March for Babies

The forecast all week for Saturday was 87, blech.  But it changed to 80 on Friday, and it turned out to be completely overcast for the better part of the day.  So, it was probably only in the 60s on Saturday morning.

We had some chocolate milk, and had the annual chocolate milk spill.

And we had some grapes, too.  Apparently grapes are our new favorite food.

When we got back from our short loop walk, we did some coloring, and got some celebratory fire hats. Which we insist on wearing like baseball hats.

And then we just got a little bit crazy.

Reminder

Due to the generosity of our amazing friends and family, we're almost 2/3 of the way to our $1500 goal for our March for Babies fundraising.

If you'd like to help us reach our goal, you can do so here.

And....

we're live again!

December Daily: Dec 12, 13

Monday Dec 12 was another work day, with the ladies staying home with grandma and papa again.  Everyone started getting sick on Sunday... lots of runny noses.  Becca had a fierce barking cough on Sunday night, so Greg took her to the doctor on Monday morning and sent me this pic from the waiting room.

She calls that her "ribbit" hat.  Lungs were clear, and no fever, so we're just keeping an eye on her.  She's acting normal.  You'd think a cold would slow her down a little.

For dinner, we went to a place my dad had heard about on one of his favorite radio shows, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me."  It was a meat-and-three sort of place.

December 13 was my mom's birthday.  And due to triplet-brain, I forgot to wish her a happy birthday until the 3rd time I talked to her that day.  Grandpa and the ladies made her a cake.

We also went up to see the crazy Christmas lights house, since they were doing a children's concert/fundraiser for the March of Dimes.  The cool part was that our local NBC station was there and on the 11:00 news that night, I saw Becca dancing on Papa's shoulders.

November is Prematurity Awareness Month

Over half a million babies are born too soon every year.  And being born too soon can bring with it a whole host of lifelong health effects on those babies.

And half a million?  That's 1 in 8 babies born in the US.

Think about it.

Do you know eight babies?

Earlier this month, the March of Dimes published its Premature Births Report card, and the US as a whole received a grade of "C."

Really?

"C."

Really.

The three main factors that the report cards asses for each state are the rate of uninsured women (as in, identifying and mitigating risk factors before they result in preterm births), the rate of women smoking (is there any good that comes out of smoking?), and the rate of late pre-term births (as in, elective preterm c-sections and inductions).

I guess I should be thankful that we are as lucky as we were, given that we're in a "D" state.

But really, it just upsets me that, in this day and age, in this country, we can't get prenatal care right.

And kudos to Vermont for getting it right.

A Great Day

Thanks to all of our families and friends, we raised nearly $1400 for the March of Dimes. Saturday morning was our walk, and the girls did a great job. The weather was gorgeous. I'm so glad we did it as a family this year.

After the walk, the girls wanted to walk up and down along these smooth rocks. Up and down. Up and down.


As close as we get to a group shot.


Grandma G flew in for the weekend, and we met her at the park after the walk. The girls were certainly surprised to see her! After running around for a while and then getting some lunch, we headed home. And the best part?


After a good, solid nap for the girls, and an even more solid nap for me, we were ready to go again. My department at work had suite tickets for the local minor league baseball team. Can you believe I didn't take my camera? Someone took a family pic of us, but I haven't gotten copy yet. The game started at 7, and considering the girls normally go to bed between 7:30 and 8, they did great staying up until 9. I tell ya, suite life is where it's at. The girls ate dinner, much to the amusement of my coworkers. They actually sat in our laps to watch parts of the game, but they were most interested in the frog mascot, and a Chick-fil-A cow that came out for a contest. We took them down to the bleachers to see the frog (after Emma's pleading), and of course they froze up and were scared. They eventually waved. That was about it. It was nice to be outside, the weather was gorgeous, it was nice to be out as a family, nice to spend time with my mom.

All in all, a great day.

My last-ditch effort

If you're reading this, you likely have some connection to me or my family (why else would you put up with poop stories?). You are a friend. A family member.

You likely know that Emma, Julie, and Becca were born prematurely at 33 weeks.

That they weighed 4 lb 5 oz, 3 lb 13 oz, and 3 lb 11 oz respectively.

That despite evident practice breathing on ultrasound, no signs of distress, and a round of steroid shots, when they were born the doctors had no explanation for why their breathing was not good.

That the day they were born, we weren't so much elated as terrified.

That we couldn't even hold Rebecca until almost a week after she was born.

But they fought with all of the preemie strength they could muster. We had our ups and downs in the NICU. But in the end, we have 3 happy, healthy, normal little girls. As parents, Greg and I could not have asked for a better outcome.

We spend this time of year reflecting on our journey, with the annual March for Babies fundraiser for the March of Dimes coming up on April 30th.

For the love of babies -- all babies --, we ask that you consider supporting us in our goal to raise $1500 for the March of Dimes this year. Please use this link to contribute:

Be a Hero for Babies

I had the privilege of attending the March of Dimes kickoff lunch today for the March for Babies. Our walk is coming up quickly, on April 30, and we've increased our fundraising goal 50% to $1500 this year.

Many of those who read this blog know that our baby girls were born at 33 weeks and spent about a month in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before they were big and strong enough to come home with us. The care they (and we) received in the NICU was second to none. These doctors and nurses are the reason that our babies are here and thriving now. And many of the tools that the doctors and nurses have to treat these special, fragile patients are a direct result of research done through the March of Dimes.



We're walking for our daughters. We're walking so that other parents won't have to go through the trials that we went through. We're walking for babies who don't have a voice themselves.

Won't you please consider helping us?

Pictures to follow

I feel like I barely caught up on last week, and now another week is over already. Time is just flying by.

Last Tuesday, I was invited to speak at a kickoff lunch for a new March of Dimes campaign. I know I promised not to nag for donations more than once a year, so I won't be sending out emails this time. But in my defense, I didn't know about this event at the time. It's a big fundraiser at the zoo. They focus on kids helping kids for this one, so they target schools, daycares, etc. Once I figure out how it will work, I'll post more info.

The girls had their 18 month check ups last week. (We got behind at some point, because they're more than 19 months now.). We took Emma and Becca on Tuesday, and they were fine until we walked into the actual exam room, and then they started crying. I kind of thought they were just feeding off each other, but when I took Julie on Thursday, she did the exact same thing. The doctor and nurses said that a lot of it has to do with their age right now, which may also explain why daycare drop offs have gotten so bad again. Of course, I don't think Becca is vey fond of small closed rooms, either. She freaks out whenever I have to take her to the bathroom with me, even before the toilet flushing scares her even more.

But the girls all checked out just fine. Becca's iron level is back up in the normal range so we're out of the woods on anemia for now. I was starting to think her levels were low again, because I think the child would nap all afternoon long if someone didn't wake her up. Heights and weights look good, all in the 50-90% range. Becca is still our tallest, and has about an inch over Emma and closer to 2 over Julie. Head circumferences were high again ... still. Becca and Emma were at least on the chart (though I don't think the girls were still enough to get great readings), but Julie was completely off the chart. Her measurements are leveling out, so the doctor is not worried unless they start accelerating. Big heads just run in the family. I love hats, but have a very hard time finding anything that fits.

Daycare called me on Wednesday and said that Julie had a stomach bug, so I had to go get her. And with the way drop offs have been going in the morning, I decided it would actually be easier to get all three of them. (Who would have thought that would be the easy solution?). Julie was acting just fine and eating just fine, but apparently the rule is that after 3 loose poops, you have to go home. (How have we been in daycare for 16 months without me knowing this was a rule?) So I kept her home on Thursday, but she was totally fine. We already had her checkup scheduled for that day, and the doctor wasn't too concerned at this point either. It's amazing how fast we've gone from "first kid" syndrome to "second and third kid" syndrome. So we sent her back to daycare on Friday and took two cars to work to hedge our bets, but they didn't call.

I took Julie out to lunch after her doctor's appointment. I told her she's going to have to do less dancing and more coughing to get a sick day in the future. (Greg kept calling her "Bueller")




The weather finally seems to be a bit more bearable. It was comfortable up in the mountains last weekend when we were picking apples, and the rest of the week was in the upper 80s to low 90s, and less humid. After Emma and Becca's checkup on Tuesday, we were home early enough to go for a walk before dinner. So nice. I'm really looking forward to being outside more. After picking up all 3 of them when Julie was "sick", I took all 3 of them for a walk in the triple stroller. I did have to call Greg to ask where the pump was since the tires were flat. "Um, I think it's attached to the frame of the stroller.". "Oh yeah. Look at that.". And I honestly think the triple jogging stroller is easier to push than the double regular stroller. I mean, cornering is easier with the double, but going up hill is easier in the triple, even with the extra 25 pounds. Going up hill with the double just makes me feel like I am standing still. And Wednesday was the first day I made it over 10,000 steps on a non-gym day! And that's even without counting my up-hill-both-ways-triplet-stroller-pushing-steps double. :)

Have I mentioned lately that I can't wait for the cooler weather?

We went out to dinner on Friday to a Panera we've been to before only to find out that they are down to two high chairs - they used to have four. The girls were all wound up and extra special crazy on Friday, so it was a really tough call between dragging them out of there and back into and out of the car again, or eating with someone sitting on our lap. We opted to stay, and it wasn't a total catastrophe. Becca sat on Greg's lap and was fine - I think she is the only one of the three that could sit through a meal on someone's lap and not run away. I think I mentioned we've been working on spoons with the girls. Well, we got them mac and cheese and fed them off some plastic spoons. After a bite or two, Emma managed to snap the handle off the spoon. I'm just glad she didn't hurt herself. And we made her use the metal spoon after that.

I took Becca to her last swim lesson on Saturday morning. I'm really going to miss the time out alone with her. And she really seemed to be starting to actually enjoy bein in the pool. She finally started kicking this adorable little frog kick on both her back and her belly, and she's strong! She was also splashing more and just bouncing around. She still loves to sit on the edge of the pool and fall in, but didn't like standing and jumping in. If I stand her up on the edge, she just sits down. At the end, I was laying on my back and pushing off the wall. She loves that, and this week started standing on my belly and "surfing" while I was pushing off the wall. It's really been a lot of fun.

Becca has been waking up at about 5am lately, and then waking Emma up before we can get in there. And at that point, you can't just take Bex and leave Emma. But if we bring both of them to our bed, they think it's play time (or, destroy mommy's book and then scream your head off when she takes it away time). I think we lasted until 5:30 on Saturday morning before I got fed up enough to take them downstairs ... and turn on Nick Jr. Yup. Mom of the Year. And can I just say... for the number of times they've actually watched tv (I think I could count on my fingers), why on earth am I seeing repeats???

I had a Girls Night Out with some coworkers on Saturday night, so Greg kept the girls. It was a good break for me, to talk to other adults, and not talk about work.

Sunday was pretty lazy, but we did get a family walk in. I made a big pan of lasagna with some sauce my mom made while she was here. Well, I thought it was a big pan. I was mind of surprised to see that we put away half of it. At least we'll get one more meal from it. I'm starting to think that precooking the noodles is the way to go. It's not that much more work, and the no-precook noodles were a bit chewy.