Who the hell is Billy Ruben?

Well, here we are at just past 48 hours old...all three boys are doing really well. We are trying to figure out how to handle 3 babies at a time...and by "we", I don't just mean Melissa and me, I mean the entire nursing staff here. If I hear "Now which one is that" one more time...it really is just hysterical. Normally they have a little hat on with names (as the picture yesterday showed), but overnight last night, they spent some time "under the lights" so they were naked except for diapers. That makes it hard to identify which one is which. And of course, keeping track of feeding schedules (who, when, how much) and diaper changes (who, what kind, and when) is a challenge for all of us. We try to write them all down, as do the nurses, but it's still a challenge.

Yesterday evening all three boys bilirubin levels were running a little high. Bilirubin (sounds like Billy Ruben) is the yellow breakdown product that's normal in the body. It's responsible for bruises and urine being yellow. Of course, if levels are too high in the body, it can lead to jaundice, etc which can be bad. In the first 48 hours, it's common for babies to not be able to break it down very well (and excrete it through their urine), so they put the babies under LED photo-therapy lights which helps the body with that process. The boys went under the lights last night and served about a 12-hour sentence. They re-measured their bilirubin levels this morning and all looked good, so the boys are back in our room with us as of this morning. They will re-check this afternoon (~5 pm) so hopefully they will maintain good levels.

Melissa is doing great as well. Last night she did a lot of walking because the boys were in the nursery under the lights, so every 3-4 hours we made the trek over to the nursery (not very far for me, but for Melissa, it was a long walk) to feed them. In between the feedings, we got some sleep back in the room, so we both are more rested today. She even got a shower this morning and is now wearing "human" clothes.

Today we're having some more visitors. Melissa's grandparents are here now. My cousin Liz is on here way over too. This afternoon, Nana and Grandma are bringing Chase over, so that will be fun. We'll try to get some of that on video tape and post it later today or tomorrow.

Here are a few more pictures...we'll try to keep posting more and more pictures.
Mom holding Jack, Anthony and then Graham laying on Mommy:


Graham & Anthony hugging it out:


PopPop (Melissa's grandfather) and Jack:

MomMom (Melissa's grandmother) and Anthony:

Day 2

Just a quick update. First of all, Anthony is now with us. Here is, quite possibly, the cutest picture ever!!! They really are fraternal triplets, but very hard to tell them apart, especially with their hats on. Graham's hair is a little lighter than the other two, and of course Anthony is a little bit smaller. Graham's nose seems to turn up just a little bit more than the other two. And they all have scratched their own faces in different places...still look a lot alike at this stage!!!

Jack, Graham and Anthony:


OK, now for more of the details. All the boys are doing great, and Mom is doing great as well.
Anthony spent the night in the NICU, even though we could have gotten him up here if we really pushed for it. Since we were sending the other two to the nursery at least a few times during the night, the NICU nurse said that they would just keep Anthony over night. He came upstairs a little bit ago, so we now have all three with us. As always, the boys have lost just a little bit of weight, but nothing major. Actually, since Anthony has been in the NICU and feeding on formula, he's actually maintained his weight, but Jack and Graham have both lost about an ounce, but nothing to be concerned about. They are all eating very well.
The doctors and nurses have all come by today and checked babies and Mom out...all good reports. Dr Strauss came by and chatted (have I said that we love Dr Strauss lately?)
He said that we'll be going home either Sunday or Monday (largely our decision) and that all of the boys will go home with us. Amazing huh!?!?!
Melissa is still doing some general pain meds, but has no more IV (came out about 8:30 am) and has been up on her feet a few times today. We're going to be taking some laps around the floor shortly, with the goal of 3 laps by the end of the day.
All in all, we're doing great. Thanks to everyone for the all the emails and calls and well wishes!!

What a day!

Well, things are finally winding down after a wonderful day. Melissa has done great. She's been battling some nausea, and finally dozing some now, but overall, she's doing great.

The boys are all doing very well too. Jack and Graham have been with us in the room all day. They've both feeding occasionally and sleeping a lot. The pediatricians have come through several times and looked them both over. They've passed all of their tests with flying colors and the pediatricians are very pleased. They finally went to the nursery about 15 minutes ago to get their baths and rest some over there.

Anthony is also doing well, but because of his size and blood sugar, they decided they're going to keep him downstairs overnight. They want his blood sugar to be over 60. Early this morning it was 40, and it has steadily risen throughout the day to 58. At one point it was actually above 60, but it's back down to 58, so they just want to monitor him. So far, he hasn't needed any IV fluids to help with it...mainly because he's been eating really well (formula). He's hovering right at 4 lbs (1812 grams). In all likelihood, they say, he'll probably come up to our room tomorrow morning. They actually said that if we really wanted him up here, they'd probably move him now, but when I said we'd probably have the boys in the nursery for most of the first night, she said that they'd probably just keep him downstairs in that case. His temperature has been fine, so that's good news as well.

We had lot of family visitors today. Uncle Marc took lots of pictures for us, so I'll post some of those here. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of Anthony since they don't allow cameras in the NICU, so we'll get some of those tomorrow, but here are some of Jack & Graham and the family. Early pictures are difficult to determine which baby is which until we finally found the red magic marker and "labeled" them!

On the way up to the postpartum room:


Nana & ???? (I think Jack):


Popi & Graham (this one I know):


Dad and ???? (I have no idea):


Nana and ???? (no idea again):


Jason labeling Graham (G):


Graham (near) and Jack (far):


Aunt Sabrina and Jack:

Hello world!

Jackson ("Jack") Michael - 4 lbs, 9 oz --- 9:04 am
Graham David - 4 lbs 7 oz --- 9:05 am
Anthony Samuel - 4 lbs 0 oz --- 9:06 am

Mom and babies are doing well! All three babies had 9 of 9 on the Apgar scale.
Melissa did great!

Anthony (because of his size) headed to the NICU for a bit to monitor breathing, blood sugar, temperature, etc. Hopefully he'll be back with us later this afternoon.
Jack and Graham are happily laying on top of Mommy napping and feeding.

Here are a couple of pics...
Mom with Jack and Graham


Graham

Hurry up and wait....

Quick status update here...yes, we're at the hospital. We're actually in the recovery room right now. No, that doesn't mean that we're done...it's also the staging room prior to the c-section. We got to the hospital right at 6 am and started the check-in process. They've got all the baby monitors on Melissa, have her IV in, and all of that stuff. After the shift change at 7 am, our new nurse (Kristin) let us know that we've been bumped back an hour because of another c-section. No details, but obviously it was more urgent than ours, so we're now just hanging out waiting. The original plan was to go back to the OR between 7:30 and 8:00 am, so now we're looking at going back between 8:30 and 9:00 am. Start to finish, they say about an hour in the OR, and then an hour to an hour and a half back in recovery before being moved upstairs to the postpartum room.

Other than some general anxiety, Melissa is doing well. The good news is that we have our own TV in here, so we're watching Mike & Mike (can you believe Federer lost in straight sets?) which helps Melissa relax a little. Dr Strauss also came by and chatted with us...we love Dr Strauss. He has a way of just calming you down by his demeanor. He's doing the c-section before ours as well, so he said he'll come through here (the recovery room where we are) after that one to give us a heads up that we're up soon. Until then, we're just playing the waiting game.

Stay tuned...

Sure is quiet around here...

So, at almost 11 pm on the night before the triplets arrival, I sit here wide awake on the couch, knowing that I should be getting as much sleep as possible. Thoughts of tomorrow's events keep me from being the slightest bit tired. It's like that really calm, eerie moment right before a strong storm comes through. I know the chaos begins tomorrow, and life as I know it will never be the same, but because of the anticipation, it's hard to enjoy these last few quiet moments. I'm ready for the craziness to begin.

We have to be at the UNC Hospital at 6 am, which means we lave here at 5:30, which means...well, an early freaking morning so I guess I will try to relax and get a little sleep. Hopefully I will be able to post an update sometime around noon tomorrow.

Again, thanks so much for all the well wishes, thoughts, prayers and continued support. We're very excited (and overwhelmed) and it's helpful beyond belief to have the friends and family that we have supporting us through this crazy/wonderful experience!