37 Weeks Gestation

It's crazy to think that babies are being born every day that are actually older than our babies, even though the triplets have been out of the womb for almost 12 weeks. Tomorrow they will be 37 weeks gestation. The triplets had a fairly busy week this week and it has been another emotional one for us parents.

Liam:

Our oldest little sweetheart has had the quietest week of the three. He finished his antibiotics for his urinary tract infection and is off of his IV again. However, he is still jaundiced and we still don't know why. On Monday morning, Liam will go "downstairs" for a HIDA scan which is a nuclear medicine scan. This scan will check to see that all of his intestines, liver, gallbladder, etc. are all working properly and not the cause of the jaundice. It is the doctors' hope and belief that Liam's jaundice is still because of his prematurity and all the time he spent on IV nourishment instead of breast milk (during some of his infections and surgery). However, they are doing the HIDA scan to rule out a significant liver disease and other types of complications. We are thankful that the other tests done last weekend and this week have ruled out other potential diseases. 

In terms of his chronic lung disease and respiratory status, Liam has come down on one setting this week. His infection set him back a bit but he is slowly improving. He is also still growing well and has recently just hit 5 pounds! He still loves his soother and loves to be swaddled with his hands by his face. 

Taylor: 

Our baby girl has had the busiest week for a change. Every Monday, all of the triplets have very thorough blood work done. This past Monday, Taylor's blood work showed she had low blood sugar. This was investigated and subsequent tests continued to be low. We also noticed that she was not her usual self. She didn't protest during diaper changes, CPAP mask or nose prong changes, and was generally paler looking. The doctors take parents' observations really seriously since we see the babies every day. Thus, she was immediately started on antibiotics. She also started a blood transfusion for low hemoglobin. After a few days, it was determined that Taylor had a blood infection, urinary tract infection, and eye infection! No wonder she wasn't herself. Thankfully, the infections were caught quite early on and did not impact her respiratory needs. Taylor started acting more like herself in a few days and has a couple more days of antibiotics left. Because all of the infections were going on, no changes were made on her ventilation settings. Hopefully we can make some steps forward this week with weaning her CPAP. 

Taylor has also continued to grow well and is approaching the 5 pound mark. She is still feisty. She is either perfectly content or very upset... there's no in-between with our Taylor! She also loves to be swaddled and likes her soother, although not as much as her brothers do. 

Malachi: 

Our youngest cutie has had a very good week in terms of his breathing support. Almost two weeks ago, he was put on a brand new machine approved by the hospital for a trial. On that day, the machine prevented him from being put back on the breathing tube, but he was switched back and forth to other machines in the following days (based on his needs). There was a period of a week and half or so where he was very close to being re-intubated. This past week, he was put back on the new machine that the hospital was trying out to see if they would buy these types of machines. This time, the ambassador for the company was around and teaching the respiratory therapists all about the machine. A new component was tried out on Malachi which hadn't been tried on him before. To put it simply, the feeding tube down Malachi's throat has electrodes on it that measure and monitor the activity of the diaphragm (the muscle that moves the lungs). Thus, the machine shows how much Malachi's lungs are working and how much support he needs. It is pretty amazing technology (and expensive!) and it has been working very well for Malachi. He was able to come off of the oscillator and is able to control how many breaths he takes. However the machine still gives him a set pressure to keep his lungs open, and then adds any amount of pressure (determined by the electrodes) that he needs for each specific breath. Since he has been on the machine, he has been able to be weaned off some pressures (although he is still on very high settings)! We are happy about this also because the high pressure seem so uncomfortable for our little man! Imagine having a very strong fan blown into your nose 24/7 that flaps your lips if your mouth is open at all. 

Although this ventilator has worked so well for Malachi, the hospital's trial ends on Wednesday. The ambassador has talked quite a bit with us and she is willing to try hard to leave the ventilator with Malachi, or at least the electrode parts so that he can use the same settings on a different machine. We hope and pray that she will be successful, as we have never seen Malachi's breathing supports so stable and low.  

Our youngest triplet has still not been growing very well, so he has received some extra calories added to his already fortified breast milk. He loves his arms wrapped up when he sleeps and absolutely loves his soother. We are thankful for this because he often has it held in his mouth to help keep the air pressures in. 

This past week has been emotional, as each week is. There are always ups and downs and we seem to handle it differently each day. To add to the emotional difficulty, a baby at around the same age as our triplets passed away suddenly this week. The parents had been staying at the Ronald McDonald almost as long as we have and it hit close to home. Our hearts ache for the parents. We also heard two separate stories of premature babies who caught colds when they were home and a few months old. The colds were very serious for them, and the babies needed to be intubated and almost died. It really drove home to us how fragile our little ones are and will be for months and even years to come. It also makes us anxious to think of the great responsibility we have to protect them as much as possible from germs that are minor for the average person but very serious for them. However, we know that ultimately our Father in heaven has their lives in His Hands and they are His covenant children.

The other emotionally difficult part of this week was during our family meeting, when our doctor estimated our going home date to be even later. They estimate that it will be April before one of our triplets (likely Taylor or Liam) will be able to come home. This was hard to hear, as we were really hoping for early March. Malachi's going home date will be much later still. All of this is estimation based on what the doctors have seen through their careers, and so we hope and pray that our triplets will continue to grow and become healthier quickly.

Thank you for your continued prayers!