We're getting bigger!

I can't believe how the time is just flying. And yet in the middle of the night it drags on and on! The girls are growing so fast. As of their last weight check (which was almost a week ago last Thursday) Mckenna weighed 7 lbs. 1 oz, Madison 8 lbs. 7 oz., and Carly 8 lbs. 12 oz. They are starting to really get their personalities. From the physical therapist that meets with them, she said that when you have twins there is always a watcher and a mover. There's never two movers or two watchers. And then with triplets there is always a combo as well; either two watchers and one mover or two movers and one watcher. So we predicted that Madison will definitely be the mover, Mckenna will be the watcher and we are still on the fence with Carly. Sometimes I think she will be a watcher and then she surprises me and I think she is a mover. We'll just wait and see. They still mainly eat, sleep and poop right now but they become more aware everyday!

I tried to get a new picture of the girls..... Do you know how ridiculously hard it is to get a good picture of three babies? And for some reason I can never get Madison in a good picture with her sisters. So I took a couple pictures and you can decide which was is the best. And then I gave up and uploaded a video as well. Maybe it was because this was taken right before a meal. From left to right: Madison, Carly, and Mckenna.

And the video!.....

First week all home!

Well, we made it through our first week with all the girls. It seems more like four weeks but I'm sure it's just the lack of sleep. The girls are doing so good! They have all gained at least 1 ounce to 2 ounces a day since they have been home. They were weighed last Friday and Mckenna was 6 lbs. 2 oz., Madison was 7 lbs. 5 oz. and Carly was 7 lbs. 11 oz. We are so glad they are doing so well. They definitely do their fair share of crying and don't always sleep for a good consistent time between feeds but it's usually every other day that they are a little naughty. And I guess that is just babies. I don't know, this is my first experience. Here's a few pictures below. The first is trying out tummy time. Madison loves this! Mckenna falls asleep as soon as we put her on her tummy. And Carly does not like it at all. Carly actually likes being on her back more than the others. But we've got to start building up the muscles!

And I had to put a picture of Grandpa and Grandma Pendleton holding the girls. My mom has been staying with us for a few weeks and my dad missed her too much so had to come over for the weekend (and of course to see the grandbabies too).

Also, congrats to Justin and Nicole! They are having their second baby in February, number 6 grandbaby for my parents (all in the past 2 years)!

13 Weeks Old.... 3 month birthday..... and Home!

I can't believe that we have finally arrived at August 11th! If the girls hadn't been in such a hurry to come then they would have been born today. But I think the experience that Kyle and I went through has made us appreciate them so much more! We love our little girls.

Well, my pictures downloaded out of order but as you can see in the last picture, Carly came home on Friday night! So now we have all three at home! It has been so exciting (no more traveling to the NICU/hospital every day, hooray!) to have all the girls at home and moving on into the next stage of our lives!

But it has been completely nuts. I don't know how many times I've tried to sit down to post a blog and gotten sidetracked by one or more babies crying. We have developed a shift change through the night and that has helped so that we can all (me, Kyle and my mom) get some uninterrupted sleep. I haven't become skilled enough yet at feeding more than one baby at a time (there are still hard to feed in multiples at this age) but I am determined to figure it out. Kyle has had the week off so me and my mom have not been alone enough to have to feed two at once out of necessity. But I'm sure the day is coming since Kyle eventually has to go back to work. Somebody has to make the money since we are currently going through a can of formula a day. I hope that I can even feed three at one time--- but one day at a time for now.

Madison is definitely the noisiest baby. She has quite the set of lungs. I am pretty sure Carly has lungs too since she is so big but I don't know if she has learned how to REALLY let loose and cry and we're hoping she doesn't discover that for awhile. Carly is pretty laid back and just loves to sleep unless her reflux is really getting to her. And Mckenna is so sweet and quiet although I notice she has gained some louder habits from Madison in the past week.

We love our little girls and are trying to enjoy this time even though I sometimes can't remember my name due to sleep deprivation. The best part of being home is I can take pictures whenever I want of them, so here are some of the pictures that we have taken in the past few days. Triplets do make awful cute pictures! I recommend them!

Left to Right: Mckenna, Madison, Carly

Left to Right: Mckenna, Madison, Carly

Left to Right: Madison, Mckenna, Carly (Madison once again always makes the pictures exciting)

The sleep deprived parents (actually this was the first night home for Carly so we were pretty alert at this point---- and even fixed our hair!)

Carly coming home!

12 weeks old!

It's amazing to think that next Tuesday (the 11th) would have been the girls due date. I still sometimes have a hard time believing that they were born three months early and now are getting bigger. It makes sense that they were due next week because they are finally starting to look like real newborns to me now. We just took a scary detour before getting to this point.

Well as you can see from pictures below, Mckenna is also home now! She came home on Saturday night. It really hasn't been too bad so far with the two girls. It helps that my mom is here to take care of half the work. She will stay for a little while to help with all the girls and then my mother in law will come over for a little while after that. I'm a little nervous when that all stops because then I have to handle nights on my own. It's still my biggest fear that they will want to eat at the same time and I won't be able to do it. But the longer I do this I realize they are just going to have to be patient with each other.

So Mckenna is now home and doing great. We are really working at fattening her up right now since she is still sooo skinny (of course her sisters are too but she is definitely the one that needs the most extra fat right now). After starting with Madison home first, Mckenna has been quite a breeze. She is very quiet and sleeps really well. She's a little slow when she eats compared to her sisters but I just have to practice patience with her. Her shunt is doing very well and hopefully will continue that way. She was 5 lbs. 3 oz. when she left NICU on Saturday and she was weighed today and is now 5 lbs. 5 oz. Oh, and she was 18 3/4 inches long so longer than Madison. She's really quite a perfect baby. Sleeps and doesn't cry much.

Mckenna headed for home. Look how little she looks in her car seat.

Dad and Mckenna at the house!

I don't really like the color purple but Mckenna looks awful cute in it!

I don't know if you can see it, but this was putting Madison and Mckenna in the crib for the first time and home and they were hilarious; they just stared and stared at each other. So cute!


Madison is still doing so great at home. We might say that so far she might be the high maintenance one. She really not that bad but can be a little noisy and she screams really well when she is hungry! She might have some reflux because she loves to be upright and has a hard time sleeping in her crib or pack n play. Here favorite place to sleep is on Mom and Dad's chest... of course. She hasn't been weighed in a week so we aren't sure how much she has gained yet but they will weigh her on Thursday. I think she has to for sure be over 6 lbs. by now. Anyway, I think she is loving having her sister home!

Madison also loves to sleep in her bouncer. Thank heavens for bouncers!

Carly is still coming along well. Each day she gets better and better at eating in a more coordinated manner. She doesn't suck and stop breathing as bad. I think one of the main reasons is because they have her on a thickener to keep the formula more weighted and then they also put her on Zantac (weird, I never thought of it for babies) and maybe changing to Prilosec when she goes home. It just helps keep things settled in the stomach. But hopefully she will keep doing well and maybe she will join the other two in the next week or week and a half. She is still growing at a ridiculous rate. She is 6 lbs. 11 oz. right now! Almost 7 lbs.! That's the size of a normal baby! Anyway, I don't think she is missing her sisters yet because she is an excellent sleeper. Maybe that's why she gains so well. Since her sisters have left Carly she now has a roommate like she did when she first started in the NICU. It's a little boy right now who is very very sick. He was born at 23 weeks and it's a miracle he is still alive. It just makes me realize how grateful we are that we were blessed with such healthy girls for being so early. We are truly grateful for these girls and how well they are doing!

Carly getting some quality sleep time with Dad.