On November 9th, our three miracles turned one! What an emotional day it was for us. We looked back on pictures from the last year and were moved to tears to see how far they’ve come... how tiny they were, what they’ve all been through, the multiple surgeries, the many infections and IVs, the breathing support machines and modes and settings, Taylor’s transport to a different hospital, Liam and Taylor learning how to feed, Malachi’s trach surgery and difficulties, and finally taking him home on life support... what a year! Celebrating the first year of our triplets' lives was something we did not take for granted. We thank the LORD for preserving life and granting us a year with our beautiful triplets!
Birthday Babies!
Liam holding a pretty much life-sized photo from the day he was born at 1lb 15oz
Taylor was 1lb 10oz on her birth day
Malachi was 1lb 15oz
In general, the triplets have been doing very well in the last few weeks. They are now 9.5 months corrected and are growing and developing quickly! Their personalities are coming out more and more each day and it is so fun to see. It's also so exciting to see them meet all their different developmental milestones. Naturally, Malachi is behind his siblings due to all the time he spent on his back in the hospital, but that just makes his milestones that much more exciting to celebrate!
Wearing sweaters from our church ward
Busy babies
Liam:
Our Liam is still a happy, easygoing, and noisy little man. He loves to "sing" and babble and laugh. He is the heaviest triplet and loves to eat. He still has not started crawling but has recently started to try a little bit. He likes to roll all over the floor- that is how he gets around. When we sit him up, he likes to lounge back onto the pillow and put his feet up on the other side of the U-shaped pillow. He makes us laugh- he is just so relaxed and easygoing!
Falling asleep on Grandpa F. Birthdays are hard work!
Taylor:
Our sweet girl is developing quite the big personality. She loves to make all sorts of faces and lets us know what she wants with her facial expressions and noises. She army crawls everywhere and loves to make a beeline for Malachi's tubing and oxygen cords. (Don't worry, we do have a playpen!) She is by far our smallest triplet but is pretty much the same height as her brothers.
One of her many hilarious expressions
First time in the snow
Malachi:
Our Malachi has been thriving at home as well. He is usually smiley and content wherever he is. He is really getting good at assisted sitting, but isn't quite able to sit by himself like his siblings yet. He also loves to stand (assisted of course) and has recently started rolling over on to his tummy and back on to his back! It makes for a tangle of tubes and cords and everyone rushing at him to flip him back off his trach and tubing but we still cheer for him because developmentally it is a good thing. We notice improvements in Malachi's development every day. He gets physically stronger and can do things for longer periods of time. His home therapists are always impressed with him when they see him and have started to space out his appointments a bit more (hooray!)
A few weeks ago, Malachi developed an oral aversion and no longer wanted to eat anything by mouth. We worked closely with his occupational therapist and he has since mostly overcome it and will again eat very pureed foods by mouth.
As for the more medical and technical aspects of Malachi's breathing support... he is still on higher settings than when he came home because of his cold. We hope to visit his pediatrician and complex care team this week to get some bloodwork to assess his blood gases (CO2 in the blood, etc.) and hopefully be able to turn down the amount of support he is getting by a very small amount. We know it will take a long time to slowly wean off of the breathing support (likely multiple years), so we are struggling to stay patient and thankful for the tiny steps we do get to take. Every day we pray that he can continue to take steps forward and avoid all colds, flus, viruses, hospitalizations, and setbacks. Malachi was also able to exchange a piece of tubing in his circuit for something a bit better (for those interested, he now has a whisper swivel instead of an exhalation port). This is great because our busy boy was pulling a piece off of his exhalation port and putting it in his mouth - a major choking hazard! He was also constantly plugging the hole, meaning he couldn't exhale which is very dangerous. And so, the fact that he was able to tolerate the whisper swivel is another thing to celebrate!
Looking very serious about trying to sit by himself
Post-bath snuggles with Daddy
Sweet dreams
Something we get asked a lot is whether or not our triplets got the flu shot. The answer is yes- the whole family did. We won't get into any vaccination discussions... but we will share something we learned this year. We learned that the flu shot is not for the stomach flu where you throw up and sit on the toilet for 24 hours. Rather, the flu is really a respiratory virus (influenza) - the kind where you get chills and aches and a cough and a sore throat, etc. Naturally, this would be dangerous for our triplets and we have heard stories of babies like Malachi in very critical condition because of the flu last year.
The triplets also get the RSV (respiratroy syncitial virus) needles every month for five months. It is so hard to put them through that sort of pain every month and they cry a lot! But again, we are choosing what we believe is safest for our babies right now.
Some people have also been asking about whether or not we hired a nanny. The answer is yes - and we are so very grateful for her! She is truly an answer to prayers and has fit in very well into our home. As an experienced mother and grandmother herself, her care and love for our babies is beautiful to see. Her hours are when Nathan is at work, since we need to have 2 adults at home. This is so that a) there is enough caregiving for each baby, since Malachi requires a lot of time and specialized care and b) so that we can drive places during the day (for example, to appointments) or to the hospital in the case of an emergency. One person needs to sit beside Malachi in the backseat: to monitor, suction, and for emergency purposes. Our nanny is not trained on the trach and vent, so the responsibility is on Jodi to take care of Malachi during the day.
A nurse comes each night to take care of Malachi while we sleep. However (and this is in response to another question that we get a lot), this does NOT mean that we can leave the house. As parents, one of us ALWAYS needs to be with Malachi or at least in close vicinity. The homecare nurses do not have a lot of training or experience with trachs, babies, and vents. We train them on the basics of Malachi's care, but we need to be close by in case of any emergencies. There have been many times when we have been woken up in the middle of the night with a knock on our bedroom door, or a yell, or the sound of alarms... we race out of bed and quickly step in and take over. None of these incidents have ended up being very serious but they have still been serious enough that we needed to be there. We tend to sleep with one ear open and can wake up quickly if something is wrong.
And so, in that sense, we don't really get a "break". Our moms are often over to help out and they are very knowledgeable in Malachi's care as well. But the bottom line is that we will not leave Malachi with anyone else besides one of us parents because it simply is not safe should an emergency occur.
It's been over 2 months that we have been home from the hospital. In many ways we have settled into our routines and are enjoying life at home with our triplets!
In other ways, it has been difficult to adjust as the long-term realities hit us. It is hard for us as parents to get alone time, especially since we can never get out of the house with just the two of us. Some days it feels like we have a constant flow of people and nurses and therapists. Some days our cellphones never stop ringing with case coordinators, therapists, hospital staff, medical companies, and pharmacists. It is always busy in our house between the 3 babies needing diapers, bottles, naps, baths..! By the time they are all in bed, it is usually time for our nurse to come and we need to go over everything with the nurse. Malachi's care can be exhausting... especially mentally. We always need to have eyes on him - even when he is sleeping. We always need to be ready for an emergency. And to be honest, we don't get out much, even with the babies. We are very isolated because we need to avoid germs to keep our babies healthy and out of the hospital. We haven't seen some of our family in weeks. Some nights we don't have nursing coverage and one of us has to stay up all night with Malachi. Some nights our babies wake up in the middle of the night crying and some nights they wake each other up and some nights they don't want to go to sleep...
But at the end of the day we are thankful. Thankful to be out of the hospital. Thankful to have 3 beautiful babies at home. Thankful for family and church family support. Thankful for the communion of saints who brings us meals every week. Thankful for our warm and wonderful home. Thankful to God for so many blessings.
Can't look at this one without smiling back!
Wagon rides with Grandma VW
Going for an afternoon walk
