besides the crazy up and down with breathing, nothing really new with Madison this week. Except she has the same wiggle problems! I think that Mckenna and Madison might be handfuls when they can crawl and walk. Madison was already trying to make her escape when we came in yesterday. In one of the pictures below you can see that she almost made it to one of the doors out of her incubator. I'm not sure where she was headed. Probably just ready to be done with the NICU! I'm just amazed that for such small babies they can get themselves out of the blankets around them and to the doors. And the nurses are watching them constantly so they wiggle out in a matter of minutes. Crazy wigglers. Madison is still on full feeds and is up to a really high calorie dosage to help her gain weight because she has the hardest time gaining. I think it's because she's always trying to make escapes out of her bed! Madison is still the smallest weight at around 2 lbs. 7 1/2 ounces.

Madison at 5 weeks old, I know the ring is not on her finger but I'm holding it in the picture. She also loves to hold Mommy and Daddy's fingers!

Here she is making her escape! Unfortunately, for her, the door is locked (fortunate for us).

Carly: Carly made a big milestone this week and reached 3 pounds! She also graduated to big girl diapers and is now in true Preemie diapers (not the micro-preemies like the other two are still wearing). As you can see in the picture below, they are still a little big on her. I think she looks a little Urkelish in them. You can tuck them under a little bit but Dad changed her diaper before this picture and didn't tuck them under. Carly, so far, is the most laid back of the three. She doesn't wiggle around and try and get out of her bed like the others. She's pretty content to just relax. And that's why she has gained the easiest. And she doesn't have to be swaddled as much as the other two. She is pretty happy go lucky. Yesterday she weighed 3 lbs. 1 1/2 ounces.

Yesterday, we were also able to give Carly a bath (sponge bath)! It was so fun and I think for the most part she liked it. When I was cleaning her mouth she kept on sticking out her tongue and wanted to lick the washcloth. Such a funny girl! This picture is Dad holding her after her bath. She smelled so yummy!

So, I lost one of the pictures of Carly so I will post a new post in a second here with it....

Madison- Take Two

Here's another picture of Madison that I just took today. It looks better than the one posted yesterday. For some reason her picture looked a little scary yesterday but she is really super cute and I love her sweet cheeks! Today after Kangaroo Care all three girls were very alert and curious about what was going on around them. Mckenna even went cross eyed trying to check out the CPAP they were putting on her nose. And Carly couldn't look away from her Strawberry Shortcake blanket. Madison-- she just likes to look at you! So sweet! I don't know if you can tell in this but we like to tell ourselves that she looks like she is smiling.

We're 4 weeks old!

The girls are 4 weeks old! I can't believe it's already been almost a whole month. Do I say that same sentence every week? I have got to learn to say something new! It has been such a fun week. The girl's Grandpa and Grandma Pendleton came this past weekend to see the girls. Not only that but all of the girl's Uncles (except Brad on the mission) from the Pendleton side and also one Aunt came to see the girls as well. Their cousin, Molly, also was here but she was too little (20 months old) to come back to their room in the NICU to see them.

It was nice to have my parents comment on how good they looked compared to last time they saw them. When I see them everyday I think they look the same but I guess from an outside observer, they are looking better! I do notice that they are starting to finally get little chunky cheeks and they are all starting to get fat on their butts! It's good to see just the smallest things like that. And little round full bellies.

There is not a lot of new updates on the girls (which is a good thing not to have too many issues). But here's a quick run down of the girls. Also, I noticed that I did their weight in grams but, honestly, who cares about grams? So I am recalculating to approximation of pounds and ounces. Also, I want to make sure that I record what their little personalities are starting to do for future. I know nobody reading this really cares it's just for me and Kyle and the girls.

Mckenna- Mckenna got her results back about the bladder/bowel fissure test and as of right now they can't see any connection! Such good news! That doesn't mean they might not see something down the road but for right now she is doing great! She started feeds up right after that and I believe last time I saw her she was at 8 mililiters of milk (they are all still fed through a feeding tube). She is still on the CPAP. They tried to move her to the cannula a few days ago but it wore her out too much so they will keep on trying. But she is still moved to the cannula for Kangaroo Care (holding) with us. As of today she is gaining weight at a crazy rate and was at 1180 grams or around 2 pounds 9 ounces. She has gained about 7 ounces or so in the last 3 days which is crazy to me. Hopefully she keeps on gaining well. Chances are she could plateau at this weight for a few days or week. Oh, she also is getting another blood transfusion today.

Personality- Observations of Mckenna are that she is such a little steady rock. She remains the most stable with her oxygen, respiration and heart rate levels. (It's pretty common at this stage for those levels to jump up and down a lot because of their prematurity. The less jumping around, the better...) I think she is pretty tough (heck, they're all pretty tough) but more so for Mckenna. She has been through a lot and has handled it so well without a lot of fits. She does love to be swaddled. She's a little bit of a wiggler and arm flailer and loves to be all tight in a blanket. She also loves to feel things with her hands. She has these ridiculously long skinny fingers and it always looks so funny when she feels new fabric laid in her incubator. I know she is going to love to touch different materials like her Mom!

Madison- There really isn't a lot of new news with Madison this week. She is eating about 23 mililiters right now. She hasn't been gaining weight as well as her sisters. She hasn't really lost weight, just not gained. But she has finally made it over the 1000 gram mark. Today she was 1040 grams which is about 2 pounds 4 ounces. She is also still on the CPAP and cannula for the holds only.

Personality- Madison is very verbal. She was easily the first one to cry (there cries are not that loud at this point- picture a baby kitty meowing, that's kind of what it sounds like) and cries very easily. She doesn't like a dirty diaper and makes sure to let the nurses know about it. She likes to remain clean so hopefully that remains when she is a 2 year old toddler. She might be the drama queen of the three but LOVES to be touched and held. I should say that all three love to be contained (have someone hold their arms and legs up around their body) and be touched softly which means they can be calmed down. Madison showed facial expressions first (scrunchy face when she doesn't like something). She also likes to be swaddled but especially has a funny need to always have something gripped in her hand. She is the one that I can give my finger to and she will grab it with a death grip.

Carly- Also not much to say with Carly this week. She has permanently moved from the CPAP to the cannula and is doing great on it. Hopefully her sisters can join her soon. She is eating around 23 mililiters as well. She is also gaining great and as of today was 1185 grams or 2 pounds 9 ounces.

Personality- At first everyone thought that Carly was the most dramatic but I've since thought that she is actually the most laid back. She loves to be held as well and completely relaxes more than the other two during holds. She seems to also be the calm one but is quite alert to sound or movement around her crib and opens her eyes the most when someone is around. She doesn't really like to hold hands that much and isn't as into swaddling. But she loves her pacifier! She sometimes will have it in her mouth and goes to town on it! Hopefully that means she will eat well also.

Well, I have written far too much but they are doing great and I think it's mainly due to all the prayers on their behalf. We actually got a picture of all of them the last two days with their eyes open so I had to put those in here. Madison looks a little goofy but I promise she is still super cute! We love them so much and can't wait for them to keep getting bigger!

Mckenna 4 weeks old

Madison 4 weeks old

Carly 4 weeks old

Three weeks old!

I can't believe it has already been three weeks since the girls were born. It really just seems like one big day most of the time. Since the post a couple days ago there really isn't a whole lot to update on. The good news is that all three have been able to go on a cannula (oxygen bar with little prongs up the nose, what adults get for oxygen when they are coming off of anesthesia) for the holds (they call it Kangaroo Care) with us. The cannula is not as stable as the CPAP and they have to work hard to breathe on it where as the CPAP is easier for them and keeps their lungs pumped up better. But.... hopefully within the next week or so they will be moving to the cannulas permanently and then after that no tubes needed! But I am getting way ahead of myself. They need to all easily weigh over 1000 grams (I think that's 2 lbs. 2-3 oz.?) and gaining before they can be on cannulas. As the doctors and nurses say it's all about hurry up and wait (mainly for them to gain weight). We took the three pictures of the girls below without the big ugly blue tube CPAP on and with the cannulas on. You can see their whole faces!

Updates on each girl:

Mckenna- She is doing very well and keeping right up with her sisters with oxygen and going from the CPAP to cannula for holds. I was worried she would lag way behind with the brain surgery last week but she is (as the nurses say) steady as a little rock. She even gained over an ounce today from yesterday! They are all sitting at about the weight they were born at so I can't wait for them to start to really gain weight. Mckenna also had the test done today to see if her bladder and bowels have a fissure between them. Still don't have the results for that but I will update later on that. Besides that, nothing really new. She weighed around 960 grams today.

Madison- Madison eats and bowel movements like a champion. She is eating 15 mililiters every 3 hours and also gets some fortified stuff put in with the milk for extra calories. Hopefully that will help her really start to gain. It's a race between her and Carly for who will be the first on the cannula. She weighed around 950 grams today.

Carly- About the same as Madison. She is eating really well and is around 15 mililiters every 3 hours also (she will be able to go up to 20 mililiters every 3 hours because she weighs more). She weighed around 1030 grams today and even though that means she is cleared for the cannula, she hasn't steadily gained weight everyday, she's still fluctuating too much.

Anyway, pictures below and an extra one of Madison cuddling with Dad and mainly I wanted to put this picture in since you can really see most of her body and how small they all really are.

Mckenna at 3 weeks

Madison at 3 weeks- kinda bad picture, she really doesn't look that scary!

Carly at 3 weeks- also pulling a funny face, where's the congeniality ladies?

Kyle and Madison- look how sweet with her little hand!