January 1

Happy New Year from our family to yours. May our Heavenly Father be with each of you in 2017 and grant you His blessings. 

In this past week, Jodi was finally able to go into the NICU on Wednesday and Nathan on Friday. We were emotional and amazed to see the changes that had occurred in the 7-9 days we hadn't seen them. It's incredible how growing a few ounces can make such a difference in such tiny babies. 

Liam: 

On Monday, Liam was showing signs of infection yet again. Tests showed that he had pneumonia. This is most likely from the breathing tube. The doctors have mentioned a number of times that the breathing tube as well as IV lines and other "foreign objects" going into our babies are all potential sources of infection and so it was not a huge surprise to them when Liam contracted this lung infection. He immediately started a specific antibiotic for the pneumonia. Liam also had a few other symptoms such as diarrhea that led to more testing and being put into isolation for a few days but all of the tests came back negative. We are thankful that he seems to be pretty well over the infection although he has a little while longer yet on antibiotics. We are fervently praying that he does not get sick again but can stay well so that he can go for his heart surgery on the PDA if he still needs it. He will be reassessed this week to see if surgery is still needed, and if it is then the surgery will likely happen this week.

Liam has been growing well overall and is still our biggest baby. He likes to try and look at whoever is speaking around him and tries hard to focus. At this stage, the triplets cannot see very well and cannot even see colour but he sure is trying hard! 

Taylor:

Our baby girl is finally past the 3 pound mark! We had a pleasant surprise this week when Taylor was switched to the lowest form of CPAP and did very well. This form of CPAP does not give Taylor any breaths. The only thing it does is put some air pressure into her lungs to keep them inflated a bit. This is so that she doesn't have to work quite so hard to take in each breath. The pressure that she is being given can be weaned down a bit before she can graduate to the next form of breathing support which would no longer be a mask. While this will be the eventual goal, the doctors will not push Taylor to the next stage but will keep her here for a while. She is where she should be for her gestational age (33 weeks tomorrow). For now, she needs to stay on this breathing support, stay warm, take in lots of breast milk, and just grow, grow, grow! At around 34-36 weeks, babies are typically ready to start feeding orally, but they need to be off of all breathing support before they can start. This will be the next goal in conjunction with lowering the breathing support once Taylor seems ready. While all this makes us excited and optimistic, the doctors have warned us that: a) Taylor likely will go "backwards" a number of times and need more breathing support for various reasons and b) premature babies often have a hard time learning how to orally feed for a number of reasons as well. These reasons include getting tired easily, not knowing how to suck, swallow, and breathe at the same time, and not liking anything in their mouth because they think it will hurt (at this point they have had many painful or uncomfortable medical interventions in their mouths like breathing tubes, suctioning of secretions, feeding tubes, etc.) Time will tell how each of our little ones will do!

Taylor is allowed to start wearing little clothes!

Malachi:

Our youngest triplet has been staying the same in the last week aside from some issues with low sodium levels. However, the doctors started noticing that his oxygen support levels were slowly being increased. They began to express this concern to us and started discussions about a third round of a higher and longer dose of steroids. After much discussion and prayer we decided to start the steroids on Saturday. The hope is that in around 5 days, Malachi will be able to come off the breathing tube and put on a form of CPAP. We pray that the steroids will have this desired effect! However, steroids have a lot of potential risks or side effects. Of particular concern is the risk of problems with brain development. We know that each of our triplets are at risk for a lot of different issues with development such as difficulties learning, difficulties with muscle development or stiffness (cerebral palsy), and other developmental issues. These issues will begin to manifest as the triplets get older and they are simply because they were born way too early. With Malachi, however, the risks are significantly higher because of the steroids. With both Liam and Malachi, the risks are also significantly higher because they have been intubated and on a high amount of breathing support for so long. Again, time will tell! 

Malachi often smiles in his sleep.

As parents, we don't want to dwell on whether or not each of our triplets will have developmental issues in the future because we want to love them and enjoy them in each moment, rather than worry about the future. At the same time, we need to be prepared so that we can care for each of our litttle ones with their specific needs. As we move into this new week and this new year, we take comfort in Psalm 46:1 which says, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."