5 Months Old (and 1 Day)

The triplets turned 5 months old on Sunday! They are 7 weeks corrected. Liam is well over 10 pounds, and Malachi and Taylor are 9 pounds. Taylor is the smallest triplet again, just like when she was born. Liam has always been the biggest. He is going to be tall like his Daddy!

Photos from a generous and talented photographer named Lisa MacIntosh 

who takes pictures for families at the Ronald McDonald House

Arms full but heart fuller

Liam:

Our little big Liam has been making some improvements! His blood sugars have remained stable for the past while, which has allowed his feeds to be given over shorter periods of time. This is good because it prepares him for orally feeding. The plan is still to have a VCUG test this week to check for kidney reflux. 

Liam's High Flow settings have come down again to 5 litres. This means that the next step is to try him off of breathing support. We are getting so excited to think about the next step of learning to orally feed! At the same time we are hesitant to get excited because we know it could still take weeks before he is ready to come home... 

We are, of course, enjoying him in the meantime. He absolutely loves to be cuddled. If he is fussing or crying with his loud voice, all he usually wants is a) food or b) cuddles. He likes to look around and study faces. It's hard to get smiles out of him so far, but he has given a couple! 

Sweet dreams

Making Mommy work hard for smiles

Taylor: 

Our sweet Taylor is happy and healthy at home.  She had her last RSV vaccination of the season a few days ago and is booked for her second round of immunizations this week (same day as her brothers). She also graduated from weekly eye exams and gets two months off before her next one. This means her eyes are developing well despite her prematurity. Lots to be thankful for.

Milk dreams

Malachi: 

Our youngest triplet is recovering well from the tracheostomy surgery. Because of the emergency trach change on the day of the surgery, the plan was to wait for 2 weeks before changing his trach (usually it is 1 week post surgery).However, the healthcare team noticed a leak around Malachi's trach as the swelling went down. They decided they needed to change his trach to a bigger size even though it was only a week post surgery. After this trach change, they told us that the surgery site looked good! They are happy with how he is healing. Malachi's g-tube also looks great and is healing well. We are so thankful but still very nervous about the trach especially. This week we hope to start training on the trach so that we can work towards going home with our little man! 

Malachi has been waking up and becoming more active as his sedation medication and painkillers are weaned. Hopefully by tomorrow evening, he will be off all his sedation and IV painkillers. He will stay on Tylenol for a while but his IV can come out if he tolerates it well! Jodi was able to hold Malachi for the first time post surgery on Friday (7 days after surgery). Malachi seems a lot more relaxed with the trach than with CPAP, although he is still a bit sedated. He has given his Mom some big smiles and likes to study faces. We imagine it's quite different from having the CPAP on his face and the constantly blowing air and humidity...

A few days post surgery

Beautiful smiles from our little man

This last week has been really hard. Part of that was from the post surgery anxiety and stress. The other part was because Nathan had a nasty cold which meant he needed to stay apart from Jodi and Taylor. Nathan has not seen our boys in over a week. We are back together as a (half) family finally and are so thankful for this! We need each other for support... practical physical help but emotional support particularly. 

We are also so thankful for the nurses in the NICU. By now we know most of the nurses that have our babies, although sometimes we don't know a casual or part time nurse. We love knowing who is taking care of our babies- it gives us more peace of mind when we walk out those doors. We love that we can build relationships and learn from the nurses and healthcare team. Their compassion and kindness towards our babies and toward us as parents has been important for our survival these past 5 months. We are so incredibly thankful for the NICU staff! 

We also appreciate all the support that we continue to feel from all of you. Your prayers and messages and cards and texts... thank you all! Our gracious God has blessed us so richly through all the supports we are given!