Taylor's Discharge!

Usually we write each blog in order of each triplets age but this time we are starting with our middle child! 

Taylor Joy:

After 131 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, our baby girl finally came home! She was exactly 44 weeks gestation, or 4 weeks corrected.

At the beginning of the week, Taylor was nearly transferred back to be with her brothers, instead of in separate hospitals. However, weather and a few emergency calls prevented this. Towards the middle of the week, Taylor started taking all her feeds by bottle and by breastfeeding. It took Taylor a grand total of 2 weeks to learn oral feeding, which was beyond what anyone could have expected for a "25 weeker"! She is a strong and feisty little girl and we are so proud of her. Because she was doing so well and her discharge seemed close, we decided to call off the potential transfer and focus on getting her home as soon as we could. Her discharge date was delayed a little bit because Taylor was not gaining weight as quickly as she was supposed to. We suspect this is from all the new "work" she had to do to eat, rather than letting it go directly through her feeding tube into her stomach. We slept in the hospital with her 2 nights before taking her home. We were extremely anxious to have her with us without any monitors to tell us her heart rate, and oxygen saturations... we pretty much stayed awake both nights. 

Now that we have her home, the anxiety is still very much there but we are adjusting. It feels incredible and amazing and emotional to finally be able to "parent" one of our babies! It does not even feel real..! Since Taylor was a micro preemie, we will have (and already have started) many follow up appointments and specialists seeing her. It's important that her development is followed closely. Having her home has added a new level of busyness and sleeplessness to our lives, but we couldn't be more thankful to finally have her home!

  

Liam Josiah:

It has been a bit of a frustrating week and a half for our handsome little man. He was very close to coming off his breathing support again at the beginning of the week. His blood sugars had also been stable for around 2 weeks. Then without warning, Liam started needing oxygen, higher breathing support settings, and had a low blood sugar reading again. The healthcare team was not very surprised at the higher breathing support needs, since it often takes babies quite a while of "back and forth" before finally coming off all breathing support. We can't help but feel disappointed though, because he was so close to coming off before going backward a number of steps. It's also frustrating that his blood sugars have been problematic again. We hope and pray that this will resolve soon!

Our little munchkin is also showing signs that he is very ready to start oral feeding. He still loves his soother and loves to suck really hard when we put a few drops of milk on his soother. Because of his very loud cry, we are pretty sure that this triplet will be one of the first to get fed once all three are finally home! However, he needs to wait until he is off his breathing support before being allowed to start breastfeeding and bottle feeding. This is because the air blowing in his nose would blow the milk into his lungs. He also needs to wait for his blood sugars to stabilize before oral feeding. This is because he needs to have his milk given over long periods of time (currently 2 hours of feeding and then 1 hour off) so that his blood sugar stays high enough.

Malachi John:

Our littlest man had an exciting week. In the last few weeks, the healthcare team has been tossing around the idea of a tracheostomy for our Malachi. The idea is very preliminary and not at all set in stone. The team will need to assess and discuss the idea, and especially take Malachi's development into consideration. We know that babies undergo a lot of developmental milestones and we need to do our best to make sure they can have the opportunities for development while they are in the hospital and on breathing support. It is a very difficult decision to make and it weighs heavily on our hearts. With the trach in the back of their minds, the healthcare team decided to try Malachi on very high setting on High Flow. The idea is that maybe our little sweetheart is frustrated and tired of the CPAP mask, hat, prongs, etc. and that is why he needs so much support... it was worth a shot! We could tell very soon after Malachi was switched to High Flow that he was much more comfortable. The question was whether or not his lungs could handle it... It's been 4 days and so far he is doing well. Sometimes his oxygen needs go up and sometimes he starts working very hard to breathe, but so far both of these issues have been able to settle out on their own. Again, we hope and pray that he can stay on this mode of ventilation, as it is definitely a step in the right direction! 

In the meantime, we are loving that we can look at Malachi's adorable little head and beautiful squishy face!